Strategies utilised in a persuasive speech are so important in the sense that they go a long way in determining the positive feedback from listeners. An audience with a negative mind about a particular topic of discussion could be persuaded through the use of some persuasive strategies. This study investigates the persuasive strategies utilised by President Muhammadu Buhari in his speech on the cashless policy in Nigeria, which resulted in scarcity of cash in the country. The discourse analysis approach of Fairclough is adopted to analyse the speech. The study purposively selected President Buhari’s speech on the cashless policy in Nigeria in 2023. The speech is extracted from the Daily Trust newspaper and analysed. The analysis of the study revealed that the President utilised the following strategies: creativity and metaphor, intertextuality, circumlocution, and reference strategies. He used creativity and metaphors to highlight reality as it is. Intertextuality is also used by the President to convince the whole nation of his vision. Aside from these, the President utilised neutral references (I, you, our, your) in his speech to show his commitment. The study concludes that President Buhari successfully utilised those persuasive strategies to convey his vision to Nigerians through the implementation of the new cashless policy, and he convinces the whole nation that the policy will surely boost Nigeria’s economy, reduce corruption, reduce insecurity, and inflation.

Keywords: Persuasive strategies, cashless policy, negative mind, politician, political discourse.