Why globalised English stays put in Nigeria

Professor Lekan Oyeleye delivering his inagural lecture

Here is how globalisation has created great varieties in spoken and written English in Nigeria

Though, Professor Albert Lekan Oyeleye of the Department of English, University of Ibadan, UI, is a man of average height. At 65 he stood tall recently at the institution’s Trenchard Hall, to deliver his inaugural lecture entitled, “In My Father’s House: Globalization, Linguistic Pluralism and the English Language in Nigeria”. In attendance were the institution’s principal officers,

 led by their Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka; Oyeleye’s first PhD student, now a professor at Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Anthony Lekan Dairo; Professor Akin Odebunmi; Professor Ayo Ogunsiji, who was also the lecturer’s PhD student; Dr. Adenike Akinjobi and families, friends and colleagues of the lecturer.

Starting off, Oyeleye disclosed that the occasion availed him an opportunity to give an account of his stewardship to the premier university, which has nurtured his scholarship, and the Nigerian public, which has equipped him with the materials with which he had developed his intellectual and research agenda over many years.

Oyeleye was the third to present inaugural from the language arm of English in the department and the ninth from the total presentations so far in the department with the first inaugural titled, “Bilingualism”, presented in November 17, 1984 by Professor Paul Christopherson, followed by Professor Ayo Banjo’s with the title, “Grammars and Grammarians”. Others who were from the Literature arm were: Professor Molly Mahood, “The Place of English Studies in African University”, 1954; Professor M.JC. Echeruo on “Poets, Prophets and Professors” 1976; Professor Dan Izevbaye, “In his own Image”, 1985; Professor Isidore Okpewho, “The Portrait of the Artist as a Scholar”, 1990; Professor Sam Asein, “Literature and the State: Thoughts on the Scholar-critic as Mediator”, 1995 and Professor Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, ‘Fluent in(ter)ventions: Webs of the Literary Discipline, 2013.

Professor Lekan Oyeleye in group photograph with principal officers of UI

The don, in his lecture, disclosed that his scholastic enterprise ‘In My Father’s House’ has revolved round varieties of English as they acclimatize to the Nigerian environment adding, “Most explorations in a second language context like the Nigerian situation direct their search at variety differentiation which sieves the several domain-distinguished forms of English and shows their distribution in the Nigerian public and private spaces. Varieties of English have emerged not only from aspects of the native dialect, but also from local habitualisations and user-initiatives anchored to the context of use”.

According to him, the first part of the title, “In My Father’s House”, is an inter-textual foray to the bible: in my father’s house are many mansions…(John 14:1-2) while the second bit, “Globalization, Linguistic Pluralism and the English Language in Nigeria”, described the link with the context carved out in the first bit, and foregrounds the global impact of the context, courtesy of Internet technology, the ethno-linguistic situation in Nigeria, and the place of English in Nigeria.

“My research and publications effort have largely concentrated on the issues of globalization, linguistic pluralism and the English language in Nigeria. I have examined the lexical, semantic, stylistic discoursal and pragmatic properties of Nigerian English and compared it with other varieties of English of the world. Nigerians are creative users of English, although a good number of the items deployed may not necessarily be consistent with native English usage. Yet, in a pluralistic linguistic setting like Nigeria, a cross-nationally intelligible variety suffices for informal intra-national communication”, he pointed out.

On globalization, he reiterated his consistent argument that globalization is the most noticeable of the several socio-cultural, political and economic phenomena currently changing the face of the world, stressing that given that these changes are tangentially connected with world powers, globalization has been associated with western imperialism and has consequently been claimed to have heralded the supremacy of capitalism. He emphasized, irrespective of how globalization has been viewed, one outstanding denominator stands: globalization “creates a world without boundaries in which people of this world can communicate with each other, interact and share cultures, economies and generally their lives via developments in the fields of information technologies, communication and transportations.”

Professor Lekan Oyeleye, in the middle, walking with UI VC,

 Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka right, and DVC Admin, left

He emphasized, “Whatever the perspective from which one looks at globalization, it connected with imperialism. Thus, the imperialistic nature of globalization has been linked up with the wide and expanded promotion of English. Philipson (1992) describes the strong political and economic motivations of this promotion as “English linguistic imperialism”.

 Pennycook (2001) notes that the promotion of English is achieved through systematized material and institutional structures (for example, its dominant status as the language of the internet). These roles of English in a globalized world, of necessity, call for significant linguistic alterations of the language, a situation that has led to the semantic extension of many English words to accommodate the cross-cultural and cross-geographical platforms of globalization”.

The lecturer who noted that some of these linguistic alterations in the variety of English which he called ‘Globalised English in Nigeria’ said that this variety of English is used by the chieftains of globalised industry and trade adding that the variety has offered new concepts that are agreeable to the ideology of capitalism. “In this variety, lexical items like democracy, equality, freedom, liberalization, non-discrimination, appropriate pricing and so on are given meanings which turn the semantics of common quotidian English upside down. Hassan (2003) calls the variety glib speak”, he said.

Illustrating the concept of glib-speak with democracy and appropriate pricing which have been so bastardised in Nigeria, he pointed out that the global concept of democracy is that government should be by the people and for the people with absolute power residing on the people, Oyeleye noted, “…Therefore, elections and voting are orderly processes of effecting a change; and our experience of democratic government is of one that has been elected by the people. Social equality implies the right to elect a representative governing body; to participate in decision- making, to have equal rights to justice,

 education, healthcare, freedom of belief, freedom from coercion, right to personal dignity, right to property, etc”.
He continued, “Nigeria is glibly referred to as a democracy, but how many of these rights do we enjoy as citizens of this country? Which of our democracies has not been characterized by subventions and distortions? Which of our elections has ever been free of rigging, ballot snatching, ballot box stuffing,

violence, specious legalisms, and other forms of irregularities? In the hands of the powerful, the chieftains of globalised industry and trade, democracy through glib speak, changes its semantic colour like a chameleon in Nigeria! In similar vein, appropriate pricing of petroleum products in my father’s house has meant a regular, sustained and unjustifiable increase in the pump prices of petrol, kerosene and diesel. The only appropriate thing here has been the continued pauperization of the people. In addition to the necessary semantic extension stated above, globalization also exposes the English language to alterations that arise from interaction with other languages. Globalization has, to its credit, the platform that promotes the spread of different cultures and global access to different heritages”.

Treating the second aspect of the title, linguistic pluralism in Nigeria, the lecturer was quick to submit, “A complex Babel of languages is very characteristic of the multilingual context of ‘My father’s house’ (i.e. Nigeria). Thus, I have noted in my earlier research that the Nigerian language situation is considered multilingual in the theoretical sense, but is described as bilingual in pragmatic terms. That is, it is English versus all the languages in the country whenever one is faced with the issue of language choice”.

Oyeleye further averred that English is not a monolithic language; rather, it is a conglomeration of several languages stressing, “English, one would be correct to say that the language does not belong solely to a particular ethnic group, nor to a particular geopolitical entity. Giving the spread, status and role of English in many parts of the world today, the language has become a ‘global language’. Yoruba is the language of Yoruba people of South –western Nigeria and Benin Republic; Igbo is the language of Igbo people of Nigeria, but Britain cannot claim the sole ownership of the English language. It is not surprising therefore, that English has multiplied into many varieties both in its mother tongue and second language environment”.
Pointing out three reasons reasonable for the implantation of English in Nigeria to include: colonization,

commercial activities, and missionaries activities, Oyelese concluded, “After the assessment of the impact of globalization on Nigerian English, I concluded by affirming that globalized variety of English has come to stay in Nigeria because Nigeria users of English are aware of, and have accepted, the influence of globalization on Nigerian English; many Nigerians have positive attitude towards a global English in spite of the detrimental effects of economic globalization; and many users of English in Nigeria readily identify with the gains of globalization and therefore adopt some of the words and expressions which the process of globalization brings to Nigerian English”.

Please share your thoughts in the comment box below