Doing Ecological Identity:  Ecoparadox in Governor Babatunde Fashola’s Speeches

1. Abstract

This study combines WordSmith Tools 7.0 with qualitative content analysis in investigating purposively selected gubernatorial speeches within the framework of eco-critical discourse analysis. It covers the eight-year tenure of a political actor in an emergent sub-Saharan Africa democracy that was deemed to have been one of the more ‘progressive’ since the advent of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999. Covering the period 29 May 2007 to 29 May 2015, the study marks a longitudinal ecological analysis of discourse that aims to identify to what extent the government was ecocentric by highlighting the discursive strategies adopted in the speeches for creating a positive ecological identity for both the governor and his executive cabinet. The study represents use of digital methodology in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Nigeria, where a Centre for Digital Humanities University of Lagos (CDHUL) has just emerged under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.