Nigerian Pidgin as a National Tool for Communication

Abstract

The research hinges on the national adverts created with the use of Nigerian Pidgin. Nigerian pidgin has always been a language frowned at, mostly when used among the literates or in an official occasion. However presently, it has become a language used for national adverts in order to disseminate information that is meant for all, both the literates and illiterates. Random sampling was utilized to find the advertisements for this study on YouTube. The ultimate goal of this project is to depict national advertisements that employ Nigerian pidgin to inform the public about the current difficulties that the country is facing. The Nigerian lexical stocks seen on advertisements that used Nigerian pidgin rather than Pidgin English are also investigated. From the findings, in order to communicate effectively to the people due to the multi-ethnicity of Nigeria, Nigerian pidgin has been used in adverts for various purposes. These include an advert on family planning which aims to educate people on how to checkmate over-population which exposes youths to various vices, an advert on registration for voters card in the bid to curbing electoral malpractices, an advert on educating people on the safety measures to prevent contracting of Corona Virus and an advert on how to help government in protecting the lives and properties of the people by reporting anything that is unusual within the community. As a result, individuals would be able to take the appropriate action since they comprehend the message if they utilize Nigerian pidgin. Furthermore, the above Nigerian Pidgin advertisements show some of the Nigerian languages' lexical stocks in Nigerian pidgin, which contradicts the term 'Pidgin English.' Finally, because Nigerian pidgin is growing popularity in the country, it is suggested that several linguistic issues be investigated in order to make it a more functional and acceptable language for everybody.