Issues in Political Discourse Analysis (Languages and Linguistics) [UK ed.] 1613240090, 9781613240090

Table of contents :
Contents
Prologue
The Tongue That Could Not Be Silenced
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 2
The Cultural Consequences of Economic Migration from Nigeria to the West
Abstract
Introduction
Definitions of Culture
A Broad Typology of Culture
Factors that Influence Culture
Types of Influence
Before Migration
After Migration
Conclusion
Appendix
Questionnaire on the Cultural Consequences of Economic Migration
References
Chapter 3
Cognitive Strategies in Nigerian and German Political Cartoons: A Comparative Study
Abstract
Introduction
Political Cartoons and their Contents
Cognitive Strategies in Political Cartoons
Language as a Social, Political, and Cultural System
The Humour Process and Stereotypes
Humour
Stereotypes
Findings
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4
Turn-Taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse
Abstract
Turn-Taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse
Theoretical Preliminaries
Framework for Turn Mechanism
Data Analysis
Mr. Speaker Selects Next Speaker
Next Speaker Self Selects
Turn Allocation Cues in LID
Turn-Yielding Cues
Turn-Requesting Cues
Turn-Accepting Cues
Thank You as a Turn Signal in LID
Turn Structure in Motions
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5
Pragmatic Features of Political Speeches in English by Some Prominent Nigerian Leaders
Abstract
Introduction
Summary of the Selected Speeches
Data Analysis
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4
Sample 5
Sample 6
Sample 7
Sample 8
Sample 9
Sample 10
Discussion and Conclusion
Appendix
Excerpts from the Selected Speeches
References
Chapter 6
Legitimization and Coercion in Political Discourse: A Case Study of Olusegun Obasanjo Address to the PDP Elders and Stakeholders Forum
Introduction
Language and Politics
Background: The Nigerian Political Scenery
Obasanjo and His Utterances
Discussion
Conclusion
Appendix
References
Chapter 7
Language, Politics and Democratic Governance in Nigeria: A Sociolinguistic Perspective
Abstract
Introduction
Background to the Study: Language, Federalism and Electoral Process in Nigeria
Theoretical Framework
The Speech Act Theory
The English Language in the Multilingual Nigerian Context: A Brief Sociohistorical Perspective
English As Language of Politics and Governance in Nigeria: An Analysis
Political Communication in the Nigerian Democracy: Language Policy vs. Linguistic Situation
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8
Language Endangerment: A Statistical Analysis of Language Shift and Language Death with Particular Reference to Erushu, Akoko
Abstract
Introduction
Language Contact and Language Endangerment
Language Contact and Language Death
The Study Area
Objectives of the Study
Specific Hypotheses
Methodology
Demographic Information
Data Analysis and Verification of Hypotheses
Discussion
Implications and Conclusion
References
Chapter 9
Bush Versus Blair: Keywords Heading the Nation
Introduction – Opening Keywords
Sketching a Background
Gathering Materials
Drawing an Analytical Framework
Preliminary Considerations:
Bush and Blair Approval Ratings
What Keywords Tell Us
Questioning Words Preferences:
Looking at Some Relevant Collocations
Intercollocating Keywords Around the
‘Nation-Self’
Re-framing Discourse and Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 10
Drawing an Analytical Framework In Search of “Postmodern” Chinese: Language and Politics in Taiwan
Abstract
Introduction
Taiwan: A Brief History and Sociolinguistics
Language or Dialect?
Unresolved Issues Posed by Southern Varieties
Problems in the ‘Family’
Challenges in the 21st Century
‘Postmodern’ Chinese
References
Chapter 11
Intertextuality and Metaphor in Puerto Rican Political Discourse: Statehood and Language Policy
Abstract
Introduction
Context
The Political Status of Puerto Rico
The Language of Puerto Rico
The Amendment
Method
Participants and Data
Framework
Analysis
Political Actors
Nonpolitical Actors
Discussion
Conclusion
References
Chapter 12
Discursive Strategies in Political Speech: The Words of Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika
Abstract
Introduction
Data
Theoretical Framework
Analysis
Pronouns and Position
Pronouns and Lexicon
Structural Organization
Conclusion
References
Chapter 13
Codeswitching in Tanzanian Parliamentary Discourse: A Communicative Innovation
Abstract
Preamble:
Language Use Pattern in Bilingual Parliaments
The Bunge’s Swahili-English Bilingualism
Codeswitching in the Bunge Discourse: Identification
Codeswitching in the Bunge Discourse: Justification
A Macro-Politics Frame
Pre-Ujamaa Bunge (1961-1967)
From ‘English Only’ to ‘Swahili or English’
{[L2] + [L2]} ----( {[L2] + [L1]} pattern
The Ujamaa Bunge
From ‘Swahili or English’ to ‘Swahili/English’
{[L1] + [L2]} ----( {[L1/L2] + [L1]} pattern
The [L1] Pattern as a Communicative Schema
The [L1/L2] Pattern as a Marked Choice
Post-Ujamaa Bunge 1985 to Date
The {[L1/L2] + [L1]} Pattern: Continuity and Change
Conclusion
References
Index
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LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

ISSUES IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

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LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

ISSUES IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

SAMUEL GYASI OBENG EDITOR

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York

Copyright © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works. Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Issues in political discourse analysis / editor, Samuel Gyasi Obeng. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN  (H%RRN) 1. Language and languages--Political aspects. 2. Discourse analysis--Political aspects. 3. Communication in politics. I. Obeng, Samuel Gyasi. P119.3.I87 2011 320.01'4--dc22 2011007086

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York

CONTENTS

Prologue

The Tongue That Could Not Be Silenced Samuel Gyasi Obeng

Chapter 1

Introduction Samuel Gyasi Obeng

Chapter 2

The Cultural Consequences of Economic Migration from Nigeria to the West Efurosibina Adegbija

Chapter 3

Cognitive Strategies in Nigerian and German Political Cartoons: A Comparative Study Oyinkan Medubi

Chapter4

Turn-Taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse Ayo Ayodele

Chapter 5

Pragmatic Features of Political Speeches in English by Some Prominent Nigerian Leaders Dele Adeyanju

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Legitimization and Coercion in Political Discourse: A Case Study of Olusegun Obasanjo Address to the PDP Elders and Stakeholders Forum Rotimi Taiwo

vii 1

7

21 53

73

91

Language, Politics and Democratic Governance in Nigeria: A Sociolinguistic Perspective Tunde Opeibi

107

Language Endangerment: A Statistical Analysis of Language Shift and Language Death with Particular Reference to Erushu, Akoko S. A. Dada

127

Bush Versus Blair: Keywords Heading the Nation Federica Ferrari

149

vi Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Index

Contents Drawing an Analytical Framework In Search of “Postmodern” Chinese: Language and Politics in Taiwan Jennifer M. Wei

177

Intertextuality and Metaphor in Puerto Rican Political Discourse:Statehood and Language Policy Edelmira L. Nickels

193

Discursive Strategies in Political Speech:The Words of Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika Christopher R. Green

207

Codeswitching in Tanzanian Parliamentary Discourse: A Communicative Innovation Charles Bwenge

223 249

PROLOGUE THE TONGUE THAT COULD NOT BE SILENCED Samuel Gyasi Obeng Indiana University, Indiana, USA

A mighty wind blew! Thunder and Lightening accompanied the pebble-like hail the descended from heavens. The Son-of-the-Soil was taken down only to rise back onto his feet. The wind and the hail had tried to deny him of voice. But they strengthened his Voice! The one with the hatchet to kill and burry had failed in his attempt to mute the Unperturbed-Amplified-Voice. His was a voice even the King of the African Jungle could not silence! A Voice endowed with the tools of understanding language and doing metalanguage analysis. A Voice crowned with the gift of linguistic terseness. A Voice embedded with the ability to synthesize and analyze the Tongues of Men and Women. A Voice with the wit to explicate the social, the cognitive, the political facets of language. A Voice that understood the Corpse, the Soul, and the Spirit of the Tongues of Men and Women. Yes; the Voice! Yes, that Voice! The Voice spoke and both the Living and the Departed stood in awe. That Voice thundered, and everything that walked the face of this earth stood still. It was a Voice that Was! It is a Voice that Is! It is a Voice that Shall Be! The Voice of the Linguist, who studied voice and silence,

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Samuel Gyasi Obeng

The Voice of the Linguist whose work, even though modest, carried with it, the weight of weightiest African elephant. The Voice of a Linguist whose work amplified the past, the present, and the future power of the Tongues of Men and Women. In the presence of the Tongue, the Teeth do not engage in litigation.

The Voice, this Voice, that Voice, does not need an Orator to speak for him. May His Voice continue to be heard through the power of the scriber’s pen! After all, his pen, his Voice, was mightier than the sharpest edges of death’s razor!

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION Samuel Obeng Indiana University, Indiana, USA The study of political discourse has attracted the attention of scholars of diverse theoretical and methodological orientations. One thing common among these scholars is the desire to understand the structure (texture), the political institutional (including cultural) context and function of political communication. Questions often posed include: Why do political actors systematically establish a contrast between their parties’ properties (usually good characteristics or actions) and the ostensibly bad actions of others? Why do they evade questions by providing answers unrelated to questions they are asked? Why do they use divisive language (especially inclusive and exclusive pronouns like "we" and "them" to signal polarization of in-groups and out-groups?)? How truthful or untruthful is a political opponent? Why and how do political actors use negative advertisements to attack their political opponents? How and why do they avoid the obvious and speak indirectly? What strategies do political actors employ to compare what their opponents do (usually negative actions) and what their party does (usually positive acts)? How do they appropriate such communicative strategies as hedging, ambiguity, or vagueness to save and maintain face? Why do they mention the aggressive acts (such as war, invasion, sexual practices, the death penalty and ban on free speech) of their opponents and play down their opponents’ positive characteristics? Answers to some of the above questions are provided in some of the following chapters. The authors painstakingly draw excerpts from naturally occurring political text and talk to elucidate and to give credence to their claims. In his The cultural consequences of economic migration from Nigeria to the West, Adegbija through a participant observation of migrants, informal interviews, and questionnaire administered electronically, discovered different views on the definitions of culture, on factors that influence it, and on the types of influence of culture prior to the participants’ migration. In particular, Adegbija discovered that economic migration has the tendency to accelerate globalization and the various cultural influences it brings about. He explicates the mutual reward and cost or damage at the individual and societal levels when two cultures come into contact in the lives of different peoples. Specifically, he notes the extent to which what he referred to as the cultural ledger book on one group goes completely in the red in a situation whereby a particular cultural group becomes a ménage to the host community. He explicates the difficulty involved in reaching an acceptable cross-cultural balance as well as in ensuring that members of the cultures in contact benefit equally. Adegbija explicates the fact that culture contact results in a range of influences including: appreciation of the host culture and depreciation in one’s culture; depreciation in the other’s culture and appreciation in one’s, a complete or total loss of cultural being, essence or

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Samuel Gyasi Obeng

identity; and the development of an amalgam cultural personality whose identity oscillates between cultures in contact depending on disposition, events and participants in a particular interactional context. The object of Oyinkan Medubi’s paper (Chapter 3) is a comparison and an explication of the major cognitive strategies employed by language users in Nigeria and Germany that reflect in their sociopolitical discourses as found in the editorial cartoons of some of their newspapers. In pursuing the above concern, Medubi closely examined 118 cartoons that were selected from three German newspapers, and 159 cartoons selected from three Nigerian newspapers. Medubi critically examined how meaning is perceived and/or conceptualized in the Nigerian and German political cartoons using such psycho-sociolinguistic parameters as scenarios, metaphor and metonymic representations, frames, and cognitive models that represent a synthesis of cognitive and cultural strategies that provide grounds for the technique of drawing inferences. Results of Medubi’s study showed that whereas conceptualization in Nigerian cartoons tended to be simpler, more formal, direct and factual and employed more reality scenarios and fewer metaphors that often tended to be more pictorial with nature providing the source, German cartoons involved more symbolic systems cognizant of the facts that they employed more informal language as well as complex pictorial and verbal metaphors. Medubi also discovered that Nigerian cartoons were replete with invectives and were also stronger, starker, and more desperate than German cartoons that tended to be milder and not so desperate. Oyinkan Medubi concludes by emphasizing the vivacious nature of cartoons in the performance and explication of a people’s social, political, and economic pursuits. In his Turn-taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse, Ayo Ayodele working within the framework of Conversation Analysis amplifies the fact that the power of freedom of speech is a cardinal principle underlying participatory democracy. Ayodele elucidates the fact that in Nigeria, the long years under military rule had literally obliterated the right to free speech and to the freedom of holding and propagating opinions and exacerbated Nigeria’s culture of giving and taking orders, a situation that has led to intolerance of the opinions of others. Ayodele elucidates the fact that apparent dictatorship and intolerance has in turn led to a situation whereby return to civilian rule has not brought much change cognizant of the fact that such civilian governments are run with top-to-bottom communication as happened during the military regimes. He posits that an appropriate setting for testing the democratic ideal of free speech is the Legislature. He laments about the fact that despite the fact that the interactional behavior in this institutional setting (legislature) is highly rule-governed, with the Speaker of the House as the turn allocator, participants fail to orient to basic institutional conversational rules and deliberately interrupt, overlap, or maintain complete silence to deny others the opportunity to speak, a situation that leads to communication breakdown. He calls on the legislature to observe turn-taking rules, minimize overlapping and interruptive talk, and pay attention to initiative time latency pauses ─ time lapses between the turns. Working within Searle’s (1969) speech act theory and Grice’s (1975) notion of implicature as analytical tools, Adeyanju in Chapter 5 examines the pragmatic features of political speeches in English by some prominent Nigerian political actors. Adeyanju identifies such predominant speech act types as assertion, direction, expression, verdiction, commission, and declaration, by focusing on the opening paragraphs of the selected political speeches. He discovered that a sequence of direct and indirect illocutionary acts used by the

Introduction

3

speakers merged into the quest for acceptance and cooperation in the polity. The pervasiveness of indirectness leads Adejanju to posit that Nigerian political leaders do not always mean what they say; neither do they always say what they mean. To ensure that political actors’ actions matched their words, Adejanju calls on the electorate to pay attention to the actors’ actions as well as their words. The object of Taiwo’s Legitimization and Coercion in Political Discourse (Chapter 6) is an examination of the enactment of power in Obasanjo’s speech. Taiwo synthesizes and analyzes a speech delivered by Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president, at an elders’ and stakeholders’ meeting of his party (Peoples Democratic Party). Taiwo’s choice of the data (Obasanjo’s speech) was motivated by the fact that that speech heightened Nigeria’s political tension at the time. Also, Taiwo viewed Obasanjo’s speech as coercive and a display of power given his choice of language and the overall socio-political and contextual features within which the speech was situated. Taiwo demonstrates that Obasanjo’s choice of language portrayed his distancing and inclusion strategies and established his ideological stance. He ascertains the fact that Obasanjo’s strategies for establishing legitimization included the metaphorical description of himself as a ‘kingmaker,’ and his emphasis on credibility of possible successors who were capable of carrying on his reforms. Taiwo discovers, additionally, that Obasanjo delegitimized his opponents and other possible contenders to the presidency by resorting to name-calling in which he referred to them as ‘criminals,’ ‘rogues,’ and ‘spoilers.’ He demonstrates that Obasanjo’s choice of pronouns and other referential vocabulary showed him as assertive, demonstrated his deep knowledge of politics, and helped to defend his actions and his party’s choice of presidential candidate. Finally, Taiwo examines Obasanjo’s use of threat and intimidation of the opposition by characterizing the impending election as a “do or die affair,” and by that, directly exercised power. Tunde Opeibi, in Chapter 7, deals with the interconnectedness between language, politics and democratic governance in Nigeria from a sociolinguistic perspective. Specifically, Opeibi elucidates the interrelationship between discourse, federalism, and governance in the Federal Republic of Nigeria by emphasizing the inseparability between political communication and democratic governance. Opeibi goes on to demonstrate the extent to which political discourse helps in the mobilization of people to ensure political participation in the electoral process and federal constitutionalism and consequently to leads to the success of democratic governance. To mitigate alienation and marginalization of the citizenry, Opeibi draws on the South African experience, which allows any citizen to make a phone call to any government department in his/her language and for his/her language to be automatically translated into any of the country’s 11 official languages (an act which he claims has strengthened South Africa’s democracy), to bolster his claim about the place of language in democratic governance. He calls for a close and systematic attention to be paid to how candidates for political office deploy linguistic facilities during and after election campaigns given the fact that language use in political activities, beside being persuasive, informative or educative, is primarily designed to mobilize the people to practically support the process that will promote democratic governance. Political actors and public officials should then become aware of the power and implications of their utterances. Besides factors viewed as crucial for the practice of authentic federalism in Nigeria, Opeibi elucidates the indispensability of the development of effective political discourse culture to ensure the successful mobilization of the civil society for thriving and viable democratic governance. Opeibi calls for the use of both

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Samuel Gyasi Obeng

indigenous languages (including the minority languages) and English as languages of governance and social of mobilization cognizant of the fact that it is only if adequate attention is paid to what is communicated and how what is communicated that democratization of Nigerian polity will become successful. In Chapter 8, Dada examines language shift and language death among in Nigeria. Specifically, he examines language shift and language endangerment among the Erushu of Nigeria. Dada critically explores the Erushus’ communicative abilities in both Erushu and Yoruba, by examining among other things, the speakers’ language use patterns in various social domains. His fundamental discovery centers on the dominance of Yoruba in all social and communicative domains over Erushu. Specifically, the results of his study reveal a statistically significant difference in the level of the subjects’ competence in Erushu with respect to age and context. Dada discovered further that language use patterns among the Erushu points to language shift by Erushu children. Thus, he found Erushu children increasingly abandoning their language in favor of Yoruba and English and consequently placing Erushu on the path to death and endangerment. Dada attributes the shift from Erushu to Yoruba to perception by Erushu youth of their language as having no major utilitarian value as well as the Federal Government of Nigeria’s unfair language policy that gives undue weight to such major languages as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo and neglects the minority languages like Erushu. Other reasons given for the shift include: parents and elite’s refusal to encourage the use of Erushu, loss of ethnolinguistic identity among the Erushu, and the existence of transitional bilingualism. Dada calls for a more concerted effort to save Erushu and other minority languages in Nigeria by asking Erushu speakers, language policymakers, linguists, and activists to work in concert with one another to improve the linguistic and communicative health of such languages. Ferrari, working within the frameworks of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, investigates the role metaphors played in post September 11, 2001 American and British political discourse. Ferrari examines the discursive strategies employed by both President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair in addressing their audiences (electorates and/or countrymen) to support their war effort. Ferrari discovered that President Bush’s prowar discourse was couched in isolationist nation-centered political parlance whereas Tony Blair’s messages were couched in the internationalist political parlance. Also, whereas Blair’s discourse speeches were characterized by the absence of directness Bush’s was characterized by directness. Ferrari discovered further that whereas Bush’s speeches were characterized by simple and straightforward syntactic structures and vocabulary, Blair’s were characterized by complex sentences replete with subordination. Thus, she identified a complex interaction between political discourse persuasive strategies and political actors’ ideological positioning. She notes that the political discourse persuasive strategies were contextually situated and cognitively motivated. Ferrari concludes that there is a close and crucial connection between rhetoric and presidential endorsement and/or approval. The object of Chapter 10 is a discussion about the politics of languages in Taiwan. Using Chinese as a case in point, Wei examines a post-modern view of language and identity with the view to showing the tensions and contentions among speakers of different Chinese varieties. Specifically, Wei uses the Taiwanese experience with emerging democracy to argue for a post-modern language and identity model. She contends that to achieve the post-modern language and identity model there is the need to: (a) deconstruct what she refers to as the myth of a unified and patriarchic Chinese language family; (b) construct a marginal view of

Introduction

5

the Chinese identity in which the hybridity and vagueness attributes of post-modern identity politics are evident; (c) propose what Wei identifies as plural-centric and denationalized view of the default “national language” (Guoyu, or Mandarin) so as to avoid she sees as a seething ideological cauldron occupied by China-centered groups and Taiwan independence radicals. Quoting Heller (1999; 2003), Wei argues that it is important to separate the language and identity interconnected notion in view of the damage that a modern “one nation, one language” (that is, the nation-state ideology of language and identity) has done to ChinaTaiwan relations. Wei supports her call for the separation of nation-state-one-language proposal by demonstrating the extent to which her argument is backed by the modern Taiwan history of twice over nationalism at the hands of the Japanese (1895-1945) and during the 1945-1987 martial law-era from the Kuomintang during which Japanese (a non-indigenous language) was first chosen as a national language; and then Mandarin (an indigenous language) was chosen as the national language. She notes that the language-ethnic identity issue are influenced by globalization (economic rationalism and a vision of the weakening of nationstate boundaries), and indigenization (backed by ethnic groups’ vocal demands for rights and resources in a democratizing context). Wei concludes that the imposition on Taiwan of successive single views of identity led to innumerable grievances and perceptions of ethnolinguistic injustices among Taiwanese. In her Intertextuality and Metaphor in Puerto Rican Political Discourse: Statehood and Language Policy, Nickels, working within the frameworks of critical political discourse theory, intertextuality and metaphor, discusses Puerto Rican political actors’ appropriation of textuality, contextuality and various intertextual markers (including public knowledge of wide and limited accessibility) to speak what is otherwise an unspeakable — discuss issues related to statehood and the place of language (Spanish and English) in the Puerto Rican polity. Nickels’ data —transcripts from Talk of the Nation that aired on July 21st, 1998 — is a Puerto Rican National Public Radio show where a host leads high-ranking political actors from two of Puerto Rico’s three major political parties on the topic of the political status of Puerto Rico in light of United States congressional hearings held that year. Analyses of the data yielded considerable use of metaphors and intertextuality. Specifically, some political actors in speaking favorably about Puerto Rican culture and identity used metaphors that made reference to popular arguments borrowed from previous texts, including Congressional hearings on Puerto Ricans’ low English competence and how that points to their disinterest in becoming part of the United States. Nickels concludes by noting that the consequences of the extensive use of indirectness (metaphors) and intertextuality hinders the debates and debates. It also stalls aspects of the language policy and consequently does irreparable damage to the process of determining the political status of the island. Green, in Chapter 12, examines the history of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s administration from a sociopolitical standpoint, in addition to events that paved the way for his inauguration and which had an effect on Malawi’s political, economic, and social status. Working within the framework of critical discourse analysis (van Dijk, 2001), Green scrutinizes the use of specific discursive strategies by President Mutharika in his 2004 to 2007 United Nations General Assembly speeches. In particular, Green delves into how, in his attempt to convey the ongoing tale of the political and economic situation in Malawi, President Bingu wa Mutharika employed such discursive mechanisms as shifting solidarity

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Samuel Gyasi Obeng

and distance through pronoun choice, strengthening of rhetoric through lexicon and pronoun pairings, and altering the structural organization of his addresses over time. Green concludes that Mutharika altered the type and number of the above-mentioned discursive features in response to political and economic events in Malawi that proceeded or fell concurrent with the occasion on which he spoke. Specifically, Green notes that Mutharika’s use of specific the pronouns you, we, and I helped shift authority and responsibility toward and away from him as well as to construct solidarity and distance between himself and his listeners on different occasions for different means. Also, Mutharika used the collocation and colligation of specific pronouns with key lexical items to strengthen the weight of his rhetorical rendition. Green surmised that a close and systematic attention to the comparison of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s addresses over the period of his presidency suggests that the alteration of the different rhetorical strategies correlates with Malawi’s changing political and economic climates and also helps to reveal President Bingu wa Mutharika’s exercise of authority and responsibility for political events in Malawi. Chapter 13 is about Code-switching in Tanzanian parliamentary discourse. Bwenge argues that in view of Tanzania’s recognition of Swahili and English as its official languages, political actors in the Tanzanian parliament (the Bunge) consistently code switch between Swahili and English during the legislature’s official business. He examines the social factors that constrain (impact and give rise to) this innovative linguistic situation and notes that allowing the use of Swahili and English in the realm of the nation’s official business, enables political actors to decide to speak in either, Swahili only, English only, Swahili and English, or English and Swahili. He notes that many a time Swahili becomes the default language of official business. Among the speech events in which the legislature code-switches between Swahili and English are: debates, questions-answer sessions (whereby questions may be posed in Swahili but answered in English), speech making, and in some cases speech reading. Bwenge notes that use of Swahili is motivated by identity (what he refers to as Africanization and nationalistic sentiments) whereas use of English is viewed as a marker of socio-economic and political advancement, and as a marker of possessing good education and being a professional. Political actors intentionally exploit these language attributes in their attempt to gain political capital and to mark ethnolinguistic identity. Switching from English to Swahili and vice versa, Bwenge argues, is a way for the legislature to show that Swahili is at par with English in being used to handle complex political and social discourses. He notes further that during the Ujamaa (communalist ideology of post-colonial Tanzania) Swahili acted to bring the people together for nationalism and nationism whereas the use of English presented Tanzania as a tolerant nation.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 2

THE CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES OF ECONOMIC MIGRATION FROM NIGERIA TO THE WEST1 Efurosibina Adegbija University of Ilorin, Nigeria

ABSTRACT The main focus of this article is to investigate the cultural consequences of economic migration from Nigeria to the West. Methods adopted for the study include observation of a sample of those involved, informal interviews with those who have emigrated and those who desire to but have not been able to make it, and an analysis of information collected through an e-mail questionnaire on the cultural consequences of economic migration, completed by some of the emigrants. The results show different views of the respondents on the definitions of culture, factors that influence culture, and types of influence before and after migration.

INTRODUCTION Migration, for the purpose of this workshop, has been defined as referring to ‘the crossborder movement of people from a homeland to a location outside the homeland with the purpose of taking up employment and conducting a daily existence there.’ As a social phenomenon, this usually arises from and reflects on economic inequality or inequality of economic opportunity between politically discrete zones, hence economic migration. Such inequalities include differences in workforce requirements, perceptions of differences in standard of living, and perceptions of difference in ideological inclination. A wide range of realities is contained in this characterization of economic migratio As of 1998, 20,000 Nigerian academics were employed in the United States, 700 Ghanaian physicians were practicing in the U.S.A., more than 300 Ethiopian physicians were working in Chicago, U.S.A. According to research reports, Africa loses 20,000 intellectuals yearly. A new report broadcast by the BBC says Africa has lost one third of skilled professionals in recent decades, costing the continent $4 billion dollars a year to replace them with expatriates from the West. By contrast, rich countries like the U.S. save $26 billion dollars which should have been spent 1

This paper was presented at the Globilization, Identity Politics and Social Conflict Conference at the Ferguson Centre for Asian and African Studies, Froebel College, Roehampton University of Surrey, London, July 14-16, 2004, by Prof. Efurosibina Adegbija, edited and presented posthumously for publication by Dr.(Mrs.) Mosiforeba Adegbija.

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to train 130,000 highly qualified physicians (Ashanafi, 2002). South Africa and Nigeria are the biggest losers of professionals to the West. Speaking to the Nigerian Academy of Science, Okebukola (2004) quoted the 2000 and 2002 World Science Report as concluding that most of the countries of Africa represent perhaps the most scientifically backward countries in the world in terms of basic input and output. Africa’s input seem negligible when examined by science and technology indicators such as science enrolment in secondary school and in vocational and tertiary institutions, national spending on science and technology education, national research and development spending by universities and other institutions of higher learning, and institutional infrastructure on science and technology. Okebukola conjectures that Nigeria occupies about the top 25% within this ignoble group. Patents, scientific publications, and major technological innovations are painfully thin on the ground. Quoting statistics from the National Manpower board, he further says Nigeria would need for the petroleum sector alone 6,200 petroleum engineers, geologists, civil engineers, and technicians over the next five years. There are 2,300 of them in the country at the moment. A vacuum still exists for 3,900. For the agricultural sector, Nigeria needs 28,200 agronomists and other specialists over the same 5-year period. At the moment, some 12,950 of them exist. 15,250 more will be required. It is from such a perspective of lack of experts that the economic migration from Nigeria to the West must be understood. My focus in this article, however, is not on the economic consequences, grave as these may be, but on the cultural consequences. Economic migration usually brings members of two divergent cultures together. When two divergent cultures come into contact either willingly or by force, it is natural for an imprint of one form or the other to be left in the lives of those involved. In the case of economic brain drain, the normal pattern is for large numbers of professionals, sometimes non-professionals, to move from their homelands to the developed countries with the primary goal of earning a better living or securing a better and more hopeful future. This article investigates the cultural consequences of this kind of economic migration. Specifically, it focuses on Nigerians that have emigrated to the West mainly for economic reasons. Migration implies being transplanted from one culture to an entirely different one. Methods adopted for the study include observation of a sample of those involved, informal interviews with those who have emigrated and those who desire to but have not been able to make it, and an analysis of information collected through an e-mail questionnaire on the cultural consequences of economic migration, completed by some of the emigrants.

DEFINITIONS OF CULTURE Responses to one of the questions on the questionnaire suggest that culture is viewed from many different angles. Asked for the definition of culture, one of the respondents who had lived almost seven years away from Nigeria, with intermittent visits, says culture is “The range of activities and beliefs of a set of people at a given point in time.” He identities the following as its main ingredients: “religious beliefs, social activities, language, norms, outlook to life, etc.” Another respondent who had lived abroad for ten years defined culture as “The sum total of the attributes and behaviors of a people.” Its ingredients, according to him, include “language, dressing, food, family and interpersonal relationships, social networks.”

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Another person defines culture as “The way of life of people, traditional values of the people, beliefs and norms of the people,” adding that “it is passed on from one generation to another.” Offering an omnibus definition she says, “Culture can therefore be defined as the total way of life, traditional values, beliefs and norms of people in a particular community that is passed on from generation to generation.” Another person defines culture as the “belief, tradition, rules, norms, outlook, way of dressing by which a people are characterized.” Some of these lay definitions of culture are certainly very close to some of the academic definitions found in the literature. One view is that “culture is a wider umbrella under which we find marriage, naming habit, music, dance and a host of other ways of looking at life generally” (Omotoye, 2002, p. 16). Tyler (1817) cited in Jekayinfa (2002, p. 42) defines culture as “a configuration of institutions and modes of life, . . . that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Forester (1962), also cited in Jekayinfa (p. 420) defines culture as “the common learned way of life shared by members of society, consisting of the totality of facts, techniques, social institutions, attitudes, beliefs, motivations and systems of values of a group.” Obayan (2003) provides what she calls a simple definition of culture as follows: Things a stranger needs to know when in a new place. Culture consists of all of those things that people have learned to do, believe, value and enjoy in their history. It is the ideals, beliefs, customs, skills, tools, and institutions into which each member of a society is born. (p. 15)

Obayan also cites Pederson (1991) who defines culture as “a shared pattern of learned behaviour that is transmitted to others in a group.” Culture is learned through personal interaction, emulation, and socialization and through deliberate indoctrination or teaching. It is dynamic and transmitted from one generation to another. Learning of culture is a life-long process, beginning from the cradle and going on to the grave (Jekayinfa, 2002). The content and substance of culture varies from society to society, but the fact that man is able to adapt to learning a new culture makes it possible for those who emigrate to a new society to be able to learn a new culture easily. Culture, thus, may be material or non-material, palpable or nonpalpable. It is the totality of experiences that contribute to our total essence, upbringing, outlook on life, make-up, internal and external constituency and constitution. The next section provides a broad classification of culture.

A BROAD TYPOLOGY OF CULTURE Culture may be divided into several broad categories including the following: the core and peripheral and the material and non-material. ·

The core culture refers to basic or central cultural categories. It would involve aspects of culture such as ethnicity, language, customs, traditions, superstitions, beliefs and values. We are influenced by all of these in our personality make-up, our philosophical learnings, and in our response to culture and contribution to the production of culture.

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·

·

The peripheral culture refers to the non-basic, outer-edge cultural categories. It would include aspects such as age, gender, interests, educational background, lifestyles, socio-economic status, residential area, etc., which constitute the total make-up of a person as a member of a particular community or society. These also influence us in different complex and dynamic ways. Material and non-material culture would include the above two categories. Many aspects of the material and non-material culture belong to the core culture category. Specifically, material culture refers to the products of man’s industry or works of art. Elements like carving, food, paintings, dress, pottery, weapons, cloths, houses, etc., which are peculiar from one society to another, and which are made from the materials available from the surrounding or environment, are involved. They meet certain crucial needs within the particular culture concerned. The non-material culture refers to abstract entities that are not palpable but nevertheless are important in defining a particular group of people, as well as individuals within the group, and in charting their cultural and personality identity. This would include language, dance, music religion, morals, and values relating to issues such as freedom, love, beauty, justice, accountability, honest, and beliefs.

Each person grows up being socialized or acculturated into a particular cultural mode. Contact with another culture, therefore, often implies a need for re-socialization into a different cultural mode, the addition of new cultural paraphernalia, the subtraction of old ones, or the blending of the old with the new. It is a recreation, reconstitution, or remodeling of the cultural essence. Such exposure of a person to a new cultural can thus result in that person becoming clothed in a new cultural garb, additional to the native culture, in a hybridization of culture or a sharing of cultural identity and essence. According to Adegbija (2004), the more the number of new and different cultural groups to which a person is exposed, the greater will tend to be the demands for re-socialization, intercultural tact, and the recreation of a new or metamorphosed cultural essence. The table below illustrates some of the elements involved in our broad and somewhat fluid classification of culture. Table 1. Broad Classification of Culture Material Culture · Products of man’s industry · Works of art · Carving, · Food, · Dress, · Clothes · Pots · Paintings, · Weapons, · Houses

Core Culture · Ethnicity · Languages · Customs · Traditions · Superstitions · Music · Beliefs · Values

Peripheral Culture · Age · Gender · Interest · Educational background · Lifestyles · Socio-economic status · Residential area

Non-Material Culture · Abstract entities: · Language · Dance · Religion · Literature · The media · Morals and values such as freedom, · justice, honesty, love, beauty, · Names and naming practices

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FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CULTURE Several factors exert influence on our perception of culture and the creation of our cultural essence, multicultural reality, and identity. These include parental upbringing and socialization; social, political, economic, historical, and religious context: type of educational exposure; individual and societal attitudes (cognitive, affective, and connative); personal observation and introspection; exposure to and contact with other cultural, ethnic, and linguistic groups; and idiosyncratic sub-culture to which one is exposed when participating in a larger culture and physical environment. All these crucially impact on our cultural constitution and make-up, influence us in one way rather than another, and affect the understanding, perception, and imbibing or nurturing of our cultural essence. The figure below illustrates some of the factors that affect the nurturing of our cultural essence.

Figure 1. Cultural Influences: Some Predisposing Factors.

Types of Influence It is natural for culture to exert influence on a person’s discourse patterns, philosophy of life, outlook, and personality. Because, as indicated above, several aspects of culture can be material or non-material, and several factors predispose us to being influenced in one way rather than another, the influence of a particular culture on a person can also be material or non-material, overt or non-overt, determinate or indeterminate.

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Nigerians who have emigrated to the West reflect these different kinds of cultural influences upon their lives. While the material consequence of culture is visible and palpable, the non-material is often invisible and of a somewhat ethereal quality. Burrowing into these can sometimes be difficult and one would have to depend on interpretations of one’s observations and of responses to interviews and questionnaires. The following observations may be made: 



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Generally culture contact has resulted in a better appreciation of, respect for, and accommodation of other cultures. One of the respondents to the questionnaire administered for gathering data in this study said living in the West had given him the opportunity of “comparing social norms, belief systems and social interactions between my host country and my own country.” Such a comparison tends to result in the building of a greater level of tolerance for and accommodation of other cultures. This lubricates the channels of intercultural discourse and intercultural comm.unication in general (Adegbija, 2004). Emigration to another cultural area contributes to a better development in the host culture, due to the importation of new ideas, cultures, and ways of life. Cultural diffusion is a matter of course when two cultures come into contact. Some aspects of the home culture are sometimes maintained by the emigrants in their host culture. Asked what aspects of the culture of their homeland have been maintained in their present place of abode, our subjects cited an aspect such as “respect for elders by courtesy.” One respondent cites attempts to speak in Yoruba where appropriate, trying to obtain local foodstuff from home, and dressing in Nigerian attire where considered appropriate. While such aspects may not have any significant impact on the host culture, especially if the number of emigrants is small, it could nevertheless impact on a few individuals and result in particular perceptions or stereotypes regarding people from the home culture of the emigrants concerned. Culture contact facilities and nurtures intercultural bonding and connectedness that could result in marriages and the growth and development of families that cut across different cultures. For instance, family relationships in Nigeria are largely exclusive and extensive and the influence of the family is paramount in the psychological make-up of the individual. Individuals are expected to be obedient to, conform with, and be loyal to the extended family as a unit/structure. Most Nigerians have been socialized into this mode and pattern of family relationships before emigrating to the West. Contact with the West, however, initiates an entirely different kind of awareness of a new type of family relationships, where the emphasis is on the individual as an independent, sophisticated, and self-sufficient entity. (Idowu, 1985; Obayan, 2003). The complexion and dynamics involved in these different socialization patterns could sometimes generate a cultural and identity clash—the desire to be individual as is the case in the West and the need to still associate with the extended family as is the case in Nigeria. The cultural centripetal and centrifugal loyalty pulls exerted by these two forces can sometimes trigger off a divided personality, a dual personality, a confused personality, or what one might refer to as a chameleon-like cultural personality—behaving in Nigeria as Nigerians want you to behave and, for instance, in England as the English want you to behave when it comes to your relationship with and beliefs about your family.

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Before Migration Influence predominant on predisposing thoughts, shaping of attitudes, and decisionmaking and internal preparation for emigrating: 

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Admiration for target culture: One predisposing factor seems to be that all those who have emigrated to the West have some prior measure of admiration for the host culture as being able to offer something better than they are provided with in their own countries. At least economically, it is expected that life will offer better opportunities than the ones available at home. This admiration normally results in finding out more information about the host culture from individuals, books, the media, getting interested in issues relating to the host culture, and conducting informal interviews with those who have already emigrated to the host culture. Applications for employment or placement of one kind or the other may also commence at this early stage. Idealization of, and often enhanced interest in, the target host culture often occurs. This growing interest in the host culture could then result in the idealization of the host culture as a place of economic opportunities, cultural freedom, and a place worth migrating to. Such idealization of the host culture could result in listening to the radio of the host culture, watching the TV programs, gathering information on different aspects of life, and engaging in a form of self-education as prior preparation for emigrating. Omoniyi (2003) observes that “the media is both a platform (means) for the production of text and culture as well as being constitutive of cultures and texts (end)” and that “the determination and nature of what makes and forms the media are indicative of identities and all manners of social relations” (p. 362). The media discourse on a particular country often plays a major role in decisions to emigrate or not to emigrate. Of recent, for instance, reportage of the decapitation of Westerners in particular and foreigners in general in the Arabian peninsula is a contributory factor of the emerging cultural knowledge of the area that obviously will discourage many people who otherwise might be contemplating emigration for economic reasons to some of the countries in the Arabian peninsula region. By converse, media reports on the West portraying freedom, subjection of leaders and presidents to similar conditions like the commoners when the law is concerned, ebullient social life, and buoyant economics tend to predispose those contemplating emigration to actually want to take a decision to emigration when the opportunity arises. Interpersonal interactions and contacts with those already in the host community also form part of the cultural discourse and knowledge that play a dominant role in final decisions to emigrate. Some of the interpersonal contacts may indeed be the initial support anchor for setting down in the host community when the emigration has finally occurred. Interpersonal contacts serve as an information source, sometimes as an initial economic support group, as a guide in social and cultural life in the host community, and as counselor to the new emigrant. By the time a decision has been taken, some form of vicarious experiencing of the host community commences. Intense anticipation of when the emigration will finally

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Efurosibina Adegbija occur begins. Expectations about what life would be like when emigration has occurred begin. Initial cognitive acceptance of aspects of the host culture understood commences. This tends to engender a general positive attitudinal posture and positive discourse orientation with regard to the target host community. Some of these initial feelings, hunches, orientation, internalization, and vicarious enjoyment and experiencing of aspects of the host culture (e.g., through radio and television) are either confirmed or disconfirmed, reinforced or jettisoned when the emigration has actually occurred (Hefferman, 1996).

After Migration A lot hinges on the predisposing factors and attitude that are perceptually salient in the emigrant after arrival at the host country and culture. The following range of influences is observable: 



Cultural diffusion often results in cultural rejuvenation, rebirth, or regeneration. Asked the question “What aspects of the culture of your present place of abode would you say have influenced you most?”, one response was “religion, tendency to be rather insular, avoidance of public criticism of students and peers.” Another stresses the simplicity and “less expensive nature of most ceremonies like naming a child, weddings, burials, etc.” In essence, a new order of difference, of thinking, of re-socialization, which can impact on attitudes to the native culture upon return or visit to the home country, is beginning to emerge and crystallize. Ashanafi (2002) observes, for instance, that the movement of intellectuals like university lecturers and researchers from one national setting to another, ranging from permanent relocation to short-term visits or exchange programs, facilitates the dissemination of knowledge and the broadening of cultural horizon. Languages loss is another major cultural casualty of economic migration to the West. As Gunnarsson (1996) rightly points out, “Language is an important part of the national culture and identity, and language patterns at different levels are closely related to cultural patterns and to societal conditions. It has long been known that vocabulary reflects society. Less well-known is the fact that textual patterns are culture-specific” (p. 157). While some of those who have migrated succeed in keeping their home languages with its different textual patterns, others do not. Some don’t even want to. Instead, they want to pick up the accent of the language of these in their host culture. Most of the children of the emigrants do not speak the home or native languages of their parents. Gunnasson (1996) also points out findings that reveal that our knowledge of native text patterns is consciously transferred to texts written in a foreign language. She indicates, further that studies have shown “how culture-bound our text expectations and interpretations are, that is, how readers interpret texts differently depending on whether or not they are familiar with the text patterns which they contain. Unfamiliarity with the patterns of a text often leads to underestimation and misinterpretation of the text on the part of the reader” (p. 158). The language of the West seems to predominate in some of the homes of the emigrants, but some continue to speak the home languages even in the foreign land.

The Cultural Consequences of Economic Migration from Nigeria to the West

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In homes where the language of the West is dominant, Western language patterns, modes of interpretations, and cultural nuances are also more evident. In such instances where the language of the West takes over, there is no intergenerational transmission of language, culture, textual modes, and discourse patterns in the home, and so there is a tendency for the home language to die with the first generation of offspring in the West. The converse of language loss, language gain or addition, may also result in the event that a person migrates to an area whose language is not understood. The new circumstance usually constitutes a high and strong motivation for learning the language of the host culture. In most instances where there is some measure of prior competence in the host language, enhanced competence in the complex nuances, discourse modes, and patterns and peculiar idiosyncrasies and cultural secrets of the language tends to occur after emigration has taken place. Economic migration often results on migration of expert intellect and the consequent loss of the intellectual culture that emigrants have exported. For instance, Philip Emeagwali, reported to be the most searched person on the Internet worldwide, is a Nigerian. His intellectual culture is being used to enrich the West while his own country stays intellectually impoverished. When Nigeria had to launch a satellite in September 2003, 15 Nigerian scientists had to be trained abroad, whereas there are many Nigerian space scientists in the West. The same is true of other professionals that have emigrated to the West. This shift of intellectual capital from Nigeria to the West is a major loss attributable to the economic migration to the west. Francis Obikwelu, a naturalized Portuguese citizen born in Nigeria, is reported to have taken second place in the 200 meters race of the 24th European championships. It is only the second silver medal for Portugal in such a game and the best-ever result for a Portuguese athlete in short distance races (Malheirs, 2004). The home cultural and intellectual values—e.g. the premium placed on indirectness in speech and proverbs—sometimes become extinct when faced with competition from the culture of the West, particularly among the offspring of emigrants. Reinterpretation of different aspects of one’s own culture—e.g., a taboo like not looking straight in the eye of an elder, giving out something using the left hand, greeting patterns, and prior value placed on cultural institutions like marriage, kinship, naming ceremonies, and other cultural festivals—tends to occur. One respondent talked of missing the food, dressing, and informal social interactions, especially with friends and classmates. Another respondent said, for instance, “in my homeland, we seem to spend a lot of time and precious resources on ceremonies. I would not say I have missed this aspect of my culture, I really love being away from such practices – at least for the time being!” So, the time and expenses invested on such festivals and ceremonies are now reinterpreted as an unnecessary waste by many of the emigrants. In Nigeria, taboos have a strong impact on the thinking patterns of individuals. As Obayan (2003) observes, “certain behavior modes are often prescribed or proscribed by the culture. Among most cultural groups in Nigeria, for example, it is rude to look at an older person directly in the eye even during conversation. One finds that the younger person usually has eyelids averted during the conversation. On the contrary, however, in the West, not maintaining eye-contact during conversation may be interpreted to mean having something to hide, or having a low self-esteem (p. 19). Such cultural taboos tend to be easily reinterpreted after

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migration. Thus, even though after migration, many migrants still value cultural aspects of life like respect for elders, they are prone to easily jettison or devalue aspects of culture that are freshly reinterpreted as unnecessary, given the new cultural perspective that they have acquired in their host culture. A re-engineered mindset, belief, and attitude system is naturally evident in most Nigerians that have emigrated to the West. Naming and marriage practices values, norms and indigenous modes of entertainment tend to be devalued or completely oblitered. Most cherish and adore the freedom in society. In fact, one respondent, when asked “What kind of adjustment problems have been you had since you came to your present place of abode?,” responded, “None really. This is a free society by and large.” Another responded, “staying alone all the time, greater ability to keep to time and schedules, better opportunity for planning – these are not really problems but can be considered advantages.” In the West, Nigerian emigrants have the freedom to take decisions, behave and act alone and as they think proper without having to consult father, mother, or any member of the extended family, even for what would be regarded as crucial family decisions like getting married to a white lady, for instance. They are free to take such a decision without feeling that anyone would encroach on their prerogatives to make up their minds in their own way. On the contrary, in Nigeria, marriage is essentially a family affair, and quite often, family sanction and support is required before any marriage can be regarded, from the cultural perspective at least, as having been properly contracted. Asked what kind of adjustment problems frequently occur when the home land is visited, one respondent answered, “instrusiveness of friends and family; inability to keep mapped out plans and schedules; financial and dependence of friends and relatives many of whom did not even bother to communicate when one was abroad.” Another responded, “I find it a bit difficult adjusting to the demands on my resources: time, money, need to attend elaborate ceremonies, etc.” What such responses indicate is that the mindset has been reengineered to value time, a culturally important aspect of life in the West, to downgrade and consider as instrusiveness traditional ceremonies, the closeness and ‘omnipresence’ of family and friends, culturally important in Nigeria, and to manage money as something personal, rather than something meant for taking care of the entire extended family members (the attitude and mindset of most Nigerians still living in Nigeria). A reorientation of attributive patterns also generally tends to occur after emigration. In the West, there seems to be a greater emphasis on taking individual responsibility for events in life instead of looking for a scapegoat for one’s misfortunes and mishaps. In the Nigerian cultural context, causality is externally attributed and other or divinely directed, particularly if the event is negative, and concerns experiences relating to calamities, misfortunes, failures, disappointments, and other kinds of unbearable frustrations in life. While positive outcomes are attributed to God, the Devil is given the responsibility for negative occurrences. It is easy to accuse the enemy—some person, object, or event, a witch—as being responsible. In many Nigerian obituaries, for instance, the enemies are often accused of having ‘done their worst,’ by bringing about the death of the diseased, while succor is taken in God, who has the responsibility for the future happenings of the family concerned.

The Cultural Consequences of Economic Migration from Nigeria to the West 

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The loss of the connection, anchor, support, bonding, and embeddedness provided by the extended family context in Nigeria often tends to result in a devaluation or reinterpretation of several social norms. Family and marriage norms upheld by some of the emigrants often tend to align with those of the West, thus resulting in different attitudes to family moral values, divorce, etc., which would ordinarily be tabooed or stigmatized in Nigeria. Thus, in the West, married couples seem to be freer to divorce and get married to someone else when the relationship does not seem to be as expected. It is reported that one in every four marriages ends in a divorce. In Nigeria, divorce is still somewhat a taboo, particularly in traditional Nigerian society. Whereas the cultural attitude in the West seems to be that divorce is a personal affair, the attitude in Nigeria is that it is a family and societal affair. Many emigrants tend to learn more towards the Western attitude, which gives a greater leeway for freedom to divorce one’s spouse. In Nigeria, culturally erratic and idiosyncratic behavior such as men plating their hair, wearing earrings, ladies smoking, culturally questionable modes of dressing are seen in the public and are in fact quite common in most embassies where Nigerian emigrants go to renew their visas. Some of such behavior has become permissible or rather tolerated. Respect for elders among the youths seems to be waning in cities like Lagos frequented by migrants, and contract marriages for convenience without investigation about family compatibility background have become commonplace also in cities. Prostitution has also become a common problem for Nigerian young girls in the West, and is becoming a serious problem within Nigeria too. Many have attributed this to the impact of the popular youth culture from the West imported by the emigrants. It has been so serious that many of the Islamic northern states, after declaring the Sharia law within their states, have placed a ban, for instance, on prostitution. This cultural attitude is completely different from that in many Western countries where prostitution has, in fact, been legalized and prostitutes are recognized as other legal workers who must pay tax to the government. A hybrid culture sometimes develops, which is neither totally in line with the home culture nor the host culture. In some cases, émigrés succeed in blending the host culture with their own culture when they pay visits to their homeland. One respondent, when asked how he would characterize himself presently in terms of cultural identity, responded, “Honestly, I do not have any cultural identity crisis as such. I practice the best of my own culture as well as the best of the culture in my temporary place of abode.” This kind of subject, obviously, has succeeded in appropriately negotiating a cultural identity and essence. This kind of attitude, no doubt, is bound to result in cultural enrichment and a broadened cultural horizon that would be good for both the host culture and the originating culture of the emigrant.

CONCLUSION Migration results in “new paths of shared identity and global circulation” (Malheirs, 2004) as is brings different cultures into contact. Hall (1990) suggests that instead of thinking of identity as an accomplished fact, represented by the new cultural practices, “identity should

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be thought of as a ‘production,’ . . . which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation” (p. 222, cited in Omoniyi, 2003, p. 365). This view, he observes, problematises the very authority and authenticity of the term ‘cultural identity’ and poses the question as to what the authentic cultural identity is, especially with regard to the changes that characterize globalization (Omoniyi, 2003). Economic migration tends to hasten globalization and the cultural influences it engenders. One culture’s meat can be another’s poison. When two cultures come into contact in the lives of people, there is usually some form of mutual gain and loss both at the individual and societal levels. Culture contact will also almost always result in a range of influences including any of the following:    

appreciation of the host culture and depreciation in one’s own; depreciation in the other’s culture and appreciation in one’s own; a complete or total loss of cultural being, essence, or identity; the development of a hybrid cultural personality whose identity within culture A or B oscillates depending on mood, occasion, and participants in a particular context of interaction.

Contact of two cultural groups puts both on the cultural credit and deficit account at one and the same time. This is often true societally and individually. The cultural ledger book may go completely in the red when the presence of a particular cultural group becomes a ménage to the host community. Balancing the cultural account to maintain some level of mutual benefit both for the individuals and the communities involved is where the challenge lies, and it is a big one because devising a coordinated effort to direct cross-cultural pollination is not often an easy task.

APPENDIX Questionnaire on the Cultural Consequences of Economic Migration I am Professor Efurisibina Adegbija, at Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. I am conducting research into the topic above and would be grateful if you could kindly spare some of your time for me. Kindly complete the attached questionnaire as fully as you possibly can. It is meant for research purposes only and is an aspect of my data-gathering instrument. I am grateful for your time and appreciate your assistance in conducting the research. There are ten open-ended items on the questionnaire. Kindly complete the questionnaire on time and send it to me through me e-mail address as follows: [email protected]. I would be grateful if you could kindly e-mail the questionnaire to close friends from your homeland presently living in the same country with you who would be willing to assist in completing it. 1. How long have you lived in your present place of abode? 2. How would you define culture, and what would you consider its main ingredients?

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3. Do you ever have opportunities to use your home language in your present place of abode? If you fo, in what contexts? 4. What would you consider to be the major cultural impacts or consequences of your having left your homeland to settle in another country? 5. What aspects of the culture of your homeland have you maintained in your present place of abode? 6. What aspects of the culture of your present place of abode would you say have influenced you most? 7. What aspects of life/culture in your homeland have you missed most since you settled in your present place of abode? 8. In terms of cultural identity, how would you presently characterized yourself? 9. What kinds of adjustment problems have you had since you came to your present place of abode? 10. What kind of adjustment problems do you commonly have when you visit your homeland?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE. I APPRECIATE YOU VERY MUCH.

REFERENCES Adegbija, E. (2004). Multilingualism: A Nigerian case study. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Ashanafi, G. (2002, November). Causes and consequences of brain drain – How long should Africa tolerate this? Accessed from http://chora.curtualave.net/brain-drain.7.htm. Gunnarsson, B.-L. (1996). Text, discourse community and culture: A social constructive view of texts from different cultures. In T. Hickley and J. Williams (Eds.), Language, Education and Society in a Changing World (pp. 157-169). Dublin and Clevedon: IRAAL/Multilingual Matters Ltd. Hefferman, Peter J. (1996). The intercultural made explicit in the teaching of cultural content in a bilingual, multicultural country. In T. Hickley and J. Williams (Eds.), Language, Education and Society in a Changing World (pp. 188-195). Dublin and Clevedon: IRAAL/Multilingual Matters Ltd. Idowu, A. I. (1985). Counseling Nigerian students in United States colleges and universities. Journal of Counseling and Development, 63, 506-509.

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Jekayinfa, A. A. (2002). The effect of culture-contact on the contemporary Nigerian life. In T. Jolayemi (Ed.) Leading issues in general studies: Humanities and social sciences (pp. 4249). Ilorin: General Studies Division. Malheirs, J. (2004). Migration information. Centra des Etude Geograficos-Universdade de Lisboa. Accessed rom http://www.migrationinformation.com/feature/display cfm?ID=77. Obayan, A. O. (2003). Family system, cultural dynamics and counseling outcome –The African paradigm. A public lecture presented at the Covenant University on July 9, 2003. Okebukola, P. (2004, June 10). Challenges before the Academy of Science. Guardian, p. 4. Omoniyi, T. (2003). Culture and identity shifts via satellites and virtual reality in the era of globalization.’ In S. Gupta, T. Basu, and S. Chattarji (Eds.), India in the age of globalization: Contemporary discourses and texts (pp. 353-398). New Delhi: Memorial Museum and Library. Omotoye, R. (2002). The practice of religion in relation to African culture. In T. Jolayemi (Ed.), Leading issues in general studies: Humanities and social sciences (pp. 16-32). Ilorin: General Studies Division. Pederson, P. B. (1991). Counseling international students. The Counseling Psychologists, 19, 10-58. Tyler, E. B. (1871). Primitive culture. Researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language and custom (Vol. 1). London: Murray Publishing House.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 3

COGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN NIGERIAN AND GERMAN POLITICAL CARTOONS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY Oyinkan Medubi Department of English, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

ABSTRACT The focus of this work is to compare and highlight the major cognitive strategies employed by language users in Nigeria and Germany that reflect in their sociopolitical discourse as found in the editorial cartoons of some of their newspapers. Towards this end, 118 cartoons, selected from three German newspapers, and 159 cartoons from three Nigerian newspapers, are considered for this study. Various psycho-sociolinguistic parameters such as scenarios, metaphor and metonymic schemas, frames, and cognitive models, all representing a synthesis of cognitive and cultural strategies that provide grounds for the technique of drawing inferences, are employed to examine how meaning is conceptualised in the political cartoons of the two societies. On examination, one finds that conceptualisation in Nigerian cartoons is simpler, more formal, direct and factual, and employs more reality scenarios and fewer metaphors. The metaphors are also more pictorial with nature providing the source. German cartoons, on the other hand, employ more colloquial language and complex pictorial and verbal metaphors, which makes the communicative system more symbolic. One also finds that invectives in Nigerian cartoons are stronger, starker, and more desperate; whereas those in German cartoons are milder and not so desperate. From these, it is concluded that political cartoons present a field for a vibrant discourse on the social, political, and economic activities of a people.

Keywords: cognitive strategies, political discourse, psycho-sociolinguistics, scenarios, metaphor schemas, cognitive model, frame, inferential schema.

INTRODUCTION1 Studies on how meaning is conceptualised in language have moved systematically from the Boasian linguistic relativity periods of the early 1900s through the formal and 1

I am grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for giving me the opportunity to do research in Germany on the Georg Forster fellowship; the University of Duisburg-Essen for hosting me; the University of Ilorin for granting me leave; Mrs. Eleonore Popek for translating the German cartoons for me, and to P.D. Dr. Wolfgang Hünig for not only being a very good host but for also reading through this manuscript and giving me some valuable comments.

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mathematical periods of the Chomskian era of the 1950s to the more recent imagistic period of the 1990s where meaning is seen as a product of the interactive process among people (Palmer, 1996). This process recognises that meaning emerges as a product of the performance between interactants in specific social frames which carry cognitively expressed constructs that exist in models acquired through language. Language, according to the first and last of the above stated notions, exists as a product of a people’s culture and manifests different perceptions of reality. And as particularly stressed by the imagistic view, individual users of language are products of their various social constructs, because these constructs are based on particular views of the world. As Palmer (1996) says, “Discourse itself is structured and governed by schematic imagery of sociolinguistic events, by its own metalinguistic or metadiscoursive imagery. This reflexive imagery of discourse is as culturally defined as that of figurative language” (p. 8). The subject of this essay is to examine the various means by which worlds are perceived and reconstructed in the political or editorial cartoons of selected newspapers of two countries, Nigeria and Germany. This study is based on a number of assumptions. The first is that editorial cartoons sufficiently mirror the concerns and prevailing views of the times at any given period. Cartoons present the socio-political ‘reality’ for a group. That leads one to the second assumption. Reality can hardly be objective for anyone since it has been noted that notions such as construals and perspectives (Lee, 2001; Johnson-Laird, 1988) temper the external world that one observes because many objects do not have ‘canonical shapes.’ By reality, therefore, it is meant the state of the world as directly observed and corroborated by a group of people sharing purposes and ultimate aims. Such a group is made up of cartoonists who work differently on similar subjects for the purpose of reflecting the sociopolitical world in their domains of existence. To ensure a sufficiently broad base of political opinions, therefore, this work relies on collations of artists published by newspapers from both Nigeria and Germany. In the Nigerian collection, there are eleven artists representing The Punch, Vanguard, and The Guardian; while the German collection parades 16 artists taken from Frankfurter Rundschau, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Frankfurter Allgemeine. The scope, for obvious reasons of space, is limited to giving a brief report of the cognitive strategies employed by users of language in the two designated speech areas of Nigeria and Germany. This means that one is limited to only examining the signification systems of both communities in the light of their socio-cultural ontology exhibited in the language of their editorial cartoons. Therefore, one cannot go too deeply into issues such as the semiotic systems and the ideologies these imply for both the societies in question and the newspapers representing the two countries, Nigeria and Germany. Nigeria is a West African country of about 120 million people. It is a fusion of many ethnic groups by the manipulation of its former colonial government, Britain. As such, it exists today as a conglomeration of peoples of disparate experiences and diverse tongues in a society which is, to all intents and purposes, politically and ideologically heterogeneous and multicultural. By contrast, Germany which has a population of about 88 million people uses one leading language. It is also fast becoming a multicultural society, like other Western societies (Kress, 1993) but still maintains a leading German culture. It thus has certain claims to some social and cultural unity and some political and ideological homogeneity. Expectedly, these experiences have led to the development, in both societies, of contrasting sets of

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sociopolitical norms and values which are reflected in and expressed through their languages, English in Nigeria and German in Germany. For these reasons, this work will focus its attention on the following questions: 1. What cognitive strategies are used by speakers of English in Nigeria and German in Germany as observed in these cartoons? 2. In which way is language used to reflect the social, political, and cultural norms in both countries as found in their cartoons? 3. How do certain expressions (e.g., ‘Our son’ and ‘Our own’ in Nigeria, and ‘Asylant’ in German) reflect the social communicative systems of both countries, and in what ways are these communicative systems impacted upon by the sociopolitical culture of both countries? 4. In what ways can the communicative systems be said to elucidate the language philosophies and sociopolitical ideologies of both countries under study? These questions will be addressed presently; after the overview of cartoons which follows.

POLITICAL CARTOONS AND THEIR CONTENTS Cartoons are inaccurate pictorial drawings of people, events, or ideas that are exaggerated or euphemised in consonance with the humour frame. However, such drawings must resemble the real-life objects they depict in minimal ways to ensure recognition and enhance connection with the audience. They may optionally be accompanied by verbal cues that elucidate, add to, deny, or subtract from the contents of the picture. Political cartoons are those cartoons which accompany editorial writings in national newspapers. For this reason, they are also called editorial cartoons. Whereas lengthy editorials have to make comments on national issues in so many words, political cartoons are able to perform the same task, i.e., make comments on national issues, in a very small space, while giving the complete story. This is the reason why Morris (1993, cited in Hünig, 2002), reports that cartoons typically employ the three processes of condensation, combination, and domestication. These will be explained below. Indeed, the importance of political cartoons is periodically assuming higher proportions. From a surreptitious beginning of being used to hurl satiric abuses at political opponents in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in England, the art form has grown to become a veritable means of attack on quite a wide range of social ills in nearly all lands. Consequently, cartoons are gathering higher levels of importance such that cartoonists are increasingly becoming subjects of attack for their art. In the 1960s in Nigeria, cartoonists were known to have been hurled in jail without trial; and in Egypt and Turkey in the 70s and 80s, they have been jailed or killed. And recent happenings in the case of Denmark versus the Muslim world over a cartoon show that people are taking cartoons seriously. Cartoons have been in use in one form or the other from many centuries back. The Dictionary of Communication and Media Studies records that

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Oyinkan Medubi ...cartoons were born in the far Aurignacian days of 20,000 BC [when] a squat, hirsute, browless man one morning dipped his stick in a dark rooty liquid, bent straight again, and, on the cave wall of Lascaux, drew a joke about men running after buffalo. (Watson and Hill, 1993, p. 23)

However, modern cartoons, as recorded in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (1992), are said to have developed from the caricatures first identified in the works of a Bolognese (Italian) painter, Agostino Carracci, in the 16th century. Caricatures typically distort the features of a person, event, or action by exaggerating such features; or parts of animals, birds, or vegetables are substituted for parts of the human being. Alternately, a reference may be made to animal actions directly or indirectly to create an analogy. When the face of Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president, is merged with the body of a snail for instance, a caricature is created to parody his style of government. Parodies can be achieved in two ways: by association when a notion already encountered is echoed or by allusion when scenes already encountered are remembered (Nash, 1985). Both of these types, generously used in cartoons, usually carry intent. Often, it is to draw attention in a condemnatory way to a wrong-doing, a faux pas, or values that are sliding down. To effect changes, cartoonists adopt points of view that are often at tangent with those of the Man-in-the-Street, i.e., the people most affected by a state of anomy which may result. To forestall such a state of anomy, political cartoonists turn their attention on subjects that concern the society. Among the subjects covered by the Nigerian cartoons in this study are governance (40 cartoons in all), politics and politicians (54), social structures such as religion (2), security (2), inefficiency of infrastructures (27), sports (3), and economic affairs including inflationary trends (4), work space (4), poverty and hunger (7), and corruption (16). German cartoons also treat issues related to governance (32), politics and politicians (33), regional politics (5), world affairs (14), economic affairs such as the work space (19) and poverty (4), and social infrastructures such as insufficiency of social welfare (11). Whatever the subject matter at hand, cartoonists usually ensure that the appropriate interpretation is given to a piece. To tell a story efficiently, a cartoon must be seen to have all the visual and verbal cues and elements necessary for the reader to comprehend the entire story. Figures must bear fidelity with known personalities in the real world by the cues given to secure recognition and appropriate interpretation. Hünig (2002) notes that …the understanding of a cartoon is not an inherent property of the cartoon, but is dependent on the social, cultural and world knowledge of the readers. They establish conceptual links between the various entities, drawn or verbally referred to, and the evoked scenarios, which enable the readers to form mental representations. (p. 28)

Therefore, to determine coherence in a cartoon, a relational meaning between the picture and the verbal cues as well as its topic must be emphasised. This can be done referentially and relationally (Hünig, 2002). A cartoon is referentially coherent if a topic, i.e., an integrating higher-order concept, can be understood, and a cartoon is relationally coherent if certain more abstract relationships hold true between clauses, sentences, and larger units of it, e.g., verbal and pictorial parts of the cartoon. This neat categorisation may not always be so readily visible with some cartoons,

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especially when dealing with those that have no verbal cues and whose pictures and referents are obscure (deliberately or because social, cultural, and world knowledge are insufficient). As such, it can be surmised that coherence is determined if interaction takes place between the cartoon and the reader through total recall of the latter’s social referential system. Any cartoon on former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo for instance will bear coherence if his glasses, facial marks, physical shape, dressing style, etc. are well demarcated. The former German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, is also recognised by the shape of his face and body form. Sometimes, to prevent misinterpretation and/or enhance correctness, labelling of objects or persons is given as cues which must adequately inform on the story. When these elements are present, they then must be successfully integrated with the background knowledge suggested by the cartoon as part of the cues. This is absolutely necessary because cartoons give the causes, resolutions and effects of the events they relate. To illustrate this, we present two cartoons that illuminate a common topic: wasteful habits of political leaders. In the Nigerian cartoon (Cartoon 1), President Obasanjo is depicted addressing a group of people, presumably some state governors, with the words ‘“If I meet any of you over there again you will explain whether you want to compete with me on overseas trips”.’ Behind him is the nose of an aeroplane marked FG while in his left hand he holds a brief case tagged Ajala Travel. He adjusts his robe with the right hand and a news item at the top of the page states: ‘Obasanjo berates Governors for Owambe trips abroad.’ The briefcase marked Ajala Travel (with its metonymic significance of one Nigerian who undertook a round the world trip for the sheer sake of it now mapped on the president), the newspaper headline, the nose of the aircraft, etc. all act as cues or props that enhance the linear, i.e. straight-forward direction, of the story. However, what shifts the linear direction can be found in the words, If I meet you . . . . These words turn the readers’ expectation of a straight rebuke delivered on their behalf at the errant travellers into a surprising confirmation of the president’s claim of sole right and prerogative to foreign trips at the country’s expense. Here then rests the point of the satire: the president’s hypocrisy. Without the background information that the president himself has been accused several times of aimlessly wandering round the globe, the point of his selfcriticism (If I meet any of you there again . . .), and hence hypocrisy, will be lost.

Cartoon 1.

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In the German cartoon (not shown), Chancellor Schröder is seen showing an empty box marked Reise Kasse ('travel funds') to Eichel, the Finance Minister, as he says “Aber ich muss doch einen guten Eindruck machen, Eichel!” (‘But I have to make a good impression, Eichel!’). The minister is shown turning out his trouser pockets from which some coins are falling out. Placed beside Schröder is a travelling bag marked Sommer Reise Ost (‘Summer trip to the East’) while he holds a smoking cigar in his left hand. A vault door is visible beside Eichel. The text reads Politik der leeren Hand (‘Empty hands policy’). The use of pennies to represent state funds required for state purposes in the German cartoon potently semanticises the minister’s message. The entire state fund is reduced to a few pennies, which serve a metonymic function. The props required to complete the understanding of a pleasure intent in this trip include the suitcases, the cigar, the accompanying words, etc. Such symbolic props, just like all the previous and world knowledge required to understand a cartoon, are given either overtly or covertly to enhance meaning in the story. It is important, however, that such props bear social significance, i.e., have referential meaning in the world of the reader. In order to tell complete stories in very little spaces, cartoonists need to take many things for granted. It has been mentioned that the social background and world knowledge of the reader is the first and foremost of these. The next thing is to have some understanding of the cartoon structure. According to Hünig (2002), Morris (1993) offers three key processes that determine and guide the structure and interpretation of cartoons: condensation, combination, and domestication. In the words of Morris, Condensation is the compression of a complex phenomenon into a single image that is purported to capture its essence graphically. Combination refers to the blending of elements and ideas from different domains into a new composite. Domestication is a metonymic process by which abstract ideas and distant, unfamiliar persons or events are converted into something close, familiar and concrete. It translates what is novel and hard to understand into the commonplace by highlighting mutual elements and masking unique ones and by focusing on repetitive patterns . . . (cited in Hünig, 2002, p. 10)

Cartoonists are thus able, through compression, to invest lengthy discourses into a single panel that must be unpacked by the reader. It is this art of compression that gives cartoons their own structures wherein a wide range of actions not often allowed on other levels of existence may be permissible and thus requires the reader to suspend his normal beliefs regarding the state of the world. To tell the story of Obasanjo’s slow pace in governance, a cartoonist appeals to the features of a snail by attaching Obasanjo’s face to the body of a snail in a simplification process. What is conceptualised is the reader’s knowledge of the behaviour and structure of snails in terms of its shape, movement, etc. The abstract idea of slow governance of Obasanjo’s government is simplified and compressed for the reader. The process of combination is attested to by the use of human and animal forms. By the preceding it can also be understood that the structure of cartoons differs significantly from other literary texts not principally because cartoons tell stories in pictures but because its pictures contain purposive action. Such purposive action begins first with the humour they generate (this is discussed below) and the social systems they designate to which the reader responds based on a shared cognitive system. This study will now attempt to show how readers integrate elements in a cartoon to arrive at the intentional meaning, by answering

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the questions which we have set out above. It begins with a discussion of the cognitive strategies an average reader exploits to abstract the political message from a political cartoon.

COGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN POLITICAL CARTOONS One of the prevalent, and very useful, views in psycholinguistics is the concept of mental imaging through models. The view holds that people usually make sense of new sensations because they already possess miniature models of such events stored in their memory. These miniature forms are called mental models. Johnson-Laird (1988, cited in Garman, 1996) is best known for the mental model theory of cognitive development. According to him, mental models are small-scale, miniature and internal forms that exist in the mind as signifying replicas of the large-scale and external forms of real events. These small-scale semiotic systems resemble the large scale ones in form, though not in every detail. The question is, how does language impact on model building? And what guides the contents of such models? Would all people who are exposed to the same external world have the same mental models of it? As Johnson-Laird (1988) puts it, language enables people to experience the world vicariously since they can imagine it on the basis of a description. That description in turn is produced from the speaker’s model of the world. To him, the model must not necessarily answer every description of the object in the external world; it needs only contain the particulars of it in function or resemblance. Johnson-Laird states, An artefact can be identified as a member of a category, not because of any intrinsic aspect of its three-dimensional shape, but because its form, dimensions and other visible properties, whatever they may be, are perceived as appropriate for a particular function. You can see the possibilities inherent in the artefact. (p. 231)

Language is then a device for reducing an object into manageable proportions for building and producing models. Still, since language is inherently a social fact, and objects do not always maintain intrinsic aspects, this must implicate that the contents of mental models of events and objects may not correspond too easily from one person to another. Besides, if the individual’s experience of the world mediates their perception of the world, it will be unlikely that people share the same mental model even of the same event. It is acknowledged though that a mental model, also called a ‘tableau’ (Garman, 1996, p. 384) must contain the prototype contents of the real event and must be able to account for the effects that derive from its construction since the model obtains its properties from the realworld utterance and event sequence embodying the linguistic structure. Nevertheless, no matter the sequence or length of an event in the real world, a tableau must represent it in a single form and maintain relationships with the real ones in the external world. Hence, it is a compact, complex whole. Again one may well ask, how are the contents of mental models formed? And, are such contents fixed? If they are, why is it that human beings are able to manipulate the knowledge they have to accommodate new ones about a certain event and understand concepts such as counterfactuals? And if they are not, how come people hardly change their views concerning certain events or people such as in stereotypes? The point is that a complex matter is often

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made up of simple ones. Therefore, it stands to reason that models are made up of some activities that are presented as mental images but which the mind organises in some form. This form has been variously called scenes, scripts, and scenarios (Raskin, 1987, p. 16; Palmer 1996, p. 4; Hünig. 2002, p. 36). The concept of scenarios, which we shall here adopt after Hünig, is a notable categorisation in the social referential system which describes the activities within a model and is delineated by the concept of frames. Frames describe events and referents according to the scenic patterns they occur in. This will be further discussed below. Scenarios are particularly useful for categorising social activities in terms of the functions they perform. It thus becomes easy to recognise activities according to their patterns. In his study of political cartoons of World War I, Hünig (2002) identifies that a scene may represent a communicative situation, interact with the verbal part, or be both. He further recognised five scenes which paint scenarios: everyday, non-combatant military, war, counterfactual, and metonymic scenes. In this study, we identify normal and counterfactual scenarios, either of which may be metaphorical or metonymic. Normal scenarios reflect situations that are not too far from reality. Such scenes present what is familiar and what Hünig (2002) refers to as everyday scenes. We call them normal scenes here because they do not reflect any variance in the normal structures of social activities that people are perhaps used to. For example, a single (German) mother (Cartoon 2, see appendix) persuades her children to eat the poor food she is giving them because in Africa, some children do not get anything to eat at all. However, cartoonists can do things even with these normal structures. They may express an idea about a subject matter in ridicule by taking it to its logical extreme. This means that they sometimes reduce the subject to its absurd level using the principle of reductio ad absurdum. In the German corpus, a cartoonist expresses the idea that Germany’s immigration policy is susceptible to abuse by showing a dancing lunatic being considered for invitation into the country because he is highly qualified and has no family. Such scenes do not fly too much in the face of what is perceived to be acceptable reality. Scenarios are counterfactual when the contents actually run against the realities or expectations suggested by a particular frame such as a cartoon that shows a cat labelled Robber chasing a rat labelled Nigeria Police (Cartoon 3, appendix). In this type of scenario, “. . . the cartoonist invents a scene which is far detached from reality.” Often, the agent is rendered ludicrous by the art of caricature to expose an abnormal behaviour through irony and sarcasm. The ludicrous weakness of the police in apprehending robbers becomes the subject of attack in this example. This is possible because the ‘cartoon’ structure, which is itself a frame type, permits an unpredictable range of interactions, juxtapositions, and intermingling between any character type provided such juxtapositions are in accordance with the overall meaning structure of the cartoon. Hence in counterfactual scenarios, events, happenings, or behaviour are perceived to run counter to reality. We will discuss the significance of the counterfactuals shortly, but below is a table that shows the distribution of the scenic types in the cartoons under study. From the preceding, it is noted that the cognitive strategies that guide the apprehension of the external world revolve around how people organise information received. From that, it is assumed that facts are organised into miniature models of the external world that influence not only comprehension but behaviour.

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Table 1. Distribution of the Scenic Types in the Cartoons under Study Scenario Normal Counterfactual Total

Nigerian 138 21 159

% 86.8 13.2 100

German 94 24 118

% 79.7 20.3 100

These models are in turn built up into little scenarios which can be manipulated at will. And so, people’s social experiences not only guide the contents of their models but also construct the scenarios they attach to these social experiences. Such contents in turn enable users to make sense of much of the information they come across. However, it may well be asked, how are people able to make sense of normal and counterfactual scenarios? In other words, what psycho-sociolinguistic techniques are employed to unpack a simple or a complex scenario when they are obviously different from each other? Apart from mental models and scenarios, linguists believe that human speech is bounded by what they call frames. Frames do not only demarcate the boundaries of the contents of scenarios but also guide one to the connotational meaning of words. Fillmore (1975, cited in Palmer, 1996, p. 63) describes frames as “the specific lexico-grammatical provisions in a given language for naming and describing the categories and relations found in schemata.” This means that a frame consists of a set of words and conventional grammatical constructions that a speaker might use to evoke various aspects of a schema. And a schema is what he calls a “mental representation of some regularity in our experience.” It is the “ideal or prototypical instances of some category.” Coulmas (1979), cited in Fonagy (2001, p. 191), provides a breakdown of the view. “Most communicative acts take place in stereotyped social situations,” he says, hence, they are bound utterances. Human speech is thus interspersed with stereotyped speech which is learnt, stored, memorised and mechanically reproduced in given situations called frames. As such, “no linguistic novelty is demanded in most situations” (ibid, p. 193). Frames develop as a result of successive recurrence of events in ways that soon become predictable, given a few variations. The variations define and contextualise events and occurrences through participants, physical space, period, etc. Frames thus become prototypical episodes that exist in models of behaviour and give meaning to utterances, which over time, become ‘bound.’ This means that utterances associated with specific activities grow to become expectations since they invariably express the same meaning over and over again with little variations. They become prototypical episodes. Fonagy (2001, p. 192) cites Fillmore (1976) and van Dijk (1980), further states that “the meaning of bound utterances is determined by frames and scripts, i.e. prototypical episodes.” The problem, however, is that this view tends to perceive human interaction as stereotyped and humans as robotic elements moving circumspectly through the mazes of language. But this is far from being the case. Indeed, ability to use a finite number of structures to make an infinite number is believed to be the pivot of linguistic analytical processes such as Chomsky’s Generative Grammar. From a limited number of utterances acquired in childhood, humans exploit the linguistic devices inherent therein to produce an unlimited number. Hence, while indeed utterances can be bound to certain situations, we

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believe that people can create an infinite range of nouveau meaning out of such utterances to express an idea not previously encountered. MacLachlan and Reid’s (1994) account of frames seems more guided towards enabling one to know what rightly belongs in a frame. Apart from identifying different types of frames –extratextual, intratextual, intertextual, and circumtextual (pp. 3-4)– they state that there are many other so-called ‘cognitive frames’ for storing and organising everyday knowledge which readers automatically draw upon in any act of interpretation. In other words, frames guide our expectations regarding the boundaries of social activities, for knowing what exactly belongs to the things that people do. Hence, frames exist for such things as birthday parties, supermarket shopping, movie-going, and countless other ordinary activities. By social knowledge, people become familiar with what belongs in each activity and are able to recognise what does not. So, in a classroom lecture frame, the teacher talking to the class is within the frame. However, sometimes, activities that are not associated with the main frame occur. In the above classroom example, the teacher may stop to reprimand a late student. This constitutes going out-of-frame (MacLachlan and Reid, 1994, pp. 51-2). These are peripheral to the main event and presuppose that the activity is under the control of the principal players. It might be added though that such out-of-frame activities still constitute possibilities of occurrence in the designated frames. A student who is late to the classroom receives a reprimand, which he or she may not get in a church sermon frame. However, MacLachlan and Reid’s account of frame usage tends to regard it as the form of boundaries for social activities, using the metaphor of frames as framings. This means that we do not quite get the notion of how words or grammatical forms elicit specific frames or become part of a frame. Lee’s (2001) notion of frames is more directed at word usage. He points out “that the concept of frame embraces the traditional concept of ‘connotations’” because words tend to elicit an understanding of “certain specific cultural patterns” (p. 9). People associate different ranges of expectations with certain words depending on their social knowledge. This means that words conjure up things for people. Lee concludes that …the notion of frame has both a conceptual and a cultural dimension. On the conceptual dimension [a word] is defined by the fact that it contrasts with other words . . . and there are relatively concrete semantic features that differentiate it from these other words, located in the same frame. On the cultural dimension, [a] word carries a complex range of associations that would be difficult to define precisely but that often feed into the way the word is interpreted and that therefore contributes to its meaning. (p. 9)

Hence, the way a word is used in a language is also an important determiner of what it designates or ‘profiles’ for speakers, making meaning to be sometimes culture-based. The frame of a word such as politician is guided by the sociocultural experiences of the speaker. The normal meaning attached to the word, one who strives to gain access to a public office in order to be involved in the running of public structures according to his beliefs, becomes only a building block for the speaker. Social knowledge of the word politician for a German may modify the meaning of the word to provide a frame where individuals vie for public office for the common good, and only may be for the good of the self. For a Nigerian, the concept may be further modified to provide a frame which actually submerges the denotative meaning and

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highlights the connotations based on their experiences: one who takes public office to enrich himself at state expense without giving anything in return. So, frames guide the organisation and recall of an experience concerning a word, as well as the perceptual variants of it, into scenarios. The next question that is addressed is: how is it that people are able to understand scenarios that probably have never been encountered before, such as counterfactual ones? This is examined in the next section. Knowledge of the contents of scenarios, and the connotations that frames conjure up allow us to know the sense that a particular scenario refers to. This way, it becomes easier for the reader to appreciate both a normal, literal event and a counterfactual one since these structures enable him to draw the appropriate inferences from the interaction of the cartoon and the social knowledge that such a cartoon elicits. Inferences, based on foundations provided by frames, are the assumptions derived from a given event or situation by language users. They account for the active role of language in the shaping of speakers’ mental contents that underlie social and communicative interactions. Inferences build up inferential schemas. Inferential schema, a description of the pragmatic fusion of external reality (which Sperber and Wilson (1986, p. 39) call physical environment), language, and the language user, enhances mental content. Also called the inferential model, it is the body of knowledge that is evoked in order to provide an inferential base for the understanding of an utterance, encounter or interaction. The model makes the claim that communication is achieved by individuals when they are able to produce and interpret evidences from utterances. Akmajian et al. (2001) describe this model thus: The inferential model of communication proposes that in the course of learning to speak [a] language we also learn how to communicate in that language, and learning this involves acquiring a variety of shared beliefs or presumptions, as well as a system of inferential strategies . . . [which] provide communicants with short, effective patterns of inference from what someone utters to what the person might be trying to communicate. (p. 371)

These presumptions include linguistic, communicative, literal, and conversational ones (see Akmajian et al., 2001, Levinson, 1983, Wardhaugh, 1998). Successful communication occurs when a speaker and hearer share these presumptions on a given occasion as they provide strategies for understanding direct, indirect, and non-literal communication, for understanding not only what a speaker says but also what he does not say but means or when he means more than he says. Sperber and Wilson (1986) provide more insight into how people abstract the appropriate meaning from an utterance by employing the ostensive-inferential framework of the Relevance theory. They believe that comprehension in communication starts from a set of premises and results in a set of conclusions which follow from the premises. These premises in turn constitute the context, which, to them, is the psychological construct made up of a subset of the hearer’s assumptions about the world (p. 12). Considering, however, that hearers come into communications with sets of assumptions that are not always entirely relevant to the communication, there remains the problem of determining the appropriate ones. Sperber and Wilson (p. 18) cite that Lewis (1969) and Schiffer (1972) refer to this as ‘common knowledge’ and ‘mutual knowledge’ respectively. But, as they point out, either of these can refer to any state of affairs without communicating

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it in any interesting way. Their ostensive-inferential model thus attempts to overcome this hurdle by highlighting the fact that the audience infers the speaker’s intention from evidences provided for the precise purpose in a communication. This means that intention leads the audience of an utterance to know what is relevant to the communication and evidences lead the audience to the communicator’s informative intention. To recognise a speaker’s intention, one must observe his or her behaviour using one’s knowledge of people in general and the individual in particular and the beliefs shared by both interlocutors. From these, one can infer which of the effects is predicted or desired in the communication. To do this, the audience needs to rely on his conceptual cognitive abilities which enable him or her to know the facts that are manifest in an interaction, i.e. those facts that are perceptible or inferable from an individual’s total cognitive environment. This is a function of the interaction between his physical environment and cognitive abilities. No doubt, Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance theory attempts to pinpoint exactly what happens in comprehension, especially pertaining to messages that do not directly state what they mean or mean more than they say. However, what is manifest to an individual still depends largely on what he is able to recognise rather than just his intuition or total cognitive environment. Moreover, psychological and emotional states are known to contribute to what inferences one is able to abstract from a given utterance. Therefore, drawing inferences demands that a listener gets behind an utterance, perhaps by adopting Clark’s guidelines (1978, pp. 295-6) cited by Garman (1996, p. 363). These involve computing the direct or literal meaning of an utterance, then matching the direct force of the utterance with reality, and, if all match the speaker-listener contract, assuming that is its interpretation. If not, then one assumes there is another force, and matches another context with the utterance, which now becomes, indirectly, the reason for the utterance, and therefore the intention. Cartoons, reflecting both normal and counterfactual scenarios, convey messages whose satiric point or invective can only be inferred. Invectives are thus deduced from the given scenarios. A scenario which portrays innocent looking youths going into universities and coming out as outlaws conveys the invective that universities are jungles because they do not teach manpower skills but breed lawless citizens. The frame elicited by the word cult supports this assertion. In other scenarios, Obasanjo is ineffective because he is slow in delivering democratic dividends to the people, and so on. It is observed that invectives in both corpuses of cartoons are directed mainly at the government or its representatives such as the Nigerian president or the German Chancellor; some are directed at the political class; whereas others are aimed at the people themselves. In both cartoons, invectives include ineffectiveness, inattentiveness, insensitivity, corruption, and dishonesty of government as the presidents are described as confused, insensitive, deceptive, wasteful, hypocritical, unrealistic, etc. The table below gives a summary of these invectives. Since some cartoons carry more than one invective, the total cannot therefore be summed up nor can the percentage be calculated. Cartoonists variously show the German government as unrealistic, inhuman, inattentive, inefficient, insincere, dubious, and deceptive, whereas the Nigerian government is variously depicted as callous, unresponsive, negligent, uncaring, insensitive, unduly powerful, wily, and cunning. The Nigerian president is shown to be crude, confused, hypocritical, easily flattered, and unrealistic, whereas the German chancellor is portrayed as inefficient, uncivil, unrealisitic, and not popular. Politicians in Nigeria are portrayed as wasters of public resources, deceptive, corrupt, arrogant, hypocritical, egotistical, lack self control, intolerant, cowardly, dishonest, stupid, selfish, and self-indulgent.

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Table 2. Summary of Invectives Found in the Cartoons under Study Invective

Nigeria

Germany

Ineffectiveness of Govt Inattentiveness Govt. Unrealistic Corrupt leadership Deceptive govt President (negative) Ineffective public structures World leaders Unrealistic Political parties Unrealistic Ethnocentric structures People are dishonest People are unfriendly Others

21 14 -40 6 8 27 1 -6 20 --

8 1 7 2 6 5 3 10 15 -9 9

From the table, it can be observed that corruption seizes the attention of the Nigerian cartoonists more than any other subject and thus carries the highest number of invectives. German cartoons, on the other hand, depict politicians, especially party leaders such as Merkel and Kohl, as weak, unrealistic, selfish, unstable, and a little corrupt. Whereas German cartoons show EU leaders to be weak and ineffective and give a lot of space to show world leaders to be unrealistic, unserious, inefficient, and even undesirable (especially Bush), Nigerian cartoons give few spaces to leadership in Africa. Where they do appear, however, the continent is shown to be weakened by corruption and unaddressed social problems. Nigerian cartoons show the people to be dishonest, stupid, callous, ungrateful, lazy, corrupt, and in love with money and power, whereas German cartoons variously see the people as mean to each other, unfriendly to outsiders, ungrateful, excessively legalistic, mechanical in approach, unreasonable, and as political pundits. Interestingly, Nigerian cartoons give a lot of focus to public structures, which they show to be inefficient and ineffective. Particularly, cartoonists concern themselves with the power company, which at various times is called NEPA, standing for National Electric Power Authority, and PHCN for Power Holding Company of Nigeria, as well as the police. The police are shown to be weak, corrupt, ill-armed, cowardly, and self-serving. The energy company on its part is seen as ineffective, corrupt, weak, and expensive to run. Other invectives presented in counterfactual situations include the callousness of the government when a human (symbolising ‘the masses’) is depicted to be pulling a cart while an animal (depicting ‘the government’) sits in it. The cowardice of the Nigeria police is the invective of the cartoon in which a cat (the police) is cowering before a rat (the robber), as well as another where two policemen are hiding from armed robbers at a checkpoint. In all, invectives not only show the cartoonist’s purpose but also the way pictorial and linguistic cues merge to present a sociopolitical meaning system. In other words, language is employed to present a people’s social reality.

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LANGUAGE AS A SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL SYSTEM In this section, this work will try to answer the question: how do cartoons reflect the people’s sociocultural, communicative, and political systems? The answer provides insights into the concept of conceptualisation and how people encapsulate ideas into the known linguistic forms, especially in cartoons. It begins by asserting that conceptualisation is the representation in words of the world as perceived by a viewer. In the imagistic view, words are imageries of the world which can be literal or metonymic or metaphorical. When it is literal, concepts are deployed in their denotative forms. For example, to show the government’s ineffectiveness, a Nigerian cartoonist employs direct conceptualisation when he shows a hungry man asking to know who the Minister of Agriculture is because he wants to tell him he is hungry. Although this illocutionary act of asking carries a force of condemning the minister for being ineffective, the frame that is activated is that of headship which elicits a scenario where a minister is sitting in his office doing nothing, perhaps with his legs on the table, talking into the telephone, in the cultural model of (ir)responsibility. Conceptualisation can also be by indirect means such as through symbolic representations. Metaphors and metonymies are other sources of symbolic representation for language users. Metaphors are previously learnt concepts which are transferred to new data for the purpose of enhancing and facilitating transmission or comprehension of such new ideas. It is built on the notion that language evokes imagery and requires imagination for its interpretation (Palmer, 1996). An example is Cartoon 2 below which shows the sick (a skeletal figure on a sick bed who symbolises the economy) attending to the doctor (Obasanjo). On a hospital bed lies a figure like a skeleton marked Economy beside which stands the figure of President Obasanjo who has a pair of stethoscopes in his ears and points at the skeleton and thinks Sick baby...You are giving me a bad name O!. The patient, however, measures the heartbeat of the president with the stethoscope and declares Oga...! I think you’re the one with the greater problem....

Cartoon 2.

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This metaphor, in which the country’s economy is perceived as a diseased being, reduces the abstractness of an entire system into something more concrete and real for language users. The social frame provided by sickness enables the reader to grasp the degree of helplessness of the economy and thus the need for help from its supposed doctor. However, the fact that even in its helpless state, the sick is providing medical services to its doctor reverses the normal order of things within the frame and tells another story: the doctor cannot help the sick. Obasanjo cannot help the economy, but the economy can help Obasanjo. Even though the cartoon does not show how the economy helps the president (perhaps), it is important to note that it highlights the fact that the president is helpless in the face of the economic crisis. A similar German cartoon (cartoon 3 below) shows Schroeder standing and pondering at a set of machines labelled Arbeitsmarkt (‘Labour market’) and full of nuts and bolts. A few machine tools are shown lying on the floor behind him. The text reads Wo könnte er da noch was drehen? (‘What else can he screw?’). Meaning in this cartoon is activated by the word drehen (‘screw’), which conjures a mental world of mechanics. The scenario where one repairs or damages an appliance is further employed. Hence, Schröder may be standing in front of the machine to screw (tighten) it together as in ‘screw together.’ However, the connotational frame of the word helps us to understand that Schröder is not seen here as a repairer but a possible spoiler since the word can be slang for damage as in ‘manipulate.’ The purposive action of cartoons resolves this ambiguity for us beautifully, since cartoons do not, as a matter of course, praise but deride. We therefore may choose to believe that the cartoonist does not want to show Schröder standing there wondering how else he can help the economy (screw together loose ends) but how else he can mislead people by manipulating figures (screw).

Cartoon 3.

The contrast in these two cartoons rests in the perception of the economy by the cartoonists and the roles of those in charge. Whereas the Nigerian economy is perceived as a sick, skeletal figure in need of help, the German one is shown to be tightly put together,

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complex, and healthy and does not require the ‘help’ Schröder is purposing to give it. However, both Obasanjo and Schröder are shown to be helpless. Whereas Obasanjo is attended to by his patient (the economy), Schröder is puzzled by the complex nature of his charge and job. Both of them show lack of understanding: Obasanjo, of the reasons behind his patient’s lack of improvement in spite of his interventions, and Schröder, of how the system he is supposed to control can work to his advantage. Hence, the accompanying captions. Whereas the Nigerian cartoon conceptualises the economy as a person that is susceptible to sickness (you sick baby), the German one conceptualises it as a machine (that can be manipulated). The first thus draws on the vehicle of sickness as a source space, whereas the other draws on the vehicle of machinery as a source space; and both are employed to explain the abstract target, the economy. Metaphors employed by cartoonists in the two corpuses differ largely. Nigerian cartoons employ simple metaphors taken from the natural environment: animals, plants, buildings, etc. For example, politicians and the government are variously represented as monkeys or gorilla; the police are seen as a rat and crime is variously depicted as a cat or an elephant; corruption is seen as a hound or a black monster with horns being fought by anti-corruption measures variously represented as a little puppy; and democracy is a plant. In these examples, an abstract entity, such as corruption or democracy is conceived as a concrete object such as a hound or a plant. What typifies metaphors is the fact that source entities are drawn from the cognitive domain of language users who integrate the various spaces, such as generic, source and target, to arrive at the blended space (see Turner and Fauconnier, 1995). Animal metaphors are rarely used in the German selection. Only one is featured where the CDU party is shown as a dog that refuses to obey its master, Merkel (Cartoon 6, appendix.). Most of the metaphors tend to be drawn from more complex social experiences such as history or myths. The Chancellor is variously shown as a Roman figure (Cartoon 7, appendix.) or as a tools man (Cartoon 3, above); immigration is described in terms of doors set high up in the wall or a tall cupboard; the interior minister is shown as a cook mixing up an immigration concoction or even as a wanderer to show his lack of coordination. Soldiers hitch rides to the war front (Cartoon 8, appendix.), do tight-rope walking to the front, or even rent tanks to go to war because the government is tight-fisted. The economy is shown as a swimming pool, a complex set of tools, or even a vehicle on holidays. Death the reaper is a black shrouded figure holding a scythe on U.S. television programmes (Cartoon 9, appendix.) as well as Pinochet’s nemesis; and the fouled-up ecology of the world is depicted as a set of smoking guns from the hip pockets of George Bush, as well as chimney hats worn by the super powers. However, comments on the Middle East by both sets of cartoons employ nearly the same metaphors, dead, sick or dying doves of peace holding (burnt) palm fronds in their beaks; and the whole area as a fire in combustion. Similarly, self-deceiving heads of state in both countries are represented in Nigeria by an Obasanjo sweeping his country’s problems under the carpet and calling the world to come and invest, and by Schröder sunbathing on swordfish-infested water (Cartoon 4 below). Metaphors do not only reflect the way people think about the different domains of experience that concern them, but according to Lee (2001) “metaphors are large-scale structures that influence our thinking about whole areas of human experience” (p. 7). In other words, Nigerian cartoonists do not simply reflect the general view by the populace that politicians are corrupt, but they entrench this view and influence the reader to see them as no better than animals: monkeys eating only to satisfy themselves; the federal government as an

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unfeeling gorilla; crime as an elephant, and so on. German cartoons also entrench the view that the government is hypocritical in encouraging immigrants to join its work force yet places impediments in their ways; Schröder lacks the know-how in tackling the problems of the country; politicians in the opposition are really no better since they do not have better solutions; and Bush is no better than a destructive cowboy. Some of the cartoons however shift the emphasis from the personalities of Obasanjo and Schröder to use them as representatives of the governments they head since they cannot run their governments alone. This means that they stand as metonymies for their cabinets. Metonymy often emphasises a stand-for relationship whereby a smaller entity is sometimes used to represent a larger one for the sake of economy. In such a comparison, however, the relationship between the two objects must be clear and unambiguous. In the two corpuses, cartoons exploit metonymic relationships to a great effect. In the Nigerian examples, body parts such as arms or legs may be used. An arm for example is labelled FG (standing perhaps for the strong arm of government — Cartoon 10, appdx.); a large foot labelled Crime is shown pressing down on a man labelled people; corrupt politicians are signified as large, potbellied males wearing large boubous (long flowing gowns) with necklaces and caps, holding fly whisks; the ordinary man is often represented by an emaciated male in tattered clothing such as a pair of shorts or tying a wrapper; the police are often represented by a uniformed male. People’s efforts to solve economic problems may be represented by alignment measures conveyed by linguistic structures such as ‘Our Son/Daughter.’ A one-legged wounded man or an emaciated male alternately represents the dissipated continent of Africa. Insecurity is shown as an armed, masked male holding various types of armoury. German cartoons display immigrants in long coats holding small suitcases and labelled Asyl (Cartoon 11 below); the poor, those on social welfare, wear overalls; state funds are represented by pennies falling out of the pockets of Eichel (the former finance Minister); Fischer, the former foreign minister is at once an angel of peace, a fire fighter and a water pump and a water carrier, all in the effort to put out the fire in the Middle East (Cartoon 14, appendix.); and politicians, such as Kohl and Merkel, are represented as themselves, with Merkel very often standing for a weak opposition who needs men to show her the way (Cartoon 15, appendix.). Metonymies in these cartoons enable the artists to represent many abstract and complex aspects of a story in very concrete and economical terms. For instance, in Nigerian cartoons, a single emaciated male stands for a large population of the populace stricken by varying degrees of poverty and privation. This only abstracts from the minimal essences of the general class of the poor that convey a particular meaning and evoke a particular sense: tattered clothes, thin emaciated body, hollow or sunken eyes, and bare feet which contrasts with the wealth exuded by the political class represented by potbellies and flowing robes. The figure represented by Asyl in German cartoons (Cartoon 11) also conveys a particular ideological view of the class of immigrants, while a dying cow tells the story of a dying world, along with a messed up globe sent to God for replacement. The super powers’ efforts to counteract the ecological disaster are represented by the potted plants they hold up. Bush, the president, is represented by a look-alike ‘baby Bush’ as a cartoonist’s strong argument against cloning. These metonymies take on iconic functions when they represent minimal structures of more complex and larger stories.

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Cartoon 4.

Both sets of cartoons employ all three conceptual methods of representation: literal, metaphorical, and metonymic, but in different degrees. In the German collection, metaphors account for the highest number followed by the literal. Cartoons that are purely metonymic account for the least. In the Nigerian corpus, the literal representation accounts for the highest number, whereas metaphors account for only a good number of the cartoons, followed by the metonymic conceptualisation which accounts for the least. The frequency of occurrence of these different conceptual methods in presented in Table 3. So far, the study has tried to show that social cognitive structures in cartoons are constructed in scenarios that guide the organisation of events according to specific areas of activity and endeavour. Frames in turn organise the comprehension of the contents of scenarios by the social experiences of both the encoder and the decoder through the signification of the words, metaphors, and metonymies used. In other words, frames provide the social knowledge required to understand the full cultural values attached to specific words. Table 3. Freq. of Different Conceptual Methods Employed in Cartoons under Study Conceputal Method

Nigerian

%

German

%

Metaphors Metonymy Literal Total

44 16 99 159

27.7 10.1 62.2 100%

63 24 31 118

53.4 20.3 26.3 100%

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Let us take the following as examples. In the Nigerian cartoons, there is a constant recurrence of the phrase Democratic Dividends (Cartoon 4 above). The basic meaning of the word dividend elicits an investment and gain scenario such as we have in the model of stock exchange. In these politico-economic scripts, both the gain and investment aspects are profiled as the salient parts that concern the populace. In other words, the people have invested their votes, which maps on money invested in stocks, into electing a democratic government, which becomes the brokerage firm, and they expect to be given some yields in the form of dividends. In their expectations, dividends can be concretised in the form of the energy company providing electricity, food being readily available on the table, goods becoming cheaper in the market, and so on, all of which fall within the province of the federal government. However, the failure of the government to provide these things means the failure of the people’s investments to yield any gain or dividends. On the other hand, the mapping surprises many aspects of the political process such as the fact that the government is often put in place not by election but by selection by some powerful forces. Hence, the phrase is used in the ironical sense such as when a whale washes ashore in the country and people help themselves to slices of it out of hunger, or when someone becomes a local government chairman. The anticipated loot from that position becomes his democratic dividend. Another phrase that implies a definite frame is Our Son. This phrase has been adequately analysed elsewhere (Medubi, 2003), but it is necessary to reiterate its importance here. As a metonymy for collective responsibility, the phrase highlights or profiles the fact that every privileged person is a property of the community and hence his responsibility to take care of everyone in that community. Although the notion of belongingness activates both the rights and duties in caring for such an individual, the nurturing frame is suppressed so that the rights of the people on that individual become salient. Hence, the ideology of all for one is upheld. Owambe!, meaning ‘It [money] is there!,’ as a naming term signifies a frame of wastefulness of public funds. It particularly connotes gaining access to public funds and wasting it for self-aggrandising schemes such a holding large parties. The word is associated with public office holders whose lifestyles do not match their known official earnings. Since the society expects a public office holder to look and behave in a particular way (i.e., the exaltedness of the position to be seen on one), it has become a tradition to flaunt the wealth of the office one holds. Hence, the reference carries an additional tinge of admiration as a hailing term for such a one and as a term of assurance and acknowledgement by such a person. The word carries specific information about the social position of the addressee and the world view of the user. Asylant, Einwanderung, and Zuwanderung are terms that convey the sense of immigration and its problems and prospects in the German selection. However, each one connotes a different set of objectives and thus some kind of ideology. In the cartoons, Asylant is used to represent not just an asylum seeker but one who seeks to gain from the land. Hence, the frame of social knowledge surrounding the term suggests some disapproval. Einwanderung and Zuwanderung on their parts describe the process by which one gains immigrant status by going through several difficult processes. As portrayed in the cartoons, the words tend to profile the government as wandering on the the issue because its policies are not fixed. In the mental model theory, it accords with the principle of spatial equivalence by explaining the government’s action in a schematic image of pathway: not having a fixed policy corresponds to wandering physically. Because these ideologies are conveyed in humorous ways, they unwittingly create stereotypes. These are discussed next.

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THE HUMOUR PROCESS AND STEREOTYPES Humour The major distinguishing characteristic of cartoons is the fact that they draw attention to some aspects of human behaviour in singularly, mirth-inducing ways. People, events, and places are juxtaposed in various incongruous and sometimes impossible ways that result in humour. Theories which explain humour range from the biological, psycho-analytic, and socio-psychological to the social and the linguistic. The sociopsychological approach includes the psychoanalytic, the arousal, and superiority theories (see Foot, 1986). Raskin (1987) calls these the hostility, release, and perceived superiority theories, respectively. Incongruity theory stresses the absurd, the unexpected, and the inappropriate as being responsible for giving rise to humour. In other words, the expected and the unexpected become associated resulting in what Fonagy (2001, p. 278) calls bi-sociation. Humour allows a cartoonist to deliver a sharp invective in a seemingly harmless way. And if the reader is able to integrate all the elements, he can arrive at the point of satire, the invective which leads to the political message. Successful integration is dependent on the cartoonist and the reader sharing the same cognitive system. So, the creative process in cartoons is geared towards eliciting humour. Even though the subject matters are often serious and weighty, cartoonists recognise that their genre is a unique forum where subject matters as serious as presidential misdemeanour or even state survival can be subjects of laughter. This singular forum does not distract from or even reduce the validity of the point cartoonists have to make concerning that topic. The humour process concerns how such points are made. Two ways often present themselves to cartoonists. The first is the pictorial form without verbal captions or dialogue while the second is the picture that is accompanied by the verbal caption. To illustrate the first form, we refer to a Nigerian cartoon in which a man in police uniform has a rope tied round an elephant and tries to drag it away. Since the police uniform is familiar to most readers, his role, status, and function in the cartoon needs no explanation. However, since elephants are not used by the police in Nigeria for anything, its presence requires some explanation. Hence, it is tagged crime. The ludicrousness of the situation becomes more obvious: that crime is bigger than the police; that the armoury (a rope) of the police is inadequate; that the number (one against an enormous beast) is ineffective, and so on. All these readings are only possible however because the cartoonist has, in place of an explanation, resorted to symbolic and metonymic representation. Tagging or labelling forms part of that representation. In the Nigerian corpus, 30 cartoons (18.8%) are identified as pictorial with partial symbolic representations while 129 (81.2%) are accompanied by captions. In the German selection, only 18 cartoons (15.2%) are unaccompanied by either caption or dialogue and 100 others (84.8%) are. An example is one cartoon (Cartoon 5) which shows Schröder in a swimming trunk reclining on a life raft with his legs crossed and smoking a long cigar while the sun smiles down on him. Beneath him in the water, three dark sword fish with long pointed snouts each marked Mazedonien (‘Macedonia’), Konjunktur (‘Economy’), and Reformstau (‘Delay in Reforms’) are seen approaching him. Tagging the swordfish only enhances the meaning: that the Chancellor is fiddling while Rome is burning and he would soon be pierced into reality. However, meaning form in these cartoons tends to have more general application.

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Cartoon 5.

When a pictorial form is accompanied by verbal contents, the meaning is also more specified according to the artist’s intention and the humour is more specific. Humour can be categorized as either conceptual or verbal. Todorov, cited by Chanfrault (1992, p. 8) distinguishes between conceptual and verbal humour by stating that if we can replace the word from which the sense emanates by one of its synonyms without preventing laughter, we are in the realm of ‘conceptual jokes.’ If this substitution is impossible without being prejudicial to the sense, we are in the realm of ‘verbal jokes.’ Fonagy (2001) also refers to Freud’s studies on jokes which found that “economy of mental expenditure” played a central role in defining the technique (p. 278). Attempting to provide the linguistic and semantic conceptual framework for jokes, a known source of humour, Fonagy (2001) refers to Bühler’s theory of language (1934) to explain what he calls “the implicit joke marker” as “the conflict between the deictic and the verbal fields which give rise to absurdity [as] the basic component of all forms of verbal humour” (Fonagy, 2001, p. 277). Verbal jokes, as found in cartoons, can be further categorised. Fonagy (2001) identifies several of these categories to include mixing words from different domains, bringing contrasting ideas into conflict, ambiguities of surface structure, arbitrary etymological interpretation, having a general meaning and a more restricted meaning, the theory of contrary presupposition, etc. When Obasanjo says for instance ‘We remain focused’ while directing his binoculars at a flying aeroplane in Cartoon 6, there is a verbal pun that results from holding contrary presuppositions. There is an imagined first speaker who throws the accusation of lack of focus at Obasanjo’s government who presumably presupposes that having focus means attending to national issues. The president’s response however contradicts this position since he holds the presupposition that having focus means turning one’s attention to one’s object of desire: flying out of the country in his case.

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Cartoon 6.

Secondly, we can affirm that the joke in the cartoon reflects the theory of bringing two contrasting ideas into conflict: the physical focus (suggested by Obasanjo’s training of his binoculars on a flying aeroplane) and the abstract focus (directing his government’s attention to more pressing national issues such as constitutional review, debt, education, petroleum problems, etc.). The noteworthy fact in this cartoon is that the imagined accuser imagines a schema for political focus to be a situation where the president is a fixed position (possibly at his desk) solving national problems but the president sees a schema for focus as motion to foreign lands. Other jokes in the cartoon corpus include the president sweeping the country’s problems under the carpet and calling the world to come and invest since the ground had been prepared. This reflects the notion of arbitrary etymological interpretation, in which he arbitrarily believes that preparing the grounds means sweeping his country’s problems under the carpet, and not necessarily solving them. In the German corpus, the discourse is similar. For instance, when Schily (Cartoon 16, appendix.), the former interior minister is said to be wandering on the immigration issue (To wander is Schily’s pleasure), there is a play on the words wandering in English and Einwanderung (‘immigration’) which conforms with the notion of mixing words from different domains, a sort of eye rhyme. The domain of aimless, and therefore fruitless, movement of the minister on the one hand is brought to contrast with the domain of purposeful movement of immigrants seeking to enter and live in another country. And a cartoon that depicts George Bush holding two smoking guns with the caption Climate protection, Texan style rather reflects an ironical intention with the play on the word protection. Protection connotes a positive movement towards preserving the environment; hence it profiles the idea of ensuring the healthy upkeep of the climate by avoiding acts that will add more smug into the climate. However, in pouring more smoke (metonymy for soot) from his guns (standing for factories) into the environment, Bush (representing America) the Texan (suggesting the wild, untamed west) does not protect the climate.

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In the Nigerian corpus, 27 cartoons (17%) employ verbal jokes, whereas the German corpus shows only 7 (5.9%). In verbal jokes, the sense of the cartoon resides in the captions or dialogue. On the other hand, 132 (83%) of the Nigerian cartoons reflect the conceptual type of jokes in which the interaction between the picture and the words is necessary in order to extract meaning from it, whereas the German cartoons show 111 (94%) of the selections to be conceptual. This means that, in most cartoons in general, the interaction of caption and picture is necessary for full comprehension of the humour process to take place. The reason is that such cartoons rely on the power of visuals to complement words to effectively complete their satiric purpose, which, in turn, is often directed at the stereotypic behaviour of members of the society.

Stereotypes Stereotypes ascribe characteristics to people as members of an out-group that they denigrate, sometimes for psychological reasons. Such characteristics are couched in statements that are overgeneralised and dismissive, simplified, and invariably negative. Certain frames of expectations in hearers and speakers of a language become part of the cognitive activity of language users as stored memories, called schemata or mental frames, of values, behaviour, and attitudes that are associated with certain accents or word organisations. In other words, frames trigger certain values. According to Kristiansen (2002), negative linguistic stereotypes can be useful cognitive tools for purposes of general identification, characterization, and categorization of both speaker and hearer. Based on this view, stereotypes aid users of language in systematising and reducing to manageable proportions the enormous and overwhelming amount of social and linguistic data they encounter about users of a language. Furthermore, linguistic stereotypes perform the function of providing information about a social group. A study of the political cartoons of Nigerian and German newspapers reveals several stereotypes in the two societies. The Nigerian corpus for example categorises those involved in governance, including the president, governors, and other politicians through some general characteristics ascribed to them. Obasanjo the president is shown to be a wanderer, inattentive, unfocussed, unrealistic, hypocritical, incapable, and therefore not effective. These negative traits come about from a summation of the invectives levelled against him in the cartoons where he is prominent. From the cartoons, it is also gathered that state leaders (governors) have the stereotype of being wanderers, resource wasters, corrupt beings, and lacking in qualities of leadership. Politicians are portrayed as corrupt, self-indulgent, arrogant, self-serving, egotistical, and resource wasters. The people, on the other hand, are projected as lazy and wallowing in self-pity. These stereotypes tend to be rather generally descriptive of the group since each is not distinguished from the other. On the contrary, German cartoons are more identity based as particular individuals are held responsible for specific actions or inactions. Only the people seem to have a general stereotype of being unfriendly and political pundits: bread is sold on condition of the buyer being in the right party, roads and bridges have names that carry political nuances, people are welcomed to Germany not because they are liked but because they are needed, and so on. As stated earlier, stereotypes are the exaggerated views pertaining to a particular person or group that someone holds often to denigrate the person or group. It should be mentioned

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therefore that cartoons provide a natural source of these stereotypes since caricatures exploit the frame of exaggerations. But, as already indicated, stereotypes can provide information that serves as an in-road to how someone or a group can be accessed, and indeed, even assessed since such information can often be supported by the general populace regarding the subject. For instance, the universally held belief that politicians in general are ineffective, selfish, and corrupt, and Nigerian and African ones more so, is upheld by both world knowledge and the mutual contextual belief of both artist and reader. And the fact that people from the Middle East are vengeful is confirmed by general and world knowledge about the goings-on in the Middle East. So to that extent, cartoonists only confirm these stereotypes.

FINDINGS From this study, a number of findings are highlighted. First, it is found that Nigerian cartoons tend to be preoccupied with the intensity of the nation’s internal problems. In effect, topics of discourse in Nigerian cartoons revolve around more basic problems such as hunger, sustenance, and social deprivations as well as failed infrastructures. Perhaps because of this, invectives in Nigerian cartoons appear to be stronger and more desperate, as social problems are painted as dire in these cartoons. Obasanjo is only a metonymy for his government’s failure to deliver ‘democratic dividends,’ to curb armed robbery, stop corruption, provide food and electricity, solve transport problems, etc. So, there is less differentiation in responsibilities. In German cartoons, invectives are less desperate as there is more preoccupation with the issue of politics and the antics of politicians as well as regional and world leaders. Hence, cartoons revolve around slightly more general topics such as government’s handling of unemployment, social welfare, politics, world affairs, etc. There is also keener differentiation in responsibilities in the German cartoons as particular people are held responsible for specific problems: Schröder is responsible for unemployment, immigration is in its present state because of Schily’s lack of organisation, health reform is in a crisis because of Schmidt’s handling, and the CDU is in its present state because of Merkel. This results in more clearly defined stereotypes in German cartoons such as Schily being shown as high-handed or not focused and therefore ‘wandering’ on the issue of immigration; Schröder is seen as a bungler who is incapable, inattentive, unrealistic, and therefore ineffective; Merkel lacks originality and leadership qualities such as charisma, control, and needs to be led, etc. Only Obasanjo as an individual in Nigerian cartoons has a clear stereotype: as a bungler, wanderer, inattentive, unfocussed, unrealistic, incapable, and therefore not effective. The angle of perception in Nigerian cartoons is much more basic and simple, revolving mostly around the dichotomies of right/good versus wrong/bad, whereas issues are given more complex treatments in German cartoons: e.g., attitudes to immigration (government, people, corporate bodies, immigrants themselves), social welfare, labour issues, etc. Consequently, conceptualisation in Nigerian cartoons is simpler, more direct and factual, employing fewer metaphors and more reality scenarios. Metaphors are simpler and more pictorial and are drawn mostly from nature such as the Federal Government being portrayed as a gorilla. German cartoons employ a higher number of metaphors; this makes the

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communicative system more symbolic. They are also more complex, both pictorially and verbally, such as Schröder being depicted as a flying Roman ruler, and the economy as a conch. In both countries, ideology is conveyed in word choices of speakers, e.g., ‘our son’ carries an ideology of alignment and ‘owambe’ is one of self-exhibitionism, etc. in Nigerian cartoons, whereas ‘Asylant’ carries an ideology of rejection in German cartoons. Nigerian cartoons show group cohesion as a way of life. Group behaviour (ethnic, religious, political) is described more as the norm for social existence and finds encouragement in the various sociopolitical machineries (Muslims vote for Muslims, our son, owambe governors, the hungry masses, etc). Since German functions as a first language for both the writer and the reader of German cartoons, language is more colloquial. On account of the fact that English is a second language in Nigeria with less mastery on the writer’s and reader’s parts, language is more formal. Consequently, messages are often delivered in literal and formal English in Nigerian cartoons. However, when Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) is used, some degree of appropriate informality that is more fitting to cartoon form, characters, and context is achieved, a fitting subject for investigation in subsequent research.

CONCLUSION This study has attempted to examine some of the contents of Nigerian and German political cartoons to highlight areas of similarity and differences. Attention has been drawn to the fact that both groups of cartoonists are engaged in etching out what they perceive as the political process within their domains of interest, i.e., their respective countries. However, whereas there appears to be a measure of desperation among Nigerian cartoonists going by the rather stark realities painted of the Nigerian situation, German cartoons on the other hand are less stringent, perhaps owing to the absence of any desperation in the society. This makes Nigerian cartoonists appear to be more hostile towards the political leaders while retaining the frame of humour. From their discourses, one infers that Nigerian cartoonists expect the political leaders to put a credible socio-political system in place, whereas German cartoonists expect the political leaders to leave the system intact. One can then conclude that cartoons quite adequately capture the conceptual essences of life as they present for the reader a social account of events, though in perspectives that tend to be humorous. Obviously, political messages, rather than humour, can be said to be the primary purpose of political cartoons, yet such humour does not detract from the urgency of the issues caught by their searchlights. Thus, one can assert that political cartoons present a field whereby a vibrant political discourse on the social, political, and economic activities of a people can be held to obtain a slice of their living culture.

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APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL CARTOONS

Cartoon 1. ( ...And in many parts of Africa there is hardly enough to survive on…Poverty in Germany – Anna E (Single mother) – Consolation time).

Cartoon 2.

Cognitive Strategies in Nigerian and German Political Cartoons

Cartoon 3. (Come here immediately!!).

Cartoon 4. (Economic Growth).

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Cartoon 5. (Deployment abroad in spite of empty coffers? – With a bit of imagination).

Cartoon 6.

Cognitive Strategies in Nigerian and German Political Cartoons

Cartoon 7.

Cartoon 8.

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Cartoon 9.

Cartoon 10. (Meister Schily is the chef here).

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REFERENCES Akmajian, A., Demers, R., Farmer, A., and Harnish R. (2001). Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication, 5th ed. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India. Chanfrault, B. (1992). Stereotypes of deep France. Humor, 5(1/2), 7-31. Coulmas, F. (1979). On the sociolinguistic relevance of routine formulae. Journal of Pragmatics, 3, 239-266. Fillmore, C. J. (1975). An alternative to checklist theories of meaning. Papers from the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 123-132. Fillmore, C. J. (1976). Frame semantics and the nature of language. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: Conference on the Origin and Development of Language and Speech, Vol. 280, 20-32. Fonagy, I. (2001). Languages within language: An evolutive approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Foot, H. (1986). Humour and laughter. In O. Hargie (Ed.), A handbook on communication skills (pp. 355-382). London: Routledge. Garman, M. (1996). Introduction to Psycholinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hünig, W. K. (2002). British and German cartoons as weapons in World War I. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1988). The computer and the mind: An introduction to cognitive science. London: Fontana. Kress, G. (1993). Cultural considerations in linguistic description. In D. Graddol, L. Thompson, and M. Byram (Eds.). Language and Culture (pp. 1-22). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Kristiansen, G. 2003. How to do things with allophones: Linguistic stereotypes as cognitive reference points in social cognition’. In R. Dirven, R. Frank, and M. Pütz (Eds.), Cognitive models in language and thought: Ideology, metaphors and meaning (69-120). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Lee, D. (2001). Cognitive linguistics: An introduction. Australia: Oxford University Press. Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacLachlan, G., and Reid, I. (1994). Framing and interpretation. Australia: Melbourne University Press. Medubi, O. (2003). Language and ideology in Nigerian cartoons. In R. Dirven, R. Frank, and M. Puetz (Eds), Cognitive models in language and thought: Ideology, metaphors and meaning (pp. 159-198). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Morris, R. (1993). Visual rhetoric in political cartoons: A structuralist approach. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 8(3), 195-210. Nash, W. (1985). The language of humour: Style and technique in comic discourse. London: Longman New Encyclopaedia Britannica, The. 1992. Vol. 15. U.S.A.: Micropaedia. Palmer, G. B. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press. Raskin, V. (1987). Linguistic heuristic of humor: A script-based semantic approach. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 65, 11- 25.

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Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. Relevance, Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Internet Source: Google Book Search-Files. Accessed January 28, 2008. Turner, M., and Fauconnier, G. (1995). Conceptual integration and formal expression. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 10(3), 183-204. van Dijk, T. A. (1980). Macrostructures: An interdisciplinary study of global structures in discourse, interaction, and cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.. Wardhaugh, R. (1998). An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. Watson, J. and Hill, A. (1993). A dictionary of communication and media studies, Vol. 3. New York: Edward Arnold.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 4

TURN-TAKING STRATEGIES IN NIGERIAN LEGISLATIVE DISCOURSE Ayo Ayodele Department of English, Lagos State University, Lagos State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT One of the cardinal principles underlying participatory democracy is freedom of speech: freedom to hold and canvass opinion. In Nigeria, the long years of the military in governance had literally obliterated this inalienable right of every individual. The culture of giving and taking orders became pervasive with the unpalatable consequence of intolerance of other people’s opinion. Nigeria’s return to participatory democracy throws up the inherent contradiction in running a civilian government with the military norms of top-to-bottom communication. Politicians were faced with the challenge of having to respect the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially the one that guarantees freedom of speech. The Legislature, therefore, provides an appropriate setting for testing the democratic ideal of free speech. Conversation analysts conceptualize efficient and successful communication in naturally occurring conversation in terms of cooperation among participants who reciprocally adhere to certain conventions of human discourse in order to avoid collision and communication breakdown. One such rule of speaking that guarantees coordination is that participants take turns to hold the floor. Strict adherence to this rule guarantees that every member who holds an opinion on any issue is allowed to speak. However, participants’ failure to orient to these rules, either through deliberate interruption, simultaneous speaking, or maintaining complete silence often has implications for communication breakdown. In examining turn-taking in legislative talk in Nigeria, this article holds the view that turn-taking is a structurally relevant discursive strategy in the law making process.

TURN-TAKING STRATEGIES IN NIGERIAN LEGISLATIVE DISCOURSE The practice of democracy hinges on the freedom to freely canvass opinion and the right to be heard. This democratic norm finds practical expression in the Legislature, which is the political institution for law making and governance through representatives elected on the platform of different political parties by the people. Since the legislators represent different social, religious and political interests, it could be argued that each member of the House functions on three platforms. He/she represents him/herself, the constituency from where

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he/she got elected, and the political party that presented him/her. Given this scenario, it might be expected that debates in the House would be characterized by babel of voices sometimes bordering on acrimony in the attempt by each member to be heard and not to be marginalized. Members of the House, therefore, require basic interactional skills that will allow them to integrate their performance with those of other speakers and listeners. Conversational interaction, such as obtains in the legislature, is regulated by conventions that guarantee tacit rights and obligations of the participants. One such rule of speaking is that no one monopolizes the floor but the participants take turns to speak. This article interrogates the procedure for the application of the turn-taking rule in the legislative chamber of the Lagos State of Nigeria. It seeks to discover the extent to which Honourable Members (HM) of the House orient to this rule, and describes the overall management of the rule in mediated multiparty discourse of a legislative nature. The data consist of tape and video recorded sessions of the Lagos State House of Assembly in south western Nigeria. Out of the total recordings spanning four years (2003-2006), thirty randomly selected recordings, each lasting a minimum of one hour, were transcribed and analyzed. The transcription was done in a manner that captures the key segments of the sessions; namely the opening, progression, and the closing.

THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES Turn-taking as an organized activity is one of the core ideas of the Conversation Analysis enterprise. The turn, strictly speaking is the ‘continuous period of time during which a person is talking’ (Orestrom, 1983, p. 23). Fries (1952) characterizes it as “those chunks of talk that are marked off by a shift of speaker” (p. 23). This characterization introduces two key elements of a speaking turn; i) one speaker speaks, and ii) in a period of time within the boundary of an exchange. In other words, every current speaker exercises his/her speaking rights within a time frame that allows the other party to participate effectively in the exchange. In conversation, an exchange is a structural unit consisting of at least one conversational contribution by each of two participants. This reciprocal view of an exchange suggests that one contribution precedes and elicits the other. The works of Sinclair (1980), Coulthard and Brazil (1981), Berry (1981), and Mctear (1979) are some of the major contributions to the study of the exchange structure of conversation. Defining the exchange as the minimal unit of interaction, Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) and Sinclair (1980) propose the Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) interactive frame as the primary structure for interactive discourse in general. Sinclair (1980) suggests ‘that the exchange is a definable linguistic unit, the minimum unit of interaction, relatable to a primary structure of initiation, response and feedback’ (p. 122). Sinclair’s position indicates that all well-formed exchanges consist minimally of two and maximally of three elements represented as: I (R) (F). Adopting a functionalist perspective, Coulthard and Brazil (1981) describe the exchange as the unit concerned with negotiating information. They, therefore, propose an exchange structure based on the concepts of predictive structure, increasing ellipticity as the exchange progresses, and a structure comprising initiation plus any moves tending to complete or close the information introduced in the initiation. This conception of

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the exchange structure suggests a desire by participants to cooperate. It should be noted, however, that because of the nature of political language, normal conversational conventions do not (necessarily) hold since politicians do not necessarily desire to cooperate particularly where they share opposing views. Moreover, in the setting of a deliberative assembly, turntaking procedures are governed by rules, regulations, and conventions, which may of course be flouted, but which have little do with normal conversational norms. In Nigeria, for example, conversational management is tied up with cultural factors of age (the elderly exercise control over talk and have more speaking rights than the younger ones), social status, gender and institutional roles; the Director chairs the meeting of the Board of Directors, a Judge presides over a court proceeding etc. This position of this article is that legislative interactional discourse (LID) presents a special kind of talk which does not follow the same rules as everyday conversation.

Framework for Turn Mechanism Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) reveal that the process of turn-taking is guided by a set of rules that speakers adhere to. These turn-taking rules largely account for the general basic organization principles in conversation. They can be summed up as follows: 1. Turn transfer occurs at a Transition Relevance Place (TRP) 2. First starter gets the turn 3. If ‘current- speaker-selects-next’ technique is used, the next speaker selected gets the turn 4. If ‘current-speaker-select-next’ technique is not used, the floor is free at a transition relevance place. These rules present turn order as an on-going phenomenon taken care of locally as the conversation proceeds, either on the basis of ‘first come first served’ (Goffman, 1972, p. 59) indicating self selection for the person that speaks first, or selection of the next by the current speaker. While describing the speaking turn as the basic fact about conversation, Sacks (1978) however observes that speaker change recurs with minimal gap and minimal overlap. Conversationalists are of the opinion that any utterance in interaction is considered to have been produced for the place in the progression of the talk where it occurs, while at the same time creating a context for its own next utterance. In other words, a speaking turn necessarily conveys new information and expands the topic. For instance, the second speaking turn in the following extract provides information that expands the propositional content (Order 100 specifies the information that is required) implied in the interrogative utterance contained coming as the first turn. 1st turn 2nd turn

Mr. Speaker: Alhaji T.J. Agoro:

What does order 100 say? Order 100 is on Committee on Local Government and Inter-Governmental Relation.

The first turn (an interrogative utterance) opens the exchange, and selects the particular second-pair turn that serves as the appropriate response to the proposition expressed by the

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first turn utterance. At each speaking turn in an exchange, participants assume either a speaking role or a listening role. A speaker is a participant who claims the turn and has the floor at any given moment. Any violation of this rule would become easily noticeable by the participants and could be effectively handled through a repair mechanism that helps restore the order. For instance, when two or more people find that they are talking simultaneously, all of them, or all except one, generally stop after only a short while. Conversely, when there is silence, someone tends to begin to speak as a reaction to this silence. Consequently, the change of speaker is a basic factor in the sequential organization of conversation. In both cases, the rule has the implication of at least one speaker at a time. Orestrom (1983) gives two factors that are responsible for a smooth turn transition. First, the listener analyses the ongoing speech and makes inferences from the constraints that the gradual narrowing down of choices yields, and makes use of this information for setting up a running hypothesis about the speaker’s intended message. Secondly, the speaker uses a signaling device (verbal or nonverbal) whether intentionally or unintentionally, which indicates potential completion and guide the listener in his/her search for the TRP. A combination of these factors ensures a smooth flow of conversation characterized by smooth turn switches. Put differently, a smooth turn switch at the TRP depends on a combination of the listener’s accurate interpretation of the intended message, and the signals provided by the speaker. Turn signals are verbal utterances that point to either the completion point in the current speaker’s turn or the next speaker’s intention to take up a turn. In his investigation of features that are employed by speakers as signals in the turn-taking mechanism, Duncan (1972, 1973) identifies four basic types. 1. Turn-yielding signal: the speaker indicates that he/she intends to terminate his/her turn. 2. Attempt-suppressing signal: the speaker indicates that he/she intends to hold the turn. 3. Turn-claiming signal: the listener indicates that he/she intends to take the turn. 4. Back-channel items: the listener indicates that he/she does not intend to take the turn. When properly operated, the turn-taking mechanism would take the following pattern: 1. The current speaker emits a turn yielding signal. 2. The listener claims the speaking-turn. 3. The current speaker gives up his/her turn. Adherence to this turn-taking protocol by the interactants is what guarantees successful exchange.

DATA ANALYSIS In the context of legislative debate, the turn-taking system is highly procedural and formulaic. The Honourable Speaker, who statutorily presides over legislative sessions, has the sole responsibility of allocating turns, recognizing the right of a new speaker to select self or

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interrupt a current speaker. Generally speaking, speaker selection in legislative debate takes two major forms: 1. Mr. Speaker selects the next speaker 2. A new speaker selects self. These methods of speaker selection are in accordance with laid down legislative procedures that constitute integral part of the overall legislative context. A current speaker, apart from Mr. Speaker, selects a next speaker, in cases where particular questions or posers are directed to specific participants. It is equally noticed that simultaneous turns are not often recorded in legislative talk, except in cases of serious arguments between members who either have opposing views on an issue or who belong to political parties that have diametrically opposed political ideologies. Knowledge of these turn-taking mechanisms that constitute part of the context of the legislature enhances the communicative performance of the participants. The following examples demonstrate the turn-taking procedure in the House.

Mr. Speaker Selects Next Speaker The Speaker is the statutory dispenser of turn rights in legislative talk. Members who wish to contribute to any debate must seek the Speaker’s recognition before taking up a speaking turn. The Speaker’s approval is expressed in any of the following ways. Selection by naming. In exercising his power as the dispenser of turns, the Speaker may indicate the next speaker by recognizing the prospective speaker by his/her name. In the event of several participants simultaneously demanding for the next speaking turn (by pressing the button attached to each member’s table to electronically turn on the light indicator that will indicate the intention to take up the floor), the Speaker reserves the right to recognize only one speaker who immediately takes the floor. This method of indicating speaking intention differs from the raising of hands characteristic of other forms of meetings where members are within the eye range or ear shot of the chairperson. The large nature of the legislature requires such an electronic devise that will make the prospective speaker’s intention more easily recognizable by the Speaker who by virtue of the sitting arrangement may be at a distance from the member. The following excerpts show the Speaker’s method of next-speaker selection by name. Excerpt 11 Mr. Speaker: Hon. Jide:

1

1. 2. 3.

Hon. Jide, your observations. Thank you very much My observation is basically on the regional WAEC office as Hon. Agoro has pointed out.

The following notations are used in the speech excerpts: Interruption≠ Overlap〓 Falling intonation↘(indicating sentence grammatical boundary)

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The Speaker may not immediately name the next speaker when a current speaker ends his/her turn. Such yielding of turns may be characterized by silence, e.g. a long pause, after a grammatical boundary such as a question mark indicated in a rising tone. Though the yielding of the floor by a current speaker leaves the floor open, the turn-taking rules of the House do not allow the next speaker to take the floor until the Speaker has acknowledged the move. The prospective speaker still has to indicate by flashing on the light and must wait for the Speaker to officially recognize the turn. The turn shift here involves three major moves: interrupting move, acknowledgement move, and acceptance move. Another form of naming directed at the office rather than the office holder is expressed in the next excerpt. Excerpt 2 The Chairman:

Earlier on we suspended the rules of the House, But I think there is a need for us to maintain some parliamentary decorum. To that extent, I am going to ask the majority leader (Alhaji F.A.A Oshodi) to move a motion to reinstate the rules of the House so that we can proceed thereafter.

Alhaji F.A Oshodi:

Mr. Chairman, Sir. I hereby move that the House reinstate the rules of the House in order to continue the business of the day. I so move.

In this excerpt, the Chairman (the Speaker presiding over the Committee of the whole House or any member presiding over the meeting of a statutory committee of the House) allocates the speaking turn to the office of the majority leader. It is a statutory allocation dictated by the rules of the House. In legislative debates, other officers apart from the Speaker have statutory roles assigned to them. These include the Majority leader, the minority leader (who leads the opposition), the Chief Whip, the Clerk etc. For instance, the majority leader moves motions to introduce topics, to bring sessions to a close, to change from plenary sessions to committee of the whole House and vice versa. The office holder does not speak in such cases in their private capacities; they do so as holders of the offices and as such their contribution reflects their party position or the position of the House in accordance with its standing rules. In Excerpts 3 and 4 the Speaker allocates the turn using an indirect but ‘open’ request that has no specific referent but which by implication is meant for the majority leader. In 3, the Speaker’s interrogative format, ‘may I have a motion to that effect?’ has the same illocutionary force of a request indexed by the modal auxiliary ‘may’ and the explicit performative verb ‘request’ as contained in the Chairman’s utterance in Excerpt 4 ‘May I request for the suspension of the Rules of the House?’ In both, neither a particular member’s name nor any particular office featured as the expected beneficiary of the turn allocation. The next speaker, in each case the majority leader, recognizes the Speaker’s request as a signal for him to take the floor in his official capacity. Excerpt 3 Mr. Speaker

Is anyone opposed to that?

Turn-Taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse Several Members Mr. Speaker The Majority Leader

Excerpt 4 The Chairman

The Majority Leader

Mr. Odulana (Ikeja II)

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No! So, may I have a motion to that effect? Once again, Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise to move that this Honorable House do take the Third Reading of the Bill for a Law to amend the Local Government Administration Law, 1999.

Hon. members and our invitees We want to make it a no holes barred situation Because we want to get to the roots of the matter However to enable us do that, May I request for the suspension of the Rules of the House. Mr. Chairman, Sir, In order for us to look at the problems of LASU I beg to move that this House suspends the Rules of the House. Mr. Chairman, Sir I hereby second the motion as moved by the Majority leader.

The illocutionary act of requesting for a motion stands also as a directive to the majority leader whose responsibility it is to move such motions. The item may functions in these utterances as grammatical markers of permission. No one else other than the majority leader could pick up such speaking turns. Selection through gaze. Gaze functions in conversation as a signaling device in speakerrole change. Various works (Exline, 1963; Goodwin, 1984; Kendon, 1967) on the relationship between non-vocal activity and talk have revealed that gaze has a regulatory role in talk exchanges. Eye glances signal the preparedness of a current speaker to yield the floor to another speaker in a conversation. In his analysis of beginnings and endings of utterances in brief conversations, Kendon (1967) proposes that gaze facilitates smooth speaker shift. Noting the relationship between frequency of gaze direction towards interlocutors at the beginnings and ends of turns, he suggests that the speaker when finishing talking and looking up is expecting a response. On the contrary, the frequency of a delayed response and no response becomes greater when the speaker finishes talking without looking up. In Wardhaugh’s (1985) opinion, If, while talking, you decline to gaze steadily at anyone and instead let your eyes glance here and there, you are probably signaling to others that you do not wish to be interrupted. Others, however, may seek the floor. They may try to ‘catch your eye’, but only if that device fails and you refuse to accede to what they consider their legitimate claims to be heard will they feel free to interrupt you. (pp. 84-85)

In legislative talk, eye contact between the speaker and Speaker of the House plays a major role in speaker shift. Consequent upon signaling intention to take the floor, the Speaker turns his gaze to the member who signaled in a move designed to ‘catch his eye’ as an acknowledgement of the member’s turn to take the floor. Let us examine the following excerpts. Excerpt 5 Speaker:

(looks in the direction of Hon. Oyemade) Honorable

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Excerpt 6 Speaker: Hon. Ajayi:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker You see, em, I once said that the problem with democracy.

(looks in the direction of a member who turned on the indicator light) Honorable Well… My contribution is this: All over the world, there had been accidents But the witnesses don’t decide to close the road

In both cases, the Speaker not only establishes eye contact with the members, he maintains this contact until the members take the floor. It is noted, however, that the selected speakers appeared unprepared for the turn allocated to them, and demonstrated some hesitation at the start of their turns. For instance, em and well are characteristic of false starts that allow the speakers to gather their thoughts. Though eye contact is useful as an attention getting and a turn allocation device, it seems less emphatic especially when the selected speaker has not anticipated the turn. Selection by questioning. Erskine May defines the purpose of a question as obtaining information or pressing for action (Boulton, 1989, p. 287). Examining the nature and function of parliamentary discourse that involves institutionalized question-asking, May suggests that questions which seek an expression of opinion, or which contain arguments, expressions of opinion, inference or imputations, unnecessary epithets, or rhetorical, controversial, ironical or offensive expressions are not in order. May’s suggestion certainly implies that beyond being a request for information or action, questions in parliamentary discourse are invested with pragmatic roles in the structuring of talk. Part of these roles includes initiation of turns, and enabling repair. In the specific case of our data, it is revealed that apart from serving as information-seeking or action-seeking structures, questions often serve as turn-allocation cues (TAC). As a turn-allocation cue, a question may constitute the first pair part of an adjacency pair whose second pair part will be the response from the next speaker. Excerpt 7 Chairman

Let us take it one after the other I doubt if all the Hon. Members are really following what you are saying… (addressing all the members)

Hon. Members, Hon. Members: Chairman

Is that okay? Hon. Members Chairman

Are we together? Hon. Members

I believe you all have this Bill that we are referring to before us. (in unison) Yes sir. If honorable members are not following then we might not getting it right. Now, clause 1 (Amendment to Section 30) says section 30 of Local Government Administration Law 199 referred to in this law as a Principal Law is amended by deleting sub-section 1 and 2 of the sub-section. (chorus) Yes, Sir. We will now move to the next section which is now Section 2 and it says section 30 of the Principal Law is further amended by inserting a new Section 30 (1). (severally) Yes.

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I am not sure Because I am not hearing the response (more loudly) Yes.

Questions when raised by a current speaker to elicit information or action operate on the assumption that the interactants are cooperating. ‘Is that okay’, ‘Are we together?’ comes as a misapprehension on the part of the Speaker and certainly implies a disconnection in the flow of talk, hence the need for a repair process that will reestablish discursive cohesiveness.

Next Speaker Self Selects Participants’ anticipation of the TRP in conversation ensures that a speaker takes the floor as soon as the current speaker ends. The conversational rule of one at time does not permit long pauses or outright silence that could lead to the termination of talk. However, due to the highly mediated and regulated nature of turn management in legislative talk, selfselection rarely occurs at a TRP. As a rule, only the Speaker features at the TRP to allocate the next turn. Let us examine the following excerpt. Excerpt 8 Mr. A.O. Oyemade

... So, I feel that we should just stop further debate and determine what we are going to do. If we want it there, let it be there. After three months, if there is anybody who has any observation or anything against it after the election, let him bring it to the floor of the House and we would work on it, Sir… Alhaji Eshilokun-Sanni: Observation, Sir! Chairman: What is your observation? ……………………………………………………………… Alhaji Eshilokun-Sanni: Mr. Chairman, Sir I just want to say that if you look at the Bill, you will observe that reference is being made to Section 30, whereas it should be Section 30 sub- section 1 from what is before us now. Also, I want us to look further at Section 32 and see what it says. With your permission, Sir, it says: “The Secretary shall be a person who shall qualify for election as Chairman of Local Government and ceases to hold office when the Chairman ceases to hold office”. I am saying that provision that says: “And ceases to hold office when the Chairman ceases to hold office” is very dangerous. Alhaji T.J Agoro: Point of Order! The Chairman: Which Order? ……………………………………………………… Alhaji T.J Agoro Order 70 sub-section 1. Can I read, Sir? The Chairman: Yes, go ahead. Alhaji T.J. Agoro: “On the Order for Second Reading of a Bill being read, a Motion may be made that the Bill be read now a second time and debate may arise, covering the general merits and principles of the Bill”. Mr. Chairman, Sir, I have cited this Order in reaction to the contribution made by the Hon. Member for Ikeja 1. (Mr.

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The Chairman: Alhaji Eshilokun-Sanni: The Chairman:

Oyemade) I cannot see anywhere in the Rules of the House where any mention was made of the Parliamentary meeting, in relation to the issue that anything that is said by the majority should not be re-opened here for discussion. Mr. Chairman, I want to say without any fear or favour that we should tidy up. That is what I am saying. Look at the issue raised by the Hon. Member for Lagos Island 1 (Alhaji Eshilokun-Sanni). I want us to tidy up. That is my position, Thank you, Sir. Okay, we have noted your position. Clarification, Sir! What is your clarification?

In Excerpt 8, the next speaker selects self by interrupting the current speaker on point of observation, which makes it mandatory for the current speaker to stop. However, self selection of this nature is given effect only when the Speaker recognizes the interruption and acknowledges the interrupter (by name) as the speaker entitled to the floor.

Figure 1. Self Turn Allocation: Interruption.

The next-speaker-selects-self method in legislative discourse is employed when prospective speakers raise issues relevant to those being discussed by the speaker who is currently holding the floor either in terms of the content or a point of legality. As revealed in Excerpt 8, a prospective next-speaker (PNS) may raise an observation, point of order, or Clarification as a way of requesting for the floor. The PNS may, however, not proceed further until the Speaker acknowledges the move. In other words, self-selection is constrained by the disposition of the Speaker who may overrule or uphold the selection. Let us examine the following excerpts recorded at the session of the committee of the whole House (the moment the interruption begins is indicated with a≠). Excerpt 9 Mr. B.O. Sebanjo (Surulere II):

Mr. Speaker, Sir. From what has been said so far, I cannot see any problem in this issue if it is just a temporary dimension to solving this matter because if you look at what the Hon. Member from Alimoso I (Mr. A.O. Adebanjo) said, and what I equally mentioned earlier, vis-à-vis the Hon. Member for Ifako/Ijaiye

Turn-Taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse

The Chairman: Mr. B.O. Sebanjo: The Chairman: Excerpt 10 Prof Abisogun Leigh:

Mr. Gaji:

The Chairman:

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II (Alhaji S.O. Mustafa) we want to get out of the problem we are in at the moment≠ ≠Please, help us to get out ≠ ≠ What I am saying is. ≠ ≠Do not let us repeat ourselves.

Mr. Gaji, explain how you were abducted. He was actually abducted from his office through a mob action by the students. It was a mob action. The students numbering about 15 came to my office and told me that I am (sic) wanted in their Arcade≠ ≠ to face the Supreme court of the Arcade?≠ (laughter)

The interruption noticed in Excerpts 9 and 10 is indicative of a violation of the turntaking procedure by one of the participants creating a scenario of simultaneous turn. In the context of legislative talk, the Speaker has the singular prerogative of interrupting any current speaker. Interruptions by other speakers could come in the form of institutionalized cuespoint of order, point of information, clarification, observation, etc.whose emission still has to be recognized and approved by the Speaker. Other back channel cues may however result in interruptions. Overlaps, on the other hand, are created when hearers predict that the turn is about to be completed and they come in before it is. The following excerpt indicates this. Excerpt 11 The Chairman: I think it is there in the Bill that we delete section= Alhaji W.O. Eshilokun-Sanni: = We are saying 30(1), (2) and (3)= The Chairman: = Is that not what you have in the Bill before the House?= Alhaji W.O. Eshilokun-Sanni: = Especially subsections (1) and (2). What we are saying is, if it is 30 as it is now, let us look at 30 (3) which says: The Secretary shall declare his assets and liabilities as prescribed by the code of conduct for the Public Officers. We cannot remove it because it is a Constitutional provision. The Chairman: All right] Alhaji W.O. Eshilokun-Sanni: ] But we could and we should remove 30(1) and (2).

The turn-taking protocol of legislative talk does not permit occurrences of overlaps due largely to the elaborate turn allocation procedure of the House.

TURN ALLOCATION CUES IN LID In legislative discourse, a shift in speaker-turn and speaker-role is verbally expressed and observed by the participants using various turn-taking and turn-yielding cues. Turn-taking cues are conversational mechanisms regulating a participant’s entry into or exit from the speaking floor.

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Turn-Yielding Cues Turn-yielding cues are verbal utterances by a current speaker indicating his/her intention to terminate the turn. Duncan (1972) observes that a speaker who is ready to give up his/her turn can do so by means of intonation, body motion, sociocentric sequences, paralanguage, and completion point of grammatical sequences. These cues in combination would constitute TRPs in the speaker’s flow of talk. In themselves, the cues may not be sufficient proofs that the speaker will actually terminate his/her turn. But they help the listener to know that the speaker has reached a point of possible completion and it is towards these possible completions that the listener orients him/herself when he/she wants to take over the speaker role. The following excerpts indicate various turn yielding cues in LID. Excerpt 12 Dr. A Hammed:

Excerpt 13 The Chairman: Mr. B.O. Sebanjo: Excerpt 14 Mr. O.O. Oyewo:

Prof. A. Leigh:

… Mr. Speaker, Sir I would not want to waste so much time I just want to join the Hon. Member for Lagos Island in paying tribute to this great son of Africa. Thank you.

Do not let us repeat ourselves ↘ Let us just insert three Months in the Bill, that is all.

Before I allow you go, Sir, I just want you to confirm something. I am not interested in Tunde Salau’s case. I am only interested in the security on campus on that day. In your own opinion, would you say you had made enough security provision for LASU on that day? Yes, we did, consistent with our past experience.

Excerpts 12, 13, and 14 exhibit various ways legislators yield the floor to a next speaker. In Excerpt 12, the speaker utters ‘Thank you’ to indicate the end of his contribution. For the speaker in Excerpt 13, the completion of the grammatical sentential unit characterized by a falling intonation marks the end of turn. Jefferson (1973) refers to such pauses after a grammatically complete utterance as an ‘informative pause’ (p. 73). Long pauses and silence are in themselves a cue for the participants to start talking according to the rule of at least one speaker at time. Excerpt 14 reveals that interrogative utterances coming as a first pair part of an adjacency pair could mark a completion point. To terminate a stretch in the interrogative mood is to produce both a turn-yielding and a response-seeking signal. The next speaker is thus ‘invited’ to claim a turn that will produce the second pair part to conclude the adjacency pair. Good (1977) suggests that yes/no and other single word answers are linguistic signals of finality that may indicate permission for another participant to enter the conversation. For instance:

Turn-Taking Strategies in Nigerian Legislative Discourse

Excerpt 15 The Chairman: Prof. A Leigh: The Chairman: Prof. A. Leigh: Alhaji A. K Are: Prof. A. Leigh:

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On a lighter note I want to get that aspect clear. You said somebody is offering chemistry without passing physics. Yes↘ Does he have to pass physics before offering chemistry? Yes.↘ But you recognize them. No↘

Each of these yielding signals underscores the linguistic acts of informing, debating, moving, questioning etc. characteristic of legislative proceedings.

Turn-Requesting Cues A turn-requesting cue (TRC) is a signal, verbal or nonverbal, indicating a listener’s intention to take over the floor from the current speaker. The timing and location of such indication within the speaking space does not necessarily have to coincide with a TRP. In other words, it may come as an interruption, or as back-channeling. In the context of legislative talk, there exists a formal structural framework for the operation of TRCs. In a move that is considered as interruption, intending speakers may raise a Point of Order, Point of Information, Clarification, Observation, or advice. The rules of procedure regulating interaction in the legislature recognize these interruptions as legitimate indication of intention to speak. Once it is raised, the Speaker has the duty of either upholding the interruption thereby yielding the floor temporarily to the new speaker or overruling it in which case the current speaker is allowed to continue. Interruptions may lead to a complete change of topic or may merely put it on hold for a brief period. The brief period of interruption produces a kind of secondary conversation sometimes referred to as a side-sequence. Back-channeling provides another source of interruption to the flow of talk. Listeners may emit verbal signals that mean either an agreement or a disagreement with the flow of talk. A persistent back channel signal may make a current speaker to yield the floor to another speaker who may take advantage of a prolong pause occasioned by the background cues. The following excerpt, 16, shows this. Excerpt 16 Mr. B.O. Sebanjo: The Chairman: Mr. B.O. Sebanjo: The Chairman: Mr. B.O. Sebanjo:

1... we want to get out of the problem we are in at the moment. 2 please, help us get out 3 what I am saying is ≠ 4 (Interruption) 5 Do not let us repeat ourselves. 6 Let us just insert three months in the Bill, that’s all.

The utterance in line 4 is an instance of back channel moves indicating the disagreement of other members to the utterance in line 3, which in itself is a preface and does not seem to be contributing any new proposition. The interruption occasioned by this move provides the ground for the Chairman’s move in line 5 upholding the backchannel move and requesting the

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current speaker to go straight to his point. Back channel moves are a frequent occurrence in legislative talk where it is expected that members opposed to a current speaker’s contribution may show their opposition, or disagreement through such moves. In such circumstances, the Speaker has the prerogative of taking over the floor, and upon his judgment either recognizing the prior speaker as still being entitled to the floor or allocating a new turn to another speaker.

Turn-Accepting Cues Turn-accepting cues (TAC) are verbal emissions that signal the entrance of a new speaker into the speaking space. A speaker whose turn it is to take the floor announces his/her turn in a number of ways. These turn-accepting cues are largely formulaic expressions, like terms of address, Mr. Speaker, Sir, Mr. Chairman, Sir, and discourse markers like well and so. Mr. Speaker Sir and Mr. Chairman Sir are politeness markers used to reflect the members’ recognition and acceptance of the power structure of the legislature. In addition, members use these address terms to express their solidarity to the group. It will amount to being ‘linguistically and conversationally incorrect’ for any member not to preface his/her opening move with the terms. These terms are also preponderantly prefaced by another class of markers, thank you. A combination of thank you and Mr. Speaker, Sir could, therefore, be regarded as the appropriate signature introducing a new speaker. The following example demonstrates this fact: Excerpt 17 Hon. Buraimoh:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sir I am Buraimoh H. from Amuwo Odofin constituency II. I want to support what my Hon. friend has just said.

Other conventional ways of introducing a turn is further indicated in the above example. For instance, it is customary to find speakers giving identification such as, “I am (full names) representing (name) constituency.” This identification becomes necessary in order to locate the interests of the member within the framework of doing politics in the legislature. It also suggests that the member’s views and opinion is representative of the collective wishes of the people of his/her constituency. Discourse markers like well and so function as false starts helping the speaker to organize his/her thoughts and filling up the silence that could possibly be created by the end of the previous speaking turn. Their positioning as initial elements in what Schegloff and Sacks (1973) describe as misplacement markers portrays them as cohesive markers.

THANK YOU AS A TURN SIGNAL IN LID The frequency of occurrence of the expression thank you in legislative discourse recommends it for closer observation. Thank you in legislative talk falls within the class of expressions generally regarded as ritualistic or formulaic in conversation. Goffman (1971) describes the acts of thanking, apologizing, and requesting as ‘everyday rituals’ that in

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Wardhaugh’s (1985) opinion comprise a ‘phatic’ routine; an indication of social solidarity and an acknowledgement by interactants that they have a social bond that they have agreed to maintain. Goffman (1971) further identifies i) a positive supportive ritual characterized by the expression of mutual support between two conversationalists, and ii) a negative remedial ritual that is exemplified in strategies of apologizing usually when a speaker attempts to remedy a transgression he/she had earlier committed and tries to restore harmony. Adesanmi (2005) observes that thank you in conversation can be used to express gratitude, depict irony and sarcasm, express politeness, and function as discourse markers. He reports that people performing their official duties routinely employ thank you to signal different stages in their interaction. In the context of legislative talk, thank you functions mainly as discourse marker with various discourse and contextual functions. Schiffrin (1987) describes discourse markers as having a largely contextual rather than semantic meaning and significance. Being a stereotypical conversational routine, thank you is produced, understood and analyzed relative to contextual features of the verbal event, part of which are the ritualistic rules of the House. These contextual features form part of the knowledge schema that the Honourable members of the House are required to possess in order to participate effectively in the deliberations of the House. (It is observed that at the sitting of the committee of the whole House where other members of the public participate, the other members of the public hardly use the expression.) Any member that flouts the legislative and linguistic etiquettes dictated by the rules of the House is considered incompetent to make contributions to issues being debated on the floor of the House. Excerpt 18 shows that speakers often use thank you to indicate turn completion. Excerpt 18 Barr. Animashaun (Ikorodu I):

… I am sure by the time the Governor is given this power, it will take more than 40 Hon. Members to amend this Law again to revert to its original position. However, I want to state here clearly that it is true I am only one out of forty; I may go unheeded but I will not go unheard. Thank you.

In excerpt 18 the speaking turn is terminated with the utterance thank you. In this and other cases, thank you is taken to mean, appreciation for the opportunity to speak. In some cases, Mr. Speaker, or Sir is added in recognition of the power structure of the House that vests in the Speaker the authority to allocate, approve or terminate turns. It is clear, however, that thank you is the culmination of a self-termination procedure that combines pre-closing sequences with other paralinguistic features. For instance, the following utterances serve as pre-closing remarks giving hints of the speaker’s intention to yield the floor: ‘I want to state here clearly that … I may go unheeded but I will not go unheard’, ‘I would advise that instead of prolonging this debate, we may probably call for a division and then move ahead to some other issues’.

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These pre-closing remarks provide the listener with a clue concerning an imminent TRP where the speaker role may change. Unlike in other informal conversations where the next speaker may just take up the floor immediately the current speaker leaves the floor, the TRP in LID provides the opportunity for the prospective next speaker to indicate his/her intention to take up the floor which is subject to the Speaker’s approval. Thank you as a turn-accepting cue is demonstrated in Excerpt 19. Here the speaker prefaces his acceptance of the next speaking turn with thank you. It is an indication of the speaker’s gratitude for being recognized to talk. Excerpt 19 Hon. Ogbe:

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker Hon. Lanre Ogbe from Lagos Island Constituency II To be able to make an effective contribution, I’ll want to go the way of Mr. Speaker.

The use of thank you in this opening pre-sequence is often accompanied by the expression Mr. Speaker, Sir or Mr. Chairman Sir (in the committee of the whole House), which serves as an endorsement of the Speaker’s rights to allocate turns. It is also observed that Mr. Speaker himself sometimes uses thank you not only as a turnaccepting cue, but also as an acknowledgement of a member’s contribution. The following excerpts illustrate this point. Excerpt 20 Mr. Speaker:

Excerpt 21 Mr. A. Odulana:

Mr. Speaker:

I want to thank the Hon. Member for Lagos Island II (Mr. O. Ope) who brought up that issue and other Hon. Colleagues who had input on it.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to second the Motion as moved by the majority leader (Alhaji F.A.A. Oshodi) (Order for second reading read) Thank you very much And with that the floor is opened for Hon. members of the House to make comments on that Bill, before its committal to the committee stage.

In both Excerpts 20 and 21, thank you plays the contextual role of turn acceptance where it prefaces the sequence of utterances that follow.

TURN STRUCTURE IN MOTIONS Where motions are expected to be moved in cases of adjournment, adoption of motions, introduction of a new topic, or the suspension or restoration of House rules in order to allow the House either go into a committee of the whole House or revert to the plenary session, the majority leader takes the floor. The Speaker (or whoever presides over any session) selects

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the next speaker in accordance with the rules of the House that recognize the majority leader as the officer to move the motion for adjournment or introduce a bill, etc. Let us examine the following excerpts. Excerpt 22 I The Chairman: R1 Alhaji F.A. Oshodi: (Majority Leader)

May I request for a motion for reversion to plenary session? Mr. Chairman Sir, Having concluded the session on clarifications by some stakeholders on LASU, I hereby move that the house revert to plenary session. R2 Alhaji T.A. Adeosun: I rise to second the Motion as moved by the majority (Badagry II) leader Excerpt 23 I Mr. Speaker:

So, we move on the next item on the order paper, which is House of Assembly Law No 42, A Bill for a Law to Amend the Local Government (Administration) Law 1999, Second Reading. To enable us take that, May I request for a motion from the Majority leader? R1 Alhaji F.A Oshodi: Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to move that this honourable House do take the second reading of a Bill for a Law to Amend the Local Government (Administration) Law 1999. R2 Mr. A Odulana: Mr. Speaker, Sir. (Ikeja 1) I rise to second the motion as moved by the Majority leader [Alhaji F.A Oshodi].

The request has the form, ‘May + request’ (modal verb + performative verb) May which is generally used as a politeness marker in English reinforces the reciprocity of respect characteristic of members of the House and show to one another. Excerpts 22 and 23 above show responses R1 and R2 forming second pair parts to the Speaker’s initiation (I). This structure constitutes a variant of Sinclair and Coulthard’s IRF format. It can, however, be characterized as follows: I → R1 ( i → r) R2 The Initiation, I, usually takes the form of a request by the Speaker to the majority leader for a motion. The majority leader’s response, R, not only forms the primary second pair part to I, it equally functions as a minor initiation move, i requiring the seconding move, r. In other words, the R implicates i and consequently predicts r which now serves as the R2 concluding the moves for the motion. The exchange cannot be complete until the R2 is produced. Motions can therefore generally be characterized as

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Figure 2. Turn Structure of Motions.

This feature of the exchange structure in legislative debate is peculiar to the Motion segment in the debate format. Moving motions for adjournment, passing of Bills, or the suspension of or reverting to House rules are institutionalized procedures requiring two responses from two different participants. The motion is usually moved by the Majority leader, while any other honourable member seconds. However, a different exchange structure obtains in the next excerpt where a level of complexity is discovered. Excerpt 24 I Mr. Speaker:

R

Hon. Musibau:

R

Mr. Speaker: (Interruptions)

R

Mr. Speaker:

R

Hon. Agoro:

R

Interruption: Hon. Agoro:

Any secondment to that motion? (light flashes on) Hon. Kolapo Taiwo Musibau. I, Honorable Kolawole Taiwo Musibau hereby rise to support the motion as moved by the majority leader, Hon. Farouk. Well! We have a motion on ground. A motion for adjournment till tomorrow… Counter motion! Information! Well, before I have any counter motion, Yes, let’s have your information, Hon. Agoro. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I am Hon. Tajudeen Jaiyeola Agoro, Lagos Mainland Constituency One. The information I have for this House is that, at the beginning of this session, we were told that the people from Gombe will be coming tomorrow. (Several Hon. members raising voices in disagreement) (back channel moves) Hon. members, I beg your pardon, They will be coming tomorrow, and then it will be good for them to meet a full house. That is why I am informing this House that there is no need for any Counter motion against that adjournment. Thank you very much.

CONCLUSION The investigation of turn-taking strategies in legislative discourse in Nigeria reveals that the smooth alternation of speaker and listener roles depends not only on the cooperation of the members of the House to adhere strictly to the interactional rules of the House, but also to

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minimize both the duration of speech overlaps and the time lapses between the turns. In other words, having a successful debate at any of the sittings of the House is a result of a joint activity between all the speakers who in spite of their representing different interests and voices have a common goal. It would appear that members of the House examined are very cooperative and speaker alternation very smooth, this is due largely to the almost monolithic nature of the House; ninety eight percent of the members belong to the same party that formed the government of the state. Some of the differences of opinion that could come up during substantive discussions of proposals are handled either at the caucus or party level. It must however be pointed out that there are occasions when the turn procedures are flouted by members with serious consequences for orderliness in the conduct of the business of the House. The phenomenon of communication breakdown and misunderstanding in Nigerian legislative discourse will be examined in subsequent works. Interactional behaviour in legislative discourse is highly rule-governed, with the Speaker being the sole dispenser of turn rights to the Honourable Members.

REFERENCES Adesanmi, T. O. (2005). “Thank You” as a discourse marker in service encounters in selected local government areas of Osun State. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University. Berry, M. (1981). Systemic linguistics and discourse analysis: a multilingual approach to exchange structure In M. Coulthard and M. Montgomery (Eds.), Studies in discourse analysis (pp. 120-145). London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. Boulton, J. (Ed.). (1989). Erskine May’s treatise on the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of parliament (21st ed.). Boulton, London: Butterworths. Coulthard, M. and Brazil, D. (1981). Exchange structure. In M. Coulthard and M. Montgomery (Eds.), Studies in discourse analysis (pp. 82-106). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Duncan, S. (1972). Some signals and rules for taking speaking turns in conversations, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 79-84. Duncan, S. (1973). Towards a grammar of dyadic conversation. Semiotica, 9, 24-46. Exline, R. V. (1963). Exploration in the process of person perception: Visual interaction in relation to competition, sex and the need for affiliation. Journal of Personality, 31, 1-20. Fries, C. C. (1952). The structure of English. New York: Harcourt Brace. Goffman, E. (1971). Relations in public: Microstudies of the public order. London: Allen Lane. Goffman, E. (1972). Strategic interaction. New York: Ballantine. Good, C. H. (1977). Some structural aspect of casual conversation. University of East Anglia Papers in Linguistics, 4, 18-37. Goodwin, C. (1984). Notes on story structure and the organization of participation. In M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 225-246). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jefferson, G. (1973). A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation: Overlapped tagpositioned address terms in closing sequences, Semiotica, 9, 47-96.

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Kendon, A. (1967). Some functions of gaze-direction in social interaction Acta Psychologica, 32, 101-125. Orestrom, B. (1983). Turn-taking in English conversation. Lund, Sweden: Gleerup. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., and Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696-735. Sinclair, J. M. (1980). Some implications of discourse analysis for ESP methodology. Applied Linguistics, 1(3), 252-261. Sinclair, J. M., and Coulthard, M. (1975). Towards an analysis of discourse. London: Oxford University Press. Schegloff, E. A., and Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica, 8, 289-327. Wardhaugh, R. (1985). How conversation works. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 5

PRAGMATIC FEATURES OF POLITICAL SPEECHES IN ENGLISH BY SOME PROMINENT NIGERIAN LEADERS Dele Adeyanju Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study carries out a pragmatic analysis of political speeches in English by some past Nigerian leaders with a view to identifying the speech act types that are predominant in such speeches. The study, which focuses only on the opening paragraphs of the selected speeches utilizes the speech act theory and the concept of implicature as analytical tools. It discovered that a sequence of direct and indirect illocutionary acts used by the speakers dovetailed into the quest for acceptance and cooperation in the polity. The study then recommends an appraisal by target audiences of not only the actions of those in power, but also their words. This would enable the electorate to see whether the actions of those at the corridors of power really match their words or not.

Keywords: pragmatics, political speeches, country, freedom.

INTRODUCTION Language, as a powerful instrument of mass mobilization and sociopolitical engineering, has played a vital role in the emergence and sustenance of the Nigerian nation-state. Right from the colonial era to date, eminent personalities in the nation’s political landscape have made notable speeches that have had a long lasting effect not only on individuals, but also on the destiny of the entire nation. Speeches made by notable politicians like Azikiwe, Balewa, and Awolowo as well as those made by military rulers such as Gowon, Obasanjo, and Babangida merit a pragmatic study in view of the roles played by such speeches in the nation’s chequered political history. Scholars have looked at political speeches in Nigeria from different perspectives. Oha’s (1994) work is a stylistic study of war speeches of Yakubu Gowon and Emeka Ojukwu focusing on the two key players in the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970). Adegbija (1995) examines discourse tacts in military coup speeches in Nigeria. Adegbija’s study highlights the linguistic strategies employed by Nigerian military coup leaders while trying to take over the reins of power and seeking for public acceptance. Ayodabo (2003) investigates from

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pragmatic and stylistic perspectives the forms and functions of hedges in a presidential media chat programme hosted by the Nigerian Television Authority. The study focuses on the first edition of the said programme in which the then President Obasanjo was the guest on October 5, 1999. Another study carried out by Yisa (2003) entitled “Dysphemisms in the language of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo” examines disparaging expressions in selected speeches of former President Obasanjo since his assumption of office in 1999. In this article, we attempt a pragmatic analysis of the opening paragraphs of selected speeches of five former Nigerian leaders who at different periods served as head of state or head of government. The selected leaders are Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (first indigenous Governor-General of Nigeria), Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (first Prime Minister of Nigeria), General Yakubu Gowon (second military ruler of Nigeria), General Olusegun Obasanjo (fourth military ruler of Nigeria), and General Ibrahim Babangida (sixth military ruler of Nigeria). Using the speech act theory and the concept of implicature as analytical tools, the study seeks to identify the kinds of speech acts that are predominant in our data and their frequency distribution with a view to determining the global pattern of pragmatic moves of political speeches of Nigerian political leaders. Pragmatics, which developed as a discipline “as reaction against the purely formalist approach to Language” (Adegbija, 1999, p. 6), has been variously defined by scholars. In the words of Barton (1990), pragmatics is “the meaning that consists of interpretation within context” (p. 6). Referring to the general views of scholars, when the discipline began to receive attention in the early 1980s, Thomas (1995) claims that the most common definitions of pragmatics were “meaning in use” or “meaning in context” (p. 1-2), adding that people do not always or even usually say what they mean. Speakers frequently mean much more than their words actually say. On his own part, Stalnaker (1978) sees pragmatics as “the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed” (p. 383), whereas Crystal (1987) opines that “pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others” (p. 120). Yule (1985) gives a rather insightful perspective of the subject by defining pragmatics as the study of intended speaker meaning, claiming further that it is the study of invisible meaning or how we recognize what is meant even when meaning is not explicitly verbalized. This appears to be in consonance with the claim of Fromkin and Rodman (1978) that pragmatics is “the study of how context influences the way we interpret sentences” (pp. 186-187). A synthesis of all the above definitions could be found in the following perspective expressed by Adegbija (1999). Pragmatics may be seen as the study of language use in particular communicative contexts or situations of necessity, this would take cognizance of the message being communicated or the speech act being performed; the participants involved; their intention, knowledge of the world and the impact of these on their interactions; what they have taken for granted as part of the context (or the presupposition); the deductions they make on the basis of the context; what is implied by what is said or left unsaid; the impact of the non-verbal aspects of interaction on meaning, etc. (p. 189). The principal goals of pragmatics as culled out from Adegbija (1999, p. 198) are: (a) to explain how meaning is decoded from utterances in context and in particular situations; (b) to explain how utterances convey meaning in context;

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(c) to explain how context contributes to the encoding and decoding of meaning; (d) to explain how speakers and hearers of utterances perceive them as conveying the meaning they are considered as conveying in particular utterances; (e) to explain how speakers can say one thing and mean something else; and (f) to explain how deductions are made in context with respect to what meaning has been engaged in a particular utterance. Several scholars have come up with one suggestion or the other towards the fulfillment of the above goals. Notable works in this regard are those of Austin (1962) Grice (1975), Searle (1969, 1979), Bach and Harnish (1979), Adegbija (1982), Lawal (1997), and others. We undertake a brief review of some of these works. Austin (1962) distinguishes between “constatives” and “performatives.” According to Austin, constatives make statements; describe objects, situations, and events; and assert whether they are true or false—e.g., I love my wife could either be true or false. A performative, on the other hand, cannot be said to have the property of truth or falsity; rather, its utterance, such as asking a question, answering a question, greeting, accusing, or promising implies the performance of an action. Thus, the difference between Austin’s constatives and performatives is the same as the one between saying and doing. Austin also says that performatives could be “felicitous” or “infelicitous” (appropriate or inappropriate within the context). For a performative to be felicitous, according to Austin, there must be an acceptable conventional procedure which should include the uttering of certain words by certain persons in certain circumstances and this must be followed correctly and completely. Also, the particular persons and circumstances must be appropriate for the procedure being invoked. For instance, on the occasion of independence anniversary celebration, the appropriate person to give a national broadcast is the head of state or head of government, whose speech must not only be appropriate for the said anniversary celebration but delivered at the appropriate time on the anniversary day in line with the stated conventional procedure. Austin further states that engaging in a speech act implies performing three complementary acts of locution, illocution, and perlocution. As Lawal (1997:151) aptly presents it: a locutionary act is a sentence uttered with a determinate sense and reference, an act performed in order to communicate. The study of locutionary act is the domain of descriptive linguistics which comprises phonetics and phonology, lexis, syntax and linguistic semantics.

Illocutionary act on the other hand is a nonlinguistic act that a speaker performs with the use of a locutionary act—e.g., greeting, warning, ordering, threatening, etc. Such acts are performed through performative sentences. The utterance of a performative sentence leads to the performance of an action or language function (illocutionary act). Illocutionary acts consist of two classes: direct and indirect. As illustrated by Lawal (1997), the expression, “I am going” for instance, “which is a direct performative of ‘stating’ or ‘informing’ can perform the indirect performative of ‘warning’, ‘threatening,’ or ‘promising’ depending on the communicative context” (p. 152). Perlocutionary act according to Levinson (1980) is the intended or unintended consequence of the speaker’s utterance. It is the reaction of the hearer to the speaker’s locutionary act. The utterance you are hereby sentenced to ten years imprisonment with hard labour made, for instance, as a verdict by a presiding judge to a man standing trial in a case at

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a law court could produce tears from the eyes of the accused while the utterance you are hereby discharged and acquitted uttered by the same judge to another person on the same or another case may produce a smile or a shout of joy from the accused. Austin further classifies speech acts into five categories: verdictives, excercitives, commissives, behabitives, and expressives. Searle’s (1969) theory is based on the hypothesis that “speaking a language is engaging in a rule governed form of behaviour” (p. 22). This implies that speaking a language is performing acts based on a set of rules. He expatiates on his notion of rules by drawing a distinction between what he calls regulative rules and constitutive rules. Regulative rules according to Searle, “regulate antecedently or independently existing forms of behaviour” (p. 33). They form the basis for the appraisal of behaviour and they could be paraphrased as imperatives. Rules of etiquette come under this category. Constitutive rules, on the other hand, do not merely regulate behaviours, they create new forms of behaviour. For instance, as Adegbija aptly puts it, “the rules of football or chess do not merely regulate the games, but “create the very possibility of playing such games” (pp. 6-15). Based on the observation that Austin’s classification of speech act was fraught with overlaps, Searle (1979) came up with an alternative classification as follows: assertives, directive, commissives, expressives, and declaratives. Assertives commit the speaker to the truth of a proposition. Examples of performative verbs under the class of assertive include believe, conclude, deny, report, state, affirm, claim, and report. Commissives consist of performative verbs such as pledge, promise, guarantee, swear, and offer. Such performative verbs get the speaker committed in varying degrees to some future action. The class of performative verbs tagged as expressives has to do with the expression of some psychological state. Such verbs include apologize, deplore, thank, congratulate, and welcome, whereas declaratives effect an alteration in the status of an object or situation. Performative verbs under this category are declare, name, sack, resign, etc. Directives consist of such performative verbs as order, challenge, request, urge, and command; and with their use, the speaker tries to get the hearer to do something. Bach and Harnish’s (1979) contribution to pragmatics is based on “intention and inference” (p. 4). The theory holds that illocutionary acts are performed with the intention that the hearer identifies the act being performed and that linguistic communication is basically an inferential process. Bach and Harnish claim that the inference made by the hearer is based not just on what the speaker says but also on mutual contextual beliefs (MCBs)—that is, salient information known to both speaker and hearer from the communicative context. They opine that “the contextual beliefs that figure in speakers’ intentions and hearers’ inferences must be mutual if communication is to take place” (p. 5). In inferring what S is saying, Bach and Harnish claim, H also has to rely on the “Presumption of literalness” (PL). They claim in other words that: If S could (under the circumstances) be speaking literally, then S is speaking literally. Conversely, if it is evident to H that S could not be speaking literally, H supposes S to be speaking non-literally and therefore seeks to identify what the non-literal illocutionary act is. (p. 12)

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Grice (1975) proposes a cooperative principle (CP), which combines a number of maxims specifying the conventions that interlocutors should normally be expected to obey. Such maxims are as follows:

Quantity (i) Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange). (ii) Do not make your contribution more informative than required. Quality: Make your contribution one that is true. (i) Do not say what you believe to be false. (ii) Do not say that for which you lack evidence. Relation: Say only that which is relevant to the communication at hand. Manner: Be perspicuous, i.e., (i) avoid obscurity of expression (ii) avoid ambiguity (iii) be brief (iv) be orderly. According to Grice, it is out of the flouting of the cooperative principle that conversational implicatures emerge. Conversational implicatures refer to what is conveyed beside what is said. This study relies mainly on Lawal’s (1997) model labeled as “Aspects of a Pragmatic Theory” because the model fairly accommodates the essentials of previous theories. As seen in Figure 1, the theory identifies two hierarchical structures: “surface” and “background” structure of an utterance. It consists of contexts, competencies, background information, and speech acts in that order. Each of the items feeds the “one immediately to its right,” as Lawal puts it, “through a sub-set of hierarchical contextual levels – linguistic, situational, psychological, social, sociological and cosmological.” We try to apply this model to the selected speeches under study by situating it thematically within the above named sub-set of hierarchical contextual levels. Thus we have the linguistic context, followed by the situational context (topic of discourse, participants and location). The psychological context according to Lawal “refers to the background of the mood, attitudes and personal beliefs of the language user.” The social context has to do with the interpersonal relations among the interlocutors while the sociological context is about the sociocultural and historical settings. The cosmological context handles the language user’s worldview. Using the same model in an earlier work, Ayodabo (1997) opines that some or all of the competencies mentioned above (and represented in Figure 1 of the present study) “can be employed as pragmatic mappings to interpret/decode and classify an utterance into a particular speech act type, and to give an appropriate response or reaction” (p. 139). Following the example set by Lawal (1997), we also try to identify the types, sequence, and patterns of speech acts in our data. The study is thus committed to an inferential mode of

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analysis in which H uses MCBs, world knowledge, and other contextual variables to recognize S’s intention.

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework (see Lawal, 1997, p. 155).

SUMMARY OF THE SELECTED SPEECHES Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s inaugural speech as governor-general was an expression of joy and gratitude to his audience as well as a passionate appeal to Nigerians to cooperate with the political class in an effort to build a “hate-free, fear-free and greed-free nation.” The speaker, who was at the forefront of the struggle for Nigerian’s independence, enjoined Nigerians to set aside their political differences and cooperate with him in the task of nation-building.

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Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, first prime minister’s speech on the independence day, was also an expression of joy and pride “at being the Nigerian citizen privileged to accept from Her Royal Highness the symbols of Nigeria’s independence.” The elated prime minister pledged to dedicate his life to the service of the country. General Yakubu Gawon, on assumption of duty after the military coup in which his predecessor, General Aguiyi Ironsi, lost his life in 1966, expressed the hope that he would be able to resolve most of the problems that had disunited the country. He assured foreigners of their safety and warned against looting and sabotage while at the same time expressing confidence in his ability to “pull the nation out of its . . . predicament.” General Olusegun Obasanjo’s maiden broadcast to the nation after the assassination of his predecessor, General Murtala Mohammed, in a failed coup was primarily an expression of sorrow and secondarily an appeal to Nigerians not to take the laws into their hands. He informed the nation that he had accepted the call against his personal wish to serve as the new head of state. General Ibrahim Babangida’s address to the nation on the occasion of the annument of the June 12th 1993 presidential election apparently won by Chief M.K.O Abiola was a deceptive device to align his mood with the mood of the nation. He claimed to “feel a profound sense of disappointment at the annulment,” which had affected the transition programme of his administration.

DATA ANALYSIS Our study focuses only on two sentences of the opening paragraph of each of the selected speeches. We therefore have a total of ten sentences in our sample. Thus we have samples 110 analyzed as follows:

Sample 1 It is with humility mingled with joy that I thank this grand course of patriots and friends of Nigeria for congregating here today on the occasion of my inauguration as the first African Governor-General and commander-in-chief of the Federation of Nigeria. Speaker: Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe on the occasion of his inauguration as governor-general of the Nigeria (1960). Illocutionary act: (a) Direct (assertive) stating. (b) Indirect (verdictive) assessing. Contexts/competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic understanding of the meaning of the sentence is required. (b) Situational: The speaker Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe has expressed his gratitude to the audience (referred to as patriots and friends of Nigeria) who had gathered together to witness his inauguration as the first indigenous governor-general and commander-inchief of the Federation of Nigeria.

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Dele Adeyanju (c) Psychological: The speaker felt excited and happy as he took on the mantle of leadership as Governor-general. (d) Social: A relationship was established between the speaker and the audience which combined a cross-section of the Nigerian populace and the international community. (e) Sociological: A series of nationalist activities and agitations for self-rule eventually translated to the new status of the speaker.

Expected perlocutionary effect: Cheers, accolades, and congratulatory messages (as customary in Nigeria) since there were no overt protest or negative reaction from the audience.

Sample 2 Let us bind the nation’s wounds and let us heal the breaches of the past so that in forging our nation, there shall emerge on this continent a hate-free, fear-free and greed-free people. Speaker: Same as sample 1 above. Context: Same as sample 1 above. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct (directive) appealing. (b) Indirect (verdictive) assessing. Contexts/competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic knowledge of the semantics of the English language is required. (b) Situational: The speaker was delivering his inaugural address as governor-general and he solicited the support of his audience for the political class in the task of nation-building. (c) Psychological: The speaker was happy and full of appreciation for his audience who had come to witness his inauguration. (d) Social: A relationship existed between the speaker and his audience, which consisted of friends, fellow politicians, and members of the international community. (e) Sociological: In the course of nationalist struggle, political parties had emerged mainly on the basis of tribal sentiments which did not augur well for the unity of the political class. Expected perlocutionary effect: Same as in sample 1 above.

Sample 3 The first of October, 1960 is a date to which for two years, every Nigerian has been eagerly looking forward. Speaker: Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in his Independence Day Speech (1960). Illocutionary act: (a) Direct (assertive) stating. (b) Indirect (expressive) savouring the country’s new status.

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Context/Competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic knowledge of the syntax and semantics of the sentence is required. (b) Situational: The speaker declared that the long-awaited Independence Day had come. This marked the country’s freedom from British colonial rule. (c) Psychological: The speaker felt satisfied that Nigeria was now independent. His eagerness and that of his fellow Nigerians that the country should be independent had now been met. (d) Social: There was a relationship between the speaker who had now because the prime minister and his audience (the populace); a relationship between the government and the governed. (e) Sociological: The listeners need to distinguish between colonial administration and self-rule. The knowledge of what the new political dispensation entails is required. Expected Perlocutioinary effect: Cheers, accolades, and congratulatory messages.

Sample 4 Words cannot adequately express my joy and pride at being the Nigerian citizen privileged to accept from Her Royal Highness the symbols of Nigeria’s independence. Speaker: Same as sample 3 above. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct (assertive) stating. (b) Indirect (expressive) savouring the new experience. Contexts/competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic understanding of the grammar and meaning of the sentence is required. (b) Situational: Independence Day had come after many decades of colonial rule. (c) Psychological: The speaker felt elated and proud of being the Nigerian privileged to head the government of newly independent Nigeria. (d) Social: The relationship between the speaker and the audience was that of a leader to his followers. (e) Sociological: Knowledge of the idea that Independence Day calls for celebration is shared by both the speaker and his audience. There is also a subtle reference to the election victory that brought the speaker to power. Expected Perlocutionary effect: The audience must have been thrilled.

Sample 5 I sincerely hope we shall be able to resolve most of the problems that have disunited us in the past and really come to respect and trust one another in accordance with all known codes of good conduct and etiquette.

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Speaker: General Yakubu Gowon, on assumption of office after a military coup in which his predecessor, Aguiyi Ironsi, lost his life. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct: (assertive) stating. (b) Indirect: (directive) requesting. Contexts/Competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic knowledge of the grammar and meaning of the sentence is required to understand that there were unresolved problems that precipitated the coup and counter-coup that brought the speaker to power. (b) Situational: The speaker’s utterance was predicated on his belief that most of the problems confronting the nation were caused by mutual suspicion and mistrust. He spoke against the backdrop of the coup and counter-coup that brought him to power. (c) Psychological: There was eagerness in the speaker (then a young inexperienced head of state) to cope with the challenges confronting the nation. (d) Social: The relationship between the speaker and his audience was that of a new military ruler who took over the mantle of leadership after a coup that claimed the life of his predecessor and listeners who were glued to their Radio/TV sets to hear what the new military ruler had to say. (e) Sociological: Nigeria consists of a multilingual/multicultural and multiethnic society. Knowledge of factors of disunity in such culturally diverse nation is needed to properly decode the above utterance. Expected perlocutionary effect: Anxiety.

Sample 6 All the foreigners are assured of their personal safety and should have no fear of being molested. Speaker: Same as sample 5. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct: (assertive) stating. (b) Indirect: (commissive) assuring. Contexts/Competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic understanding of the meaning of the sentence is required. (b) Situational: The speaker, in his capacity as the new head of state, had to allay the fears of the people especially foreigners who might feel insecure as a result of the coup that had just taken place. (c) Psychological: The speaker felt duty-bound to use his good offices to control the affairs of the nation. His new position had bestowed on him the courage of heart to do that. (d) Social: There was a relationship between a new military ruler and a target Radio/TV audience. (e) Sociological: Military coups and counter-coups engender crisis leading to insecurity and fear. Foreigners are not left out of such fear and sense of insecurity as the

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political atmosphere appears uncertain. This knowledge is needed to properly decode the above utterance.

Sample 7 For me personally, this has been one of the saddest moments of my life. Speaker: Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo on assumption of office as head of state after the assasination of General Murtala Mohammed (February 13, 1976). Illocutionary act: (a) Direct: (assertive) saying. (b) Indirect: (directive) appealing. Contexts/ Competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic understanding of the syntax and semantics of the sentence is required. (b) Situational: The speaker expresses his sorrow over the assassination of his predecessor in a coup. It was at that mournful period that he had to take on the mantle of leadership as the new head of state. (c) Psychological: The speaker and the target audience felt very sorrowful. (d) Social: There was a relationship between the speaker and his target audience. Both parties were mourning. (e) Sociological: There was a failed coup in which the then head of state (General Murtala Mohammed) was assassinated, and the entire nation was thrown into mourning. Knowledge of the mood of the nation is required. Expected perlocutionary effect: Mourning.

Sample 8 The supreme military council has already announced the assassination of His Excellency, General Murtala Mohammed. Speaker: Same as sample 7. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct: (assertive) stating. (b) Indirect: (declarative) confirming. Contexts/competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic understanding of the semantics of the utterance is required. (b) Situational: The assassination of the then head of state, General Murtala Muhammed, in a failed military coup had brought his next in command, Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo to power. His utterance as seen in the above sentence was a confirmation of the earlier announcement that Murtala had indeed been assassinated. (c) Psychological: Very sorrowful, though now saddled with the responsibility of ruling.

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Dele Adeyanju (d) Social: The speaker and his radio/TV audience united in a sorrowful mood as the nation mourned. (e) Sociological: Knowledge of the mood of the nation is needed in a situation where a head of state whose six-month tenure had witnessed far-reaching changes died suddenly in the hands of coup plotters.

Expected perlocutionary effect: People must have extolled the virtues of the late head of state.

Sample 9 I address you today with a very deep sense of world history and particularly of the history of our great country. Speaker: General Ibrahim Babangida (6th military ruler) on the annulment of the June 12th 1993 election. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct (assertive) saying. (b) Indirect (directive) request. Context/Competencies: (a) Linguistic: Basic understanding of the meaning of the sentence in required. (b) Situational: A presidnetial election apparently won by M.K.O. Abiola was annulled by the Federal Military Government presided (FMG) over by the speaker, thus causing uncertainties in the political terrain. There was an apprehension of serious political crisis as the electorate felt betrayed by the failure of the FMG to conclude the transition programme by handing over power to the presumed winner. (c) Psychological: The speaker felt compelled to align his mood (though without sincerity) with the mood of the electorate whose verdict he had failed to implement. (d) Social: The utterance was a face-saving attempt to mend the somewhat strained relationship between the speaker and his target radio/TV audience and to seek their acceptance of his decision (annulment of the election). (e) Sociological: Knowledge of the betrayal of the electorate by the FMG is needed. Expected perlocutionary effect: The electorate felt deceived and cheated.

Sample 10 In the aftermath of the recently annulled presidential election, I feel as I believe you yourself feel a profound sense of disappointment at the outcome of our last efforts at laying the foundation of a viable democratic system of government in Nigeria. Speaker: Same as sample 9. Illocutionary act: (a) Direct (assertive) saying. (b) Indirect (directive) requesting.

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Contexts/Competencies: (a) Linguistic: Knowledge of the semantics of the utterance is needed. (b) Situational: A presidential election was annulled leading the nation to a political crisis. The electorate felt disappointed and the speaker tries to win their approval of his action. (c) Psychological: The speaker perceived the tension in the political atmosphere and the looming crisis as a result of the annulment. He diplomatically seeks acceptance of the annulment. (d) Social: The relationship between the speaker and his radio/TV audience was somewhat strained by the annulment of their mandate. The speaker tried to win their acceptance of his action. (e) Sociological: Knowledge of the political crisis and the threat to security of life and property as a result of the annulment is needed. Expected perlocutionary effect: People were further disappointed by the speaker’s overtures to accept the annulment of their mandate.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The analysis of our data and the frequency distribution of speech act types as revealed on the table below show that all the ten sentences in our sample are direct illocutionary acts. Table 1. Frequency Distribution of Speech Act Types Speech Act Assertive Directive Expressive Verdictive Commissive Declarative

Frequency 9 5 2 2 1 1

Percentage 90% 50% 20% 20% 10% 10%

Nine of them are under the category of Assertive, whereas only one direct illocutionary act comes under the category of Directive. In other words the percentage of assertive acts stands at 90%. However, in addition to the direct illocutionary acts performed by each sentence in our sample, there is also an indirect act. This brings the total number of illocutionary acts in our sample to twenty. The indirect acts are in the categories of directive, expressive, verdictive, commissive, and declarative. The fact that each of the sentences analyzed perform both direct and indirect acts show that Nigerian political leaders do not always mean what they say; neither do they always say what they mean. In sample 10 of our data, for instance, General Ibrahim Babangida, speaking on the annulment of June 12 presidential election, claimed to be in the same mood with the nation (i.e. feeling disappointed), whereas his real intention was to make Nigerians accept his action (annulment). Thus, the indirect act performed by his utterance was a Directive while

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the Direct act was simply an Assertive (stating). The indirect act (Directive) of Babangida’s utterance (sample 10) implicates that the looming political crisis was precipitated by the annulment of June 12, 1993 election, and that Nigerians felt embittered and disappointed by the action of the federal military government headed by Babangida who, in a desperate attempt to make the people accept his action, pretended to align his mood with the mood of the people whose mandate he had annulled. In a global macro-speech act sense, the totality of political speeches represented in our data displays overtures made by political leaders to the public in their quest for acceptance and cooperation. It is believed that no head of state/government can succeed without the cooperation of the populace. In order to secure such cooperation, a leader must first of all get accepted. To this end, the opening paragraphs studied in our selected speeches clearly show the deployment of direct and indirect illocutionary acts by past heads of state/government to get established in power or get their decisions endorsed. Nnamdi Azikiwe (sample 2), for instance, used a direct act (a request and an appeal) while at the same time using an indirect act (verdictive) for assessing the sociopolitical problems of the “nation’s wounds.” In another instance, Yakubu Gowon (sample 6) used a direct act (assertive) and at the same time an indirect act (commissive) in his maiden broadcast to the nation when he said, “all foreigners are assured of their personal safety.” As rightly opined by Ayodabo (1997), a certain sequence of various speech acts may be intended and understood, and hence function socially, as one speech act. Such a speech act performed by a sequence of speech acts is called a ‘global speech act’ or macro-speech act. In a global sense, therefore, the main thrust of the selected speeches of past Nigerian political leaders as reflected in our data is the quest for acceptance and cooperation. This is born out of the idea that a political leader can not succeed if he does not enjoy the acceptance and cooperation of the people. As seen in our data, Nigerian political rhetoric is characterized by elements of excitement as demonstrated by Dr. Azikiwe and Alhaji Balewa (samples 1-4); forceful and command tone as represented by Lt. Col. Gowon (samples 5 and 6); linguistic diplomacy as represented by Lt. Gen. Obasanjo and General Babangida (samples 7-9); and outright insincerity as demonstrated by General Babangida (sample 10), especially on his so-called “disappointment” and implied apology to the nation over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. From the foregoing, one sees the need to critically appraise not only the action of those in power but also their words. This will enable the governed to compare and contrast the performances of those in power and their speeches and see whether their actions really match their words. Once this is done, the right opinion and attitude could be formed towards a particular office holder.

APPENDIX Excerpts from the Selected Speeches TEXT 1: Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe (First African Governor-General and first President of Nigeria) CONTEXT: Inaugural address as Governor-General (1960)

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SOURCE: Daily Times (1960) It is with humility mingled with joy that I thank this grand course of patriots and friends of Nigeria for congregating here, today, on the occasion of my inauguration as the first African governor-general and Commander-in-Chief of the Federation of Nigeria . . . come and join Abubakar with me, Sardauna, Awolowo, Akintola, Osadebay, Okpara, Aminu Kano, Ibrahim Imam. Let us bind the Nation’s wounds and let us heal the breaches of the past so that in forging our Nation, there shall emerge on this continent a hate-free, fear-free and greed-free people.

TEXT 2:

Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (first Prime Minister)

CONTEXT: Independence Day speech (1960) SOURCE: Mr. Prime Minister (1964) Today is Independence Day. The first of October 1960 is a date to which for two years every Nigerian has been eagerly looking forward. At last our great day has arrived and Nigeria is now indeed an independent Nation. Words cannot adequately express my joy and pride at being the Nigerian citizen privileged to accept from Her Royal Highness the symbols of Nigeria’s independence. It is a unique privilege which I shall remember for ever, and it gives me strength and courage as I dedicate my life to the service of our country.

TEXT 3:

Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon (Nigeria’s second Military ruler)

CONTEXT: On assumption of duty after a coup SOURCE: Daily Times (1966) Fellow countrymen, I sincerely hope we shall be able to resolve most of the problems that have disunited us in the past and really come to respect and trust one another in accordance with all known codes of good conduct and etiquette. All foreigners are assured of their personal safety and should have no fear of being molested. . . . Any foreign interference in any form will be regarded as an act of aggression. All members of the armed forces are requested to keep within their barracks except on essential duties and when ordered from supreme Headquarters. Troops must not terrorize the public. . . . Any act of looting or sabotage will be dealt with severely. I am convinced that with your cooperation and understanding, we shall be able to pull the country out of its present predicament.

TEXT 4:

Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria’s fourth military ruler)

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CONTEXT: On assumption of duty after the failed military coup in which his predecessor, Gen. Murtala Muhammed was killed. SOURCE: Nigerian Tribune (1976) Fellow country men, We are once again passing through a critical period in the history of our country. For me personally this has been one of the saddest moments of my life. The supreme military council has already announced the assassination of His Excellency, General Murtala Muhammed. We all mourn the passing away of one of the greatest sons of Nigeria. . . . I wish to assure the Nation that the supreme military council has taken a sound decision that all those found guilty will be summarily dealt with in a military way. I therefore appeal to all sections of Nigerians not to take the laws into their hands but to rest assured that the federal military government will see to it that justice is done. As you have heard in the statement by the supreme military council, I have been called upon against my personal wish and desire to serve as the new Head of State. But I have accepted the honour in the interest of the nation and in memory of the late Head of State.

TEXT 5:General Ibrahim Babangida (Nigerian’s sixth Military ruler). CONTEXT:On the occasion of the annulment of the June 12th, 1993 presidential election apparently won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola. SOURCE:Daily Times (1993) Fellow Nigerians, I address you today with a very deep sense of world history and particularly of the history of our great country. In the aftermath of the recently annulled presidential election, I feel, as I believe you yourself feel a profound sense of disappointment at the outcome of our last efforts at laying the foundation of a viable democratic system of government in Nigeria. I therefore wish, on behalf of myself and members of the National Defence and Security Council and indeed of the entire administration, to feel with my fellow countrymen and women for the cancellation of the election. It was a rather disappointing experience in the course of carrying through the last element of the transition to civil rule programme.

REFERENCES Adegbija, E. (1982). A speech act analysis of consumer advertisements. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Indiana University, Bloomington. (University Microfilms International, No. 8307973) Adegbija, E. (1995). I, Major-General X: Discourse tacts in military coup speeches in Nigeria. Text, 15(2), 253-270.

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Adegbija. E. (1999). Titbits on discourse analysis and pragmatics. In E. Adegbija (Ed.), The English language and literature in English: An introductory handbook (pp. 186-205). Ilorin: Department of Modern European Languages. Allan, K. (1986). Linguistic meaning (Vol. 2). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul PLC. Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Ayodabo, J. O. (1997). A pragma-stylistic study of M.K.O. Abiola’s historic speech of June 24, 1993. In A. Lawal (Ed.), Stylistics in Theory and Practice. Ilorin: Paragon Books. Ayodabo, J. O. (2003). A pragma-stylistic study of forms and functions of hedges in a presidential media chat programme on the Nigerian Television Authority. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. Bach, K., and Harnish, R.M. (1979). Linguistic communication and speech acts. Cambridge: MIT Press. Barton, E. (1990). Non-sentential constituents: A theory of pragmatics and grammatical structure. New-York: John Benjamins. Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Daily Times. (1960). President Azikiwe: Selected speeches 1960-1964. Douglas J. (2000). A semantic and pragmatic study of language of Christian banners, handbills and posters in English. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Emuchay, J. (2002). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Me and you. In S. T. Babatunde and D. S. Adeyanju (Eds.), Language, meaning and society: Papers in honour of E.E. Adegbija at 50. Ilorin: Hatee Press. Fromkin, V., and Rodman, R. (1978). An introduction to language. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole and J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press. Kempson, R. (1977). Semantic theory. London: Cambridge University press. Lawal, A. ed. (1997) Stylistics in Theory and Practice. Ilorin: Paragon Books. Lawal, A. (1997). Pragmatics in stylistics: A speech act analysis of Soyinka’s telephone conversation. In A. Lawal (Ed.), Stylistics in theory and practice. Ilorin: Paragon Books. Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman. Levinson, S. C. (1980). Speech act theory: The state of the art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Odebunmi, A. (2002). The pragmatics of face acts in a Nigerian university administration. In S. T. Babatunde and D. S. Adeyanju (Eds.), Language, meaning and society: Papers in honour of E. Adegbija at 50. Ilorin: Haytee Press. Odebunmi, A. (2006). Meaning in English. Ogbomoso: Critical Sphere. Oha, O. (1994). Language in war situation: A stylistic study of war speeches of Yakubu Gowon and Emeka Ojukwu. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Searle J. (1969). Speech Acts: An essay in the philosophy of language: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Searle, J. (1979). Indirect speech acts. In P. Cole and J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts (pp. 59-82). New York: Academic Press. Stalnaker, R. (1978). Assertion. In P. Cole and J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics (Vol. 9, pp. 315-333). New York: Academic Press. Tafawa Balewa, A. (1964). Mr. Prime Minister. Lagos: Nigeria National Press. Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to ppragmatics. New York: Longman. Yisa, Y. K. (2003). Dysphemisms in the language of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo. In S. Makoni and U. H. Meinhof (Eds.), Africa and applied linguistics (pp. 104-119). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Yule, G. (1985). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

LEGITIMIZATION AND COERCION IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: A CASE STUDY OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO ADDRESS TO THE PDP ELDERS AND STAKEHOLDERS FORUM Rotimi Taiwo Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This article examines the enactment of power in political discourse using a speech delivered by Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president of Nigeria at an elders’ and stakeholders’ meeting of his party, PDP. This address is significant because of its consideration as a speech that further heightened the political tension that was gathering momentum then in the country. In the speech, Obasanjo’s choice of language appears to assert his resolution to continue a campaign for his party, condemn the opposition, demonstrate his knowledge of the consequences of his actions, defend his party’s choice of presidential candidate, and affirm his resolution to hand over power to those who will continue with his reforms. His choice of language generally appears to portray his distancing and inclusion strategies and establish his ideological stance. His strategies for establishing legitimization include the metaphorical description of himself as a ‘kingmaker’ and his emphasis on credible successors who will continue with his reforms. Furthermore, his use of expressions like ‘criminals,’ ‘rogues,’ and ‘spoilers’ to describe those to whom he would not want to hand over power shows his use of discourse power to emphasize his party’s legitimization. He also exercised power through a direct suggestion of threat and intimidation of the opposition by his description of the forthcoming election as a “do or die affair.”

Keywords: power, campaign, discourse, party, pronominals, legitimization, coercion.

INTRODUCTION One of the claims of Critical Discourse Analysis is that language users express themselves within social and political contexts (van Dijk, 1993). The context of political utterances helps linguists to describe and interpret their relevance as forms of social actions enacting power and dominance within the human social structure.

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Language plays an important role in the process of manifesting concrete political will and transforming it into concrete social action in discourse. According to Schaffner (1996), “any political action is prepared, accompanied, controlled and influenced by language” (p. 210). The study of the language of politics has been carried out within the framework of political rhetoric, linguistic stylistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and critical discourse analysis. Aspects of political communication include but are not limited to statements made by politicians, writings of politicians, political speeches, election campaigns, parliamentary debates, and political interviews. This study will critically examine a speech made by the former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, while addressing the members of his party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), at Abeokuta on February 10, 2007. During the campaign, Obasanjo described the election coming in April that year as a “do or die affair” for him, his party, and for Nigeria. The goal of this article is to provide a critical analysis of Obasanjo’s statement by relating his linguistic behaviour to the sociopolitical context in which he made the campaign.

LANGUAGE AND POLITICS Politics is essentially seen as the struggle for and control of resources, values, norms, and behaviour of a social group. The major way politicians do this is through the use of language, which possesses the power needed for such control. However, language, according to Wodak and de Cillia (2006), is not powerful on its own. Rather, it gains power by the use powerful people make of it. Bourdieu, one of the leading social thinkers of this age, argues that language should not only be seen as a means of communication, but also as a medium of power through which individuals pursue their own interest and display their practical competence (see Bourdieu, 1991). One of the major goals of language use in political campaigns is persuasion, which is aimed at changing people’s perceptions. How effectively a candidate can use rhetoric to persuade the electorate, to a large extent, determines how successful he/she will be in controlling or keeping power (see Opeibi, 2005). To corroborate this, Ayoade (1982:724) says, Language is the conveyor belt of power. It moves people to vote, debate or revolt. It is therefore a central explanation of political stability or polarization

Likewise, Awonusi (2008) sees the relationship between language and politics as “bidirectional.” According to him, “language affects politics as politics affects language. The intersection of language and politics provides the plank for using politics to affect people in society” (p.10). Several scholars have been looking at the interface between language and politics and the features of language used by politicians (Allen, 2007; Beard, 2000; Chilton, 2004; Chilton and Schaffner, 1997; van Dijk, 1998; Wodak and de Cillia, 2006; and others.) To underscore the importance of investigating language use in politics, Beard (2000) asserts,

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The language of politics . . . helps us to understand how language is used by those who wish to gain power, those who wish to exercise power and those who wish to keep power. (p. 2)

Likewise, Fairclough (1989) sees language as significant in the production, maintenance, and change of social relations of power. This is particularly true in politics. Research in the field of language and politics has continued to expand in recent years. Several scholars have written on the language of politics and politicians, focusing on the different aspects of the linguistic features of politicians’ written and spoken speeches. Chilton and Schaffner (1997), looking at political discourse from a broad perspective, proposed four types of strategic functions served by political discourses: coercion, resistance, legitimization, and delegitimization. Chilton (2004) subsequently reduced the number of functions to three: coercion, legitimization, and delegitimization. Obasanjo’s speech under consideration has a combination of the functions of coercion and legitimization, as we shall see later in this study. Several authors have examined Nigerian politicians’ speeches. In an earlier study of political rhetoric, Awonuga (1988) examines seven characteristics of Obafemi Awolowo’s use of language. According to him, to put his ideas clearly across to his audience, Obafemi Awolowo, like many politicians, used metaphors. The fifteen types of metaphor identified by Awonuga were said to reflect Awolowo’s varied interests, occupation, and experience over the years. Apart from being a lawyer, Awolowo, according to Awonuga, was an economist, a political philosopher, a teacher, a clerk, a businessman, and a practicing Christian at different times in his life. The features of Awolowo’s speeches that Awonuga identifies include legal terms, use of words in relation to colonialism, use of words in relation to capitalism and socialism, coupling and strings of words, use of statements with satirical overtones, and use of metaphors. Other works that have focused specifically on the speeches of Obasanjo include Awonuga (2005), Adetunji (2006), and Ayoola (2005). Awonuga (2005) looks at the linguistic features manifested in the broadcast of President Olusegun Obasanjo to the nation on August 23, 2002 entitled “Sustenance of Democracy.” Awonuga identifies seven characteristic linguistic features in the speech: the use of personal pronouns, coupling, strings of words (similar to Awonuga’s 1988 findings on Awolowo’s speeches), metaphors, analogies, repetition, and biblical echoes. The study particularly notes that Obasanjo’s use of coupling and strings of words makes his use of language similar to that of Nigerian politicians of Yoruba extraction, such as Adegoke Adelabu, Obafemi Awolowo, and Wole Soyinka. Coupling is the practice of using two words linked by the conjunction and in the same linguistic environment. In most cases one of the pair is redundant because one word would have adequately expressed the idea. This is an indication of Nigerian politicians’ love of words. Ayoola’s (2005) work is a critical discourse analysis of Olusegun Obasanjo’s address to the national assembly on July 26, 2005. Ayoola situates his analysis against the sociopolitical context in which the speech was delivered—that of the speaker’s third term attempt. Obasanjo’s military background and personality play a major role in his creation of meaning in the speech. Ayoola notes that Obasanjo’s employment of personal deixis, emotive lexis and structure, Nigerian political diction, the semantic field of war, and military syntax help in projecting the message in the speech.

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Adetunji (2006) is a pragmatic study that examines the functions of deixis in selected speeches of Obasanjo. He looks at two thematically and contextually different speeches of Obasanjo and establishes that Obasanjo used deixis to associate and dissociate himself from actions he took at different times. He uses the two texts to demonstrate how politicians establish self-exclusion and self-inclusion in the language domains of politics. Other studies are not directly on Obasanjo but on the Nigerian political discourse as a whole. One of them is Opeibi (2005), which examines negative political campaigns in Nigerian political discourse. Among other things, he identifies that smear campaigns employ insults and invectives with the goal of discrediting, damaging, and blackmailing the opponent. Some of the techniques used in negative campaign include sponsoring adverts in newspapers and magazines, which are targeted at damaging the chances of the opponent, leaking damaging information on the opponent to the media, and satirizing the opponent. The latter was the focus of Taiwo (2007). Taiwo (2007) identifies the different ways the press satirizes public office-holders. In addition to this, he looks at the various ways politicians lampoon their opponents during the campaign for the 2007 general elections in Nigeria. Using different linguistic mechanisms, such as blending, metaphor, conversion, allusion, and creation of acronyms, the candidates in the election were able to portray their opponents in a bad light. Opeibi (2005) has noted that smear campaigns are employed more when the election dates are drawing very close, especially when the incumbent ruler is also interested in contesting and therefore feels threatened by the rising profile of his opposition. The opposition uses smear campaigns to wrest power from the incumbent by punching holes in the policies of the administration and sometimes saying things that will discredit the incumbent. Awonusi (2008) relates political violence to vitriolic and intemperate language. He identifies “the name game” as a source of tacit provocation of the opponent in politics. The “name game” is synonymous with negative campaign identified by Opebi (2005). Obasanjo’s speech being considered is partly a reaction to certain smear campaigning by the opposition. The speech was aimed at legitimizing the position of Obasanjo and his party. Ayeomoni (2005) examines the language of the Nigerian political elite. His analysis reveals that the language of the political elite in Nigeria exhibits some unique language features, such as “a preponderant use of simple declaratives, which is balanced and complete in components” (p.148). Such simple structural forms usually facilitate easy flow and conveyance of their intentions. Like Awonuga (1998, 2005), Ayeomoni also identifies the use of metaphoric language by Nigerian politicians mainly to arouse the feelings and collective excitement and sentiments of their followers. Other linguistic features identified are exaggerative rhetoric and coercive language, especially by the military political elite. One major feature of a democratic society is freedom of speech, which allows for choice of language to express the happenings in the polity. Language, according to Nwagbara (2006), is used in the public domain in a democratic setting to optimize the realization of the democratic ideal of freedom of speech. Nwagbara shows through a pragmatic analysis of language in the media how language is used to project democratic entailments. His analysis exposes the pragmatic force and functions of some political texts in the news media. He concludes that the actualization of the democratic imperative of freedom of expression greatly manifests itself in media reportage of political issues in Nigeria. One aspect of political speech that has been well researched is pronominal choice. Several scholarly studies have been conducted on the choice of deictic elements, particularly pronouns, in political speeches (see, e.g., Bolivar, 1999; Bramley, 2001; de Fina, 1995; Kuo,

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2002; Wilson, 1990). Allen (2007) looks at pronominal choice in campaign speeches in Australia. He concludes that since politicians’ messages are aimed at audiences holding diverse political views and personal opinions, they use pronouns to refer to categories and group memberships into which they can choose to place themselves or not. This study will also examine the use of pronominals in the speech being considered. This study is a critical analysis of a statement made by Olusegun Obasanjo on the 2007 general elections in Nigeria. A particular statement in the address was considered controversial and drew many comments and suspicion on Obasanjo, his role, and the role of his party in the elections, which was later judged by international and independent observers as the worst election ever conducted in the country since her independence almost five decades ago. This study is completely different in its focus when compared with other studies on the speeches of Nigerian politicians. While other studies concentrate on the use of pronominals, lexical ítems, and rhetorical devices, this study focuses on the entire linguistic elements in the speech and how they relate to the possible political strategies that the speaker was trying to use to achieve his goal in the speech. The interpretation of the speech presented in this article is based on the significance of the speech from historical, social, and discursive practice points of view in the context in which the speech was made.

LEGITIMIZATION AND COERCION IN DISCOURSE A central notion in most critical work on discourse is that of power. Access to power by an individual or group depends largely on the extent of influence of such individual or group. To access power in most societies, a person or group must have access to control of social resources, such as money, fame, force, knowledge, information, and other resources considered as privileges in the society, because they confer authority on the persons or groups that possess them, thereby helping them to exercise power in discourse. Legitimization and coercion are two of the strategies used by speakers to enact power in political discourse. Political actors act coercively through language when they set agendas, select topics in conversation, or position themselves and others in specific relationships (see Chilton, 2004). Coercion is also manifested in the use of pressure, threats, and intimidation in discourse. Legitimization uses such techniques as charismatic leadership projection, boasting about performance, self-praise, self-justification, and self-identification as a source of authority, reason, vision, and sanity (Chilton, 2004). Legitimization according to Allen (2007) “invests on the speaker; it includes discourse which promotes positive self-presentation” (p. 3). Coercion and legitimization are interconnected in practice. For instance, a discourse that presents the speaker strongly as the sole source of reason and vision may also present the speaker’s discourse as a threat, thereby having the tendency to intimidate or coerce the addressee. In this study, our focus is on how Obasanjo discursively coerces the opponent through his utterances and how he justifies himself and his party, thereby promoting positive self-presentation and party presentation.

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BACKGROUND: THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL SCENERY Nigeria won her independence in 1960. The country started as a federation of three regions (northern, eastern, and western). Six years after her independence, the military took over the government and ruled the country for thirteen years. In 1979, Nigeria returned to civilian government, which was short-lived. The military took over power again in 1983 and ruled for another sixteen years, after which a new civilian government was inaugurated on May 29, 1999. The new president was Olusegun Obasanjo, who, as a military man, handed over power to the civilian government of Shehu Shagari in 1979. The Nigerian political scenery has been full of tension. Shortly after the military took over in 1966, Emeka Ojukwu, then the military governor of the Eastern Region, led a secession of the Igbo and declared the independence of the Eastern Region as the “Republic of Biafra.” This led to a three-year civil war in the country. Though the Biafra dream did not materialize, it opened up the way for agitations by the various ethnic groups that make up the country. Each time the nation is approaching a major election, the polity heats up with agitations from the major ethnic groups for the control of power at the centre. The context at the time Olusegun Obasanjo made his controversial speech was that of a country under the pressure of determining the next president. It was also a time of intense campaigning by the political parties for the nation’s election. The struggle for power was not only between the parties, it was also between the major ethnic groups. The period was also one in which Obasanjo had come under severe criticism by many Nigerians for his anti-corruption crusade, which they perceived was targeted at his political enemies.

OBASANJO AND HIS UTTERANCES Obasanjo has been a controversial political figure, due especially to his utterances. Shortly before the general elections in 1993, Obasanjo spoke contrary to what many Nigerians believed. He said M.K.O. Abiola, a promising presidential candidate at the time, was not the “messiah” Nigeria needed. Several times afterward, he made other statements considered controversial, especially during his second term (2003-2007) as the civilian president of Nigeria. He once spoke harshly to one of the leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at a meeting during the religious crisis in the Plateau State. His statement made then was “CAN my foot.” This statement drew a lot of criticism from Christian leaders who saw it as an insult to Christians in the country. Prior to this time, Christians, who are in the minority in the northern part of the country, had complained about hostilities against them by Muslims, who are in the majority. Another infamous utterance of Obasanjo is “no PDP, no Nigeria.” This statement appears to legitimate PDP as the only party that can rule Nigeria. The opposition did not take kindly to this. Also during his campaign for his party at Ibadan, Obasanjo invoked the imagery of “dry fish” to illustrate Lamidi Adedibu’s incorrigibility. Lamidi Adedibu is one of the political godfathers of PDP, who journalists described as “a certified political thug” (Sunday Sun, October 28, 2007, back page). Adedibu has gotten away with many evils. One of his maverick acts was the illegal impeachment of the then governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja in 2006. He was also alleged to have taken custody of stolen data machines

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ahead of the commencement of the nation’s last census exercise without facing charges. The “dry fish” metaphor is drawn from a Yoruba saying eja gbígbe kò se é ká (‘dry fish cannot be easily bent’). If force is applied to bend a dried fish, it will break. According to Obasanjo, Adedibu can only be managed or at best be tolerated. The use of metaphors, according to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), does not only make our thoughts vivid and interesting, they also structure our perception and understanding. The pervasiveness of metaphor in everyday social life in language, thought, and action comes more alive in political discourse. Other figures of speech, such as euphemism, personification, and metonymy are used as rhetorical devices in political language (Awonusi, 2008; Chilton and Schaffner, 1997; Hann, 1989). Also on February 3, 2007, Obasanjo claimed in a campaign for his party in Akure that Olusegun Mimiko, one time member of PDP and then the governorship candidate of Labour Party, would be probed by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because he committed corruption while serving as the Minister for Housing. Many people in the opposition considered this statement as political “witch-hunting.” The speech being considered in this article was made in February 2007 towards the end of Obasanjo’s second term as Nigeria’s civilian president. Shortly before his speech, the opposition had criticized him on his involvement in the political campaigns for his party’s presidential candidate, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Obasanjo, while addressing elders and stakeholders of the PDP in Abeokuta, Ogun State on February 10, 2007, was reported to have made the following statement: I read that somebody said I was campaigning. I will campaign. I will campaign because this election is a do or die affair for me and the PDP. This coming election is a matter of life and death for the PDP and Nigeria. We want those who are going to succeed us to continue where we stopped. (Sunday Punch, February 11, 2007, p.13)

This outburst of Obasanjo attracted strident criticism from the opposition, who interpreted the statement as a frivolous remark. They considered it as an indication of Obasanjo’s desire to hold onto power after his failed bid to push through his third term ambition. Kolade-Otitoju of Sahara Reporters reported the reactions of Lai Mohammed, the publicity secretary of Alliance Congress (AC), one of the major opposition parties on Obasanjo’s statement: It means they are going to use both constitutional and unconstitutional means to win the elections. But we believe Mr. President should not be the one leading the people to use violent means to win elections.

Abubakar Rimi, the former governor of Kano State in the Second Republic described the statement as being smacked of “garrison mentality” in the PDP. According to him, “politics is not a war and no one should use such violent language” (Omonya, 2007). Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a lawyer and human rights activist, described Obasanjo’s utterance as “foul.” Commenting further on this, Fawehinmi said: Since PDP kicked off its presidential campaign on Saturday January 27 General Obasanjo has turned the entire exercise to Obasanjo Presidential Campaign. He has failed dismally to draw the line between official presidential duties and the electoral campaign for a presidential

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Professor Omo Omoruyi, Director-General of the Centre for Democratic Studies, felt the president’s statement was “undemocratic.” He added that the statement was an indication that the PDP was not ready to conduct a fair election. Reuben Abati, the Chairman Editorial Board of The Guardian newspaper, felt the statement “is totally devoid of statesmanship.” Several other Nigerians condemned the statement and felt it was uncalled for.

DISCUSSION The speech under consideration, which was delivered at a PDP stakeholders’ Forum in Abeokuta North Local Government Area Headquarters, was considered by many Nigerians to have heightened the political tension in the country. An aspect of the speech that caught the public attention was the expression “do or die affair.” The motivation for the study is to do a holistic critical discourse analysis of the entire speech, considering the entire linguistic, historical, and contextual features. A critical analysis of the speech reveals that Obasanjo’s choice of expressions was deliberate, as he reflects many facets of his person through the speech—as the PDP leader, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a former military ruler, a defender of himself, his party and his party’s presidential candidate, and a defender of his nation. Obasanjo’s selective choice of pronominals reveals these qualities clearly. He not only chose pronominals to demonstrate the traditional polarization of “we and they” in politics; it appears that the entire speech was made to convey his sincerity and defend his credibility as an individual politician. One peculiar feature of this speech is the use of the pronoun we which has the denotational or basic meaning of collective membership. There were thirteen instances of the use of we. The most prominent use is what Wales (1996) calls the “patriotic we,” which coimplicates the general public by establishing the referent as the nation or all Nigerians. Examples are provided in S.1-S.4. S.1. We became importers of them S.2. We could not produce them again S.3. In 1979, when I handed over, Nigeria was the 48th biggest economy in the World. Do you know the position we were when I came back in 1979? 173. S.4. Now we want to be among the 20 leading economies in the world by the year 2020. Obasanjo’s use of patriotic we appears to be his own way of identifying himself as a national leader speaking on behalf of his country. Another sense of using the pronoun is to share its referent between the nation and the political party Obasanjo represents—the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). This overlapping of referents is not uncommon in political speeches (see Pearce, 2001; Wilson, 1990). It is a device that makes interpretation of such discourse imprecise. Obasanjo here is playing a dual

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role—that of the president of the nation and a leader of the ruling party. His use of we to reflect his multiple identities appears like a deliberate political strategy. S.5. Why should we have criminals as leaders? S.6. If we are targeting 2020… S.7. We must not pray for spoilers Being the ruling party, PDP is a strategic political party in Nigeria. Obasanjo was addressing PDP stakeholders on the elections, so the referent of PDP in this context is clear since the addressees were members of the party. Another striking use of we is its sole reference to PDP, seen in the following examples: S.8. We don’t want those people I once referred to as Alliance for Corruption S.9. I want to appeal to our members that are here to be firmly committed to the party. We still have a lot to do S.10. It is left to you to ensure that we elect credible leaders. The referent in S.8-S.10 is without any doubt the PDP. For the instance in S.8, Obasanjo alluded to one of PDP’s most formidable opposition Alliance Congress (AC), substituting its name with a distorted one—Alliance for Corruption. Political parties use this device in smear campaigns. The goal is to discredit the opposition and damage their chances in the election (see Opeibi, 2005; Taiwo, 2007). In S.9, there are two sentences—the first one providing a clear context for the interpretation of the second one. The we in the second sentence is an anaphoric reference to the nominal group our members that are here. In S.10, the expression you as well as we is an exophoric reference to the PDP stakeholders. However, in addition, we is collective and it therefore includes the speaker, who chose to identify with his addressee. Another use of we also has a dual referent—the PDP and the government. This can be seen in the excerpts below: S.11. We want those who are going to succeed us to continue where we stopped. S.12. The reforms we embarked on in our economy are still progressing. It is difficult to separate the PDP from the government, since the party runs the government. The complement those who are going to succeed us (S.11) clearly signifies that the ruling party (symbolized by Obasanjo) desires continuity of its programmes. The reforms he later referred to in S.12 can be seen essentially as PDP reforms. The only instance of we referring to Obasanjo as an individual person is found in S.13. S.13. Those that we handed over to lifted ban on those things. Here the exophoric reference those refers to the government of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Shehu Shagari. The pronoun we here refers to Obasanjo as a military ruler, who returned the country to democracy after thirteen years of military rule.

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The speech shows that Obasanjo was likely aware of the insinuations by Nigerians that Yar’Adua would be his “puppet.” The fact that his speech addressed such criticisms may be a pointer to this fact. Below are some of the ways he appeared to be defending himself. S.14. I read that somebody said I was campaigning. S.15 I will campaign because this election is a do or die affair for me and the PDP. S.16. I know myself. S.17. I will not interfere with the way he runs the country. S.18. I know that it is the kingmaker that disrespects the king that the monarch deals with. S.19. I know my bounds as a national leader and as a former president. S.20. I will not interfere with the way he runs the country. The choice of the pronoun I is typically followed by either an assertive will (S.15, S.17, and S.20) or the verb know (S.16, S.18, and S.19). These illustrate Obasanjo’s use of power to assert and demonstrate his knowledge. For instance in S.18, Obasanjo demonstrated his knowledge of the Yoruba political culture in his translation of a Yoruba proverb aróbafin loba npa (‘it is the kingmaker that disrespects the king that the monarch deals with’). This statement portrays Obasanjo as the “kingmaker” who does not want to disrespect the king. The imagery of Obasanjo as the “kingmaker” in his speech appears to further confirm the fears of Nigerians that he was trying to determine his successor by all means. His use of the modal auxiliary will can be interpreted to mean that he has the determination to do what he believes in. Obasanjo is known for his use of proverbs to drive home his points in his speeches. Once during a campaign rally at Ibadan, while berating his detractors, who were spreading rumours that he was dead, he used the Yoruba proverb eni nretí àtisùn akàn, á pé l’étí omi (‘the expectation of slumber for a crab is a futile effort’). Obasanjo also employs the rhetorical device of repetition, allowing him to move through a series of propositions emphasizing what appears to be his readiness and determination to continue in what he believes in despite criticisms from the public. There is also an indication that the speech was made partly to promote Obasanjo as an individual politician with identity. He not only presented his public aspect as a national leader, he also projected his private aspect to convey his sincerity and credibility with a view to convincing his critics about his plans to return to Ota, his base, after completing his term. He also spoke on the role he would be playing in the new government. His speech was made with a lot of assumptions that Yar’Adua would end up succeeding him, as he did not express any sense of probability. Part of what can be interpreted as Obasanjo’s legitimization strategies was the use of historical allusion and the use of figures. In the speech, Obasanjo also took his listeners into retrospect on his imprisonment by General Sani Abacha, the then military head of state after a trumped up charge of planning a coup. He then explained how divine providence brought him to power in 1999. In addition to that, he took the listeners down memory lane on how Nigeria, which used to be self-sufficient in food production, now imports food and how Nigeria, which was the 48th biggest economy in the world, now became the 173rd biggest economy in the world. With this strategy of a comparison between the state of things in 1979 while he was leaving power and the status quo, Obasanjo appeared to be legitimizing himself and his party by justifying why his party should continue in power.

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His use of lexical items such as rogues, spoilers, criminals and a Yoruba word jegúdújerá (‘greedy people’) to describe those he would not want to take over power from his government can be interpreted as a kind of threat or intimidation. This kind of smear campaign is only suggestive, as no specific individual or group was named. This is also a strategy for legitimization, as he later spoke about those who should be elected—credible and committed leaders. His reference to his reforms, which he said were still in progress, may be seen as a way of legitimizing himself and his party’s position. Obasanjo used some distancing strategies possibly to show his ideological posture. While trying to stress the importance of his government handing over to credible people, he referred to one of the major opposition parties as Alliance for Corruption (see S.8). His own government had been busy trying to fight corruption, so his association of the opposition party with corruption paints a good picture of a party not worthy of handing over to. Obasanjo’s military background was reflected in his use of language. His use of the expressions “a matter of life and death” and “a do or die affair” suggests a subtle threat to intimidate the opposition. The language is coercive because it appears to put some pressure on the opposition. Since Obasanjo’s party was in power then, it may suggest to the opposition that he would use all the machinery of power to ensure that his party wins the election. His identification strategies were so carefully chosen that Nigerians who have been following the happenings in the country are able to recognize the referents without him having to mention their names, for example: S.21. The person that left the job before my predecessor told some people that three persons, including myself would not leave prison alive. S.22. You should elect those who would not bring us backward again. S.23. We want those who are going to succeed us to continue where we stop. S.24. Those that we handed over to lifted ban on those things. S.25. This can’t be possible if those who are going to succeed us are the rogues. S.26. We don’t want those people I once referred to as Alliance for Corruption. S.27. Some people say he had one kidney. S.28. They also said he is Al Qaeda. S.29. Somebody said I was campaigning. In S.21 and S.24, Obasanjo referred to both the government before his predecessor and his successor as a military ruler. His avoidance of specific names may be deliberate. However, the referents are clear enough to those who have been following the political history of Nigeria. He also used indefinite expressions to refer to his party critics—some people (S.27), they (S.28), and somebody (S.29)—while making reference to the rumour that had been going around about his party’s presidential candidate, Umaru Yar’Adua. Part of the smear campaign by the opposition against the candidature of Yar’Adua was that he has one kidney, and therefore he was sickly and would not be able to withstand the pressure of the office of the president of such a great nation as Nigeria. Obasanjo countered this insinuation with the question: can somebody with one kidney play squash? Another one was that he was a fanatical Muslim describing him as Al Qaeda, a fundamentalist Islamic group led by Osama bin Laden labeled as a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council. The latter campaign by the opposition against Yar’Adua was meant to invoke hatred of the

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Christians for his candidature. Obasanjo, however, countered this by describing him as a liberal Muslim. Obasanjo’s distancing expressions are of two major types. The first one is the use of nominal/pronominal headword closely followed by relative clause qualifier, as we can see in S.21, S.22, S.23, S.24, S.25, and S.26. The second type is that which made use of only indefinite nominal expressions without qualifiers as found in S.27, S.28, and S.29. The predominant use of indefinite nominal expressions was employed to refer to the critics of the PDP and what they have been saying. The use of verbs of saying in the predicator shows this clearly. The other distancing expressions have different referents, namely, other regimes (S.21 and S.24 as pointed out earlier), neutral indefinite others (S.22, S.23 and S.25), and the opposition (S.26).

CONCLUSION This study set out to conduct a critical discourse analysis of Olusegun Obasanjo’s address to the PDP stakeholders meeting at Abeokuta on February 10, 2007. The speech is considered significant because it came at a time when the nation was preparing for her presidential election, which is considered very significant because it would be the first ever civilian-tocivilian transition in the country. The speech was also delivered at a time when the nation’s polity was heating up with the aborted third term plan of Obasanjo, coupled with ObasanjoAtiku feud and the determination of the opposition to wrest power from the incumbent PDP government. The speech was made to sensitize the PDP party elders and stakeholders to the importance of ensuring that the party succeeds in the election by being committed to the party. It was also to send signals to the opposition that PDP would do all it could to ensure that they win the election. In the process of making these points, Obasanjo’s choice of words appear to portray strategies of legitimizing his stand and that of his party and of coercing the opposition. The analysis reveals Obasanjo’s choice of pronominals and other reference items, which appears to assert him, demonstrate his knowledge, defend his actions, defend his party’s choice of presidential candidate, and affirm his resolution to hand over to only those who would continue with his reforms. Obasanjo’s choice of indefinite expressions to refer to his party’s critics was also noted. The overall interpretation of the speech, given the choice of language and other contextual features, makes it appear as strategically made to legitimize Obasanjo’s and his party’s stand and coerce the opposition.

APPENDIX Excerpts from President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Address to the Peoples Democratic Party Elders and Stakeholders in Abeokuta North Local Government Headquarters on February 10, 2007.

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…We want those who are going to succeed us to continue where we stop. In 1979, Nigeria was self-sufficient in rice production, in poultry. Those that we handed over to lifted ban on those things and we became importers of them and we could not produce them again. So you should elect those who will not bring us backward again. I read that somebody said I was campaigning. I will campaign because this election is a do or die affair for me and the PDP. This coming election is a matter of life and death for the PDP and Nigeria. Why should we have criminals as leaders? In 1979 when I handed over, Nigeria was the forty-eighth biggest economy in the world. Do you know the position we were when I came back in 1999? We were 173. Now, we want to be among the 20 leading economies in the world by the year 2020. This can’t be possible if those who are going to succeed us are rogues. We don’t want people I once referred to as Alliance for Corruption. If we are targeting 2020 as the year Nigeria will become one of the 20 leading economies in the world, we must not pray for spoilers and criminals as our leaders in the next election. “A kò fé àwon bàsèjé ati jegúdujerá ní ìjoba.” I want to appeal to our members that are here to be firm and committed to the party. We still have a lot to do. The reforms we embarked on in our economy are still progressing. It is left to you to ensure that we elect credible and committed leaders. I commend those of you in the PDP for your efforts so far. You must remain committed to the party. The person that left the job before my predecessor told some people that three persons, including myself would not leave prison alive. It was not by my power or my wisdom or the juju that I had or my goodness that make me to leave the prison alive. It was God’s wish. …Some people say he has one kidney. Can somebody with one kidney play squash? They also said he is Al Qaeda [that is, a religious fanatic]. This is not so. He is a liberal Muslim. He fears nobody. …I know myself. As soon as I hand over to him, I will return to my base in Ota. I will not interfere with the way he runs the country. I know that it is only a kingmaker that disrespects a king that the monarch deals with. I know my bounds as a national leader and as a former president. I will not interfere with the way he runs the country.

REFERENCES Adetunji, A. (2006). Inclusion and exclusion in political discourse: Deixis in Olusegun Obasanjo’s Speeches. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5(2), 177-191. Allen, W. (2007). Australian political discourse: Pronominal choice in campaign speeches. In I. Mushin and M. Laughren (Eds.), Annual meeting of the Australian linguistic Society. Brisbane, Australia, July 7-9, 2006. Awonuga, C. O. (1988). Political rhetoric: Awolowo’s use of language. Odu: A Journal of West African Studies, 34, 150-196. Awonuga, C. O. (2005). A stylistic study of ‘sustenance of democracy’ by Olusegun Obasanjo. Journal of Social Science, 11(2), 111-119. Awonusi, S. (2008). Language, politics and democratic development in Nigeria. The 2008 Annual Lecture of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, February 12, 2008. Ayoade, J. A. (1982). Criteria and constraints of conceptual and terminological analysis: An African perspective. In F. W. Riggs (Ed.), Proceedings of the conference on conceptual and terminological analysis in the social sciences. Frankfurt: Indeks Verlag.

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Ayoola, K. (2005) Interpreting Nigeria’s political discourse: A study of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s July 26, 2005 Address to Nigeria’s National Assembly. Papers in English Linguistics 6, 1-13. Beard, A. (2000). The language of politics. New York: Routledge Chapman. Bolivar, A. (1999). The linguistic pragmatics of political pronouns in Venezuelan Spanish. In J. Verschuren Antwerp (Ed.), Selected Papers from the 6th International Pragmatics Conference (Vol. 1, pp. 56-69). International Pragmatics Association. Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Boston: Harvard University Press. Bramley, N. (2001). Pronouns of politics: The use of pronouns in the construction of ‘self’ and ‘other’ in political interviews. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Australian National University. Chilton, P. (2004). Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. London: Routledge. Chilton, P., and Schaffner, C. (1997). Discourse and politics. In T. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as social interaction (pp. 206-230). London: Sage Publications. de Fina, A. (1995). Pronominals choice, identity and solidarity in political discourse. Text, 15(3), 397-410. Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. Hann, D. (1989). Metaphor and war: The Metaphor system used to justify war in the gulf. In M. Putz (Ed.), Thirty years of linguistic evolution: Studies in honour of Rene Dirven. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Kolade-Otitoju, B. (2007, February 21). President Olusegun Obasanjo manifests embarrassing jitters. Saharareports.com. Accessed September 13, 2007 from http://www.saharareporters.com/ www/news/detail/?id=272. Kuo, S.-H. (2002). From solidarity to antagonism: The uses of second-person singular pronoun in Chinese political discourse. Text 22(1), 29-55. Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Nwagbara, A. (2006). Language and political discourse in the Nigerian media: A pragmatic analysis. Lagos Review of English Studies, 15(1-2), 65-83. Pearce, M. (2001). Getting behind the image: Personality politics in labour party elections broadcast. Language and Literature, 10(3), 211-228. Omonya, G. (2007, May 4). What next after the ‘do or die’ election. The Nigerian Village Square. Accessed September 12, 2007 from http://www.nigerianvillagesquare.com/ index.php/content/view/5844/55. Opeibi, T. (2005). Political marketing or political ‘macheting? A study of negative campaign in Nigerian political discourse. TRANS, Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften, 1. Accessed October 17, 2007 from http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/01_4/opeibi16.htm. Schaffner, C. (1996). Political speeches and discourse analysis. Current Issues in Language and Society, 3(3), 201-204. Taiwo, R. (2007). Satirizing politicians and public officers in Nigerian newspapers. International Journal of Language, Culture and Society, 22, 19-28. The Guardian. (2007, February 13). Fawehinmi accuses Obasanjo of power misuse, foul utterances. van Dijk, T. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse and Society, 4(2), 249-283.

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van Dijk, T. (1998) What is political discourse analysis? In J. Bloomaert and C. Bulcaen (Eds.), Political linguistics (pp. 11-52). Amsterdam: Benjamins. Wilson, J. (1990). Politically-speaking: The pragmatic analysis of political language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Wodak, R. and Cillia, R. (2006). Politics and language: Overview. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd Ed., Vol. 9, pp. 707-719). Oxford: Elsevier.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

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Chapter 7

LANGUAGE, POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE Tunde Opeibi Department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria

ABSTRACT 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. This article investigates the role of political communication in stabilizing democratic governance by exploring and clarifying the interrelationships among language, politics, and governance. The interplay of political communication and democratic processes in the multilingual Nigerian context is particularly explored to highlight the different roles of the interacting languages. It is argued that the dominance of an exogenous language over other numerous indigenous languages may portend grave implications for the young democratic governance in this third world polity. Therefore, the search for linguistic equilibrium in the linguistic situation in the present Nigerian democracy requires more efforts and commitment from the political class than the present academic debates on language policy and planning.

INTRODUCTION Shortly after being let loose from the chains of colonialism, Nigeria has been making efforts to practice and sustain democratic governance that is based on the principles of federalism. The political structure in Nigeria, which is supposed to reflect federal constitutionalism, has been criticized by many because of the over concentration of power at the centre to the disadvantage of the federating units. The initial experimentation with the parliamentary system of governance patterned after their colonial master, Britain, failed. The

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country then turned towards America for a solution and adopted the presidential system that has remained in practice but not without frequent military interventions. In fact, in the chequered history of democratic practice in Nigeria, military rule accounted for thirty out of its forty-seven years of nationhood. While there has been much debate on the means to ensure the success of civil governance in the country, the role of political discourse has received very little attention. It is a fact that politics does not function independent of the instrument of communication. For instance, without an effective and persuasive use of language, the primary goal of political campaigns, which is to gain and control power in a country and ensure good governance that is based on democratic principles, will not be realized. One of the processes of achieving power is the need to mobilize the civil society to participate in the democratic process. Political communication and political education are thus pivotal to the attainment of effective social mobilization and political campaigns in a country that operates a system of governance that is based on Federalism. The primary concern here is the exploration of how effectively political actors in and out of government have been able to deploy language facilities available in the Nigerian multilingual speech community towards the success of democratic polity in Nigeria. The data for the study include selected written political campaign texts, adverts, and media reports on political campaigns sourced from some Nigerian national newspapers. Selected rhetorical and persuasive strategies that are found in the campaign texts produced during recent elections in Nigeria are analyzed using the approaches of discourse analysis (e.g., Awonusi, 1996; Schiffrin, 1994).

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY: LANGUAGE, FEDERALISM AND ELECTORAL PROCESS IN NIGERIA Since Nigeria became a Republic in 1963, many events have provided watershed experiences in the annals of the history of our electoral processes. The effort to preserve the federal structure that has unduly favoured some sections of the country has made election campaigns the high points of electoral processes in Nigeria. Electoral frauds, violence, and hooliganism have characterized most elections. The winners-take-all syndrome that underlies the federalism in practice in Nigeria has made matters worse. We cannot talk about governance or federalism without the instrument of gaining and controlling power. It is believed that one of the secrets of the success of former Soviet Union (USSR) was the effective language policy that was adopted. The Union then had one hundred and thirty (130) languages and all the languages were accorded the same respect. It was said that any Soviet citizen had the right to address himself to any state institution or public organization in his/her native language. Isayev (1977) observes as follows: It is widely known that both languages and peoples in the USSR have absolute equal rights. The principle of equality of all peoples is clearly embedded in the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In full conformity with the Constitution, the equality of all languages is noted in the Programme of the C.P.S.U. . . . to continue promoting the free development of the languages of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and the complete freedom of every citizen of the U.S.S.R to speak and to bring up and educate his children, in any language

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ruling out all privileges, restrictions, or compulsion in the use of this language or that language. (p. 21, quoted in Essien, 1990, pp. 164-165)

Ikiddeh (1983) attributes the scientific advancement and national development witnessed by the USSR during the period to effective language policy. He argues that “there is no doubt that the gigantic economic and scientific advance which the Soviet Union has recorded in half a century would not have been possible without the harmony engendered amongst her people by a realistic language policy pursued as part of a socialist reconstruction” (p. 75, quoted in Essien, 1990, p. 166). Language is thus vital to the implementation of effective democratic principles, sociopolitical policies, economic advancement, and national development in any federallyoperated system of governance. The principles of strong National Federalism, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (2005), came from the primeval Israelites who sought to maintain and sustain their national unity in order to ensure a strong linkage among the various nations. At the birth of the second republic in Nigeria, the American model of Federalism was mimicked. Americans themselves must have been influenced by the Jewish experience based on their conviction to unite the people of different languages, cultures, religions, and customs in the federated states of the “New World.” It is obvious that the success of the American federalism and the need for national unity led the fathers of Nigerian politics to subscribe to the principles of Federalism. Wheare (1963) discusses the features of federalism as follows: Federal Government exists where the powers of government are divided substantially according to the principle that there is single independent authority for the whole area in respect of some matters and that there are independent regional authorities for the other matters, each set of authorities being co-ordinate with and not subordinate to the others in its own prescribed sphere. (p. 33)

In a sense, federalism is a mode of political organization that unites separate polities within an overaching political system in such a way as to allow each to maintain its own fundamental political integrity; the political principles that animate federal system emphasizes the primacy of bargaining and negotiated co-ordination among several power centres. The notion of power, freedom, and independence among the units are thus considered as an integral part of the principles of federalism. Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1966) defended the adoption of federalism in Nigeria as follows: From our study of the constitutional evolution of all the countries of the world, two things stand out quite clearly and prominently. First, in any country where there are divergences of language and of nationalities, particularly of language, a unitary constitution is always a source of bitterness and hostility on the parts of linguistic or national minority groups. On the other hand, as soon as a federal constitution is introduced in which each linguistic or national group is recognized and accorded regional autonomy, any bitterness and hostility against the constitutional arrangements as such disappear. If the linguistic or national group concerned is backward, or too weak vis-à-vis the majority group or groups, their bitterness or hostility may be dormant or suppressed. But as soon as they become enlightened and politically conscious, and /or courageous leadership emerges amongst them, the bitterness and hostility come into the open, and remain sustained with all possible venom and rancour until home rule is achieved.

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Tunde Opeibi Secondly, a federal constitution is usually a more or less dead letter in any country which lacks any of the factors conducive to federalism. Given the facts and the analysis thereof, which we have given, the following common principles of law can be deducedOne, if a country is unilingual and uni-national, the constitution must be unitary. Two, if a country is unilingual or bilingual, and also consists of communities, which, over a period of years, have developed divergent nationalities, the constitution must be federal and the constituent states must be organized on the dual basis of language and nationality. Three, if a country is bilingual or multilingual, the constituent states must be organized on a linguistic basis. Four, Any experiment with a unitary constitution in a bilingual or multilingual country must fail in the long run. (pp. 48-49, cited in Sagay, 2001, p. 5)

Although the history of Nigerian political experience has shown that the constitutional requirements and principles have been disregarded by successive governments, especially the military, major stakeholders and political actors have continued to canvass the implementation of the principles of true federalism as enshrined in the constitution for the survival and sustenance of the current democratic rule. One important political activity that ensures continuity and stability in any form of government is the electoral process, without which any discussion on federalism or governance becomes meaningless. Elections enable citizens to elect their representatives that will protect their interests and defend the constitution of the nation. Political discourse during election campaigns can therefore impact positively or negatively on democratic governance. Graber (1981) states that political discourse occurs “when political actors in and out of government communicate about political matters, for political purpose” (p. 196). Davidson and Oleszek (1992) stress the importance of elections. They observe that elections are the central rituals of democratic systems. Elections celebrate the individual citizen’s membership and participation in the community’s decisions, and they allow the voters to signal their approval of the regime in power or to express their disapproval and set in motion an orderly transfer of power. Writing on Techniques of Campaign, Davidson and Oleszek explain that “campaigns are intense efforts at mobilizing supporters, persuading the undecided and neutralizing the opposition” (pp. 217-219). Of course, there cannot be persuasion, mobilization of supporters without the use of language. In recent times, political communication has occupied a centre stage in discourses on governance because democracy as a form of government itself has become a global phenomenon. Scholars have long been interested in discussions on the relationships between politics and rhetoric or more recently political discourse. Early attempts in this area of study date back to the early Greeks when the study of language use to persuade was popularized by Aristotle and Cicero, among others. Language and politics are two dynamic social phenomena that are inseparable. Gastil (1992) asserts that “politics and discourse are inextricably intertwined” (p. 469). Political interaction requires language structures, and linguistic behaviour necessarily involves structures of domination and legitimation (Giddens, 1984). Graber’s (1981) view parallels Bitzer’s (1987) definition of political rhetoric, which includes “every citizen who deliberates and creates messages about civic affairs” (p. 228). Civic affairs or politics are defined as those practices that require the engagement of the public and/or government such as elections, public spending, public and legislative debate about laws and political principles, etc. It is noteworthy that election was mentioned as part of what constitutes civic affairs that engage the attention of every citizen.

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It has been argued that language is at the center of political mobilization especially in a multilingual context, where minority and majority languages co-exist. Human society cannot survive without communication, which underlies any political activity. We interact, encode and transmit our experiences through language. Ruben’s (1988) definition of communication as “the process through which individuals in relationships, groups, organizations, and societies create, transmit and use information to organize with the environment and one another” (p. 18) finds relevance when situated within sociopolitical milieu. It is thus obvious that without communication man will not be able to perform those functions that will enable him to coordinate activities in his environment (Wiredu, 1996). It is an undeniable fact that the power of verbal communication in a political community underlies the interconnectivity between language, culture, and society and the ways in which language affects or contributes to social practice through which members of a speech community transmit their ideas, share knowledge, and influence one another in order to achieve communicative goals. According to West (1984), communication plays an important role in political campaigns. Candidates communicate messages to various constituencies, which the people receive and interpret. The ability of the electorate to interpret the intention of the politicians and respond appropriately is a result of the effective use of language. Beard (2000) notes that political campaigns are of interest, when viewed from a linguistic perspective, because they show language being use for such a clear and central purpose. According to Beard, “Although political campaigns, with their speeches, their written texts, their broadcasts, need to inform and instruct voters about issues that are considered to be of great importance, ultimately all the written and spoken texts that are produced during an election campaign are designed to persuade people to do one thing: to vote in a certain way” (p. 57). Language is thus a vital process of selling the personality and the programmes of the candidates to the public, with the primary aim of gaining their support and mobilizing them to participate in the process of securing and controlling power. Beyond the election campaign periods, it no doubt that language continues to occupy a central place in obtaining the approval of the people and continue to receive their support while in power. Political thoughts and ideologies can only be expressed and further translated into social actions for social change and social continuity through the facilities provided by language. It can be said also that political interaction requires language structures, and obviously political talks play a vital role in shaping and transforming political ideals into political realities. It becomes imperative therefore that those concerned with language study must be interested in how language works and how the society can benefit from the resources of language. One can further assert that since language is dynamic in nature and politics itself is a dynamic process, the social roles of language—especially in serving as a tool to mobilize the people to support political candidates—show how language can contribute to the realization of political goals (Opeibi, 2004). Beard (2000) notes that “looking at the language of politics as an occupation is important because it helps us to understand how language is used by those who wish to gain power, those who which to exercise power and those who wish to keep power” (p. 2). It is also important to stress a further assumption that discourse is systematically related to communicative action. This will help us to establish the fact that this pragmatic level, that is, the level of action, is an important component in the total explication of the meaning of any political utterance. According to Leech (1983), understanding this level of action of discourse will possibly provide crucial conditions for restructuring part of the conventions that make

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(political) utterances acceptable, in the light of their appropriateness with respect to the communicative context. It is interesting to point out that persuasive discourse falls under what Kinneavy (1980) describes as person discourse—that is, language use employed with the stress of the process on the person (encoder or decoder). However, on most occasions, the discourse is focused on the decoder, the other person in the process. He argues further that the encoder may also purposely disguise his own personality and purposely distort the picture of reality which language can paint in order to get the decoder to do something or believe something. Political campaign speeches and slogans exhibit some of these features. However, we should note that these distortions are not essential to this use of language; what is essential is that the speaker or encoder, reality, and language itself all become instrumental to the accomplishment of some practical effect in the decoder. This is the same guiding principle in this study. Our concern is not with how politicians use language to distort the political reality (e.g., use of negative propaganda); we are rather interested in how linguistic facilities are used to communicate intentions and achieve sociopolitical goals. Of course, the candidates use different discourse strategies to persuade the electorate, and they (the encoders) act upon the utterances of these aspirants. Such a language use has also been referred to as rhetoric—the persuasive use of language in public speaking or legal presentations. Over the years, a closer look at sociopolitical and economic events across the globe has served to accentuate the fact that language has become a powerful tool for social change. Even in Africa societies where the level of political literacy, democratic awareness, and social mobilization may be said to be low, the dynamic nature of political communications has been recognized. The way politicians or public officials talk and what they say determine how effective or successful they are in dealing with the electorate and the public to support their candidacy or political programmes (Opeibi, 2004; West, 1984). Language is used in democratic process to control the minds of the people, elicit their support, woo them with the ultimate goal to gain, control and retain political power. In Nigeria, as far back as the early 60s in the western region, political campaigns organized by Chief Obafemi Awolowo were the first to employ innovative methods of campaign marketing. Unfortunately, the political communication culture that was born at that time was never allowed to mature because of military interventions leading to frequent interrruptions of democratic activities. The 1993 presidential election campaigns relaunched the deployment of effective discourse strategies and political advertising in more fashionable manner, introducing further innovative methods of promoting political candidates and programmes (see Opeibi, 2004). During that period politicians and political actors brought a lot of creativity to bear on the use of the English language during the period of elections campaigns, which is a crucial aspect of every democratic process. Sadly, this also suffered a similar fate with the suspension of democratic rule that was to be inaugurated by the Military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. The present democratic governance in Nigeria has been able to adopt part of the principles of effective political discourse being operated in the more advanced democracies. The election campaigns that brought the government of the People Democratic Republic (PDP) into power in 1999 and 2003 failed to improve on the innovative political advertising strategies in previous elections. In fact, when compared with the 1993 presidential election campaigns, the 1999 and 2003 presidential election campaigns can be described as failed imitation. On gaining power, the ruling party at the centre has been using different discourse strategies to retain power.

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The present study reveals that the party in power at the centre has been using some of the four discourse strategies being deployed by political actors (Chilton and Schaffner, 1997). In almost every democratic process/activity, these discourse techniques are deployed by political actors to gain, control, and maintain power. According to these scholars, they represent speech acts types that are usually present in political discourse. They are: (i) coercion, (ii) resistance, opposition, and protest, (iii) dissimulation, and (iv) legitimization and delegitimization. According to them, political actors often act coercively through discourse in setting agendas, selecting topics in conversation, positioning the self and others in specified relationships, and making assumptions about realities that hearers are obliged to at least temporarily accept in order to process the text or talk. At the other end of the rope, opposition in any political setting often responds to the use of discourse strategies by the powerful to control them by deploying specific linguistic structures such as slogans, chants, petitions, rallies, or even graffiti. Other political actors achieve the control of information through what has been described as quantitative or qualitative dissimulation. Information given to the people may be selective, scanty, controlled or even censored in order for the government in power to wield authority over the citizens. So, the quantity of information that is passed on to the people becomes insufficient for the people to muster enough opposition against the government in power. On the other hand, qualitative dissimulation is manifested in a situation where government officials, political candidates/political actors resort to outright lying or various kinds of verbal evasion and denial or not making any definite reference to actors. Various language structures that include euphemism, metaphor, implicit meaning, and indirect speech acts may be employed by politicians to ‘blur’ or ‘defocus’ unwanted referents, divert attention from troublesome referents, hide the truth, and/or evade responsibility. Skillful political actors are very deft in deploying these discourse strategies. The functions of legitimizing and delegitimizing are performed through carefully selected language facilities deployed especially by the government in power. For instance, the government may seek to establish its legitimacy or right to be obeyed by issuing statements or speech acts backed by sanctions. Other techniques that are used in this situation include arguments about voters’ wants, charismatic leadership projection, comparing the central government’s achievement with that of the previous regimes or opposition in other states or regions, effective media campaign aimed at promoting the leadership or boasting about performance, and positive self-presentation. The function of delegitimization is executed through negative campaigning, presenting the opposition or other groups in a negative light. It may also involve the use of ideas of difference and boundaries and the use of speech acts of blaming, accusing, and insulting, among others (Chilton and Schaffner, 1997, pp. 212-213). One interesting aspect of this strategy is that the government seeks to legitimize itself by using the strategy that Beard (2000) calls the politics of “Saints and Demons.” In the Nigerian political context, these strategic functions are manifested in the political activities. Since 1999 when the current democratic dispensation was inaugurated, various discourse strategies have been deployed by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre to continue its relevance and dominance of governance in Nigeria. Coercive discourse strategies such as the use of power to control others’ use of language, setting agendas, and controlling access to information, among others, have been used to legitimize its control of government and to delegitimize oppositions. One may even add that part of these strategies is the deliberate underdevelopment of the indigenous languages/minority languages and the undue advantage given to English (understood by a very small per centage of Nigerian

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population with formal education) as the language of governance over Nigerian languages. The same strategies are also adopted in some of the states where the opposition is in power (e.g., AD in Lagos State, ANPP in Katsina and Zamfara states). The opposition parties in some of these states have also been using different political discourse strategies to continue their hold on to power. Legitimization and delegitimization strategies and dissimulation particularly constitute some of the major strategies adopted by the political parties in the states.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Since political discourse involves a process of informing, educating, and persuading people to participate in a social event, it will necessarily require language choices that are carefully engineered to achieve the goal of leading the audience to take one form of action or another. Theories within the ambient of functional orientation have often provided theoretical underpinning for works in sociolinguistics that investigate how language constitutes communicative acts. Insights from the Speech Act Theory introduced by Austin (1962) have been found to provide relevant theoretical construct for the study. The model shows language use in any communicative domain, including politics, have more far reaching implications than what is shown in the syntactic compositions of the utterances. Speech act theory (Austin, 1962; Chilton and Ilyin, 1993; Schiffrin, 1994; Searle, 1991; Searle, Kiefer, and Bierwisch, 1975) has been very useful in providing theoretical planks for many sociolinguistic studies that focus on language as communicative acts. It provides useful insights about how political language can play a crucial role in mobilizing the people to support democratic governance in a multiethnic and multilingual entity like Nigeria.

The Speech Act Theory We are particularly interested in Austin and Searle’s versions of the Speech Act theory that view language (or discourse) as action; and see meaning in terms of intended communication (speaker meaning). The theory itself has often been classified as a sub-theory within pragmatics. Generally speaking, pragmatic theory provides resources for interpreting the various processes through which language is used to accomplish action. Cook (1989) observes that a theory of the pragmatic interpretation of language explains how people make sense of what is said in specific circumstances. In fact, Searle (1969) argues for a pragmatic approach to language study which views the theory of meaning as a sub-part of a theory of actions; thus meaning is defined in terms of what speech acts speakers perform relative to hearers. The concept of a rhetorical model of pragmatics (Leech, 1983) reflects the major concern of the proponents of persuasive discourse in which political or election campaign discourse is a sub-discipline. The study of political discourse is in essence the study of rhetoric, which has been regarded as the study of effective use of language in communication. It has often been viewed as an art of using language skillfully for persuasion or to influence the hearer towards a course of action. In the context of this study, the rhetorical model of pragmatics as seen in

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political discourse focuses on a goal-oriented speech situation in which a political actor uses language to produce a particular effect in the hearer. The communicative goal is achieved when the hearer responds to and performs the speaker’s intended actions. An important aspect of the thrust of our concern in the discussion of how language relates to governance is how actions are accomplished through the medium of political utterances. Stubbs (1983), while commenting on how utterances equate communicative actions, suggests that the saying and the doing are inseparable. According to him, the acts could not be done without using language and the saying counts as the doing. In the earlier version of the Speech Act theory (Austin, 1962), a distinction is made regarding utterances that seem like statements but lack what is thought to be the truth-value (necessary property of statement). Such statements do not only “describe” or “report” a state of affairs that exists, but “the utterance of the sentence is or is a part of the doing of an action, which again would not normally be described as just saying something” (p. 5). The statements that indicate the performance of the action in the utterance are referred to as performative utterances, whereas those that merely report or describe a state of affairs are regarded as constative utterances. Thus, a number of actions can be performed through our utterances (e.g., promise, apologize, command, persuade, congratulate, etc.). A lot of such performative utterances can be identified in political talk. Austin identifies three types: (i) locutionary act, which is simply the production of sounds and words with meaning, or the act of making an utterance; (ii) illocutionary act, which is the issuing of an utterance with conventional communicative force (it is the purpose intended through speech—e.g., warning, promise, persuading, command etc.); and (iii) perlocutionary act, which is the by-product of communication or the actual effect of the utterance on the audience or hearer, such effects being special to the circumstances of utterance. Searle (1969, 1975) further develops Austin’s views on speech acts. He identifies four things (acts) that a speaker does when saying something: (i) utterance acts (uttering words), (ii) prepositional acts (referring and predicting), (iii) illocutionary acts (questioning, stating, ordering), and (iv) perlocutionary acts (wishing, persuading, getting to do something). He later categorizes actions that can be performed through our utterances into the following: (i) Representatives. These utterances commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition (e.g., asserting, concluding etc.). (ii) Directives. These utterances are attempts by the speaker to persuade the addressee to do something (e.g., requesting, questioning). (iii) Commissives. These utterances commit the speaker to future course of action (e.g., promising, threatening, and offering). Party manifestoes are an example. (iv) Expressives: These express a psychological state (e.g., thanking, apologizing, welcoming, congratulating). (v) Declaratives. These are utterances which effect immediate changes in the institutional state of affairs and which tend to rely on elaborate extralinguistic institutions (e.g., excommunicating, declaring war, christening, firing from employment). In the context of this study, two major categories of speech acts that are found to be directly related to political discourse are the directives and the commissives. They express

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some of the communicative acts that can be accomplished through political utterances. A political candidate, for instance, persuasively requests the electorate to cast their votes in his favour while committing himself by promising to represent their interests when voted into power. Thus, a candidate can perform two actions (requesting and promising) simultaneously by producing both directive and commissive utterances. After gaining political power, it is a fact that political actors and public officials need to rely constantly on persuasive utterances to retain power. How successful they are in communicating their policies and programmes to the civil society to elicit their support and thus foster the growth of democratic governance depends largely on their ability to understand that utterances are actions. Political speeches during election campaigns, at inauguration ceremonies and/or any other important public appearances, including budget presentations at both the federal, state, or local government levels, ‘count as doing’ because they are commissive utterances. The citizens place high premium on such utterances and would expect the fulfillment of the electoral promises. Credible and skilful politicians would recognize the intrinsic connection between what they say and what they do. This is because commissive utterances commit the speaker to the performance of what he/she says while making the statements. They are performative utterances having illocutionary force. Nigerian politicians will succeed more in promoting democratic ethos if they realize that their words are taken seriously by the citizens. The relevance of the theory to discourse analysis is supported by Schiffrin (1994) where she outlines the way in which the speech act theory can be applied to the analysis of discourse. She notes that though the speech act was not first developed as a means of analyzing discourse, there are nonetheless some particular issues in the theory that lead to discourse analysis. For example, how an utterance can perform an act or more than one act at a time, the relationship between context and illocutionary force, and the perlocutionary effect on the person for whom the utterance is intended are all important issues in analyzing a piece of discourse. The essential insight of speech act theory to discourse analysis is to show that language performs communicative functions that can be identified and labeled. This is clear from the analysis below where political utterances made in actual political contexts are described and interpreted according to their communicative goals.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE MULTILINGUAL NIGERIAN CONTEXT: A BRIEF SOCIOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE It is necessary to provide a brief sociolinguistic account of the multilingual situation in Nigeria. Linguistic pluralism in Nigeria is a classic example of a multilingual nation ‘par excellence.’ Recent studies (e.g., Adegbija, 2004; Ogbulogo, 2004) put the number of languages existing in Nigeria between three hundred and sixty (360) and four hundred (400). The foreign languages that are actually in use may not be more that three: English, French, and Arabic although a handful of expatriates and Nigerians use German and Chinese, among a few other foreign languages to perform limited communicative functions. This negligible percentage of speakers still relies heavily on English for their day-to-day communicative needs.

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Many factors—including history, the nature of Nigerian linguistic terrain, socioeconomic and politics, globalization, and diplomacy—tend to favour the continued dominance of English over the indigenous languages. It is no longer news that, historically, English took its foothold in Nigeria during the period of colonization under the British imperial rule. Awonusi (2004) discusses some linguistic and quasi-linguistic features that resulted from the early contact between Europeans and Nigerians. These include: (i) the early use of Portuguese on Nigerian soil, (ii) the evolution of a Portuguese-based pidgin or ‘Negro Portuguese’ (now extinct), (iii) the emergence of the use of English-with some imperfections, (iv) the emergence of an English-based pidgin, (v) the use of English that had mainly an instrumental function as the language of trade, (vi) the gradual anglicization or acculturation of Nigerians, especially in the Calabar region, (vii) the pioneering efforts of literary writings in English by people of African (mainly, Nigerian) origin, (viii) the development of an assimilationist policy attitude towards the English language, (ix) the learning of English through an informal system as only a few schools (in the Calabar region) were in existence, (x) that (v) and (ix) above may have motivated the use of an accent of English that is directionally British and near-native in articulation, and (xi) the emergence of bilingualism and, consequently, language mixing (see also Adetugbo, 1978, cited in Awonusi, 2004). It is obvious that between the early contact that took place as far back as the 16th century and the present 21st century democratic dispensation in Nigeria, the English language has ceased to be ‘a guest’ in Nigeria (Kachru, 1982). Virtually every sociolinguistic domain of Nigerian lives has enjoyed the generous linguistic facilities provided by English. This is attested to by the various emerging features and varieties of English resulting from the contact between English and Nigerian languages. The linguistic situation in Nigeria, many other features have emerged. There has been a plethora of literature on the role and status of English in Nigeria and the various varieties (see Adekunle, 1974, Adetugbo, 1979; Awonusi and Dadzie, 2004; Bamgbose, 1982, 1995; Banjo, 1995). Bamgbose’s (1995) view on the influence of English in the Nigerian linguistic environment is germane to our discussion. Five major dimensions of the hegemonic influence of English have been identified: educational, political, cultural, sociolinguistic, and linguistic. The influence on education is manifested in the use of English as a medium and subject of instruction in Nigerian institutions of learning. Politically, there is an emergence of an English-speaking elite and the role the language played in the struggle for independence as well as in the drafting of the various constitutions under which the country had been governed. In terms of cultural influence, this is found in the use of new concepts and values, as well as the mode of interaction, as reflected in both Nigerian English and the indigenous languages. The sociolinguistic dimension involves the mode of acquisition and use of English and the emergence of bilingual elite, speaking English and one or more Nigerian languages. The fifth dimension, which is linguistic, concerns not only the way English has permeated the vocabulary of Nigerian languages, but also other less conspicuous influence in the sound system. Linguistic interference in a language contact situation is mutual. The English language has not remained in its ‘original’ ‘pure’ forms before coming in contact with Nigerian languages. The indigenous languages have also exerted some influence on English leading to the emergence of a non-native variety that is typically Nigerian (for further details, see Awonusi and Dadzie, 2004). To summarize the discussion in this section, English has become a phenomenon that cannot be wished away in Nigeria. The multilingual structure of the country and particularly the diverse ethnolinguistic communities scattered all over the ‘political arrangement’ called

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“Nigeria” has made it possible for English to continue to enjoy its unrivalled roles and functions in the country. Akere (2004, p. 265) adduces reasons for the dominance of English in Nigerian sociolinguistic milieu. (i) the British colonial imposition and the entrenchment of English as the official language and lingua franca; (ii) the adoption of English as the medium of instruction and as a subject of study at all levels in the nation’s educational system; (iii) the predominant use of English as the official language of interaction and documentation at all levels of governance; (iv) the pervasive use of English in both electronic and print media; (v) the ever-increasing use of English in modern business and professional interactions, as well as in diplomatic relations with foreign embassies in Nigeria; (vi) the use of English in several domains of interpersonal interactions; and the use of English in international engagements. Given the kind of functional load that English is currently carrying in Nigeria, at virtually all sociolinguistic domains, it is obvious that the language will for a long time continue to enjoy its hegemonic status.

ENGLISH AS LANGUAGE OF POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA: AN ANALYSIS Even before Nigeria attained independence in 1960, English has been playing a dominant role in the political scene. The British colonial government in charge of Nigeria has legislated English as the official language as far back as the 1940s. The Richard Constitution of 1946, for instance, was the first to make English the official language in Nigeria. This simply means that government policies, programmes, and activities were communicated to the governed through a foreign language that they did not understand. The district officers and local agents of the British government in charge of each sub-governmental division were expected to relay government’s decisions to the people through an interpreter, who himself might possess an imperfect/inadequate competence in English. Consequently, the main thrust of political issues that affected the people was not clearly communicated to the people. Unfortunately, the people had no say in governance since they were under a foreign imperial rule. One may add that, perhaps, such language policy adopted by the colonial government might have been part of their deliberate policies to keep the people under perpetual servitude. At independence, Nigerians began to see themselves as coming of age having used the language of the colonial masters to ask for their freedom. Unfortunately, this false sense of linguistic competence in a foreign language has robbed the local leaders the political will to develop the indigenous languages. The neocolonial tendency that has affected both the sociopolitical and economic spheres has been allowed to further entrench the use of English as Nigeria’s language of political communication and governance. Since language and politics cannot be divorced one from the other, successful political activities and stable democratic governance will continue to depend on a viable and effective deployment of

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linguistic facilities, which unfortunately Nigerian political classes lack the clout to acquire and dispense. Sociolinguists have consistently argue that, apart from other nonlinguistic factors, human society itself owes its continued existence and peaceful coexistence largely to the roles language plays in every aspect of human affairs. While we are aware of other approaches to the study of language of politics, the speech act theory has remained one of the most adequate theories for studying political communication. Chilton and Schaffner (1997) support this view when they argue that ‘the notion of speech acts is central to political discourse analysis, because it dissolves the everyday notion that language and action are separate’ (p. 216). It has been stated above that Austin’s and Searle’s attempt at classifying what we do with language has some implications for language use in politics. However, it is Searle’s categorization of speech acts into representatives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declaratives that can be said to be more directly relevant to political discourse. In political discourse, speech acts are performed when the following conditions are in place: a democratic process which includes political campaigns, the holding of an election, the power or status of the speaker (a political candidate/government official), the institutional location, and the style of language used (Chilton and Schaffner, 1997, p. 216). Unfortunately, as stated in an earlier section, many of the Nigerian politicians and government officials are unaware of the power of their utterances. They do not realize that there is a strong connection between what is said, what is meant, and the action conveyed by what is said in political environments. Below, we provide a brief analysis of instances of language use during and after political campaigns in Nigeria to demonstrate the application of speech act theory in political discourse and describe how political utterances constitute communicative acts. The extracts are taken from political adverts used during the 2003 presidential election campaigns and selected political statements from Mr. President (between 2003 and 2006). (i) HE HAS DONE IT BEFORE, HE WILL DO IT AGAIN!! OLUSEGUN OBASANJO – The Leader We can Trust TAKE THE FINAL STEP SING UP FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE Vote OBASANJO For President (ii) You’ve done it before You can do it again!!! (iii) Nigerians Vote Obasanjo/Atiku. We can trust them to safeguard our Democracy and the future of our children. (iv) Support OBASANJO/ATIKU FOR FREE and QUALITATIVE EDUCATION FOR YOUR CHILDREN (v) DO NOT WASTE YOUR VOTE VOTE THE WINNING PARTY (vi) This Continuity Talk Can Destroy Nigeria…. Buhari/Okadigbo will make Nigeria Great Again…. Look around you, nothing has changed. Education is not working. Poverty level is much higher than in 1999. Health care delivery is in total chaos. ....

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Tunde Opeibi Vote ANPP. Vote for Security, Stability and Prosperity BUHARI/OKADIGBO ... will make Nigeria great again. (vii) No, We cannot Continue Like This…MAY GOD GIVE US THE WILL AND THE WAY TO WAKE UP AND SALVAGE NIGERIA. M.D YUSUFU…NIGERIA FIRST Vote MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY and JUSTICE (MDJ) Yet another Wasted Generation in the making? Don’t just stand by, do something! Inspired Leadership is what we need Vote Rev Chris Okotie Hajia Mairo Habib FOR PRESIDENT JUSTICE PARTY (viii) Our government will safeguard the hard-won democracy (ix) Our reform programmes will put Nigeria back on the path of economic prosperity (x) We shall resolve the current crisis in the Niger Delta region (xi) We are committed to the ongoing economic reform programmes (xii) There will be no sacred cows in our war against corrupt public officials

Extracts (x)-(xv) can be described as commissives. These are communicative acts that convey information about what a candidate intends to do when voted into power or when in power. In essence, they are promises that commit the speaker to a future course of action. The performative verbs—safeguard, put, committed, and resolve—suggest actions to be taken by the candidates. A closer look at extract (iv) shows the fronting of the verbal element. This is done to provide a striking effect on the audience. It is part of the strategy politicians usually employ to shock their audience and mobilize them. Extracts (i), (iii), and (v-vii) are pieces of discourse that illustrate the directive acts (Searle, 1975). What is more significant to this study is that these speech acts typically represent direct attempt to mobilize the people by giving them specific instructions on what to do. They go beyond a mere appeal or persuasion; they are mild imperatives directed towards encouraging the electorate to take practical actions. For instance, take the final step…, vote… are clear commands to the people to perform definite actions. So, these utterances are not mere propositional statements, they are indeed actions in themselves intended to effect a change. One can argue therefore that the political utterances go beyond giving information about what exists. They are utterances directed towards the realization of specific communicative acts, and in fact, they can be regarded as acts in themselves. It is significant to point out that some features of speech acts that make these extracts function as instruments for social mobilization are embedded in the texts.

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY: LANGUAGE POLICY VS. LINGUISTIC SITUATION It has been stated that there is a symbiotic relationship between language and democratic governance all over the world. Democratic traditions often thrive in an environment where

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people are properly informed, educated, and mobilized. A vibrant democratic culture necessarily involves a vibrant linguistic culture. Language policy that operates in the community may, to a large extent, determine how successful government and public officials engage the civil society in constructive dialogues and in information dissemination to support their policies. It is a pity that since the adoption of a language policy in Nigeria that would have enhanced proper dissemination of information and ensured the empowerment of the civil society to support participatory democratic governance, successive regimes have only been paying a lip service to its implementation. Although modern-day democratic governance is being embraced by most African nations, the principles and traditions that have made it successful in Western nations are yet to be fully applied. Since the 90s, aid agencies and world organizations have often emphasized good governance in developing nations as a prerequisite to receiving support. However, language and effective political communication as essential components of democratic governance are left out of what to these organizations constitutes good governance. To them, peace, democracy, respect for human rights, sustainable development, free and fair electoral process, good leadership, sound management of the economy, and a strong judicial system, among others, are the benchmarks of good governance (ECA, 1997, 2005, cited in Bamgbose, 2005). Curiously, the advanced democracies of the world that these organizations represent have placed language and the development of a viable political communication culture squarely at the centre of their democratic programmes and development. How can the citizens participate effectively in democratic process without adequate information? How can they be adequately informed/educated without the appropriate choice of language that they understand very well? These are questions that need to be addressed by political actors in Nigeria. Opeibi (2004) has argued that no successful political mobilization can take place without effective political education of the civil society. The system must create access to information that will enable the people to make informed decisions on their roles in the democratic process. Bamgbose (2005) opines that “in any democracy, the role of the people involves three essential ingredients: participation, representation, and benefaction.” None of these three can be carried out without communication. The people can only participate in government businesses and policy-making directly or indirectly (i.e., through their elected representatives) by communicating in the language they know well. If the government in power is to be seen as responsive and responsible, its policies on welfare for the people must be communicated to them through their languages. One important democratic principle that strengthens democratic governance is the frequent communicative interaction between the government and the governed. The people must be able to receive information from the government and communicate their views, feelings, and opinions on policies that affect them in their own languages. The United States of America is a good example where communication between the leaders and the civil populace has contributed to strengthening the American democratic system. All branches of government—executive, legislative, and judicial—use the language that is well understood by the people. Furthermore, the president addresses the American populace regularly on the state of the nation while the legislators also interact with members of their constituencies. The mass media also serve as the mouthpiece of the civil society, playing an effective intermediary role on one hand and a watchdog on the other. People’s views and opinions are communicated to the government while government’s policies and

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decisions are presented in the light of their impacts on the society. Although the U.S.A. may not experience the misfortune of having the kind of complex multilingual situations as obtained in some African nations, the successful implementation of its language policy has contributed immensely to the growth of its democratic governance over the years. To a large extent, apart from other factors, lack of the political will to implement the language policy in Nigeria can be said to constitute a strong barrier to democratic governance. Although the colonial rule may be blamed for the hegemonic status given to English in Nigeria, very little effort has been made to develop Nigerian indigenous languages by leaders that have ruled the country after the country attained nationhood in 1960. The attitudes of some of the people in power to the indigenous languages leave much to be desired. If the use of other Nigerian languages (Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo) is to complement the use of English in the National Assembly as stated in the 1999 Constitution, to what extent has this policy been implemented? In our educational system that is supposed to be the incubators for hatching politically-educated citizenry, no Nigerian language is presently serving as the medium of instruction. It is not very certain that the Education policy (1977, revised in 1981) that states that the language of instruction for Nigerian children at the first three years of primary education should be their mother tongues rather than English (to be taught as a subject of instruction) is being implemented at all in any part of the country. In fact, most parents would rather prefer their children to be taught in English and even use English at home rather than their own indigenous languages. The Eurocentric language mentality of most educated Nigerians seems to be compounding the woes of these Nigerian languages. Sadly enough, the high level of failure or poor performance in our schools in English and other subjects, which indigenous language scholars (e.g., Bamgbose, 1995) have attributed to the use of foreign languages in our educational systems, are yet to be addressed. With over 300 indigenous languages in which the citizens can adequately express themselves individually, it is surprising that none is found suitable as a medium of instruction, at least, in the domains where they are spoken. This development is worrisome because if the school system that is supposed to serve as the factory for producing informed citizens has failed in its duties due to wrong language policy, it will portend great danger for the entire democratic structures in which the products of the schools will become major role players. Besides, the graduates of the school systems as ordinary citizens would have been incapacitated linguistically and thus be unable to participate actively in the democratic process, whether during or after elections. Another view on the linguistic situation in Nigeria with respect to democratic governance is the neglect of the minority languages. Although recent events in the political scene in some sections of the country have been tied to the agitations for resource control, fair treatment, and justice and equity in wealth distribution, the root of the problems can be traced to the marginalization and persistent neglect of the minority languages in the provisions of successive constitutions. If denial of the right to communicate in one’s own language in domains where such use is feasible is taken to be a denial of human rights, then speakers of these languages have the right to protest such injustice. Millions of citizens that are barely literate in other languages apart from theirs that are presently ostracized from participating in national discourse on language grounds can play a major role in sustaining the nascent democratic governance and national development. Among the four broad stages (research, actual planning, implementation, and feedback) in language planning identified by scholars, only the first two are given adequate attention in

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Nigeria. The planning process often collapses in the last two important stages: implementation and feedback. In Nigeria, several language policies (as contained in the 1947, 1951, 1954, 1960, 1963, 1979, 1999 constitutions) have been formulated without any serious plan of action to implement them. Some of the problems, unarguably, stemmed from the unstable political situations that have characterized Nigerian polity since independence. Policymakers, be they military or civilian, have failed to demonstrate a strong political will and commitment to implement faithfully the letters of the constitutional provisions on language situation in Nigeria. The National Policy on Education (revised 1981) and the language policy as enshrined in the 1999 constitution, which would have improved the language situation through their provisions for the use of English and three major Nigerian languages, have been rendered ineffective. The provisions in the National Education Policy state that Nigerian child should be educated in his or her mother tongue or the language of the immediate community in addition to English and at least one major Nigerian language. The language policy as enshrined in the 1999 constitution states that legislative businesses in the National Assembly and state houses of assembly are to be conducted in languages other than English. Unfortunately, many of those responsible for implementing these policies are not even proficient in their mother tongues and/or any of the national languages since they had their educational training in English. Absence of sufficient literature written in Nigerian indigenous languages is another major factor that has made ineffective political communication an impediment to the growth of democratic principles in Nigeria. Only very few Nigerian languages have publications that are accessible to the speakers of those languages. It is rather shocking to observe that many Nigerian elite who are public officials and political actors have negative attitudes towards the use of Nigerian indigenous languages. Bamgbose (2005) writes on a case that was reported in one of the Nigerian national newspapers (Guardian, December 10, 1999). At the very onset on the new democratic dispensation when Nigerian leaders were expected to live by examples, members of the Lagos State house of assembly were reported to have rejected the use of Yoruba language, the language of about 85% of those they are expected to govern. Their rejection was on the grounds that: [the] Yoruba language is not appropriate for the conduct of business of the house of assembly since Lagos is a cosmopolitan city. Besides, its use is capable of demeaning and reducing the intellectual capacity of the legislators.

Indigenous language scholars have condemned such utterances as being capable of frustrating every meaningful effort to successfully implement the language policies necessary for participatory democracy and national development. Bamgbose surmises, “Given that those who share this view are the people called upon to make policies, it is no wonder that African languages continue to be relegated to a position of inconsequence” (51). The consequence of the collapse of the implementation of Nigeria’s language policy is the continued dominance of English as not only the official language, lingua franca, but also the language of politics and governance in Nigeria.

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CONCLUSION In this essay, an attempt has been made to show the interrelationship among discourse, federalism, and governance. Political communication and democratic governance are posited as an inseparable entity. It has been shown that political discourse involves language use to mobilize people to participate in the democratization process. The electoral process, which is an important part of the provisions of federal constitutionalism, has also been highlighted as very pivotal to the success of democratic governance in Nigeria. It has been argued that beside other factors, close attention should be paid to how political candidates deploy linguistic facilities during and after election campaigns. Concepts drawn from the Speech Act theory have been used to describe and interpret selected extracts taken from recent political utterances in Nigeria. The analysis has revealed very clearly that language use in political activities, besides being persuasive, informative, or educative, is primarily designed to mobilize the people to practically support the process that will promote democratic governance. Political actors and public officials should then become aware of the power and implications of their utterances. Beside other factors that are necessary for the practice of true federalism in Nigeria, the development of an effective political discourse culture has been shown to be indispensable for the mobilization of the civil society towards successful and viable democratic governance. Both the indigenous languages, including the minority languages, and English must be allowed to function as languages of governance (and social mobilization), at least in the domains where they are used. We can therefore submit that full democratization of the Nigerian polity will become more successful if adequate attention is paid to what is communicated and how what is communicated is communicated, that is, through which language. Grassroots mobilization will be more effective when the appropriate language is used to inform and educate the masses on their civic duties. On a final note, the step taken by South Africa to strengthen its young democracy through an effective political communication programme is worthy of emulation. It is reported that the Department of Arts and Culture in South Africa has launched a scheme by the acronym TISSA (Telephone Interpreting Service for South Africa) by which any citizen can make a phone call to any government department in his or her language and be automatically translated into any of the country’s 11 official languages. The Minister in charge stated the government’s responsibility to the people that services and information must be provided to the people in the languages that the citizens speak. The use of South African indigenous languages deepen democracy by giving access to crucial information and knowledge that benefits all our people, especially the rural population, who are doubly deprived when services are rendered only in a language they cannot understand. TISSA means that, no matter what language you speak at home, no department of government, no institution of the state, no statutory body can henceforth withhold a service or an entitlement to a citizen because the official concerned did not understand what they were saying. This will prove to be one of the preeminent empowering tools government has placed at the disposal of the people of this country so as to create a better life for us all (Bamgbose, 2005, p. 55). No citizen with this opportunity available to him or her will feel alienated and marginalized as is the case in present day Nigeria. It is our conviction that Nigeria’s democracy will enjoy greater support from all sections of the diverse ethnolinguistic

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communities if the indigenous languages are given more recognition in all the media of communicative possibilities available to the people.

REFERENCES Adegbija, E. E. (2004). Multilingualism: A Nigerian case study. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Adekunle, A. (1974). The Standard Nigerian English in sociolinguistic perspective. JNESA, 6(1). Adetugbo, A. (1978). Nigerian English phonology: Is there any standard? Research Papers in the Linguistic Sciences, 1(2). Adetugbo, A. (1979). The development of English in Nigeria up to 1914: A sociohistorical appraisal. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 9(2), 89-105. Akere, F. (2004). Nigerian English in sociolinguistic perspectives: Users, uses and emerging varieties. In S. Awonusi and A. B. K. Dadzie (Eds.), Nigerian English: Influences and characteristics (pp. 256-284). Lagos: Concept. Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. London: Longman. Awolowo, O. (1966). Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution. Ibadan: Oxford University Press. Awonusi, V. O. (1996) Politics and politicians for sale: An examination of advertising English in Nigeria’s Political Transition Programme. Studia Anglican Posnaniensi, pp. 108-129. Awonusi, V. O. (2004). Cycles of linguistic history: The development of English in Nigeria. In S. Awonusi and A. B. K. Dadzie (Eds.), Nigerian English: Influences and characteristics (pp. 46-66). Lagos: Concept. Awonusi, S., and Dadzie, A. B. K. (Eds.). (2004). Nigerian English: Influences and characteristics. Lagos: Concept. Bamgbose, A. (1982). Standard Nigerian English: Issues of identification. In B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue: English across cultures. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Bamgbose, A. (1995). English in the Nigerian environment. In A., Bamgbose, A. Banjo, and A. Thomas (Eds), New Englishes: A West African perspective (pp. 9-26). Ibadan: Mosuro. Bamgbose, A. (2005, Aug. 25, Sept. 1 and 8). Language and good governance. A lecture delivered at the 7th convocation ceremony of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. The Guardian. Banjo, A. (1995) On codifying Nigerian English: Research so far. In A. Bamgbose, A. Banjo, and A. Thomas (Eds.), New Englishes: A West African Perspective (pp. 203-231). Ibadan: Mosuro. Beard, A. (2000). The language of politics. London: Routledge. Bitzer, L. (1987). Rhetorical publication communication. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 4, 425-428. Chilton, P., and Ilyin, M. (1993). Metaphor in political discourse: The case of the Common European House’. Discourse and Society, 4(1), 2-31. Chilton, P., and Schaffner, C. (1997). Discourse and politics. In T. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as Social Interaction (pp. 204-230). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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Cook, G. (1989). Discourse. London: Routledge. Davidson, R. H., and Oleszek, W. J. (1992). Governing: Readings and cases in American Politics (2nd ed.). Washington: C Q Press. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2005). The new Encyclopedia Britannica (vol. 6). USA: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Essien, O. E. (1990). The future of minority languages. In E. N. Emenanjo (Ed.), Multilingualism, minority languages and language policy in Nigeria (pp. 155-168). Agbor: Central Books Ltd. Gastil, J. (1992). Undemocratic discourse: A review of theory and research on political discourse. Discourse and Society, 3(4), 469-500. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society. Berkley: University of California Press. Graber, D. A. (1981). Political languages. In D. Nimmo and K. Sanders (Eds), Handbook of political communication (pp.195-224). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Ikiddeh, I. (1983). English, bilingualism and a language policy for Nigeria. Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies, 3. Isayev, M. I. (1977). National Languages in the USSR: Problems and Solutions. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Kachru, B. (1982). Models of non-native Englishes. In B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue: English across cultures. Urbana: University of Illinois Press Kinneavy, J. K. (1980). A theory of discourse. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman. Ogbulogo, C. (2004). Linguistics implications of variations in movement in English-Igbo Syntax. In V. O. Awonusi and E. A. Babalola (Eds.), The English language and literary communication in Nigeria: A festschrift for Abiodun Adetugbo (pp. 128-138). Lagos: University of Lagos Press. Opeibi, B. O. (2004). A discourse analysis of the use of English in 1993 presidential election campaigns in Nigeria. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Lagos. Ruben, B. (1988). Communication and human behaviour (2nd ed.) New York: Macmillan. Sagay, I. E. (2001). Federalism, the constitution and resource control. A paper delivered at a Sensitization Programme, Lagos, May 19, 2001. Schiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to discourse analysis. London: Blackwell. Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Searle, J. R. (1991). Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Searle, J. R., Kiefer, F., and Bierwisch, M. (Eds.). (1975). Speech act theory and pragmatics. London: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Stubbs, M. (1983). Discourse analysis, A sociolinguistic analysis of natural language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Wheare, K. C. (1963). Federal Government (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. West, D. M. (1984). Cheers and Jeers: Candidate Presentations and Audience Reactions in the 1980 Presidential Campaign. American Politics Quarterly, 12, 23-50. Wiredu, J. F. (1996). Style of political communication: The Nigerian experience in the 1979 elections. Legon Journal of the Humanities, 9, 57-80.

Issues in Political Discourse Analysis Editor: Samuel Gyasi Obeng

ISBN 978-1-61324-009-0 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 8

LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE SHIFT AND LANGUAGE DEATH WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ERUSHU, AKOKO S. A. Dada Department of English, University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study examines certain sociolinguistic concomitants of the language contact situation, namely language shift and language endangerment in the Erushu community. Specifically, it explores respondents’ abilities in two indigenous languages, Erushu and Yoruba, including their language use patterns in various domains. The basic finding of this study is the dominance of Yoruba in all domains over Erushu. The results reveal that at a 0.05 level of significance, there is a significant difference in the level of subjects’ mastery of Erushu with respect to age and context. Language use pattern in the Erushu community reveals a case of language shift in that children are gradually giving up the mastery of Erushu in preference for Yoruba and English. Thus, Erushu is endangered by this preference. The work underscores the need for a more concerted effort between the users of the language and language policymakers in ensuring the continued existence of minor languages in Nigeria.

Keywords: Language contact, Language use, Language shift, Language endangerment, Language death, minor languages, Erushu-Akoko, Yoruba, Bilingualism.

INTRODUCTION That languages could be in danger on a global scale should no longer be news. Language endangerment is a global issue that is becoming increasingly widespread. According to Crystal (2002), Indeed, there is agreement among linguists who have considered the situation that over half of the world’s languages are moribund, i.e. not effectively being passed on to the next generation. We and our children, then, are living at the point in human history where, within perhaps two generations, most languages in the world will die out.’ (p. viii)

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And again, The Punch, Thursday July 20, 2006 (p. 3) reports on a publication of United States-based research group, Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2006-2007, which claims that one language is lost every month. At this rate, 100 years from now, the world could be left with about 5,800 languages of the overall 7,000 used throughout the world today, the report notes. What is more, several of the world’s known languages, including the 516 in Nigeria (Gordon, 2005), are in danger of becoming extinct because fewer people speak or communicate with them. According to Vital Signs’ 2006- 2007 report, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have the greatest number of languages—820 and 742 respectively. And that Nigeria has the third largest number of languages with 516. Nigeria is followed by India with 427 and the United States with 311. Mexico, Cameroon, and Australia have less than 300 languages each. Thus, half of the world’s languages are spoken in only eight countries and with the exception of the top ten languages—Mandarin, English, Hindu, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Malay-Indonesian and French—which are being promoted and increasingly used, 90 per cent of the world’s languages will vanish or will be replaced by dominant languages by the end of this century. Thus, it is certain that the extinction of languages is progressing rapidly in many parts of the world, although its exact scope is not yet known. Hence, it is of the highest importance that efforts should be intensified at providing good information about language loss. The present piece is an effort in that direction. The paper contains theoretical considerations and practical investigations of language use in a multilingual community in Nigeria. The paper aims to establish that language shift, language loss and language death are real by providing empirical data on language use in one of such communities in Nigeria.

LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT When languages come in contact, a number of things that are however impossible to generalize actually happen. Languages, like people, may succumb to onslaught from one another. Thus, the need to examine the issues of language maintenance, shift and death in the present research work into details. In sociolinguistic circles, a distinction is usually made between language maintenance and language shift. When two languages come in contact and somehow, the two manage to survive the contact, we talk of language maintenance, in that, the minor language (numerically speaking) has survived the influence of the major one. The Polish, the Baltic, and the Greek peoples can be regarded as examples of such groups in Europe, as can the French in Quebec (McRae 1989, p. 9). With regard to this language centered culture, according to McRae, language is more than the medium of communication and self expression. Thus, their survival in a viable form is deemed by the group members to depend on the preservation of their mother tongue. However, when a language yields to the consuming influence of another language thereby making its speakers to assimilate to this dominant language, we have a case of language shift. Language contact is a prerequisite for language shift (Brenzinger, 1995). As language endangerment is currently receiving global attention, different definitions of the concept exist. The most obvious definition is by number of speakers. That is, a language

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with fewer speakers is more likely to be endangered in comparison with another with a larger number of speakers. Thus, the larger the size of users of a language, the better its chances of survival. Speakers of languages with less number of speakers tend to learn another (more widely spoken) language for purposes of interaction outside their immediate community. Yet, languages with large numbers of speakers can be in danger, as is the case in parts of West Africa (see Crystal, 2002). Where language loyalty is not strong, it is a short step to language shift and eventual language death (Bamgbose, 1993). To Crystal (2002) “Speaker figures should never be seen in isolation, but always viewed in relation to the community to which they relate” (p. 12). He states further that “in the savannah zone in Africa, for example, some linguists consider a language to be endangered if it has less than 20,000 speakers” (p. 13). Brenzinger, Heine, and Sommer (1991), on the other hand, consider a figure of five hundred speakers as cut off point for endangerment (cited in Bamgbose, 1993). To Halle (1992) language endangerment “is the incidence of domination by a more powerful language” (p. 23). In this sense, many Nigerian languages will in varying degrees qualify as endangered by a widely spoken language like Hausa in North or Yoruba in the Southwest. The most satisfactory definition, according to Bamgbose, is the one based on use. From this standpoint, Bamgbose (1993) not only draws a distinction between ‘Deprived,’ ‘Endangered,’ and ‘Dying’ languages but also concludes that endangered languages may be seen as belonging to a point in cline of language types ranging from deprived to dying or moribund. Factors such as population, geopolitical location, sociolinguistic readiness for literacy, language attitudes, and language loyalty are among some of the crucial factors which determine where on the cline of ‘livingness’ or ‘endangerment’ a language places itself or allows itself to be placed (Emenanjo and Bleambo, 1999). Emenanjo and Bleambo (1999) continue, “language loyalty itself prevents language shift which is the first major one-step back in language endangerment” (p. ii). In other words, language endangerment is stalled by robust language loyalty no matter the population of its speakers. We hasten to say that whichever of the definitions above is applied to Erushu data, as will be evident shortly, the language is endangered in view of the fact that (i) the language is yet to be reduced to writing, hence its use is restricted and (ii) the youngest speakers are young adults and only very few child speakers exist. In sum, in terms of a hierarchy, Fakuade (2001) says: A deprived language is higher in status than an endangered language in the sense that it is used in formal education and out-group communication. Such a language is said to be deprived because it is dominated by an official language, usually a language of wider communication, an LWC, which is for administration and as the medium for secondary and tertiary education. An endangered language, on the other hand, is not used in formal education, and its communicative role is limited to in-group communication. In general, such a language is mainly used for traditional purposes: rituals, festivals, village meetings, etc. In contrast to these two types of languages, a dying language is one which is not used in any serious function, and its relevance lies only in the fact that there are some old people who have knowledge of the language and who are using it less and less, since there are fewer interlocutors to use it. (p. 14, cited in Bamgbose, 1993)

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Going by the above classification once again, Erushu is an endangered language. Tandefelt (1992) captures the process of language endangerment in a formula: A > Ab > AB > aB > B In the formula, A represents the minority language (i.e., the language dominated socially, politically, or numerically) and B represents the majority language (the dominating language) in a multilingual society. The intervening variables between points A and B are the initial second language learning stage Ab, followed by a period of bilingualism AB, then followed by almost total language shift aB. At point aB the minority language is endangered. Hale (1992) saw language endangerment as a part of a much larger process of loss of cultural and intellectual diversity in which politically dominant languages and cultures simply overwhelm indigenous local languages and cultures, placing them in a condition which can only be described as embattled. According to him, the process is not unrelated to the simultaneous loss of diversity in the zoological and botanical worlds (see also Fakuade, 2001). According to Appel and Muysken (1990) when the focus of a language user is another language other than theirs, their language is at risk. It will first experience borrowing. The situation can be further worsened such that large chunks of foreign words are incorporated into the host language, a process called relexification. According to them, if these borrowings are not checked, the society will suffer language disintegration, loss, and/or language death. Appel and Muysken note that children will be eager to learn a productive/dominant language. Thus, when a dying language is restricted to only one style, language loss and death is inevitable. We exemplify this situation with the following instances of conversational discourse in Erushu (Erushu exists only as an oral medium) captured as data. These expressions consist of code-mixing involving Erushu/Yoruba, Erushu/English, Erushu/Yoruba/English as follows: Examples of type (a): (Erúshú + Yoruba) (1) a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Deni keke ìdanwo ni? How do examination you ‘How did you do your exam? Á sì yemi si I not understand it ‘I didn’t understand it’ Wa nì ran ìwe gan They BE understand book very much ‘They are very brilliant’ A mì ve ùwà eshu dandan I Future go farm tomorrow compulsorily ‘I will go to the farm compulsorily tomorrow. Òwo po maalu We kill cow ‘We killed a cow’

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The italicized words are the Yoruba words incorporated into Erúshú expressions. Examples of type (b) : (Erúshú + English) (2) a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Òho wa set a ha What they give it difficult ‘What they gave (as questions) was difficult’ Vá à da material They not buy material ‘They did not buy the material’ Boda Accord á à getì eje Brother accord he that got himself ‘Brother Accord is confused’. Wo gba range va Go bring range come ‘Go and fetch the range’ À ve school He go school ‘He has gone to school’

Although the English words in this section can be easily identified, we still consider it to be a consistent way of presentation if they are italicized in conformity with our pattern, rather than leave such items to the reader’s imagination. Examples of type (c): (Erúshú – Yoruba-English) (3) a. Omumu de ni o ke GBÌYÀNJÚ de a gain anything all as FOC verb do try much we gain anything ‘Hard as we tried, we did not gain anything’. b. Ma FE ta o da magí I want to go buy magi ‘I want to go and buy magi. c. Á YE tí omumu o ve school It necessary that all us go school ‘it is necessary for all of us to be educated’. d. Àyafi graph ma a ke DAADAA Except graph I not do well well ‘Except the graph which I didn’t do very well’ e. Age YÀTÒ SI eje age different from one another’ ‘Their ages are different from one another’ On the data in this section, English items are simply italicized while the Yoruba ones are capitalized and italicized.

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People in Erushu community generally are in the habit of code-mixing in informal conversations. Such conversations or discussions take place at home, at ethnic or village meetings, at parties, etc. In these situations, participants speak Erushu cum Yoruba and some English, if need be. It is remarkable that the same people who code-mix on such informal occasions resist code-mixing on more serious or formal occasions which require only the use of Yoruba or English. The manifestation of code-mixing in our Erushu data has once again established the fact that code-switching or code-mixing is a characteristic of language use in bilingual communities when all the participants in a speech situation share a bilingual background (see, e.g., Myers-Scotton, 2004; Savic, 1995) and that language shift is already at work in this community (see, e.g., David, Naji, and Kaur, 2003). In short, a summary of causes factorial to language endangerment in the world today is presented as follows (for details see Dada, 2006, 166-170; Fakuade, 2004, 12-22; Garzon, 1992, 61-64): -

An extended period of limited language contact culminating in a period of language shift. Shrinkage of domains for the subordinate language. Use of dominant language by parents with their children. The language policy of a State. Failure by young people to gain proficiency in the subordinate language.

The foregoing points to the facts to watch out for concerning Erúshú-Yoruba data. We cannot predict the course of language events in this community until the facts are laid bare. Thus, by the time the language use data is examined it is hoped that the process on course in this community, out of those ones discussed above, will become evident.

LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE DEATH Craig (1995) says that language death refers to the complete disappearance of a language. The death of a language, with rare exceptions, cannot be the result of the sudden death of a whole community of speakers. More often, death comes by in a situation of languages in contact and shifting bilingualism. The sociolinguist’s interest resides more in studying the causes and circumstances of this death. Dorian (1981, 1986) argues that language death may appear to be sudden but may in fact occur as the result of a long period of gestation. It typically involves a case of sudden shift from a minority language to a dominant language after centuries of apparent strong survival. One major cause of language death according to Craig (1995) is the evolution of the patterns of language use in specific families, whereby parents and older siblings speak an ethnic language while younger siblings suddenly do not acquire it. Research has shown that at times that process of death affects first the lower registers of the language, leaving for last a few pieces of the most formal register. This type of bottom-totop death has also been referred to as the “Latinate pattern.” For instance, Yaqui of Arizona is surviving only in ritual contexts but which crucially marks membership in the ethnic community (Hill, 1983, cited in Craig, 1995).

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Speakers of the types of language death patterns mentioned above can be plotted in the continuum of the process of language death, from native fluent speakers to non-speakers (Campbell and Muntzel, 1989; Dorian 1981, 1985, 1989; Dressler, 1991; Schmidt, 1985, cited in Craig, 1995). Schmidt (1985) in his studies distinguished between older fluent and younger fluent speakers. The latter typically were found to speak a somewhat changed form of the language, which is still accepted by the whole community. On the effects of language death on language structure, the first level of linguistic loss correlates with the loss of certain functions of the language. Craig (1995) states that the most widespread case is that of the loss of higher functions, such as the use of the language in the public area, including the sociopolitical and religious traditions which necessitate the handling of some formal style of language. For instance, terminal speakers of Breton could only control causal styles (monostylism) for intimate routine interactions (Dressler, 1991; Dressler and WodackLeodolter, 1977, cited in Craig, 1995). Again, lexical loss, loss in phonology, and morphology has been reported in the discussion of the different types of language death. In a report entitled Vital Signs 2006-2007, the Worldwatch Institute states that the death of a language is most commonly caused by bans on regional languages, infectious diseases, wars, migration and cultural assimilation. The report says further that sometimes they disappear because their speakers voluntarily abandon them. That is, when a community finds that its ability to survive and advance economically is impaired by the use of another language then such people will stop using their native language or teaching it to their children.

THE STUDY AREA Erushu is a village with a linear settlement along Ikare-Kabba road in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. This Local Government happens to share a common boundary with three states in Nigeria, namely, Kogi, Edo, and Ekiti States—thus, a probable reason for its multilingual nature. In terms of population, Erushu was reported to have just about 6,000 people out of the 3,884,465 population of Ondo state as of 1991. In terms of the landed area, Erushu is about 8 sq.km. long. The Erushu language is the native tongue in this community. However, the regional lingua franca of these people is Yoruba, and they also regard themselves as Yoruba by tribe. According to the village Head (Osunla) and chief Olugboja (the Balogun of Erushu, a retired principal) the people originated from Ile-Ife. Suffice it to say, however, based on personal observation, having stayed in this community for twenty-two years, that this people lost traces of their original ethnicity long ago, having settled on a Yoruba land. By genetic classification Erushu belongs to the Defoid group of the Benue-Congo languages. Following studies of different scholars the Akoko speech forms (or lects) of Ondo State fall into five main groups: the Yoruba group, the Edoid, Ukaan, Akpes, and Akokoid group. According to Ohiri-Aniche (2006), Akokoid belongs to West Benue-Congo rather than to East Benue-Congo—and that after discounting borrowing between Akokoid and Yoruboid. Akokoid seems to be as equidistant from Yoruboid as it is from Igboid and Edoid. OhiriAniche states further that the Akokoid group is made up of such lects as Arigidi, Oyin, Uro.

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Igaasi, Erushu, and Okeagbe (see Abiodun, 2004; Akinkugbe, 1978; Capo, 1989; Crozier and Blench, 1992; Gordon 2005; Hoffmann, 1974; Ohiri-Aniche, 1995; Williamson, 1989). Two indigenous languages, Erushu and Yoruba, are predominantly spoken in Erushu village. English, the official language in Nigeria is also present here. Other Nigerian languages found in this community are: Ebira, Hausa, and Igbo. It is needless to say that the domains of the routine use of these languages differ considerably. Indeed, the kind of bilingualism (i.e., coordinate or compound) found within individuals in this community is to be determined by this study. From mere observation, we discovered that there is no indigene, young or old, in this community that cannot speak the two predominant languages in use here. A determination of the degree of these respondents’ bilingualism is the main thrust of the present paper. After all, "the linguistic ecology of any multilingual setting is always in a state of change, even if insignificantly" (Egbokhare. 2004, p. 511). The Erushu community typifies a truly multilingual setting. Invariably, certain sociolinguistic concomitants of the language contact situation such as bi/multilingualism, language choice, language attitude, language maintenance, language shift and loss, language endangerment, etc. would be evident in this place, hence our decision to investigate such phenomena in concrete terms.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study are outlined below: (i) To examine the sociolinguistic implications of the coexistence of Erushu language with Yoruba language with a view of speculating about the fate and future of these two indigenous languages. (ii) To establish the typology of bilingualism in this community. (iii) To determine the abilities (degree of oral proficiency, since Erushu has no orthography) of our respondents in their two languages, Erushu and Yoruba.

Specific Hypotheses The three central null hypotheses of this paper are as follows: Ho1: Ho2: Ho3:

There is no significant difference in the level of proficiency of our subjects in their two languages, Erushu and Yoruba. There is no significant difference in the degree of proficiency of subjects in their two languages in different contexts. There is no significant difference between subjects belonging to different age groups in their proficiency in the two languages.

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METHODOLOGY The Language Background Questionnaire supplemented by participant observation was used in gathering our data from respondents. The questionnaire elicited the following details from respondents: (a) demographic data, (b) the dominant language of respondents as well as their self-perception of ability in three languages (Erushu, Yoruba and English), (c) languages(s) most often used in different domains and with different people, and (d) language attitude. The research instrument featured closed items. Subjects for the study comprised three hundred (300) respondents. For the purpose of the investigation, the four quarters in Erushu were visited for a full coverage of the study area. These respondents were randomly selected from each quarter. All the three hundred questionnaires given to participants were all returned. Although the respondents were selected based on their accessibility and cooperation to ensure representativeness, the researcher went round schools, churches, homes, markets, and playing grounds to meet with participants. Again, this afforded us the opportunity to observe first hand the language behaviour of these respondents in a natural setting. The instrument for the study contained a section where respondents were asked to assess their speaking and understanding abilities in Erushu and Yoruba along a four point rating scale: poor, fair, very well, and excellently. The data analysed here is the self-report of our respondents with respect to their language use and oral ability in Erushu and Yoruba. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. Simple frequency distributions and percentages were applied for the descriptive statistics. T-test and chi-square (2) were used for the inferential statistics.

Demographic Information The sample is made up of 300 respondents. The demographic characteristics of our respondents are presented below as Table 1, which includes sex, age, education, and occupation. The profile of the respondents as presented above is important in two respects. One, it provides an insight into the background of the respondents. Two, it will enable us to ascertain the reason for any variation(s), if any, in the respondents’ choice of code and matters of bilingual proficiency.

Data Analysis and Verification of Hypotheses This section is on data analysis and verification of the various hypotheses formulated here. Our first null hypothesis, which sought to measure the degree of bilingual proficiency among the respondents, was tested using t-test. Table 2a shows that the t-calculated (2.84) is greater than the t-table (1.96). Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected. Hence, there is a significant difference in the subjects’ proficiency in their two languages, Erúshú and Yoruba. This implies that the respondents did not maintain

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the same degree of proficiency in their mother tongue, Erushu and the regional language, Yoruba. Table 1. Description of the Sample’s Demographic Characteristics

Sex

Frequency 166 134 107 32 47 42 72 73 41 170 16 185 87 19 9

Male Female 10-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+ Nil Primary Secondary Post Secondary Students Farmer/ Trader/ Artisan Civil Servants Others

Age

Education

Occupation

Percent 55.3 44.7 35.7 10.7 15.7 14.0 24.0 24.3 13.7 56.7 5.3 61.7 24.0 6.0 3.0

Table 2a. T-test Values Showing the Differences Between Subjects’Competence in Erúshú and Yoruba N

17.27

SD 2.26

300

19.03

3.08

Df

t-cal

t-table

Result

276

2.84

1.96

Significant

p < 0.05.

Table 2b. Comparison of Subjects Competence in Erushu and Yoruba in Percentages Language Erusha Yoruba

Poor Freq. 8 -

% 2.7 -

Fair Freq. 32 4

% 10.7 13

Good Freq. 12.3 83

% 41.7 27.7

Excellent Freq. % 137 45.7 213 71.0

Total Freq. 300 300

% 100 100

The mean score in Yoruba is higher than that of Erushu and the t-value in both measures of bilingualism prove that they are more proficient in Yoruba than in Erushu. Since the tvalue is greater than the critical value that means the null hypothesis is rejected using this measure of bilingualism. Statistically speaking the Erushu know more of Yoruba than the Erushu language. For instance, as evident on Table 2b, while 71.0 percent of our respondents know Yoruba excellently only 45.7 percent attains this level for Erúshú. And about 13.4 percent of the respondents have a poor knowledge of Erúshú only 1.3 percent are of this category with respect to Yoruba.

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In the questionnaire, we sought to know which code(s) the respondents would use in different contexts such as home, work, school, church, and in the market in view of the fact that there is a relationship between language use and proficiency. This forms the basis for our second hypothesis. Table 3. Chi-Square Test Analysis: Subjects’ Code Choice in Different Domains Domains Home (Parents with Children) Home (Children with parents) Work (with boss) Schools (with teachers) Church/Mosque (with Congregations) Market (buying and selling)

No response -

Erúshú

Yorùbá

English

Yorùbá + English -

Total

0.77%

Erúshú + Yorùbá 38.5%

33.9%

26.9%

-

13.5%

67.1%

2.9%

13.5%

2.9%

100%

1.0%

6.0% 1.2% 0.7%

56.7% 26.7% 92.0%

18.7% 65.1% 1.3%

14.0% 2.3% 1.7%

4.7% 4.7% 3.0%

100% 100% 100%

3.0%

2.0%

80.0%

1.7%

10.3%

3.0%

100%

100%

X2C =909.605; X2t = 37.65; Df = 25; N = 300; P< 0.05.

However, since there is a high level of bilingual proficiency in this community, we probed to see if there is any relationship between age and bilingual proficiency of our subjects. The t-test was once again used to test for this. The two languages under study were actually correlated with age. The results are presented as Tables (4a) and (4b) below. In Table (4a), there is a significant difference between the age groups as regards proficiency in Erushu. The first two groups, 10–20 and 21–30, show a lower level of proficiency in Erushu when compared with those who are over 30 years of age. Thus, the null-hypothesis that our subjects do not differ in their proficiency with regard to age is rejected. This implies that bilingual ability is age-related in Erushu community. From Table (4b), we are able to see clearly that the first group, 10-20 (adolescents), is with a lower level of proficiency in Erúshú (32.7% for poor/fair and 67.3% for very well or excellent) when compared with those over 20 years and above. That is, speech varies with speaker age. Indeed, competence in Erushu language decreases as the age decreases, that is, the older the better in Erushu language. Table 4a. T-test Showing the Differences in Proficiency in Erúshú Between the Different Age Groups Age 10-20

N 107

Mean 2.4904

SD 1.3365

Df 128

t-cal -2.265

Sig. 0.025*

Result Sig.

21-30 31-40 41-50 51+ Total * Sig.

32 47 42 72 300

3.1154 2.1860 2.0945 3.0930

0.8628 1.5925 51.6351 0.8399

128 168 168 168

-2.918 0.319 0.324 -0.977

0.005* 0.750 0.745 0.330

Sig. Not Sig. Not Sig. Not Sig.

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Table 4b. T-test Showing the Differences in Proficiency in Yoruba between the Different Age Groups Age 10-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+ Total *Sig.

N 107 32 47 42 72 300

Mean 3.3173 3.6538 3.5581 3.6142 3.2677

SD 0.8037 0.7452 0.7336 0.8170 1.0649

Df 128 128 168 168 168

t-cal -1.936 -2.029 -0.399 -0.420 -1.098

Sig. 0.055 0.409* 0.691 0.675 0.275

Result Not Sig. Sig. Not Sig. Not Sig. Not Sig.

However, with respect to Yoruba, age has no significant influence on its mastery as evident in table (4b). Indeed, with the exception of one age group (21–30) in this table where the significant value generated 0.049 is less than 0.05 (p