The standardization processes of Nigerian pidgin seems to have started during the post-colonial period. Naturally, Nigerian pidgin appears to be the first choice of most Nigerians in informal situations, especially when they are among those from different ethnic and linguistic background. Thus, the selection process has tactically taken place. Among all the languages used in Nigeria today, English inclusive, Nigerian pidgin could be said to be the most widely spoken. Evidence abounds in motor parks, parties, congregations and most social occasions. There is also ample evidence in the electronic and print media, especially in political propaganda, campaigns and product advertisement. Thus, in terms of spread and extensive use, Nigerian pidgin could rightly be called a national lingua franca.
The use of Nigerian pidgin in contemporary Nigerian could be described as most productive, extensive and complex. It appears that the standardization processes-selection, codification, elaboration of functions and acceptance-which started in the post-colonial era, are as now being completed in contemporary Nigeria. The reason for this assumption is simple-apart from its complex use as a lingua franca, languages of media advertisement, social interaction, unofficial military training and limited literary output, Nigerian pidgin gas attained widespread acceptability in the media, political propaganda and campaigns as well as soap operas. It is also the language of radio and television jingles. Most electronic media now use appreciable percentage of their airtime to cast news and give reports in Nigeria pidgin. Even though its use in some newspaper columns has declined, especially with the demise of the ‘Waka About’ column in the Daily Times, it is however found extensively in some newspaper advertisements
.In places like Warri, Sapele and Port Harcourt, there were reports that teachers at lower primary level taught their pupils in Nigerian pidgin. This unofficial adoption of the Nigerian pidgin as the language of the lower primary education by those teachers is justifiable considering the provision in the National Policy on Education, which states that in addition to English, the major language in the child’s environment could be used at the elementary level of education. Similarly, Nigerian pidgin has become a language of religious preaching, especially Christianity. In most rural and even urban centres where congregation are not all very well-educated, pastors resort to the use of Nigerian pidgin.
The use of the Nigerian pidgin as a literary language tends to have started in the sixties with the work of Achebe, Soyinka and others. But it is in the contemporary times that it has become most widespread. The number of poems, novels and plays written and published in Nigerian pidgin is growing even more rapidly. Many more literary writers now attempt to experiment with the language. Therefore, the evidence of codification and elaboration of functions and the partial or tactical acceptance of Nigerian pidgin are clearly visible.
From the passage, which of the following is the most important reason why Nigerian pidgin is popular?
After many weary weeks of matching . Nzinga and her attendants arrived at the white wall of Luanda. The guards at the city gates led them through the winding streets and up to the governor’s palace. A pompous courtier, sweating and dirty in his thick clothes ordered them to wait amongst a crowd of people who had come to beg favours of the governor.
Nzinga waited patiently, ignoring this insult to her royal dignity. She knew that her chance would come. The hot sun beat down on the white walls of the palace, yet Nzinga stood straight and proud as the crowd of Portuguese merchants mopped their sweating faces with damp lace handkerchiefs.
Much later the courtier came back. He knocked on the floor with his staff, and then announced in a loud voice, ‘His Excellency Joao Correia de Souza, the Governor in Angola of His Most Royal and Catholic Majesty, the king of Portugal’. The tired soldiers stood to attention and the courtiers and merchants bowed.
Nzinga became very impatient. Was she to stand here like a servant all day, waiting for this man to make up his mind to hear her? She stepped forward, walked into the middle of the room and faced the governor. The guards and the courtiers were so amazed that they could o nothing but gasp in amazement at this boldness. ‘Well, ‘murmured one of the merchants to his neighbor. ‘Now she will learn what trouble is! Don Joao will be very angry. It is an insult to his dignity’. ‘What do you mean by this, asked the governor when he had recovered from his surprise. ‘Who are you? Come, woman, state your business!’
But Nzinga was not afraid. In a clear, calm voice she answered him. ‘My first business is a chair,’ she said. The governor laughed. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘You are seated, ‘she replied, ‘And you are only a governor, a slave of your king. I am a princess and men do not sit where I stand. I will state my business seated!’
But Nzinga had learnt the strength of her enemy. She knew that she was already winning this contest of wills. E
Whatever happens now, this man would not think that she has been sent by a beaten people to beg favours. Without another word, she turned and made a sign to her maid. When the girl came to her, Nzinga ordered her to kneel down. Then, with a flash or triumph in her eyes, Nzinga sat down on the girl’s back, Nzinga got her treaty. Pride in herself and in her people had saved the day for the Mbundu.
who did Nzinga want to see?
why did Nzinga became very impatient? because
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Bitrus, a middle-aged man, was speeding along the hot tarmac one afternoon, oblivious to the countryside. By his side, reading a magazine was his first son, a twenty-year-old university computer science student. On the man’s mind was the contract he was pursuing in the capital city. It was worth several million dollars. Although he had handled bigger contracts before, Bitrus was preoccupied with this new challenge, his mind far away from the road before him. His son was also buried in the magazine he was reading. So neither saw the goat crossing the road early enough. Like an automaton, Bitrus jammed on the brakes. In a flash, there was a skid and a somersault. The villagers worked for almost an hour on the huge Mercedes before rescuing the two.
There, in the casualty ward, the duo lay on the stretchers. Bitrus was soon in a fairly stable, but anybody would know that the son needed prompt specialist medical attention. The doctor was sent for, a surgeon who regularly handled such cases. Soon enough, the doctor came. The nurses heaved a sigh of relief. But then... “Oh no, I can’t handle this case. He’s my son!” Everyone was shocked. One of the nurses pleaded. “But doctor, you must do something otherwise,... “No, he’s my son. I’ll have to transfer this case.” And so tearfully, more agitated than anybody around, the doctor hurried away to call a colleague.
Here was Bitrus, with multiple injuries, but not in danger. In the adjoining room was his son, still comatose. How then could a doctor come in and say, “This is my son”? Wasn’t Bitrus the father after all? Most people would reason that the doctor was truly the secret biological father. Others, reasoning hard, would conclude that the doctor was Bitrus’s father and thus was right in describing him as his son. But for how long would people continue to think that all doctors must be male? Couldn’t the doctor have simply been Mrs. Bitrus?
(a) (i) What was the remote cause of the accident? (ii) What was the immediate cause?
(b) What does the passage suggest about doctors’ attitude to the cases they handle?
(c) Describe the conditions of Mr. Bitrus and his son at the hospital.
(d) What assumption about doctors does the passage illustrate?
(e) His son was also buried in the magazine he was reading.
(i) What type of figurative expression is this? (ii) What is its function as it is used in the sentence?
(f) ...that the doctor was truly the secret biological father.
(i) What grammatical name is given to this expression? (ii) What is its function as it is used in the sentence?
(g) For each of the following, find a word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) oblivious (ii) prompt (iii) regularly (iv) pleaded (v) agitated (vi) adjoining
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
In the 1960s and 1970s undergraduates did not need to apply for employment. Employees usually wooed them by depositing offers of jobs in their halls of residence for those interested to pick and choose from as soon as they finished writing their degree examinations. How things have changed! We have since “progressed” from this age of abundance in which unemployment was hardly heard of to one of economic recession and widespread unemployment. The problem is so acute that one finds unemployment even among engineers and doctors.
What are the causes of this phenomenon? For one thing, our educational system does not train its products for self-employment. Everybody expects the government or the private sector to provide them with a job at the end of their studies. As we have now realised, the government and the private sector combined cannot create enough jobs to go around the army of graduates turned out annually by our universities. For another, many parents encourage their children to enrol in courses leading to prestigious and lucrative professions for which they may be intellectually unsuited. They end up obtaining poor degrees or none at all. Such graduates cannot compete in the job market, so they swell the ranks of the unemployable and the unemployed.
Perhaps the most important single cause of unemployment is economic recession. During periods of boom, economic activities are generated in abundance and these make plenty of jobs available. But the reverse is the case in times of economic recession.
There is no simple solution to the problem. Everyone in the society has a role to play here. The government has a duty to ensure that the economy is buoyant, thus providing the right environment for the creation of jobs. The educational authorities have to orientate the process of education towards the production of job creators rather than job seekers. Guidance and counselling services should be made available in all secondary institutions. Parents, too, should stop misdirecting their children into choosing careers for which they are ill-suited.
(a)(i) What was the employment situation like in the 1960s and 1970s?
(ii) What is the situation now?
(b) In what ways do the education systems, the parents and the students contribute to the unemployment situation?
(c) Mention three suggestions given in the last paragraph for solving the problem.
(d) Why does the writer enclose the word progressed (First paragraph) in quotation marks?
(e) ........for which they may be intellectually unsuited.
(i) What grammatical name is given to this expression?
(ii)What is its function as it is used in the sentence?
(f) For each of the following words, find another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage:
(i) recession
(ii) acute
(iii) army
(iv) lucrative
(v) boom
(vi) orientate
