This is the first time in the novel that one of the President’s speeches is actually described, and it illustrates how he has utilized rhetoric and exploited African identity to present a mono-narrative of the country and its direction. Everybody is a “citoyen” or “citoyenne,” immediately imposing a level of equality in the people he is addressing, and treating them as if they are all participants within this national project. Likewise, he uses a common tongue to appeal to the biggest group of his citizenry. Finally, the President uses scapegoat tactics to pin failures onto groups outside of himself; the failure of the Youth Guard is not a failure of his idea, but rather their failure to live up to the nation’s ideals. Still, the President exposes a bit of hypocrisy by banishing them to the bush, a space he claims to hold sacred, clearly drawing a line between his upright citizenry and the backwards ways of the village—a decision that will come back to bite him.