LANGUAGEDETERMINATIONINPOLITICSTHESITUATIONINNIGERIA (original) (raw)
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Language of Politics in Multilingual and Multi-Ethnic Nations: The Nigerian Example
Indiana Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2022
Abstract: Multilingual countries are characterized by ethnocentric/hegemonic tendencies when the language employed during political engagements in such countries seek to divide rather than unite the diverse language groups in the country. The focus of this paper is to present to the fore the inevitable need of employing the potency of language in alleviating the various challenges that have been caused by hitherto what the author considers to be negligence for the use of language as a viable means to dousing a riotous and an over-heated polity. This paper also takes a closer look at the language of political interactions as used by politicians to loyal party fans and the public in general. The researcher shall adopt the qualitative research approach and data shall be gotten from major print and broadcast media. The data gotten will be analyzed using the content analysis approach. The results to be gotten from the study is expected to show the role language has played in the politics of multilingual countries.
It is a fact that within the last six decades, the third world nations have experienced a reconfiguration of their traditional systems of politics and governance, sociocultural formations and practices, and socioeconomic structures following their contact with the West. Unfortunately, one major aspect of the impact of this contact that is yet to produce positive effects is the role of political communication in stabilizing democratic governance. While issues that are not language-relate-such as an overambitious military, loosely defined federalism, and a weak political party system-have been treated as constituting barriers to the establishment and sustenance of viable democratic governance in Nigeria, the role of political communication in developing a strong tradition of democratic practices has been overlooked.
2019
Language and politics contract a special relationship; language is specific to man and so is politics which man uses to control and dominate his environment. Language has always been a significant factor in Nigerian politics because of its role in critical domains of politics like electioneering campaigns. Language is an instrument used to shape or influence political institutions such as the legislature. The executive as well as the judiciary which are also very important political institutions have benefitted greatly from the inputs of language. Consequently this paper was premised on the assumption that language, particularly, English played a significant role in the acquisition of political power in Nigeria. This is against the backdrop of the victory of the opposition party in the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria. The corpus generated for this study consisted of excerpts from the media exchange between the spokespersons of the two dominant political parties at the time of ...
Language Use in Nigerian Electoral Process
2011
Elections in Nigeria are characterised by the use of different languages, the choice of which is determined by the linguistic background of the participants. Being public events involving people from different backgrounds, these elections exemplify a 'triglottic configuration' of language use, conforming to the three tier administrative structure of Nigeria - local, state and federal. By means of unobtrusive observation of language acts during elections and inferential analysis of printed election and campaign related materials, this book demonstrates that participants exhibit considerable consciousness regarding the choice of language they make. As such, the general picture is such that the three electioneering campaign media identified (oral, print and broadcast) are fairly distinctly associated with a language type, and a given tier or level of administrative structure, resulting in a ‘complementary distribution’ of the languages used. Hence, the book argues that language...
The English Language and Politics in Nigeria
It is almost universally acclaimed that 'there is the closest of links between language dominance and economic, technological and cultural power' (Crystal, 2003:7). In this paper, the author examines the present role of English as a consequence of the National Language policy as contained in the National Policy on Education as well as the linguistic situation in the country viv-a-vis the politics of the government policy of the "big three" languages. She then makes projections about the future of English in Nigeria given the present situation of multilingualism and ethnicity as well as the challenges of the twenty-first century such as globalization and the need for a lingua franca.
The Language Challenge in Nigeria's Public Sphere
The debating activities of the public sphere stimulated the development of pre-modern Europe. So far, such activities had failed to do same for Nigeria -a country in dire need of development. This paper investigates why public discourse in Nigeria has so far failed to develop Nigeria. To do the investigation, I purposively selected eight textual exemplars from stories which three Nigerian newspapers wrote when they covered the 2005 National Political Reform Conference in Nigeria. I presented the selected textual exemplars on a text box and then subjected the texts to interpretation using the method of critical discourse analysis. When I triangulated my interpretation with comments I got when I interviewed the journalists behind the interpreted texts, I found reasons why the mass media, as presently organized, cannot constitute an appropriate arena for development-boosting public discourse in Nigeria. On this light, I suggested some re-adaptation in a way that could motivate intellectuals into fashioning credible arenas for development discourse activities.
One message, many tongues: An exploration of media multilingualism in Nigerian political discourse
Journal of Language and Politics, 2007
The essay sets off by arguing that since the 1950s, there has been a growing enthusiasm in political advertising discourse. This was because political advertising became prominent as an effective communicative and publicity tool in the 1952 U.S. presidential election campaign when Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed its instruments to win the most prestigious and highest political post in the U.S. . Since that time, several rhetorical strategies have been adopted by politicians all over the world to cast and communicate political messages to their various audiences. Most previous research efforts appear to be in the monolingual or L1 settings (e.g Chilton and Schäffner 1997; Obeng 19997).
Revisiting the Lingua Franca Question in Nigeria: Insights from the 2015 Electioneering Campaigns
2016
This paper examined patterns and domains of the use of languages in the 2015 electioneering campaign rallies across Nigeria. Mixed method involving content and critical discourse analyses as well as oral interviews were adopted. It was observed that some dominant language(s) in some regions were solely used during rallies. In some situations, they were used alongside the English language with the ethnic/local languages used for interpretations. Our investigations also reveal that the Nigerian pidgin was used frequently across regions/zones in Nigeria. The study further identified that the dynamics in the use of languages, reflecting ethnic/cultural appeals during the campaign rallies, is an indication of regional use of languages which is believed to be more efficient than the much-talked about but failed national lingua franca issue in Nigeria.
Mobilizing Indigenous Languages for Democracy in Nigeria: A Discursive and Sociolinguistic Critique
The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2012
For democracy to become the political culture in Nigeria, the discourse of politics has to be conducted through expressive mechanisms owned by the people. In the absence of popular ownership of political language, the road to disconnect, apathy and disenfranchisement lies wide open. We take the view that the problem of politics is located squarely in the public sphere and that discourse is the activity that characterizes the public sphere. We raise the point that the sociolinguistic environment in the country does not encourage whole masses of Nigerians to talk politics in languages in which they can freely articulate their positions and present their aspirations. We posit that citizens are disenfranchised and rendered inaudible and invisible to the extent to which they cannot undertake political discourse with an appreciable measure of linguistic ease. The benefits of diversity are endangered as many people and entire groups in Nigeria lose the means of expressing their political v...
Language as a Tool for National Integration: the Case of English Language in Nigeria
In multilingual societies like Nigeria, language which can be used as an effective instrument for national development and the promotion of national consciousness and unity can also be used as a weapon for marginalization and or exclusion. The latter trend can destabilize a nation as it sets different linguistic groups against each other in an attempt to fashion out an identity for themselves and express their existence and or relevance to the society. This scenario can be found in Nigeria, where language has been the sole factor in group integration and atimes, disintegration. This paper addresses the language issues in Nigeria by exploring the unifying significance of the English Language in Nigeria. This unifying role and its allied issues are discussed in this paper with a view to showing that the imposition or adoption of any language apart from English as the Nation's official language will lead to a chain of socio-political crisis that could threaten the corporate existence of Nigeria. This paper suggests that the English language should continue to play its unifying role while we continue to develop and maintain our local indigenous languages.