Negotiating rhetorical exigencies : President Mahama's address at the National Democratic Congress on August 30, 2012

Abstract

Following the unexpected demise of President J. E. A. Mills in August 2012, Ghana's ruling party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) felt obligated to call for an Emergency Congress of the Party to elect a new presidential candidate to run for the December 2012 general elections. The vacuum left by President Mill's death necessitated a rhetorical transaction that would reposition the party for the forthcoming elections. Applying Bitzer's theory of the rhetorical situation, this study critically examines the attendant rhetorical exigencies that President Mahama must address in his speech before the Congress and the speech's ability to take into cognizance the deleterious potential of those exigencies. We argue that Mahama's speech made attempts at addressing some key exigencies within the rhetorical situation thereby was successful in repositioning NDC as the stronger party in the run up to the 2012 elections in Ghana.