INTERTEXTUALITY AND INTERDISCURSIVITY IN POLITICAL APOLOGIES: TRACING THE REUSE OF APOLOGY TROPES IN NIGERIA'S DEMOCRATIC HISTORY

Abstract

This study examines the discursive strategies of political apologies within Nigeria's democratic landscape, utilising the theoretical lenses of intertextuality and interdiscursivity. The research is important as it moves beyond evaluating the sincerity of apologies to deconstructing their function as rhetorical tools that recycle historical tropes to achieve specific political ends. The primary objective is to trace how apology discourses are reused, recontextualised, and recalibrated across different political events, revealing a patterned performance that shapes public memory and political legitimacy. Employing critical discourse analysis, this paper analyses five media excerpts from The Sun and The Guardian newspapers, dated between April 2023 and April 2025. The findings reveal a persistent repertoire of apology tropes, including the 'legacy apology', the 'proxy apology', the 'nostalgic reconciliation apology', the 'rejected apology', and the 'bureaucratic error apology', which are intertextually linked to past grievances. The study contributes to the field by providing a nuanced framework for understanding Nigerian political discourse, demonstrating that apologies are not isolated speech acts but are deeply embedded in a complex web of historical, social, and political discourses that continually inform and reshape public sphere negotiations.