By Habibat Aliu
The use of Pidgin English began in the colonial era when it was necessary for Africans to understand the language of the white men in order to be able to fit in with the happenings of the society. During this period, if an African man get to be able to understand the language of a white man he is placed in a big position ahead of another fellow Africans.
A lot of Africans endeavor to try to fit in with the pidgin English language and during the process of change developed the pidgin English.
Nigerian pidgin is also thought to have emerged nearly 600 years ago, when European traders reached the country’s coast and met African chiefs; both parties need a form of a form of broken English to negotiate sales of palm oil and slaves. Pidgin is now estimate to be used by tens of millions of Nigerians. As a contact language is currently witnessing ambivalent shift in status. As a result of study after the years, the use of Nigerian pidging is becoming popular among many speakers than before. Nigeria pidgin has undergone modification and re-modification over the years by drawing its rich lexicons from various Nigeria indigenous language as well as the contact language.
The rising popularity of Nigeria pidgin was first used on radio in 1959, on the national programme service of Nigeria broadcasting corporation. It was the medium of communication used in the popular ‘’save journey’’ a comedy sketch series which aired for ten years and reportedly thrilled majority of listeners.Generally, Nigerian pidgin is proposed as being replacement to standard English broadcasting in Nigerian such that the uneducated people are able to survive the society. knowing very well that the language appeals to wider audience from all parts of the societies in the country.
Many station now used pidgin in forms of communicating to their listeners, especially wazobia FM which is the first Nigerian radio station to broadcast fully in pidgin, the country fast inventive broken English the station has been a hit since going on air in 2007.wazobia OAP greet listeners by asking ‘’how de body’’? or “how you dey.”
With pidgin, listeners feel free can’t make mistakes when we talk pidgin, because it’s a language that has no dictionary. Other station like Niger FM have also broadcast in pidgin English, because research has shown that most illerate or uneducated are most likely to communicate well through pidgin English. Some of popular OAP who have make names for their selves through the use of pidgin English are Ndidi Osaka popularly known has Nigerian Japanese, she was the first OAP to use pidgin English to broadcast in 1995, we also have Stella Anulika popularly known as willy-willy, Motunde Adebowale David popularly known as Lolo, Chinedu Ani Emmanuel popularly known as Nedu and Steve Onu popularly known as yaw.
Pidgin plays a major role as it enables individuals from different cultural backgrounds to communicate with each other’s in any informal environment because there are no rules guiding is usage unlike the standard English where you have to abide by the rules of concord, syntax, phonology and semantics among others. Major roles pidgin English play .it helps government to get close to the masses hence jingles, posters, stickers and government campaigns for national awareness and mutual co-existence are now prepared in Nigerian and broadcast in the same languages. It reflects national identity in Nigeria through it use in the propagation of national ideas, values, political and socio economic development peace and unity.
Hence, Nigerian pidgin is a maker of identity and solidarity.It is an indigenous inter-ethnic code available to Nigerians, who have no other common language. Broadcasting station should take advantage of pidgin English to increase their listeners base because many people use pidgin English than English in the country. Advertisers should also take advantage of pidgin English to have a wider appeal to consume.
The federal government should put policy in place to promote pidgin English among broadcasting stations in the country.
