A Professor of Stylistics and Text Linguistics at Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU), Anyigba, Muhammed-Badar Salihu Jibrin, has called for a shift away from borrowed Western theories toward approaches that better reflect Nigerian literary and linguistic realities.
Jibrin made the call on Tuesday while delivering the university’s 28th Inaugural Lecture, titled “From Stylolinguistic Domestication to Systemic Text Linguistics: A Journey Through the Sphere of Nigerian Literary Text Analysis,” held at the University Auditorium.
He said existing definitions of style and stylistics had created a “methodological puzzle” in analysing how writers make linguistic choices within specific social contexts, stressing that Nigerian literature’s depth of culture and identity demands analytical tools sensitive to local realities.
Citing his research on Chukwuemeka Ike’s *Our Children Are Coming* and Olu Obafemi’s *Wheels*, the professor showed how devices like coinages (“Whitemail,” “Youthquake,” “Kwashiorkor”) and code-mixing allow English to be “nativised” — adapted through Nigerian oral traditions to expose societal vices such as corruption while carrying African thought.
Drawing on M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and Beaugrande and Dressler’s Seven Standards of Textuality, Jibrin proposed a “Systemic Text-Linguistic” framework built on textuality, regulative principles, semiotic variations, and contextual functionality — arguing that language analysis must go beyond grammatical correctness to serve as a tool for understanding human experience and preserving national heritage.
He also called for greater recognition of indigenous expressions and local varieties of English in literary scholarship.
Speaking at the event, PAAU Vice-Chancellor Professor Salisu Ogbo Usman, represented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) Professor Rufai Sani Abdullahi, described the lecture as a milestone that bridged theoretical scholarship with local realities, urging that such research inform public appreciation of Nigerian literature beyond the lecture hall.
Jibrin was presented with an inaugural lecture certificate, plaque, and medal at the event, which drew members of the university’s Governing Council, Senate, staff, students, and traditional rulers.
