SPEECH WRITING, ORATORY AND PUBLIC IDENTITY IN NIGERIA.

Speech writing is not just a mechanical process. It presupposes elements of creativity as it has assumed the dimension of art. The paper presents 'oratory' and 'rhetoric' as inseparable concepts. Rhetoric is an ancient stylistic practice and for over two millennia, it has served as a training course in effective public speech. In contemporary scholarship, rhetoric is the anchorage of both linguistic and communicative competence. Speakers deviate from the formal properties of language to pragma-stylistic choices that are germane to topic, audience and occasion. In this paper, we posit that the public identity of the person who writes or delivers a public speech, is inextricably linked to the quality of speech delivered, and afterwards, in circulation. However, the thrust of the paper is to locate the utilitarian or functional potency of speech writing, oratory and public identity within the climes of political leadership in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]