Department: Linguistics African and European Languages
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1
Analysing The Grounds of Boko Haram’s Denigration of Nigeria’s Institutional Framework: A Critical Discourse Approach
The efforts of scholarship in recent times are geared towards finding solutions to practical issues that affect the world in general and its immediate environments in particular. This paper utilized the methodological procedure of Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate the causes of Boko Haram’s denigration of Nigeria’s institutional framework enshrined in her democratic process and western education. The whole exercise keeps in perspective the relevance of speeches as a site for sharing and revealing ideological make-up of a speaker represented in varied forms of language to reveal experiences that determine the motivation for predictable practices. The work systematically unveiled the ways in which meanings are constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms of various kinds to gain insights into the way discourse reproduces (or resists) social and political inequality, power abuse or domination. Aspects of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and van Dijk’s Theory of Socio-cognition guided the analysis of our data. The central place of Hallidayan linguistics in CDA’s theoretical perspectives has been reinforced by Wodak (2002). This indicates that understanding the basic claims of Halliday’s grammar and his approach to linguistic analysis is essential for a proper understanding of CDA. The analysis drew upon qualitative research facility which was the most appropriate for the research. In the findings, denigration of institutional frameworks comprises two stances: opposition to democracy and rejection of Western-style education. The demonization of constitutional order and democratic practices by the sect is often borne out of the latter’s politics of victimhood. It claims that its violence is reminiscent of decades-long history of persecution against Muslims in Nigeria. The sect’s abhorrence for constitutional framework and western education also demonstrates a resistance against inequality, injustice and all manners of ills propagated and fomented by the Niger
