Critical Discourse Analysis of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah's 2022 Easter Message: Implications for National Cohesion

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis explores the impact of language on social practices and how society is, in turn, shaped by language. It examines how the social indices of identity, inequality, injustice, ideology, power, dominance and resistance interface with text and discourse to achieve social stability. This paper analyzes Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah's 2022 Easter message from the standpoint of critical discourse analysis and examines the implications of the social structures articulated in the text to national cohesion. From this study, it is found that language is a constituent of society and that by studying the forms of language, one reveals the social processes and the specific ideologies embedded in them.