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Language Misuse by Media, Individuals and Groups as the 

Remote Cause of Insecurity in West Africa 

  

Monica Nnenne Okafor1 Nwode, Goodluck Chigbo2 

Ebonyi State College of Education1, Ikwo, Ebonyi State 

University, Abakaliki2 

monicaokafor36@yahoo.com1, nwodegoodluck@gmail.com2 

 

 

Abstract 

Currently, most studies only pay attention to socio-cultural, 

economic and political factors behind insecurity in Africa. The aim 

of this study is to rouse deserving attention on linguistic or language-

based factors behind the increasing insecurity in West Africa, 

focusing on the case of Nigeria. It seeks to do so through the lens of 

applied linguistics. The study is anchored on Halliday’s theory of 

Systemic Functional Linguistics, which sees language as a social 

semiotic that presents users with a network of choices to create oral 

and written contents. From observation and secondary data, 

subjected to objective, descriptive and critical analysis, the study 

reveals that individuals, traditional and social media, and groups 

misuse language in the course of interpersonal and intergroup 

relations and communication. Thus, they cause and ignite insecurity 

in the study area. It maintains that this situation, arising from the 

deviant use of language, applies to every human society where 

language users are not mindful of how to use language effectively 

to avoid conflicts that lead to insecurity. The study concludes that 

language misuse is the remote cause of the consistent and alarming 

insecurity confronting West Africa; particularly Nigeria Majorly, 

the study charges the government to put in place strong legislations 

that could efficiently check against the misuse of language to cause 

mailto:monicaokafor36@yahoo.com
mailto:nwodegoodluck@gmail.com


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and ignite insecurity.  Agents of socialisation are also charged to be 

up and doing in the use of language and matters concerning language 

misuse. 

Keywords: Language misuse, Media, Individuals, Groups, 

Remote Cause, Insecurity 

 

Introduction 

Globally, the misuse of language by media, individuals and groups 

causes a lot of issues of interpersonal and intergroup relations. In 

other words, wherever in the world that language is misused by 

media, individuals and groups, various issues arise and confront the 

society in no little ways and manners. This study seeks to argue that 

language misuse is what remotely causes the endemic insecurity in 

West Africa, with the case of Nigeria taking the lead. Put the other 

way round, the misuse of language by media, individuals and groups 

is the ground cause of the recurrent insecurity confronting West 

Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. Although insecurity 

portends and concerns violence or war, it also extends to socio-

economic and political wrongs and ills that threaten the safety, peace 

and tranquility of any society (Oyedeji, 2018, p. 3). It is to that end 

that this study concerns itself with making a critical exposition of 

how language is misused by media, individuals and groups to cause 

all that culminates to insecurity in society. By virtue of its concern, 

the study seeks to moves away from the common trend of 

exclusively considering only the socio-economic and political 

factors behind insecurity to considering the language-based factors 

behind insecurity in society, as commonly obtained in Nigeria and 

other parts of West Africa. 

The increasing spate of insecurity in the contemporary society as a 

whole is worrisome (Tukura, 2021; Alozieuwa, 2016). Peoples of 

diverse linguistic and ethno-religious backgrounds are susceptible 



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to ‘perennial communal and sectarian strife, fostered by hegemonic 

and resistance politics’ (Alozieuwa, 2016), religious extremism and 

tribalism or ethnicity. Language politics in such places is also 

hegemonic and thereby meets resistance. West African peoples, 

especially those in Nigeria, capitalise on their diversity for sustained 

intergroup and interpersonal clashes, violence and insecurity. The 

supposed peaceful and harmonious co-existence among individuals 

and groups in such settings get shattered by perennial communal and 

sectarian strife, political hegemony, resistance, sour intergroup and 

interpersonal relations, crises (interpersonal conflicts), ethnic hate 

and prejudices, religious fundamentalism, violence, terrorism, 

intolerance, disintegration, social vices and what have you. As the 

supposed peaceful and harmonious co-existence among individuals 

and groups in society becomes a mirage, insecurity takes 

precedence. 

Theoretical Framework 

For a theoretical backing, this study adopts Michael A.K. Halliday’s 

(1978; 1985; 1994) Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory. It gives 

this theory the abbreviation short form ‘SFLT’. SFLT will be used 

henceforth, almost all through here. Halliday, the proponent of 

SFLT, theorises that language is social semiotic, which offers its 

users a network of choices to create texts, both spoken and written 

alike (Halliday, 1985; 1994). It follows that SFLT considers 

language as a resource for making meaning. Contrarily, meaning 

resides in systemic patterns of choice. This view clashes with the 

conventional consideration of language as a system of rules that 

stifles creativity in speech, as Chomsky (1956) maintains. 

Halliday’s words grounding his consideration of language as a 

semiotic system read, “It seemed to me that explanations of 

linguistic phenomena needed to be sought in relationships among 

systems rather than among structures – in what I once called ‘deep 



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paradigms’ – since these were essentially where speakers made their 

choices” (Halliday, 1985, p. 1). 

It could be understood from Halliday’s (1985, p. 1) above quoted 

words that although linguistic phenomena (elements, structures and 

other constituents of language) relate, in seeking to know and in the 

course of analysing their relationship, the systems among them 

rather than their structures should be given utmost consideration. In 

reflecting on Halliday’s above quoted words, Teo (2000, p. 24) 

rightly observes that the meaning of spoken or written texts 

(messages) is dependent on the choices made by users, especially 

speakers and writers. Making emphasis on speakers and writers 

stresses the fact that communication begins with speakers and 

writers, as those who encode/d the messages communicated across 

listeners and readers. Phenomena are given meaning using language. 

They are also made meaningless using language. That is to say 

language use either makes or mars interpersonal communication, 

and intergroup relations and interaction. That depends on how it is 

used by (a) given user(s) and the context of usage. As Halliday 

notes, there are three types of meanings available to speakers. 

Meanings are of three categories and every utterance encodes 

meaning on three levels, simultaneously. These are textual, 

interpersonal and ideational. Language users use their lexicon-cum-

grammar over the course of a given utterance to: 

(i) Efficient structural information from a communicative point 

of view (Textual Meaning); 

(ii) Achieve interpersonal goals (Interpersonal Meaning); 

(iii) Represent experience (Ideational Meaning). 

This encoding of meaning is regards as Metafunctions. In both 

conceptual and contextual applications, metafunctions are 

characterised by three terms that influence language use. These are 

field, tenor and mode. Accordingly, tenor refers to the socially 



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defined relations between the parties involved in an interaction. 

Field refers to the subject matter of the text. Mode is the medium 

and role of language in the situation (David, 2002). The implication 

of the foregoing is that language use involves two or more parties 

involved in the communication, who make up the parties in 

communication process. Next, there must be a subject matter 

(theme, aim and in every discursive interaction of the parties 

engaged in communication. Lastly, language must be used for the 

communication. That is to say communication between and/or 

among the parties involved require using a medium or several 

media, depending on the context. Also, it implies that there is 

functional connectivity between the systems and the parties 

involved in the whole exercise of communication. 

The term ‘lexicogrammar’ is introduced by Halliday (1994) as an 

essential concept in understanding language functions. He avers that 

a language consists of more-or-less closed systems of words and 

grammatical structures, with our vocabulary constituting a relatively 

open system, and grammar a fixed number of relatively closed ones. 

It is from these systems that language users make choices in order 

to construct wordings and meanings (Halliday, 1994). In what 

theoretically sheds highlights on how users should use language 

well, let us reflect on Halliday’s (1985, p. 1) expressed view. He is 

of the view that in explaining how language works, functional 

analysis should be basis of the explanation, since language had 

evolved to enable human beings and animals alike meet certain 

critical functions in their ‘eco-social environment’ in the course of 

their interaction, relationship and communication. The central 

implication of the foregoing expressed reality is that the 

functionality of human beings, phenomena and societal systems and 

structures is intertwined. The network of functional connectivity 

makes it obvious that the functional lapses or deviances of one, some 



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or all of the parties in communication results in a network of 

malfunctionality. Malfunctionality is used here to refer to the 

situation whereby systems, structures and parties involved in a 

process malfunction, and the issues arising from their failure to 

function accordingly and also the lapses or associate issues of their 

functioned functionality. 

The textual metafunction relates to the mode, the internal 

organisation and communicative nature of a text. This comprises 

textual interactivity, spontaneity and communicative distance. The 

textual metafunction is that part of the meaning which builds up 

different coherent thematic structures into the main text. The textual 

meaning refers to the actual form of the way text is organised. It 

deals with information management, resources and genres. Through 

the combination of resources at different textual levels, it allows 

ideas and attitudes about themes, actions and events to be expressed. 

‘Textual’ concerns the creation of text. It expresses the structure of 

information and the relation of each part of the discourse to the 

whole and to the setting (Halliday, 1973). Tenor consists of three 

component areas. These are the speaker/writer persona, social 

distance, and relative social status. The interpersonal meaning 

expresses judgments and assessments; gives guidelines; and deals 

with relationships between people. The relationship between texts 

and readers/viewers and the relationships within texts is 

interpersonal. This means that there is also the grammar of personal 

participation between them. The relationship expresses the 

speaker’s role in the speech situation, and their personal 

commitment and interaction with others (Halliday, 1973). 

The interpersonal metafunction relates to tenor or interactivity 

aspect of a text. Texts come under the four main types of mood in 

English language. These are declaratives, interrogatives, 

imperatives and subjunctives. Thus, texts come under one of them 



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at a time. These four main types of mood all develop different 

relations with the audience and the speaker. In addition to 

representing the context as they experience it, speakers of a language 

enact their roles as participants in the context, as they interact with 

each other. In a sense, in interacting, they create the context, as they 

negotiate their own roles in it and those of others. In the words of 

Ogunsiji (2000, p. 77) ‘metafunction… helps to establish and 

sustains social relations.’ Having said the above, it is imperative to 

note that the central theoretical assumptions of SFLT are summarily 

highlighted by Anderson (2014) and Eggins (1994) viz: 

(i) SFLT postulates that language is functional. That is, it is 

concerned with how language is structured and used to 

make meanings. 

(ii) Language is semiotic. This means that the meaning of a 

text is dependent upon the choices made by the speaker 

from the options available within the language system. 

(iii) A text is understood within context. In this sense, a text 

is understood in terms of the information about the 

context within which it was generated, either the context 

of situation or the context of culture. 

Given the foregoing, the Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory 

(SFLT) aptly suits this study in several regards. For example, 

through the lens of SFLT, it is understood that language users, who 

seek the relationship of linguistic phenomena in their structures 

rather than among systems of their entirety, make wrong choice of 

language use. This is what happens when language users make use 

of language in ways that lead to insecurity as the aftermath of 



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conflict arising from language misuse. Obviously, media, 

individuals and groups most often than not know that using language 

otherwise could easily lead to or bring about crises or conflicts 

between and among individuals, groups and nations. Yet, they go 

ahead go misuse language to attain their conceived goals. 

Regrettably, such usage causes communicational and relational 

problems between and among individuals, groups and even nations. 

Media could also get into intergroup (inter-media) issues arising 

from the deviant use of language. Insecurity could be averted and 

combated with the effective use of language. It could also be 

aggravated using language. In this case, language is misused, unlike 

in the case of the former in which language is used rightly, 

constructively and effectively. 

In illustrating Halliday’s theoretical assumptions of SFLT, Fowler 

(1986, p. 148) mentions birthplace, family, school and affiliated 

social groups, together with the patterns of interaction and the 

limitations of experience associated with them as evidence of the 

overall assumptions of SFLT. Essentially, worldview is revealed by 

texts to speakers, writers and even listeners and readers in the course 

of discourse. The meanings of the texts are realised and understood 

in the participants of the communicative exercise. However, in some 

cases, communicated texts are unrealised and misunderstood. 

Consequent upon these, crises or conflicts arise and soon afterwards 

or much later metamorphose to insecurity. According to Coffin 

(2001, p. 94), all speakers are influenced by the economic and social 

systems in which they live and also by the roles they inhabit within 

these systems. This expression emphasises Halliday’s demand for 

considering systems rather than structures. Citizens of West Africa 

as well as Nigerians are influenced by prevailing socio-economic 

and political systems of their area. Linguistic or language-based 

factors influencing these citizens are of more concern to this study 



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than the non-language-based factors, such as influences of the 

prevailing socio-economic and political systems. This study argues 

that language is also central in the socio-economic and political 

factors behind insecurity. 

Commonly Noted Causes/Sources of Insecurity 

Although this study concerns itself with the language-based factors 

behind insecurity, it devotes this sub-section to discussing the 

commonly noted causes and sources of insecurity in society. The 

various causes of insecurity double as the sources too. These include 

kidnapping, armed banditry, political thuggery, hired assassination, 

Fulani herders’ attacks on farmers and communities, hate speeches, 

elitist incitement, religious fundamentalism and crisis, ethnic hate,  

indigene versus non-indigene palaver, communal clashes, boundary 

disputes, chieftaincy tussle, unemployment, poverty, hunger and 

starvation, rape and gender violence women (Alubo, 2006; Lewis, 

2011; Ayoade 2014; Odekunle, 2010; Alozieuwa, 2016; Robert, 

2017; Odekunle 2018; Dibie, Gotau and Robert, 2016; Besong & 

Robert, 2019; Robert, 2020; Ahmed, 2021; Tukura, 2021). 

Stating in specific terms, insecurity arises from conflicts over clash 

of interests or opposing capacities in relation to perceived or 

anticipated benefits or outcomes between the two or more parties 

involved. As Lammers (1959, p. 559) notes, conflict originates from 

the difference in timing, objectives, interests, efforts, approaches, 

and attitudes of people to issues. Socio-economic and political 

wrongs are the bane of social issues culminating to insecurity. 

Examples include unemployment, poverty, hunger and starvation, 

rape, gender violence against women as well as against men. Social 

issues cause insecurity, because those affected by them gradually 

take to it as a means of survival or getting back at the society that 

fails and incapacitates them perpetually. For example, 

unemployment causes insecurity because those who are not 



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employed and those underemployed get engaged in illegitimate 

activities as means of survival or getting back at the society. Being 

that unemployment engenders the tendency of engaging in evil or 

unethical means of survival, it is a factor behind insecurity because 

the evils lead to acts of insecurity. The youths are mostly 

unemployed despite the fact that a larger number of them are 

educated. They are deliberately incapacitated and impoverished and 

left unemployed by the state through – agents of the state (Amozua, 

2016; Robert & Anura, 2018; Besong, 2019; Robert, 2020). 

On her part, Okoye (2006, p. 6) observes that ‘extreme poverty, as 

obtained in many Third World countries, causes people to commit 

suicide. Frustration is a strong contributory factor to suicide.’ She 

goes on to observe that there are many more factors that cause 

individual and societal stress and tension in Africa and many other 

developing nations of the world (Okoye, 2006, p. 6). Okoye (2006, 

p. 6) notes that the most prominent of the factors are devastating 

poverty, loss of hope and not knowing where your next meal is 

coming from, while others are constant civil unrests, tribal clashes, 

religious rivalries, strikes, political killings, rape, destruction of 

public properties, unemployment, etc. Clearly, she agrees with most 

of the other scholars, such as those above, on the causes of 

insecurity, as she stresses poverty, social vices, heinous crimes 

against individuals and the state, institutional issues, etc. The 

frustrating situations many find themselves are what get them into 

dubious ways of life. The deviant ways of life cause tension, civil 

unrest, crises, violence, survival of the fittest, discrimination and 

exclusion, moral decadence, lawlessness, and what have you. 

The reality that the aforementioned factors are both causes and 

sources of insecurity had once been expressed by Awolowo (1970), 

who noted that the aggressors against peace and stability in Nigeria 

are abject poverty, hunger, disease, squalor and ignorance, which 



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are more devastating in their ravages, more insidious, more 

thorough and more resistant in their operations, than armed 

rebellion. Thus, being that these factors are why insecurity rises and 

confronts the Nigerian society, it is logical to conclude they are the 

causes of insecurity. And, being the causes, they double as the 

sources of insecurity too. In fact, one realises from Awolowo’s 

observation that the social issues, which he mentioned, pose more 

challenges to the security of the Nigerian society than the security 

challenges posed by non-state actors causing insecurity. Nigeria’s 

peace and stability are threatened by these factors. That is why 

insecurity is now increasingly alarming, since the government does 

not care about combating it significantly but rather igniting it to their 

covert advantage and to the peril of the poor innocent masses. The 

menace of these causes and sources of insecurity is why Awolowo 

(1970) emphasised that these non-human enemies or aggressors 

ought to be crushed ruthlessly with immediate alacrity. 

Similarly, Lula da Silva, former President of Brazil, is quoted to 

have once said, ‘When I became President of this country, half of 

the population couldn’t sleep because of hunger, while the other half 

could not sleep because of the fear of the hungry half’ (Adamu, 

2015, p. 24). Reflecting on Lula da Silva’s observation, Adamu 

(2015, p. 24) observes that ‘about 54.6 million people go to bed 

every night hungry in Nigeria.’ In the same vein, Yagboyaju (2019, 

p. 50) laments that ‘one third of the country’s entire population goes 

to bed hungry every day.’ As a saying goes, ‘A hungry man is an 

angry man.’ The hungry among us are angry with those who could 

get rid of their hunger but yet do nothing. They unleash mayhem on 

Nigerian society as well as other West African societies. 

Reacting to the observation made by Awolowo above, Yagboyaju 

(2019, p. 34) says that Awolowo’s assertion is apt because even after 

five decades of his observation, the issues he identified still manifest 



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in Nigeria, as most of the issues are the remote factors behind most 

of the cases of insecurity in present-day Nigeria. It means that those 

issues Awolowo identified are largely responsible for the 

contemporary security threats to peace and stability in Nigeria. The 

threats include abject poverty amidst abundant resources, hunger 

and starvation, unemployment, ignorance and illiteracy, 

prostitution, armed-robbery, theft, kidnapping, hired assassination, 

money ritual killing, menace, rape and killings, banditry, resource 

control contestation, communal clashes, ethno-religious conflicts, 

Fulani herders’ sustained attempts to cleanse agrarian communities, 

chieftaincy tussle, and what have you (Lewis, 2011; Ayoade 2014; 

Odekunle, 2010; Odekunle 2018; Dibie, Gotau and Robert, 2016; 

Besong & Robert, 2019; Robert, 2020) 

Politicians and other elites of West African nations mobilise and 

incite the same youths they incapacitate, impoverish, make jobless, 

and subject to abject poverty, lack, ignorance, illiteracy and various 

helpless situations of life to cause mayhem, disrupt and threaten 

peace, stability, tranquility and unity in diversity among the 

citizenry of this region. The number one example is the case of 

Nigeria, where its political leaders and other elites do nothing good 

for the youths among the masses, but only mobilise them for crimes, 

evil deals, violence, terrorism, political thuggery and electioneering, 

militancy, ritual killing, kidnapping for ransom, attacking and 

murdering political opponents, and so on (Robert, 2020, pp. 90-95; 

Besong, 2019, pp.11-14; Kia and Vurasi, 2013, p. 165; Amozua, 

2016). In his contribution to the foregoing, Galadima (2016, p. 48) 

argues that most of the traditional rulers of these days join forces 

with the secular politicians to unleash mayhem on the society, as 

such traditional rulers and politicians politick with the lives and the 

belongings, peace and tranquility and development of their people 

and places for political gains. He adds that some of traditional rulers 



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either incite such conflicts for their own interests or their superior 

politician bosses’ (Galadima, 2016, p. 48). And, where/when they 

do not incite or cause conflicts, such traditional and secular political 

office holders fuel the conflicts/crises, including financial support 

and donation of war weapons to either party at war, towards 

attaining genocide (Galadima, 2016). 

Obviously, the misdeeds of political and other elites of West African 

nations, especially those of Nigeria, continuously cause, ignite and 

compound the insecurity confronting Nigeria as well as other West 

African nations. As Amozua (2016) argues, criminals and all kinds 

of other enemies of the state and its citizenry are the covert products 

of the heartless elites, who continuously gather the same youths they 

have frustrated and incapacitated to unleash untold mayhem, woes, 

pains, atrocities and insecurity on the society and its people for them, 

all for their selfish political and economic gains. In what lends 

credence to the foregoing, Oladiran and Adadevoh (2008, p. 103) 

note that the Nigerian social, political and economic spheres have 

been characterised by the following social symbolic indices due to 

ethnic politics: 

(a) The lack of an even distribution of wealth and income due to 

ethnic bias; 

(b) Mono-cultural and enclave economy; 

(c) Insecurity of jobs, lives and property; 

(d) High and increasing illiteracy rates; 

(e) Un-conducive atmosphere for healthy political bargaining and 

compromise; 

(f) Structural imbalances, corruption and increased per capita 

poverty. 

At this juncture, this study makes a brief analytical exposition of 

how language misuse constitutes a cause of insecurity in society. It 

argues that language is one of the remote causes but not sources of 



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insecurity. It is only but a cause because humans are those who make 

it to be a cause of insecurity, as they misuse it. Here, the study 

reiterates the point that language misuse is one kernel cause of 

insecurity. In fact, language misuse is the first cause of insecurity in 

that everything one does include language use. First, language is 

used to communicate the mind-conceived evils that culminate to 

insecurity in practical contexts, when made manifest. Next, the 

manipulative use of language gets some persons into perpetrating 

the evil of insecurity. In the simplest sense of language use as the 

bane of insecurity, consider a situation in which what is said to some 

individuals provoke them to react violently to a situation they had 

been calm about erstwhile. A study reports that violent conflict 

leading to insecurity could arise upon calling any (or certain) Jos 

men ‘women’ to denote that they are not as strong as men, but weak 

like women (Krause, 2019). For example, upon being mockingly 

called ‘women’ – weak men, who do not fight, Jos Dadin Kowa men 

changed from being peaceful to being violent, just to prove their 

masculinity and gallantry in war/conflict (Krause, 2019; 2018; 

2017). 

In the bids to prove their masculinity that they are not women, such 

men resort to being violent. Consequently, conflicts often arise and 

in most cases degenerate to violent conflicts that threaten and take 

lives, property and the environment. Clearly, the above situations of 

violence and insecurity aroused from language misuse on gender 

lane to degrade peaceful men, like those of Jos Dadin Kowa. 

Language use for peace-building had earlier informed their attitude 

towards situations of conflict, violence and insecurity. That is why 

they were largely peaceful and never engaged in violence and 

insecurity of various phases. Thereafter, the orientation got altered 

by the use of derogatory gender label for them. Then, in response to 

that, the Jos Dadin Kowa abruptly altered their age-long or erstwhile 



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internalised orientation on non-violence, just to prove their 

masculinity and gallantry. They became resolved to show that they 

just never wanted to be violent. Otherwise, they could even do worse 

than the men of some other areas, who consider themselves ‘men’, 

not ‘women’ and consider their fellow men in Dadin Kowa as 

‘women’. Krause (2019, p. 1742) posits that men in the most 

violence-prone neighbourhoods of Jos often make use of ‘violent 

masculinity to access status and resources’, as a good number of 

them are excluded ‘from regular income activities.’ 

Traditional and Social Media and Language Misuse for 

Insecurity 

Here, the study makes an exposition of how the media misuse 

language and insecurity arises as its consequence. Both traditional 

and social (new) media are simply referred as ‘media’ or ‘the 

media’. The central argument here is that in the course of reportage 

(dissemination of information), broadcast and anchoring various 

media programmes, the media misuse language in such manners that 

conflicts arise and sometimes metamorphose into insecurity. This 

argument takes centre stage of the analysis to be made here, with a 

view to showing how language misuse by the media causes 

insecurity. Accordingly, Edogor, Ojo, Ezugwu and Dike (2015) are 

of the view that the reportage of any conflict is non-negotiable for 

the media. That is, the media do not negotiate with anyone to report 

a conflict. This is true. That view focuses on the traditional media. 

The case of new (social) media is even more non-negotiable than 

that of the traditional media. 

The traditional media most often have to be invited or told by 

someone to get into the matter or to the scene of the conflict. That is 

not the case with reportage of conflict or any other matter on social 

media. Even news gathering and the coverage of an event do not 

wait for invitation or follow formalised processes. A passerby could 



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just snap or video-cover an event without the knowledge of those 

involved in the event or the actions making up the event. Afterwards, 

s/he uploads the videos and/or photos with news features (articles) 

explaining the circumstances behind the photos and/or videos. The 

implication of the foregoing is that both professional and non-

professional users of the mass media report events and as well give 

news online. Those who give factual or real news of various events 

show the proper or ideal use of language, which helps to combat 

insecurity rather than to cause, ignite or aggravate it. Conversely, 

those who give fake news, penchant/sensational reports, and 

misinformation, etc. to the masses, using language and other means 

of mass communication, evidently show the misuse of language as 

well as those other communication media. This otherwise use of 

language and the mass media results in insecurity, or rather causes, 

ignites and aggravates insecurity. 

Just as this study argues that conflict is the underlying factor behind 

insecurity, resulting from language misuse, Adamu (2013, p. 82) 

cites Manoff (2011) to have noted viz: ‘Journalism is the 

handmaiden of conflict. The epistemology of journalism is 

inherently conflictual in the same way our system of jurisprudence 

is inherently adversarial.’ It implies that there is a nexus between 

journalism and conflict, just as there is a systemic similarity between 

epistemology of journalism and that of jurisprudence, as both are 

characterised by conflict. The nexus lies in the former being 

conflictual and the latter being adversarial. In what lends credence 

to the foregoing, Adamu (2013) avers that news given by journalists 

is usually predicated on conflict and individual’s definition of 

conflict; audiences love and savour conflict; conflict is the 

framework within which journalists labour. Obviously, in giving the 

news, journalists make use of language for news gathering, 

dissemination (reportage) and analysis. At any point in time that 



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journalists misuse language for any media purposes, problems arise. 

These include the rise of fake news, misrepresentation of facts, 

misinterpretation of facts and/or what is reported, propaganda, 

penchant or sensational broadcast, spread of rumours and/or 

falsehoods, incitement, rhetoric, and/or what have you. 

In the course of bringing image-making and agenda setting roles of 

the mass media to manifestation, the press misuse language against 

those labelled for indictment or condemnation. On the other hand, 

they use language effectively to assert those set aside for image-

making and agenda setting. Obviously, whatever and whoever the 

media pay attention to and make their image, with significant media 

contents and jingles, they automatically become popular, relevant 

and prominent (Chiakaan & Ahmed, 2011; Chiakaan, 2013; Robert 

& Besong, 2016; Robert & Besong, 2016). In doing so, the mass 

(traditional) media make good as well as positive use of language to 

talk, write, act and perform about the persons and/or the things 

drawn out for image-making and agenda-setting. This applies to the 

role of the mass media in insecurity. There are ways in which the 

mass media would talk, write, act and perform about certain persons, 

nations, cultures, themes and things, they would un/consciously 

rouse the attention of the masses to insecurity itself or what 

culminates to. 

The mass media, like the new (social) media, could cause, ignite or 

aggravate insecurity by the ways they use language in producing 

media contents characterised by what generate, heighten or lead to 

insecurity. Next, the kind of reportage they make, using language 

negatively, also tells of how the mass media could cause, ignite or 

aggravate insecurity in society. By being sentimental and 

unprofessional in terms of breach of media and conventional ethics, 

the mass media play a significant role in causing and fuelling 

security in society. The kind of information given by the media 



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about insecurity could end up causing tension, psychological 

trauma, mixed feelings, conflicts, and/or insecurity. Of course, it is 

language that is used to give out information. So, when the 

information disseminated is as such, it implies that the mass media 

have misused language in the dissemination of the given 

information. The media’s penchant for exaggerating details of 

ethnic, religious, political, communal and other related crises, which 

thereby fuel their intensity is commonly known and affirmed by 

both oral and written sources (Kukah 1993). This character by the 

media caused the gravamen in the 1987 Kafanchan religious 

disturbances. 

News reports monitored on Radio Kaduna, immediately after the 

commencement of the Kafanchan upsurge, alleged that Christians 

were killing Muslims indiscriminately, burning their Mosques and 

copies of the Holy Qur’an, and banishing them from the town. The 

broadcast further alleged that an itinerant preacher had misquoted 

the Qur’an and blasphemed the name of Prophet Mohammed, urging 

Christians to kill Muslims and burn their Mosques (News Watch, 

1987, p. 10, cited in Tsaku, 2017, p. 30). These reports ignited 

reprisal attacks by Muslims all over Kaduna State, causing an 

invaluable loss of lives and property (Gofwen 2004, p. 91-3). Most 

religious leaders in the country have therefore, accused the media of 

fanning the embers of religious violence by their provocative and 

emotive reports (Kukah, 1993; Gofwen 2004). Obviously, it was a 

case language misuse by the media, which caused as well as ignited 

the murderous violence in Kaduna that year. Of course, that was a 

serious situation of insecurity. That was also a clear case or 

indication of how media cause and/or ignite conflicts, war, violence 

and/or insecurity. 

The proliferation of media technology has made it easy for some of 

these emotive reports and images of slain persons to be transported 



Language Misuse as Remote Cause of Terrorism in West Africa – Okafor & 

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316 

 

far and wide, generating intense hatred between belligerents and 

reprisal attacks in a cycle of violence (Tsaku, 2017; Gofwen 2004; 

Kukah, 1993). The dissemination of gory images of victims on the 

internet either triggers violent conflicts, as reprisal attacks, or ignites 

conflicts, as sources of insecurity. According to Edogor et al. (2015, 

87), journalists reporting conflict situations are coerced into a 

quadruple dilemma. Hetsroni (2007, p. 759) captures the allegation 

levelled against the television in particular with reference to 

portrayal of crises and violence by observing that ‘for decades, the 

networks have been loudly accused for causing irreversible mental 

damage to innocent viewers by exposing them to explicit violence.’ 

In a nutshell, journalists have been accused over the years of 

deliberately feeding the audience with crises and violence scenes for 

the sake of promoting their organisation’s profit motive mainly 

(Edogor et al., 2015, p. 88). 

Meanwhile, the term ‘user’ came to be associated with those who 

consume some media contents with the advent of web 2.0 

technologies, software or applications (Edogor et al., 2015, p. 87). 

These are technologies that enable media consumers not only to 

read, listen or view messages, ideas, information, experiences, 

values etc., but also to contribute in generating the contents offered 

for public consumption. The web 2.0 applications promote the 

audience from being mere recipients of mass media contents as 

hitherto churned out by the journalists to becoming contributors in 

the media packages delivered to the public (Edogor et al., 2015, p. 

87). As Ezeah, Asogwa and Edogor (2013, p. 23) observe, ‘by their 

nature, the social media have the capabilities of inflaming the 

audience.’ Hate speeches are also everywhere online. Inciting news, 

capable of causing security threats immediately or in the nearest 

future, is everywhere online. Fake news on social media is just 

everywhere on the internet. Facebook, as the giant of social media, 



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317 

 

is characterised by pronounced propaganda. For example, it is 

reported that that Facebook altered the nature of American 

Democracy (Olan et al., 2022). Fake news is one way through which 

Facebook has altered American Democracy. McPeak (2014, p. 581) 

lends credence to this observation by noting that ‘social media data 

is changing the face of civil discovery in many cases, and informal 

discovery of social media content on sites such as Facebook can 

prove extremely valuable for litigants’ (McPeak, 2014, p. 581). 

Recently, fake news was spread on social media about a young 

driver in Lagos, indicting him to be the one drove round with the 

foreigner who brought in Covid-19 to Nigeria. He suffered stigma, 

isolation, humiliation, and so on until he had to make and post round 

his own self-made real video, disclaiming the fake news about him 

and clarifying the public on the indictment. See one of his self-made 

video clips, disclaiming the fake news about him: 



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318 

 

 



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On the whole, excessive exhibition of crises scenarios could inflame 

the audience to act in a manner that could be inimical to orderliness 

and peaceful co-existence of people (Edogor et al., 2015, p. 87). One 

often realises that media contents have or receives more audience 

that non-conflict contents.  Given this reality, it appears that the 

prime news value of the media is conflict or disorder, negative 

events. Good news stories receive less media attention than bad 

news. Okoye (2011, p. 268) cautions that ‘media contents that 

portray… scenes of… violence should be handled with caution.’ In 

the same vein, although Yoroms (2009, p. 25) admits that media 

objectivity barely obtains, he argues that one has to apply ‘the right 

standard of significance, because conflict is more pervasive once the 

media reports are based on imagination.’ He stresses that once the 

media fail to be objective and rather show partiality, conflicts can 

be escalated. Dul (2007) argues that media objectivity is usually 

affected by ownership, economic interests, religious affiliation and 

cultural factors. She insists that this issue can only be overcome 

through reorientation of practitioners, training on conflict 

management and provisions of adequate funding for media houses. 

Individuals’ Misuse of Language and Insecurity 

Different persons hold and express personal ideologies that generate 

insecurity in several regards. Individuals’ words incite insecurity. 

Profane words are capable of causing or igniting insecurity. Threats 

to security come from individuals in various ways as a result of the 

way they make use of words. Some individuals use sweet-tongue to 

get many persons into acts that threaten security. Of course, there 

are many wars and violent conflicts different societies have suffered 

as a result of the kind of words individuals used and at the end they 

got into a battle that cause a war between their people. Individuals 

in positions misuse words against some persons and groups and at 

last, violent conflict or insecurity arises. For example, the Ombatse 



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crisis in Nasarawa State is an ample example. It is alleged that the 

then Governor, Tanko Almakura had decided to use language to 

criminalise the Ombatse people with their ethnic cult group, 

labelling them as insurgents. That was to prevent him from fulfilling 

the share power and resources he had promised them, for which he 

got the physical and spiritual support leading to his success. Then, 

he mobilised and sent in force men from Abuja to wipe out the cult 

shrine. But unfortunately, the security personnel reached there and 

rather began shooting one another or themselves (Alozieuwa, 2016). 

It is language individual elite use to cajole the masses into doing 

things that promote violence and insecurity. This is a common 

practice among politicians and religious leaders. Individual clerics 

have misused language to deceive the faithful into doing what led to 

or ignite conflicts and other phases of insecurity. The misuse of 

language is the ground factor behind the successful formation and 

transformation of the Boko Haram sect in the Northeast. Using 

language in manipulative manners, Mohhammed Yusuf, a 

secondary school dropout from Yobe, mobilised and convinced 

many Almajeri’s in Maiduguri and Yobe and introduced his radical 

Islamic ideologies to them. He learnt his radical Islamic ideologies 

from Chad and Niger Republic, where he later went and studied 

Quran. It is with manipulative use of language that he convinced 

some political and Islamic elites and gained their support and 

sponsorship. Consequently, he secured political, national and 

international links, funding and support; and embarked on 

aggressive recruitment of members. 

Before Mohhammed Yusuf came on board in 2002, Abubakar 

Lawan had used language in negative light to form Boko Haram 

group in 1995 (Mukhtar, 2015; Abimbola, 2011). Then, it was 

formed as a reborn of Marwa Maitasine, and called Sahaba. 

Abubakar Lawan later left for studies at the University of Medina in 



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Saudi Arabia and handed over to Mohhammed Yusuf, who was 

appointed then the then leading clerics (Mukhtar, 2015; Abimbola, 

2011). From the Maiduguri complex, Mohammed Yusuf relocated 

the school to later become Boko Haram, disguised to be a normal 

Islamic school, to his village, Kanamma in Yobe, close to the Niger 

Republic border (Mukhtar, 2015). The complex was built by 

Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, with a school and mosque that had 

students of poor parents of Nigerian, Chadian, Nigerien and Malian 

origins, most of who could understand and speak Arabic (Kanu, 

2016). Yusuf used language technically to preach against the 

government for allowing these children to wallow in abject poverty, 

illiteracy and various frustrating issues. 

Groups’ Misuse of Language for Insecurity 

Language misuse is the remote factor behind group conflicts. 

Religious groups discriminate and war with and against one another 

because of the misuse of language against one another. Muslim 

faithful call the faithful of Christianity various names or derogatory 

terms, which rouses religious intolerance between the faithful of the 

two religions (Dibie, Gotau & Robert, 2016; Robert, Besong & 

Dibie, 2016; Robert & Besong, 2017). Their leaders use language to 

incite religious hatred against each other. Hate speech is a 

mechanism of language-based factor behind conflicts, violence and 

insecurity. The religious of different religions make use of hate 

speech to condemn faithful of other religions that are not theirs. 

Nasty comments, hate speeches, foul language, fake stories, etc. 

about one religious group by another gradually pile up to become 

what cause and ignite insecurity arising from religious conflicts and 

violence. 

Apart from religious groups, various other societal groups misuse 

language against each other and one another. There are male and 

female folks. The persistent gender issues between males and 



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females are rooted in the misuse of language by either folk against 

the other. For example, the males use language loosely and 

negatively to associate females with weakness, evil, sin, and what 

not. Consequently, the efforts for self-assertion have led to gender 

streaming and a sustained violent and non-violent war by women 

against men. Gender violence against men is a result of gender 

streaming and a sustained violent and non-violent fight against men. 

Next, consider inter-cult rivalries. These happen when one cult 

group uses language negatively against another group. It is language 

that leaders of a cult group use to take oaths with their subjects and 

new members and to boast about that they have the power to do and 

undo this and that for members. The conviction gets members acting 

anyhow to members of other groups. The manifesting consequence 

of such misuse of language by cult groups is the recurring inter-cult 

clash between one group and another. For example, as one group 

sees and declares itself the most rugged, the strongest, the bloodiest, 

that with the highest number of elite that always order the released 

of members in police net, and so on, its members become more 

volatile and troublesome. They resort to always looking for trouble 

and perpetrating all kinds of evil. 

Militants, militias, terrorists insurgents and other crime monger 

groups  use language in bad light about the government in particular 

and the society at large in order to get and keep its members. They 

misuse language even in the course of carrying out their evils acts. 

For example, the Boko Haram sect members use ‘Allah kubar’ while 

murdering victims or members who are found wanting. Their use of 

this phrase is clear case of misusing that phrase coined and used 

initially by the Muslims for positive deed or when what is good 

before Almighty Allah. One need not be a Muslim to know that 

Allah is not supposed to be mentioned by this sect members or 

anyone else carrying out evil. It is just like one saying, ‘In the name 



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of God or Jesus, I slaughter or kill you.’ The misunderstanding that 

arises among sect members, leading to the formation of new groups 

within the broad umbrella of the sect is a result of misuse of 

language in expressing this or that. Consequently, clash of interests 

arises. Boko Haram has gradually got split into AlQa’ida, Taliban 

and Ansaru. The misuse of language also causes inter- and intra- 

group clashes among Al-Qa’ida in the Lands of Islamic Maghreb 

(AQLIM), Ansar Al-Dine of Mali, the Movement for Oneness Jihad 

in West Africa (MUJAO), and Azawald National Liberation 

Movement (MNLA), among others (Kanu, 2016; Mukhtar, 2015; 

Abimbola, 2011) 

It is language misuse by group that occurs between orthodox 

medicine and traditional medicine. The practitioners of orthodox 

medicine use language in negative light about and against traditional 

medicine. As they damn traditional medicine and its practitioners, 

most members of the public believe them and conceive only but 

negative thoughts about and against traditional medicine. The 

practitioners of these two medicines continuously war against other 

in mute. Tribal wars and clashes arise from the misuse of language 

by one tribe against the other(s). Ethnic hate and prejudices are 

formed using language in negative light about other (or certain) 

tribes, while using language in positive about oneself. 

Language Use and Security: Government and Socialisation 

Agents’ Task  

Government and all agents of socialisation ought to rise to the 

challenge of combating insecurity and installing security in society, 

making effective use of language. It is language misuse that causes 

the whole problem of insecurity in society. Yet, it is the effective 

use of language in positive light that would cause the deserving 

change and bring to place security, peace, unity and what have you. 

The task of combating insecurity is supposed to be endless, because 



Language Misuse as Remote Cause of Terrorism in West Africa – Okafor & 

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324 

 

once the state fighters relent, the non-state actors are bound to take 

advantage of their relenting efforts against them. The government 

and other stakeholders are undoubtedly agents of socialisation in 

various regards.  

Most of them are parents. All of them are members of different 

families. They belong to different religious, peer and pressure 

groups. Some of them are of the media professionally and/or 

otherwise. Government and other stakeholders ought to be proactive 

and always ready to unceasingly fight against the non-state actors, 

who are making the public to be dissatisfied with their significant 

efforts, diligence and service delivery. The failure to adequately 

combat the diverse phases of insecurity, inclusive of terrorism, 

militancy, kidnapping, unemployment and other forms of threats to 

peace and safety of a nation and its people, undoubtedly leads to 

violent (civil) war (Oyedeji, 2018, p. 3). It is an indisputable fact 

that once state actors duly rise against the non-state actors, causing 

the insecurity posing serious challenges to the wellbeing of the state 

and its citizens, the alarming insecurity in Nigeria would be brought 

to the barest minimum, if not completely eradicated. 

 So, the kernel problem is the poor attention paid to them; or simply 

put the other way round, the major problem lies in the attitude of 

negligence or naivety to the problems at stake, causing insecurity. It 

is imperative to note that there are some cogent measures that have 

not been evolved, employed and sustained by Nigerian security 

agencies and political office holders, for which the insecurity 

continuous to strive. The public, being aware of the ideal might, 

capability, resources, logistics and technicalities of these two sets of 

state actors, is left with the temptation to conclude, from inference, 

that security agencies and political office holders are behind the 

diverse phases of insecurity, which is why they willingly blind their 

eyes over the spate of security in the country and allow it to 



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continuously strive. This is because they can fight the non-state 

actors to the barest minimum and win them hands-down. The 

willingness to do so is all that is needed to efficiently combat 

insecurity through flushing out the non-actors unleashing insecurity 

on Nigeria. 

Conclusion 

So far, this study has successfully demonstrated how language is 

misused by media, individuals and groups in various ways and 

manners to cause and ignite crises, violence and all other forms of 

insecurity in society. Given the realities from its analytical 

exposition, the study concludes that language misuse is the remote 

cause of the consistent and alarming insecurity confronting West 

Africa as well as Nigeria. Language misuse lies solidly behind all 

the known causes and sources of insecurity. Thus, effective 

language use in positive rather than negative light is the panacea. 

Basically, the study charges the government to put in place strong 

legislations that could efficiently check against the misuse of 

language to cause and ignite insecurity. And, the agents of 

socialisation are charged to be up and doing in the use of language 

and matters concerning language mis/use. 

 

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