In fact, many NE (Nigerian English) speakers show dual competence in either pidgin and broken, broken and standard, or pidgin and non-standard and are able to code-switch whenever the need arises ( Oduma & Gomwalk 1986: 10). In their paper, presented at the 17th NESA Conference, University of Lagos, 14-15 December, 1986, and entitled “Towards a Typology of Variation in Nigerian English: A Critique of Some Existing Frameworks of Analysis,” Adama Oduma and Victor Gomwalk aptly capture the linguistic scenario as follows: Thus, it has become a significant factor in social communication across board and linguistic divide in most parts of the country. It has even been observed to be replacing both the indigenous languages and English in most oral conversations in tertiary institutions in that part of the country. In the Niger Delta area, where it is noted to be fast creolizing, it seems to be more in use in the most formal situation such as in teaching at both the primary and secondary levels of education. All classes of Nigerians have been noted to use NP in both formal and informal conversations. The use of Nigerian Pidgin (NP) is widespread across Nigeria, especially in informal situations. Findings from this study tend to buttress the fact that NP is the main lingua franca for the Nigerian masses or the grassroots. In this paper, an attempt is made to analyse the discourse of NP with data collected through participant and anonymous observational as well as tape recording methods using a synthesis of methods, principles, and approaches proposed, employed, and adopted by Munby (1986), Melrose (1995), Fairclough (2001), and Collins & Hollo (2010).
It is also useful to explicate features of conversations observable in NP in relation to those found in its superstrate, English, and substrates, indigenous Nigerian languages. Owing to the significance of the nature, use and status of NP in our country today, it is interesting to examine and investigate its conversational discourse structure or patterns. Suggestions have been made by some prominent scholars such as Ben Eluigbe, Nick Faraclas, and Niyi Akinnaso for its adoption as our official national language because of its ethnic neutrality and non-affiliation as well as its currency and wide spread. This is why it is often referred to as Nigeria’s unofficial national lingua franca. Similarly, in most institutions of higher learning, it is widely used among students, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in their informal communication. In recent times, NP has been used extensively in the broadcast media for news casting, jingles, and all sorts of adverts in other to reach the masses of Nigeria for whom it is either a first, a second, or a third language. Thus it is prevalent in the metropolitan cities such as Lagos, Kano, and Port-Harcourt, especially in the military, police and air-force barracks, stranger-communities, and slum areas like Ajegunle and Mushin. From east to west, from north to south, it is the language of choice. Nigerian Pidgin (NP) can be described as the widest spoken indigenous language in Nigeria today.
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