Abstract:
International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated worldwide to recognise women’s achievements and to reaffirm the pursuit of gender parity. In Nigeria, however, long-standing patriarchal norms and structural gender gaps continue to shape both lived realities and political communication. As a result, tributes from national leaders on this day frequently mirror these power dynamics, drawing on narratives of gender complementarity. It is within this communicative sphere that this study situated its analysis of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s official IWD tribute tweets from 2023 to 2025. The goal was to identify and critically examine the discursive strategies deployed to construct gendered identities and power relations, while also assessing how these constructions reproduce, challenge, or legitimise dominant gender ideologies. The study addressed the underexplored mechanisms through which political tributes ideologically sustain patriarchal dominance. Using van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, the study uncovers four recurring strategies: symbolic elevation of women as foundational to national progress, paternalistic framing of the administration as a benevolent guardian, utilitarian positioning of gender equity as a development catalyst, and top-down inclusion rhetoric. These discursive patterns reflect a model of “progressive conservatism” in which modern gender themes coexist with enduring ideological expectations that situate women within supportive and nation-building roles. The study concludes that while the tributes expand symbolic recognition of women, they leave underlying patriarchal power structures unchallenged.
Keywords: gender ideology, political discourse, sociocognitive CDA, paternalism, progressive conservatism, Nigeria
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2026.v05i01.011
author/Oladele John TOLUHI & Rachael ADERIBIGBE
journal/Tasambo JLLC 5(1) | February 2026 |
