Abati: The politics of ‘Election English’

Guardian

18 Feb 2011

Abati: The politics of ‘Election English’

By Reuben Abati

THE language of politics as we prepare for the 2011 polls is beginning to throw much light on the character and temperament of the Nigerian political elite. George Orwell in His “Politics and the English Language (1946) had written that “Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”  Orwell complained about foolish thoughts, insincerity and how the language of politics is a reflection of societal decadence. Orwell could well have been writing about today’s Nigeria. Our politicians are beginning to “give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”  President Goodluck Jonathan did not invent the politicisation of language in Nigerian politics, but he catalysed the return to that old game of lending the English language to mischief when he used the word “rascals” during a campaign rally in Ibadan to refer to certain politicians who had seized control of the South West.

He has since claimed that he was misunderstood, but the President’s explanation certainly did not amount to a retraction. When a politician makes a statement and he has to issue another statement to explain what he purportedly said, and ends up saying either nothing or the same thing all over again in different words, it is the ultimate sign of the idleness of the professional political class. Now, in retrospect, Jonathan’s discovery of “rascals” is beginning to look mild, juxtaposed against the rebuttal to him and the PDP issued by the former Governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In a story in The Nation, Tinubu obviously inspired by a need to respond to Dr Jonathan says the PDP is a “Poverty Development Party”, a party of “blackmailers”, “liars”, and “fat cats” who should be swept away with a broom.

The broom is the symbol of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to which Tinubu belongs. He also referred to Jonathan as “a drunk sailor fisherman whose boat is about to capsize.”  (The Nation, Feb. 16, p. 4).  Wow!, that sounds like the equivalent of a grammatical upper cut to the jaw! ...