Ideology and Governance in Nigeria: The Case of 1999 Nigerian Constitution

Donatus Emenike

Abstract


The study investigates ideology in governance text focusing on The 1999 Nigerian Constitution. Critical Discourse analysis theory is applied to the study of selected extracts to show traces of ideological positioning in the text. The study shows that lexical choices and other text production techniques are used in the context of law making to project and legitimize group and sectional interests to the disadvantage of others. Findings from the study shows that such lexical choices as landmass and population are strategically used to confer advantage on a group to the disadvantage of others. The use of inclusive ‘we’ , distancing and access restriction are other text production techniques that are employed to project the dominant ideology in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.


Keywords


Governance; Nigeria; Ideology; Constitution; Text analysis

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/12734

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