Al-Hikmah University Journal

The way conflict, which is an inevitable part of social interaction,is managed or resolved matters most for the survival and peaceful co-existence of any human society. This study examines the politeness strategies used in the Nigerian Bar Association's (NBA) President's apology letter to the Nigerian Governor's Forum Director-General (DG) over the controversy that ensued from the Association's cancellation of its invitation to Governor Nasir El-Rufai to its national conference. The objectives of the study were to analyse and explore the speech acts and politeness strategies used in the letter obtained from Premium Times. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the data.It also adopted Kreidler's (1998) model of speech act and Ruhi's (2002) model of politeness for the examination and interpretation of the data. The analysis of the data reveals the preponderance of verdictive acts and assertive acts; and selective use of directive acts, expressive acts, performative act and commissive act that constitute both face-boosting and threatening acts. The examination of the data shows that the face-boosting acts were used as self -politeness strategies to enhance the face-value of the writer and the sufferer while the face-threatening acts were used as other-politeness strategies to attend to the need of the Governor for public honour and positive association as well as the need of the Association to cancel the Governor's invitation to avoid social disharmony among its members and the public. The study concludes that politeness is an important sociolinguistic strategy that can be used to manage human social conflicts