Pragmatic Analysis Of Olisa Meth’Sdysphemisms Against President Mohammadu Buhari’S Administration
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Pragmatic Analysis Of Olisa Meth’Sdysphemisms Against President Mohammadu Buhari’S Administration
Chapter one
Introduction
1.1 Background of the study.
Various studies on language use have helped language users comprehend that meaning is more than just the grammaticality of a sentence. Semantics is used as an anchor for the discipline of linguistics that investigates meaning making in communication.
However, further investigation by experts has revealed that there is more to the usual, literal meaning of sentences derived from a string of utterances. Often, we mean more than we say and say more than we mean.
Our words are continually redefined by their contexts of use. Pragmatics has thus been able to explain the mechanics of meaning formation in addition to the words of a document or spoken discussion.
The fact that communication is such an important component of human life makes pragmatics and meaning-making a daily and continual event. Humans constantly and unconsciously negotiate meaning in every conversation.
Failure to negotiate meaning is a common source of language conflict in communication. Pragmatics is essential for peaceful and successful language use in the human community.
Politics is the most renowned sphere of human speech in terms of meaning-making. Knowing able to issue commands and have the support of the people does not make one a competent politician.
What distinguishes a good politician is the ability to communicate effectively. Being a good language user implies being able to negotiate one’s way out of a problem and successfully utilise words, even turning the tables on others when necessary. It also
methods to manipulate others with language. Such is the nature of politics, where language is required to convince, control, accuse, and occasionally incriminate other political actors. One could hardly deny that it is typically the role of spokespersons to successfully manage language to the benefit of their organisation.
Politicians regard language as an important instrument in the political arena since it aids in recognising politicians’ ideological positions.
As a result, it is possible to create a language that supports one group of people or party while alienating others.Opeibi (2009) emphasises the fact that no matter how good a candidate’s manifesto is, or how superior a political party’s political thoughts and ideologies are, these can only be expressed and further translated into social actions for social change and social continuity through the tools provided by language.
According to Egbewole and Etudaiye (2010), it is the function of an opposition party to constantly criticise governmental policies formulated by the majority, to carefully scrutinise the manner in which these policies are implemented, and to keep the possibility of alternative legislative policies and administrative practices in the minds of the electorate at all times.
This research is motivated by a distinct curiosity about how political actors utilise language. It has been discovered that euphemisms and dysphemisms account for a greater proportion of political language characteristics.
The opposition began in Nigeria during the First Republic, led by the charismatic Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The opposition conducted under the First Republic was consistent with the opposition that existed in the United Kingdom at the time (Egbewole and Etudaiye (2010).
Opposition is muffled in many parts of Africa due to colonial legacies and cultural reasons. Democracy in Nigeria will grow if the opposition recognises its role and fulfils it with the required altruistic motivations (Alabi 2009, cited in Egbewole and Etudaiye, 2010).
Political opposition is a fundamental aspect of modern democracy. In this context, opposition refers to an organised political movement aimed at opposing and possibly altering the present administration (Okoli, 2001).Okoli goes on to explain that “in parliamentary democracies, resistance is formally institutionalised in the process of public governance. In this setting, the opposition party seeks to position itself as a “shadow government” by monitoring the current administration between elections and promoting itself as an alternative platform in the following election. In the same line, Robertson (1985:357) remarked that “an opposition is a political grouping, party, or loose association of individuals who wish to change the government and its politics”. Okoli (2001) eventually finds that “in advanced democracies of the world, political opposition is operated along inter-party lines”.
Opposition in politics takes the shape of inter-party competition. Competition is one of the characteristics of modern democracy, in which political parties vie for power. In Nigeria, political groups actively engage in opposition, but it is sometimes done illegally because it frequently results in bloodshed.
Opposition is more effective when it is directed at strengthening the country’s governing process. Politicians should consider opposition as a form of competition aimed at improving the country’s administration, rather than an opportunity to pursue personal goals.
The 2015 Nigerian general election presents an ideal opportunity to apply pragmatic aspects to the study of meaning construction in politicians’ war of words on the Nigerian political scene.
As a result, the purpose of this study is to pragmatically analyse the language aspects of chosen political speeches delivered by Barrister Olisa Metuh, one of the most active players in the lead-up to and aftermath of the 2015 general election.
Metuh, the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) national publicity secretary, could not disguise his dislike for the APC’s flag bearer, General Muhammad Buhari (rtd), despite his primary role of expressing the PDP’s opinions on national matters.
Buhari eventually won the 2015 general election, beating incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan for the first time in Nigerian history, and becoming the leader of the opposition. He was sworn in on May 29, 2015. Of course, this intensified several objections and comments from the electorates that Olisa Metuh represents.
Olisa Metuh, national publicity secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was born in OtoloNnewi, Anambra State, to Chief J.N Metuh, a fourth-generation law officer. Olisa Metuh attended the Ivy League University of Nigeria Nsukka campus in Enugu, where he earned a law degree and was admitted to the bar in 1988.
In 1996, he founded Olisa Metuh and Co, a law firm that gave many young lawyers with opportunities in legal practice, real estate, share acquisitions, and other capital market transactions. He is a member of both the Nigeria Bar Association and the Association of Business Lawyers of Nigeria.
Olisa was appointed National Auditor in 2007 and immediately became a member of the National Working Committee. It is worth noting that Olisa Metuh is the longest-serving and youngest elected member of the PDP’s National Executive Committee.
Olisa Metuh has attacked President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in a number of disparaging ways, and as the PDP’s press secretary, his views might and would be seen as those of the party.
Dysphemism is derived from the Greek word ‘dys’. ‘mis’ and ‘pheme’ denote speech, voice, and reputation, respectively. It is a term with offensive overtones regarding the topic matter, the audience, or both.
It is sometimes motivated by emotions such as fear, dislike, hatred, and contempt (Wikipedia, 2015). Dysphemism is a common element in speeches that expresses the speaker’s inherent state in connection to sociocultural variables.
President Muhammadu Buhari was born on December 17, 1942, in Kastina State, Nigeria. He was the military dictator of Nigeria from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985.
Buhari was deposed on August 27th, 1985, in a coup orchestrated by General Ibrahim Babangida and other members of the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC), reportedly because he insisted on investigating claims of corrupt contract awards in the Military of Defence.
In 2003, Buhari ran for president as the All Nigeria People’s Party candidate. On December 18, 2006, Gen. Buhari was nominated as the All Nigeria Peoples Party’s consensus candidate. His major opponent in the 2007 April polls was the reigning PDP’s Umaru Yar’Adua, who is from the same state, Katsina, but he lost.
Buhari left the ANPP in March 2010 to join the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and he was the Presidential candidate in the 16 April 2011 general election, competing against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), among twenty other candidates.
Buhari won the 2015 general election, ousting incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, making it the first time in Nigerian history that an incumbent President was defeated in an election by the opposition leader. He was sworn in on May 29, 2015.
Of course, this exacerbated various criticisms, comments, and effects on readers and listeners (i.e., Nigerians exposed to mainstream media). However, the research’s focus will be on analysing Olisa Metuh’s selected speeches in their many forms using pragmatic theories.
This study was conceived as a result of a personal desire to discover the motivation behind Olisa Metuh’s usage of dysphemism, the supports provided as a basis for inference by the reader, and the pragmatic significance.
1.2 Statement of Research Problem.
Following the successful March 2015 Presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) emerged as the winner, defeating incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in what was widely regarded as a free and fair election.
This loss elicited negative responses from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which were spoken and written by the National Publicity Secretary (Olisa Metuh), who has the authority to do so.
Unfortunately, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has not forgotten this defeat and has successfully painted President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in a dysphemistic light, with many of these speeches causing outrage in the country.
Several scholars have focused on the pragmatic analysis of speeches and other relevant essays.
Ayeomoni and Akinuolere (2012) conducted a “Pragmatic Analysis of Victory and Inaugural Speeches of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adura” and discovered that the “Overall Relative Frequency Percentages (ORFP) results showed that Umaru Musa Yar’Adua relied more on sentences that performed assertive acts than other speech acts.”
Josial and Johnson (2012) conducted a “Pragmatics Analysis of President Goodluck Jonathan’s and President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Addresses” and discovered that the speeches are largely similar since each speaker speaks for his entire country, regardless of political party.
However, little or no research has been conducted on the Pragmatic Analysis of Olisa Metuh’s Dysphemisms Against President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration, and this is the gap that this study seeks to fill in order to uncover the meanings embedded in the dysphemistic expressions against Buhari’s administration.
1.3 Aims and Objectives
The purpose of this study is to conduct a pragmatic analysis of Olisa Metuh’s dysphemisms against President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, with the following objectives:
i. Identify the dysphemism employed in Olisa Metuh’s talks.
ii. categorise them based on speech acts.
iii. Discuss the pragmatic meaning derived from the categories.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The importance of dysphemism in the overall interpretation and analysis of a text cannot be overstated, hence this study aims to make a significant contribution to existing pragmatics research.
The study will use pragmatic ways to answer questions about the underlying motivations and goals that allow Olisa Metuh to produce dysphemistic utterances.
As a result, dysphemism will be exposed as a political communicative instrument with the consequence of direct language and negativity.
1.6 Scope of Study
The study is concerned with identifying dysphemisms and offering its practical ramifications from statements made by Olisa Metuh in three instances of political events, with headlines on different newspapers as:
Premium Times: PDP wants ouster of Amina Zakari, new INEC interim chair (July 1, 2015).
Leadership: PDP accuses Buhari of splitting Nigeria over voting patterns (July 27, 2015).
Vanguard: The APC is a party of dishonest and desperate liars.
This research will be evaluated utilising Austin’s taxonomy of illocutionaryacts, which include Verdictive, Behabitive, Exercitive, Commissive, and Expositive.
1.5 Expected contribution to knowledge.
The research will focus on the diatribes of Olisa Metuh’s speeches against President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, and it will make a significant contribution to the field of pragmatics, as this essay will apply a theoretical framework.
Scholars who evaluate or study this essay will choose how to fulfil its objectives.
The concerns addressed in Olisa Metuh’s dysphemistic speeches are socio-cultural in nature, therefore the meanings obtained and analysed will serve as semantic resources and answers for someone who is not naturally or contextually orientated to Nigerian political issues.
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