Language Use for Sustainable Development in Nigeria: a Systemic Functional Study of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s 7-Point Agenda

Abstract

It has become almost the norm with the various successive governments in Nigeria, to launch, at the beginning of their tenures, a policy statement that would act as a guide to the attainment of their promises to the people during political campaigns. The 7- Point Agenda is one of such policy statements meant to impact on Nigeria’s quest for sustainable development and its language is considered as a socially oriented discourse strategically performing illocutionary functions intended to meet a target trend. In this regard, its language in this paper is considered as an analyzable text meant to be explored through the eclectic deployment of both the systemic functional approach and the speech-act theory of pragmatics to ascertain its role. The study analyses five performative clauses from each of the seven Agenda using the pragmatic markings provided by Searle’s categorization of the speech-act and concludes that the performative/illocutionary force of the language used tends to be weak and ineffectual to mediate action on the part of government, therefore, lacks the commitment to initiate action towards addressing the challenges of sustainable development in Nigeria. Appropriate deployment of language resources should therefore, factor into issues of development for growth and advancement in Nigeria.