Introduction

A language is a system of conventional, arbitrary symbols by which

members of a community communicate with each other. Wardhaugh (1988) has

defined it as some unitary system of linguistic communication, which subsumes a

number of mutually intelligible varieties. No society can exist without a language

since it is a means of communication among human beings. As human beings

develop their linguistic repertoires also develop through series of reinforcement,

examples, imitation and precepts. In a strict sense, therefore, language according to

Wilson (1972) is an artificial and consciously organized method of control by the

use of symbols or conventions, which involves the notion of meeting.

Nigeria is one of the countries with myriads of languages. Each ethnic group

has its own language together with its dialectal varieties. This singular factor of

multiplicity of languages, is a thing of great concern for Nigerians. Bamgbose

(1971) has estimated about 400 local languages, yet no ethnic group is ready to

abandon its language since all languages are taken as equal. Consequent upon this

linguistic diversity is the problem of national unity and cultural integration of the

citizens. The absence of linguistic unity in the country has therefore led to the

emphasis placed on the English language in the educational, political,

administrative and social sectors, as well as the enhancement of international

intelligibility. In a multilingual situation like Nigeria, the establishment of a

language policy becomes imperative. This is because such a policy will serve as a

guiding factor in language use and language teaching.

Language Policy and Planning

Policy is defined in the Encyclopedia of Education (1971) as a statement

that is intended to be a binding guide on the actions of those designated by the

statement. Such a binding guide is enforceable by the society, which formulates it.

The formulation as well as adoption is through a political process, which

acknowledge the reality and legitimacy of conflicting interests and desires among

its participants. A language policy therefore, is a binding language guide, which is

meant to be enforced by the society that formulates it through a political process.

When we talk of language planning, we are referring to a set of deliberate activities

systematically designed to organize and develop the language resources of the

community in an ordered schedule of time. Rubin (1972) describes planning as an

activity whereby goals are established, means are selected, and outcomes predicted

in a systematic and explicit manner. So both policy and planning go together.

While one is a binding guide meant to be enforced and operated, the other gives

room for projecting into the possibility of operating such guide as to achieve the

desired goal(s).

In every organization, planning plays a dominant role. In a society like

Nigeria where language choice is a delicate issue like Nigeria, the government

needs to be conscious of all the variables and should not jump into any decision.

Language planning according to Fishman (1972), is a government authorized long

term, sustained, and conscious effort to alter language functions in a society for the
purpose of solving communication problems. By implication language planning

focuses on the solutions to the problems of language in a society.

In a linguistic situation like Nigeria, there is the need for a sequence of

realizable objectives as well as the ordering of priorities. There is the need for a

policy and planning of a continuous process. Such actions call for the sequences of

planned formulation, conducting the planned set of activities in a programmed time

schedule and at the same time, preparing the planning system to adjust and correct

itself based on the information feed-back from the addresses of the planned output.

This is important because language policy/planning is just an aspect of national

planning and as such, it is a competing area of planning, which impinges on the

national resources having alternative allocative claim.

Nigeria has not got a language policy but rather an educational policy,

which touches on some aspects of language. One would asks whether or not this

policy is adequate as far as language is concerned. If not, is the government

deliberately sidelining the issue?

Language and religious institutions

The place of language in the church, as in any other aspect of human

endeavour, cannot be overemphasized. This is due to the fact that the entire

activities of the church services are made possible by the use of language.

Following, therefore, language has become a performance tool in the hands of the

pastors in carrying the entire congregation along in the course of these services in

particular, and the entire fellowship in general. Language therefore provides the

necessary means through which the church is able to relate with the members of
the congregation and makes it possible for the church to make positive impart in

the lives of the members.

As is mostly the case with phenomena such as this in this case, language, as

a useful instrument in the hands of religious leaders has been exploited by these

people to achieve a number of negative acts. Hence, besides simply using language

to instruct, motivate and convince, for example, language could also be used to

persuade, deceive, brainwash exhort, etc. In the following discussion, the uses of

language that were discovered in the course of this research, as evident in the

activities during the church services that were analyzed, are presented. The work is

largely based on the messages and sermons of men of God during the services and

explains the kinds of acts that language is used to perform in these institutions.

Language as an instrument for motivation.

In the bid to make sure that the worshippers are always carried along in the

scheme of things in the church, the religious leaders recognize the need to

constantly motivate her members. This motivation that has become an important

ingredient in the success of the church in achieving her aims is only made possible

by the use of language. The motivation, in this regard, is used as a strategy for

keeping the members actively involved in the activities that are in place in the

course of the services. For example, during a sermon, Agharuwa (2012a) noticed

that the congregation was no longer responding as expected and suddenly started

praying for their prosperity. With like intention, Apostle Johnson Suleman, in his

sermon, suddenly started shouting out the following prayers: I see power coming down
from the thrown of God. I see power coming from heaven. I see power coming from glory. It is
resting on your life. It is resting on your body, it is resting in your health, it is resting on your

finance, it is resting on your marriage, it is resting on your home. You don’t serve a dead God,

you serve a mighty God. He’s the same yesterday, he’s the same today, and he’s the same

forever. When God says yes, no man can say no. God is on your side, power is on your side,

glory is on your side. Lift up your hands and say fire! (2011, 6:49-52)

The effect of this on the congregation is that they started responding

appropriately and were motivated to follow the message. What this shows is that

language is used in this sense to motivate people and carry them along in the

course of the services.

Language as a tool for persuasion

The use of force as a way of achieving administrative aims and exercise of

power is not effective in the church, hence, the means of ensuring continuous

followership and obedience is to persuade the followers to obey. Language in the

church, therefore, becomes an instrument that is used to persuade the followers in

order to get them to carry out whatever task is intended. In using language to this

end, the preachers select their expressions very carefully so as to appeal to the

conscience of the people and get them persuaded. This, it seems, is the most visible

function that language performs in the churches, during religious ceremonies.

Persuasion ensures that the people attends the services in the very first place, and

thereafter ensures that they take the activities and messages in the course of the

service seriously, ensures that the people respond to the call for salvation

contributions and donations towards any project, etc. since one cannot really be

forced, but persuaded, to join any religious group, persuasion becomes the only
reasonable option that can be used to ensure continuous followership. The power

of language in this regard constitutes an example of what Halliday (1973) calls the

regulatory function of language. This constitutes the use of language as a tool that

may be used to regulate the behaviour of others. In which case, the user simply

persuades the people to do what he wants them to do, or he may persuade them to

behave in a particular way, which may or may not be what they wanted in their

own

rights.
Language as an instrument for taking people to heaven.
The general assumption is that any church has as its primary goal, the salvation of

souls and the assurance of heaven for such souls. If this is so, and since the use of

language is what makes this possible, it follows therefore that the church uses

language as a means to ensure that people are saved and that they make it to

heaven in the end. This makes language a very central tool in the church in

particular, and other religious groups in general. Language is used generally to

bring people to the faith, instruct them, warn them against sinful acts, regulate their

behaviour in order to keep them in the faith, direct their activities, bless them,

prophesy, etc. Language is used as the instrument for giving hope to the hopeless,

for encouraging those that are discouraged, healing the sick, etc. and following

therefore, language is used to lead the people to heaven and realize their eternal

hope. This particular performative function of language is new and central to our

discussion, and it is the endpoint of the roles that language performs for its users in

the church.
Language as an instrument for brainwashing.

It is also observed that language is used in the church as a tool for

brainwashing people. As an instrument in the hands of the preachers, it is

effectively used in inculcating the church doctrines, rules and regulations into the

minds of the followers, making the followers to become what they want them to

be. By constantly ‘feeding’ the people with the kinds of messages, the followers

soon forget about their personal beliefs and philosophies and believe totally in

what they have been taught to believe over time. This may be able to account for

presence of religious fanatics in the society. If this claim is anything to go by, it

follows therefore that such persons have constantly been brainwashed by their

religious leaders, a possibility that is only made possible by the use of language.

Language therefore becomes a very viable tool for brainwashing the people (i.e.

the followers). The place of religion in the lives of the people of this part of the

world makes it easy for this kind of use of language to be very effective. Religious

belief has become a very passionate phenomenon and people may be ready to fight,

or even kill in order to defend their religious faith. This religious extremism is as a

result of several years of brainwashing.

Language as an instrument for deceit and extortion

As an instrument in the hands of religious ministers, some insincere church

ministers have been able to use language to achieve negative aims such as

extortion of moneys and other valuables from their unsuspecting members by

deceiving them into parting with money. This usually begins as some kind of

persuasion of the followers to be generous givers towards the “propagation of the

gospel”. When this works effectively, the insincere pastors would capitalize on it

and stretch it to the extreme, making attempts to deceive the followers to give

beyond their means. This kind of coercive cheating becomes a form of extortion

since the pastors do not care whether the followers can afford whatever is being

demanded or not.

One way of doing this is by repeated use and emphasis of convincing

expressions such as the following.

I. The only way to receive is giving.

II. The reason why we are poor in the church is because we are cold in the

ministry of giving.

III. Five naira can be the five million of tomorrow.

IV. You cannot be a king in your destiny if you do not invest in the kingdom.

V. God is a big God. He is bigger than one hundred naira, so give what he is

worth and see if he will not reach out unto you in his fullness.

The effect of these kinds of language use is that it insights the people to give all

that they have in other to be classified as one of those who “invest in the

kingdom”. Language in this sense is therefore used as a tool for extorting monies

and valuables from the unsuspecting members of the congregation.

Conclusion

It is clear that if Nigeria is to move along with the rest of the world, she

cannot do without English. However, we as well recognize the need to have a

workable language policy. So far in this work, the performative uses of language in

religious institutions have been discussed. As we may have observed, language in

these institutions is used, as a very viable tool in the hands of the religious leaders,
to perform a number of functions. These functions may include, among others, to

convince, to deceive, to entertain, to motivate, persuade, brainwash, and to extort.

The extent to which any of these is done will depend on the intention of the user of

the language.

Having gone through the above observations, it is therefore clear and

expedient to have a clear-cut language policy in Nigeria. Such a policy should do

the following:

1. Establish a language, which should be specific in terms of functions.

2. Recognize the present role of the English language and aim at creating the

enabling environment for the indigenous language.

3. Make as compulsory subjects the three local languages right from the primary

school level up to the secondary level.

4. This however calls for the availability of personnel and other learning resources.

The three local languages, if taken as compulsory subjects, will give the learners

adequate knowledge and enough competence in their use. Perhaps out of the

three, one may eventually evolve as a national language. Such language study

should not be limited to Nigerians only but rather they should be prerequisite

courses for foreign students who have come to study in Nigeria.

5. The government should take the language policy with all seriousness and not

with levity. This is because the onus rests on the government to set a machinery

in motion towards the evolution of a viable language policy that will eventually

give birth to the sole language that shall be used by those who want to or as a
 means of communication among residents of a country and those of other

countries.

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