A Pragmatic Analysis of President Adesina’s Speech at African Development Bank Annual Meeting 2024 and El Nasir Rufai Speech on Naira Redesign Policy Delivered on 16 February,2023.

This study explores a pragmatic analysis of selected speeches by President Akinwumi Adesina of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, focusing on their application of speech acts to communicate policy goals. Using John Searle’s Speech Act Theory as the analytical framework, the research investigates five categories of illocutionary acts: assertives, commissives, directives, expressives, and declarations. President Adesina’s speeches emphasize Africa's economic development and climate resilience, focusing on assertive and commissive acts to convey achievements and commitments. Governor El-Rufai addresses socio-economic challenges in Nigeria, using assertives to highlight issues and directives to manage public response to crises like currency redesign and fuel shortages. The study highlights how both leaders use language to achieve persuasion and inspire action.  The findings indicate that assertives are the dominant speech act thereby promoting credibility and factual grounding, while commissives integrate accountability and forward-looking commitments. Directives and expressives play key roles in mobilizing action and humanizing the leaders' messages. Declarations, although less frequent, demonstrate the authority to enact immediate changes. The study concludes that language is a powerful tool for advancing socio-political agendas and offers recommendations for expanding research to other contexts, including comparative cultural studies, perlocutionary effects, and digital communication platforms.