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”.
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