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A Functional Linguistic Perspective of Language and Insecurity 

in Governor Ortom’s Speech on the Killings at Abagana IDP 

Camp  

 

Samuel Edem 

Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil,  Kano. 

dmsamuel19@gmail.com 

 

 

Abstract  

This study, from a functional linguistic perspective, examines 

language and insecurity via an impromptu speech of Governor 

Ortom on the Killings at the Abagana IDP camp delivered 28th 

Wednesday, March 2021.  The study aims at two things. First, it 

examines the language of the speech through the structures 

unfurling how insecurity has become a major concern in Benue 

state. Second, it undrapes the linguistic features used in 

foregrounding this concern. Findings unveil that binary opposition, 

mood, modality, transitivity, and deictic references are linguistic 

features expended by Governor Ortom to achieve different 

meanings. While binary opposition tends to foreground intentional 

and unethical acts levelled against the people of Benue state; 

modality tends to compel certain obligations to stop this act. An 

interrogative is invested rhetorically to implicitly justify an action 

taken rather than elicit an answer.  An imperative is utilized to 

achieve warning, and transitivity choices that are metaphorically 

pointy are employed as statements of straightforward facts that 

thrust the ideological current of the discourse. The study deployed 

both tabular and narrative analysis to enhance the meaning of the 

discourse. Tables were used in most cases not just to indicate how 

roles were realized via transitivity processes, but when there is a 

mailto:dmsamuel19@gmail.com


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role shift,  notably, in a passive structure.  The speech was, first 

transcribed into a written form out of which thirteen excerpts as 

data were purposively selected and their structural patterns 

examined using Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics 

approach.   

Keywords:  insecurity, Governor Ortom, Abagana IDP camp, 

ideology, Systemic Functional Linguistics  

 

 

1. Introduction 

The study is impelled, first, by the spontaneity and responsiveness 

of Governor Ortom’s impromptu speech or address at the Abagana 

IDP camp within a group context; and second, how language has 

been credibly deployed in the speech to address the insecurity 

situation in Benue state.  Our definition of credibility evolves from 

the spontaneous and responsive nature of the address which 

certainly accentuates originality, unlike a rehearsed speech where 

the language may have been intentionally patterned as a result of a 

great deal of time spent in thinking and constructing ideas.  

Insecurity as it were in the contemporary sense is a national 

threat that should not be spared but completely eradicated. Today, 

in Nigeria, it has found its way into our society as an indispensable 

necessity in form of terrorism, banditry, militancy, inter-tribal war 

and so on.  The results are obvious, despite several concerted efforts 

made by each successive government to nib this hydra-headed 

problem in the bud and exterminate it (Edem and Aluya, 2017). The 

Fulani-Herdsmen and Farmers conflict is a prototype of a grievous 

insurrection that has bedevilled the country over the years without a 

solution in sight. Their militancy has become a key security concern 

for the nation. In addition to its religious colouration, the farmer-

herdsmen unrest has been attributed as basically economical. This 



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involves the Fulani versus Tiv farmers, Fulani versus Jukun farmers, 

Fulani versus the Birom and so on.   

The killing at the Abagana IDP camp by bandits seems to be a 

furtherance of the Fulani-Tiv farmers’ unrest and Governor Ortom’s 

Impromptu speech is a spontaneous reaction to the event. The 

primary function of language is communication. Thus, the study 

attempts to unveil what Governor Ortom tries to do with language 

and the devices deployed in doing it. This is a functional approach 

to language. According to Dik (1981, p.3), a language is first 

conceptualized as a tool of social interaction intentionally deployed 

for the establishment of communicative relationships among human 

beings. It is from this perspective one attempts to illustrate the 

instrumentality of language to what people do and achieve with it in 

social interaction.  As such, functional linguistics is primarily 

interested in explaining language phenomena.   This is the reason 

SFL initiates the idea that language comprises ‘a system of 

meaning’, which affords a speaker an unlimited choice of ways of 

creating meanings (Bloor and Bloor, 2013, p. 3).   Therefore, from 

the perspective of Armstrong, and Ferguson (2010), when we 

explore how language contributes to the construal of different kinds 

of social interactions, we tend to further comprehend functional 

communication.  
 
 

2. Methodology 

The study attempts a functional linguistic analysis of language and 

insecurity in Samuel Ortom’s impromptu speech delivered on 28 

Wednesday, April 2021 at the Abagana IDP camp. First, the speech 

is transcribed into a written form out of which thirteen excerpts as 

data are purposively collected and analysed, using the theoretical 

approach of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (henceforth 

SFL).  The study deploys both narrative and tabular analysis.  Tables 



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217 

 

are used, first, to show how different roles in the selected texts are 

realized via transitivity; and second, to showcase when there is a 

role shift, especially, in a passive structure. With this, a passive 

voice is indicated as a significant linguistic choice.  

The study has embraced SFL because of its interest in how 

language is deployed in a social context and the choices available 

for the speaker to make meaning in that context. With this, the study 

attempts to substantiate how insecurity is meaningfully construed by 

governor Ortom as a national threat via the choices of mood, 

modality, transitivity, deictic references, and opposition in the 

discourse.   
 

2. Theoretical Framework 

One of the hallmarks of functional linguistics is its emphasis on 

communication as the prime purpose of language. In other words, 

how people expend language to successfully communicate meaning 

becomes an essential parameter.   With this, the relationship 

between language and its function cannot be severed since 

functional linguistics sees language and its elements as essential 

factors in understanding linguistic processes and organization. In 

other words, the language of any text, like the speech text under 

consideration, can best be examined and realized through the 

functions that the elements in the speech text are inclined to 

perform. This is why the concept ‘functional’ is deployed in 

functional linguistics to illustrate the method which ascertains 

syntactic categories in terms of their communicative functions.  

There are so many functional approaches to linguistic categories 

such as  Foley and Valin’s (1984) Functional Syntax,   Dik’s (1981) 

Functional Grammar,  Van Valin’s (1993) Role and Reference 

Grammar, Hengenvel and Mackenzie’s  (2008) Functional 

Discourse Grammar, Halliday’s  Functional Grammar (1984)  



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amongst others are characteristics of diverse functional approaches 

central to the study of grammatical forms and functions.  

Halliday’s SFL for instance is a formal grammar of description. 

It tends to describe how language in social interaction is encoded 

through diverse metafunctions or linguistic features that initiate the 

creation of diverse meanings in discourse. These linguistic features 

range from ideational to interpersonal and textual. However, they 

are semantically connected to three contextual variables such as 

field, tenor and mode respectively. The ideational has to do with the 

field of discourse. It conveys a text or clause as experience 

(experiential meaning) and the sequences of experiences (logical 

meaning).  The interpersonal relates to the tenor and it sees a text or 

clause as an exchange. Finally, the textual is concerned with the 

mode, which indicates how the text or clause is patterned or 

constructed into a meaningful discourse via context (Halliday, 1994; 

Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Hunston & Thompson, 2000).   The 

interest in this study is to show how these meta-functions as 

linguistic choices entwine at some level with other linguistic choices 

in the discourse to enhance readers’ cognitive understanding of 

Governor Ortom’s speech on insecurity. 
 
 

3. Analysis and Discussion of Speech Excerpts 

The interest of the study is in the language patterns of the speech 

and its communicative functions; the purpose of communication. 

What the governor or speaker intentionally or unintentionally tries 

to convey to the audience on insecurity matters bordering Benue 

state. To this end, the study attempts to analyze the speech from the 

following sub-headings: (i) Linguistic choices that allege the 

killings in Benue state as intentional   (ii) Linguistic patterns that 

foreground prejudices and (iii) Linguistic patterns that call for 

action against the state of insecurity. 
 



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(i) Linguistic Choices that  allege the killings in Benue state 

as intentional 
 

 

1.   For several years, we have been calling on the federal 

government to take proactive steps to address this matter; 

they have refused to do so. 
 

Two basic ideas run through the language patterns of text 1. First, 

the incessant calls made by the people of Benue state for preemptive 

steps to stem insecurity, and second, the federal government’s 

(henceforth FG) refusal of the calls.  These basic ideas are 

substantiated in the discourse via the circumstantial adjunct and 

temporal deixis ‘/For several years/’ and the referential element 

‘/they/’ respectively. These linguistic choices which operate in a 

larger declarative mood choice become pointing expressions 

according to Carter, Goddard, Reah, Sanger, & Bowring (1997) 

which direct the attention of the audience to the circumstance of the 

event and the referent or participants involved in the event; thereby, 

from a structural sense, foregrounding the speaker’s claim that the 

killings in Benue state are intentional.  This is why Bloor and Bloor 

(2011) assert that linguistic choice is accessible to a speaker at the 

point of every speech depending on the environment.  Halliday 

(1985) uses the term ‘system’ to describe the series of linguistic 

alternatives or choices available to a speaker of the language to make 

meaning at any point in time.  According to Halliday’s SFL, the 

tables below convey the world of the text the governor is describing. 
 

 

 

 

 

 



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Table 1: Declarative Mood Structure 1 

For 

several 

years 

 we ha

ve  

been 

callin

g 

on the 

federal 

governm

ent 

to take 

proactive 

steps to 

address this 

matter 

Cir Sayer Proc:   

Verbal 

   

Receiver                     

Verbiage 

A S F     P           C     C 

Topical 

Theme 
[marked] 

Topical 

Theme   

[unmarke

d] 

         Rheme 

 

Table 2: Declarative Mood Structure 2. 

They    have  refused    to do so 

Behaver  Proc:    Behavioural 

S F     P 

Topical  Theme       Rheme 

 

While table 1 through a verbal process --/have been calling/ conveys 

the several calls made by the people of Benue state as instantiated 

by the temporal deixis or circumstantial adjunct ----/For several 

years /, table 2 through a behavioural process as well dispenses the 

action of an absolute refusal by the FG to the several calls made by 

the people of Benue state for several years. Conversely, we have the 

communicative functions of calling and refusal respectively. The 

pronoun /we/ as an unmarked topical theme represents the people of 

Benue state who have been making the calls for rescue from the 

speaker’s viewpoint. The temporal deixis or circumstantial adjunct 



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----/For several years / in the first declarative mood structure 

functions as a marked topical theme that iteratively strengthens the 

speaker’s position on the claim that the event must have occurred 

more than once. The deictic element ‘/they/’ which also functions as 

a reference foregrounding the behavioural act of refusal in the mood 

structure // they have refused to do so// becomes a categorical factual 

statement that conveys the killing as an intentional act, sequel to the 

FG’s outright repudiation to intervene in the state of affairs.  The 

deictic linguistic elements create a connection between the discourse 

and the situation. They become significant linguistic alternatives 

within the declarative mood that help the speaker or governor to 

confidently paint a picture of the state of affairs as he sees it and 

equally make the portrayal hard to contest.   

In text 2 below, one finds the same linguistic use of the deictic 

referrer or reference ‘/this/’ for details in the first and third 

declarative mood structures. 
 

 

2. This is not acceptable. Go to Guma, the same killings have 

taken place. Go to Gwer West, the same killings have taken 

place. This is not right.  The federal government has refused 

to take proactive steps to arrest this ugly situation that we are 

witnessing here today.  

 

 The first ‘this’  in-- //This is not acceptable//, from the viewpoint of 

the speaker carries a certain attitudinal meaning of a rejection of the 

whole situation as it cataphorically  points  at  the disturbing and 

disheartening state of affairs that successively follow the clause, 

apparently signified  by material process imperative mood 

structures--// Go to Guma, the same killings have taken place// and  

//Go to Gwer West, the same killings have taken place//.  The verb 

‘/go/’ performs not just a deictic function that directs the audience’s 



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attention away from the speaker to the location where the homicides 

are committed but as an evidential statement that also foregrounds 

new information evolving from the FG's continual refusal to stem 

the insecurity crisis in the state.   

The subsequent demonstrative pronoun ‘ /this/’  in the third 

declarative mood structure---//This is not right// also carries an 

emotional meaning that points to the FG’s behavioural 

impassiveness to insecurity matters as captured in the declarative 

structure-- //The federal government has refused to take proactive 

steps to arrest this ugly situation that we are witnessing here today//.  

The factive present perfect verb --// has refused// presupposes 

the truthfulness of the information that follows it, that is, the to-

infinitive. As a verbal group, it seems to establish an observable 

action of continual silence exhibited by the federal government. 

Consequently, the continual silence could be inferred as 

communicatively functioning in the discourse as a deliberate act. 

This premeditated act is further illustrated in text 3 below via 

linguistic choices or elements that intertwine in the discourse. 
 

3. You will recall that I alerted the nation when Fulanis in 

fourteen countries met in Yola and declared that except we 

repeal the prohibition of the open grazing law; Benue will 

not no peace. And underground, I did say I was targeted for 

elimination…. It was only God that saved me.  I did say they 

were going after my people, so the federal government 

should arrest the leadership of Miyetti Allah  Kautal Hore 

that hosted that meeting. Up till today, nothing has been 

done. This is very unfortunate. It means we don’t have a 

government in place at the federal level. 

 



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At the level of transitivity choices, the conception of the FG’s 

intentional act of silence to arrest the insecurity situation in Benue 

state is shaped by a process of reporting where linguistic alternatives 

such as modality, ‘naming’ and reference intertwined in transitivity 

choices to enhance the meanings of the discourse. Transitivity in 

systemic functional linguistics looks at the way processes are 

derived via the predicate. Thus, from the context, the study attempts 

to convey how the speaker presents this claim via different processes 

The first modal element ‘/will/’ in the mental process 

intertwining in a verbal process --// You will recall [[ that I alerted 

the nation when Fulanis in fourteen countries met in Yola]] //, is 

invested as an expression of politeness in transporting a past 

occurrence or phenomenon before the knowledge of the public.   

This phenomenon is further signified by labels or naming words 

such as ‘/Fulanis/’, ‘/fourteen countries / ‘, and  ‘/Yola/’, ’ to 

enhance the scenario that disregards questionable assumptions on 

foreseeable harm to the people of Benue.  This foreseeable harm is 

established in the discourse as a mental intention of a group to 

commit a crime against another. This mental intention is further 

marked by a verbal process that announces an intention as signalled 

in // [[Fulanis in fourteen countries]]] declared that except we 

repeal the prohibition of the open grazing law; Benue will not no 

peace //.   At the level of transitivity, the intended crime of threat is 

understood as resolute because from the language pattern, it is 

governed by the aforethought malice. By implication, there is an 

existing odium between both parties. 

The subsequent verbal process is structured to strengthen the 

report of this intention against the people of Benue---// I did say they 

were going after my people //. It is on this note that the governor 

solicits or requests the FG via the modal verb ‘should’ to arrest the 

group to stop an intention with an impending danger as captured in 



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the modal structure --//so the federal government should arrest the 

leadership of Miyetti Allah //.  The entire declarative structure 

becomes communicatively significant here, as the grammatical 

process of labelling or naming 

‘/ Miyetti Allah /’ does not only direct or colour readers' view of the 

group referred to as being behind the problem but establishes the 

speaker’s position against the federal government’s refusal to arrest 

the group.   The clause // Up till today nothing has been done// is 

probably expended to establish the speaker’s claim that the FG’s act 

of silence on the killings is intentional.   The linguistic structure 

conveys a contrary opinion; hence, it constructs in the mind of the 

audience a representation of a situation that is at odds with a 

presupposed reality.   

The clausal structure-- //It means we don’t have a government in 

place at the federal level // which sums up text 3, foregrounds the 

FG’s refusal to assent to a call for the security of lives and 

properties. This means that the meaning or content of the text can be 

understood from a mental perspective because to the speaker, the 

principal responsibility of a government is the security of lives and 

property but the declarative clause showcases some level of 

culpability as far as national liability is concerned.  From the 

language, the governor seems to see no reason why the FG should 

exclude itself from conduct capable of giving rise to insecurity by 

failing to take measures that are within its power to arrest the 

situation.  From the language system used, one perceives how an 

ideology is created from such a remark, which tends to advocate for 

the devolution of power to states since it is apparent that the FG is 

incapable of handling issues of insecurity affecting the state.  The 

discourse also implies that SFL is capable of unveiling ideological 

underpinnings. In text (4), we are accosted with a blunt assertion in 

this regard.  



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4. You sent these people away from their villages; they came 

here to take refuge and today,                 they are being killed 

in this camp.  

 

In except 4, the orchestration of insecurity by the repressive world 

of the speech can be comprehended also via transitivity. The clauses 

describe the role of the participants in the state of affairs or actions 

expressed. There are three material process clauses in the discourse 

that are successively and semantically connected by pronouns to 

represent and emphasise the alleged intentional act that culminated 

into a typical experience of displacement and maltreatment. For 

instance, the effect of the act is signified in the first clause where the 

deictic pronoun --//‘you’// is expended to blame or allege an 

intention. The pronoun increases our impression of the agent or 

actor involved in the act spoken because it attributes an intention to 

the actor.   

The predicate or verbal group represents the thing that is 

been done--// …sent these people away… //.  But in the third clause, 

there is a role shift. The pronoun ‘they’ is used in the passive sense 

to accentuate the effect of this intentional act on the people. With 

this, the pronoun /‘they’/ is assigned the position or role of ‘Goal’ 

while the role of the ‘Actor’ is elided in the structure as captured in 

table 3.  This is one of the reasons why passive structures are 

referred to as a marker of objective and impersonal style (Yadugiri, 

2011, P.412).  The essence is to assign blame to the FG for inaction.  

To this end, lexical items such as /sent/, /away/ and /are being killed/ 

in the clauses are structured to construe an intentional act on the part 

of the actors; thus situating the audience within the governor’s 

position concerning the situation. The representation of the process 

is further enhanced by table 3 below indicating how a passive 



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structure is realized differently from an active structure in terms of 

its functional role. 

Table 3 

Clause

1 

(active) 

  You  sent  these 

peopl

e 

away 

from 

their 

village

s 

Clause 

2 

(active) 

   They came   here to 

take 

refuge 

  S F      C  A 

  Actor Proc: 

Materi

al 

 Goal Circu

m 

       

Clause 

3 

(passiv

e) 

Today     they  are  bein

g 

kille

d 

 in this 

camp. 

 A       S F P         

C 

A 

 Circu

m. 

     Goal Proc: 

Material 

       

Circu

m. 

 Topica

l 

theme 

marked  

Topical 

theme 

unmarke

d 

                 Rheme  

 
 



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(ii) Linguistic patterns that foreground prejudice/ ethnic 

bigotry 

 

5. I saw where some security men were arresting people who 

had cutlasses, who had swords because they are from Benue 

state. How about the Fulani men? You know where they are. 

Go and disarm them     

Text 5 ranges from declarative to interrogative and imperative 

which conveys some level of repression foregrounded by ethnic 

prejudice. Here, hate, bigotry or prejudice against the Benue people 

is sharply registered in the language patterns. The first declarative 

alluded by a mental process--/I saw…./ tends to project hate against 

the Benue people. The subordinate clause /because they are …./  

amplifies this hate via an adjunct of reason that projects bias and 

intolerance. The interrogative, on one hand, is instantiated by the 

governor to front this ethnic bigotry ---// How about the Fulani men? 

//. To the governor, the Fulani man is known for these weapons for 

which the Benue man is being arrested; hence, they are tolerated; 

why not the Benue man? The second declarative and the imperative 

are instantiated to resist such hostility. To the governor, whatever is 

done to ‘A’ should be done to ‘B’ without disparity.  It is this 

polarization that fronts the governor’s stance against prejudice or 

ethnic bigotry in the context. In a sense, polarization can also be 

achieved not only by pronominal but NGPs that are ideologically 

motivated as implicitly captured ---/Benue people vs Fulani men/.  

In texts 6 and 7, the same tradition of prejudices is enacted.  

6. I know the implication of telling people to go on self-help 

and I want to repeat my call that if you are unserious on this 

security matter;  Mr President allow us to buy AK47s and 

face these people. Give us a license so that we too can face 



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them. You have armed your brothers and you have disarmed 

us. 

In text 6, one conceives a kind of prejudice that is grounded by 

ethnic preference in the declarative and imperative mood structures. 

This phenomenon of disparity can be further enhanced from the 

point of transitivity where the state of mind of the speaker, on one 

hand, is propelled by mental verbs such as  /know/ and /want/ 

respectively in   //I know the implication of telling people….// and // 

I want to repeat my call that if you are unserious… // and material 

process verbs which request consent to propel actions in  /allow/ and 

/give/   in //Mr President allow us to buy AK47s and face these 

people/ and //Give us a license so that we too can face them//   and 

material process verbs that intensify this ethnic preference as 

instantiated by oppositional contrast in --// You have armed your 

brothers and you have disarmed us.//.    With the oppositional 

contrast, the governor’s idea of the whole situational reality is 

formulated.   

This contrasting clause in a parallel pattern has a lot of 

implications. The contrast foregrounds discrimination that is 

levelled with threats. It directs one’s attention to the unethical act 

against the Benue people. Also, the language system tends to convey 

how power and social domination by one group over the other are 

created in text.  This social domination is conceived via the approval 

and disapproval of live ammunition. What one finds in the first and 

second material clauses is a kind of commitment by the governor 

against the continual state of insecurity bedevilling the state.     

7. Mr President said the other day that security people should 

shoot anyone with AK47, and up till today, we have not 

heard where the security shot them. The Minister of Defence 

came and reversed what Mr President said….  



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Text 7 begins with a reported statement that is a verbal process to 

initiate prejudice.  The modal verb ‘should’ tries to augment this 

prejudice in a sense since it expresses something that would have 

been normatively required. But to the amazement of the governor, 

the normative expectation is fouled with prejudice of predilection or 

preference. This prejudice is properly conveyed in the second and 

third clauses enhanced by mental and material processes 

respectively -----//up till today, we have not heard where the security 

shot them/  and / The Minister of Defence came and reversed what 

Mr President said//. The declarative mood--//The Minister of 

Defence came and reversed what Mr President said// is used to 

strengthen this predilection that tends to favour a harmful act 

committed by the referent ( ‘anyone’  or ‘them’)  as less or worse. 

The representation of some of the processes is illustrated in table 4 

to expand comprehension.  
 
 

Table 4 Representation of Processes 

Clause 

1 

Up till 

today 

we have not 

heard 

where the 

security shot 

them 

 A S F/P          C 

  Senser Proc: 

Mental 

Phenomenon 

     

Clause 

2 

 The 

Minister 

of 

Defence 

came and 

reversed 

what Mr 

President said 

  S  F        C 

  Actor  Proc: 

Material 

     Goal 



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 Topical 

Theme 

unmarked 

Topical 

Theme 

Marked 

   Rheme 

 
 

(iii) Language patterns that Orchestrate resoluteness 

against out-group intimidation 
 

8. I am aware … all over the country… this barbaric act is taken 

by the same Fulani and people are afraid to say it and they 

give the name bandits. They are not bandits. They are Fulani. 

These ones that came here. They were speaking that 

language ….. insisting the state government proscribe or 

repeal the prohibition of open grazing. That will not happen. 

It is not my making. It is the people of Benue state that told 

me to do that one.  I didn’t sit on my own and take any law 

and so no one should try … anything. 

 

Four things interest one in text 8 via the choice of words. First, the 

factive verbs that follow one another as underlined tend to ground 

or authenticate the information as it borders around the situation. 

 //I am aware…//--- a mental process that points and situates 

readers to that fact of the situation rather than speculation. It 

affirms the speaker’s knowledge of the situation   

 //This barbaric act is taken by the same Fulanis// ----a 

material process  

 //People are afraid to say it// --- a mental process intertwined 

with a verbal process 

 //They are not bandits // ; //They are Fulani// ---- relational 

process that is exemplified by negation--- not X but Y,  

making the information factual. 



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 //These ones that came here//--  a material process  with a 

deictic reference, pointing to those involved in  the  guilty 

act.  

 //They were speaking that language//--- verbal process --- 

used to authenticate  or emphasise the aforementioned  
 

The text is immersed with pronouns as deictic references to make 

the discourse cohere. Such cohesion enhances knowledge as they 

create a link between diverse parts of the discourse making the text 

flow from one fact to another.   Second, the naming words or labels  

utilized by the governor point at the mastermind of the insecurity as 

captured in –/ This barbaric act is taken by the same Fulani/,  /They 

are not bandits/  and  / They are Fulani/.   The third is the use of the 

modal ‘will’ in  //That will not happen// to show not just some level 

of certainty of refusal by the governor to non-adherence to repealing 

the open grazing law but commitment as part of an in-group that 

aligns with the people of Benue state and misalign with the 

opposition. With this, language becomes a symbol that influences 

thought, action and credibility. The fourth is the use of the cleft 

sentence or it-cleft documented as relational and material processes 

respectively captured in---//It is not my making//  and  //It is the 

people of Benue state that told me to do that one//.   

From the discourse, the ‘it-cleft’ seems to serve two essential 

functions (i) to indicate a contrastive focus and (ii) to portray rather 

new information.  The contrast here is made explicit not implicit as 

in ---- // It is not my making; it is the people of Benue state that told 

me to do that one.//.  By logical notation, it implies --- not X but Y.  

The new information by the it-cleft clauses redirects one’s attention 

from a presumable assumption to a reality or fact concerning the 

enactment of the open grazing law. It shows that it was not a solitary 



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decision by the governor but rather by consensus as further 

grounded in --// I didn’t sit on my own and take any law…//.   

The ‘it-cleft clauses’ are used by the governor not only as 

declaration markers but as a shift to a new episode in the face and 

history of the Benue people. It has an in-group ideological 

undertone. With SFL, one perceives the distribution of language use 

orchestrated by the social transmission for change through the tenor 

of the discourse as it attempts to drive some level of power and 

solidarity. The submission here is that SFL cannot be void from 

ideological discourse because of its meta-functional approach to 

discourse that is context-dependent.  

 

9. President Buhari must arise to his responsibility as 

Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. If he does not do 

it, our people say that a goat doesn’t bite but when you push 

it to the wall; it will bite.  

 

The people’s resoluteness against insecurity in the state is 

comprehended in text 9 via modality and the ‘if’ mood structures. 

The modal structure is signalled by the modal verb ‘must’ that 

deontically represents the governor’s view on an obligation that has 

to be executed. The conditional mood structure further clarifies this 

resoluteness via a proverb that points to the people’s will to retaliate 

if the needful is not done by the president---// our people say that a 

goat doesn’t bite but when you push it to the wall; it will bite//. 

(iii) Linguistic patterns that call for actions against the state 

of insecurity  

 

10. President Buhari was elected by the people. He must arise 

and do something. No other person has the responsibility of 



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arming the security men and providing enough equipment … 

ensuring they eradicate this.  

 

Text 10, through a material process that is phrased in the passive 

voice--// President  Buhari was elected by the people //, instantiates 

a duty to rescue via a call fronted in the modal structure— 

// He must arise and do something//. The modality is deployed by 

the governor to hypothesize or posit that a certain action is necessary 

to ensure the eradication of insecurity in the state.  The anaphoric 

reference pronoun ‘he’ points back to the referent / Buhari / in the 

first mood structure proffering an insight into why the modal 

statement is made in the first instance.  The argument by the passive 

structure --// President Buhari was elected by the people // is 

understandable since it reminds the president of the role of the 

people in the past towards the actualization of his presidential 

ambition.   To this end, they must constitute a prime focus of his 

leadership.  As indicated earlier in text 4, passive structures seem to 

be a significant linguistic choice by language users in driving the 

meaning of their communicative discourse.  Here, the passive voice 

is used to actualise some level of fronting that tends to drive across 

the message of Governor Ortom to the President; reminding him of 

how he mounted the present position; a piece of essential 

information about President Buhari which is later supplied by the 

Rheme.  While text 4 uses a passive structure that is agentless or 

void of an actor, text 10 enacts otherwise as tabulated below:  

Table 5 

Clause 1 

(passive) 

President 

Buhari   

was  elected by the 

people 

       S F P         C 

      Goal       Proc: Material      Actor 

 Topical theme                   Rheme  



A Functional Perspective of Language and Insecurity - Edem 

 

234 

 

 
 

While the modal structure in text 10 is devised as a continuant to 

compel certain obligations on the part of the president on security 

matters, the last mood structure that follows is used as a constructive 

reminder to the President to preside over his fundamental role in 

security matters. By implication, it is the responsibility of the 

President to make sure that doable legislation and policy on security 

are followed to the latter if Nigeria’s security image must be 

redeemed. This despicable situation is not far from Onoja’s (2019, 

p.6) submission that the absence of legislation and policy on security 

imperilled security in Nigeria.  

  

11. Buhari cannot be playing on us around because these are 

Fulani men doing this same thing. As I said, they want to 

take over our land; if not what is the essence? You sent the 

people away from their farms and here they are in the IDP 

camp; you came to kill them. Buhari if you were the 

governor of Benue state, what do you want me to say? You 

must arise and do something to stop this.   

 

Text 11 summarizes the entire content of the speech. The first modal 

structure attempts to convey the disingenuousness of the president 

as instantiated in // Buhari cannot be playing on us around//. The 

second part of the sentence further enunciates the situation using the 

subordinating conjunction  /because/  to shed light on the reason for 

alleging. The aim of this could be to make the audience see that the 

entire situation confronting the Benue state is intentional. The 

intentionality is further amplified in subsequent clauses via a verbal 

process that is interrogatively dispensed--// As I said, they want to 

take over our land, if not what is the essence?//, and material 



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235 

 

processes that do not only register the act as intentional but callous 

in-- // You sent the people away from their farms// and  //you came 

to kill them//.  The second interrogative clause with a vocative --- 

//‘Buhari, if you were the governor of Benue state, what do you what 

me to say?// is rhetorically expended by the governor because of the 

conceived notion held. Also, it tends not to elicit an answer as it 

were, but expresses the attitude of the governor, implicitly justifying 

an action taken. The last modal structure tends to be forceful in this 

call for rescue because to the governor, the state of Benue is already 

faced with potential injury and death. 

12.  They are your kinsmen. Call them and tell them enough is 

enough./ 

 

13. You must stand and address these issues and declare an 

emergency on security. Call security submit. Call all of us 

together and let us agree and you must be sincere this time 

not just playing on us. 

Imperatives call for actions, unlike interrogatives that call for 

information. While the imperatives in text 12 via a verbal process in 

--/call them and tell them enough is enough// attempt to exert some 

level of authority via warning, the imperatives in text 13 strictly 

evoke some level of power that tends to regulate behaviour that is 

perfidious or disingenuous ---// Call all of us together and let us 

agree and you must be sincere this time not just playing on us//. This 

regulation of behaviour is amplified by the modal structure --//you 

must be sincere this time…//. The modality seems to showcase an 

obligation towards sincerity. This infers that the President’s 

behaviour at a point was characterized by insincerity towards the 

insecurity that affects the people of Benue state.   While text 12 is 

tainted with some cynicism and divergence, text 13 is loaded with a 



A Functional Perspective of Language and Insecurity - Edem 

 

236 

 

concept of convergence towards finding a lasting solution to the 

problem of insecurity.  

 

4. Conclusion 

All the dimensions discussed so far are attempts by the study to 

unveil how functional linguistics via the approach of SFL can 

contribute to the understanding of a discourse of this type. On the 

part of the audience, this kind of communicative speech tends to 

project the likelihood that the speaker will be perceived as credible. 

Hence, the audience tends to pay better attention to the message 

because of its candour on insecurity matters bedevilling the state.  

From the language of the speech, the informative level is 

comprehended via choices such as declarative mood and modality, 

transitivity, oppositional contrast, interrogatives and imperatives 

that signal diverse processes which determine what constitutes facts 

and truths and also regulate behaviour. The language use or 

grammatical patterns of the speech achieve the connecting functions 

between the speaker and the audience. The insecurity issues 

captured in the speech via the linguistic choices have helped front 

the severity of the problem as one that needs urgent redress.  Thus 

there must be (i) policies to checkmate the activities of the 

herdsmen. (2) a call for a round table discussion or conference at the 

federal level where state governors are invited to proffer strategies 

that  can be adopted to eradicate the insecurity problem with 

sincerity of purpose  as captured in text  13---// Call all of  us 

together and let us agree…// 

 

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