Editorial

This Volume 25 of Lagos Notes and Records presents another round of well-researched scholarly contributions from established and middle-level career researchers spread across key disciplines in the humanities namely language, literature, communication studies, history, linguistics, conflict resolution and crisis management, and music. Articles received from authors outside the traditional base of the journal continue to confirm the transdisciplinary reputation this journal has acquired over the years and its increasing national and international appeal.

The first article by Takehiko Ochiai examines the Sandline Affair and the United Kingdom’s interference in the Sierra Leonean polity in the 1990s, which led to violations of the United Nations sanctions against Sierra Leone during the country’s civil war. The author argues that the role played by the UK, coupled with the complexity of the relationship that existed among the various actors in the conflict, complicated the war situation in the country.

Albert Oikelome, in the second article, examines the issue of compositional elements in the music of Fela Kuti, focusing on selected songs of the Afrobeat legend and the key to understanding his creative resourcefulness. The author analyses the techniques employed by the musician to achieve his enviable feats in music and concludes that Fela Kuti’s vocal elements were exceptional.

The third article by Lọla Akande offers a new approach to our understanding of city life by confronting the rural bias which tends to privilege the countryside over the urban space. Based on a close-reading technique that engages the city as a living space, Akande argues that neither the village nor the city is a haven, but that each demands choices that are both personal and public for inhabitants to survive the various obstacles in life.

In the fourth article, Eric Mensah examines Nkrumah’s rhetorical urgency as an argumentative tool for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). He demonstrates ways through which major rhetorical constraints could inhibit a successful rhetorical performance and how effectively a rhetorician can deploy relevant tools in addressing a composite audience using the example of Kwame Nkrumah.

Akinmade Akande, Kofo Adedeji, and Anjola Robbin on their part examine how stand-up comedy has impacted the linguistic order in Nigeria. They employed recorded performances of seven popular Nigerian stand-up comedians to illustrate the importance of the profession to the development of Nigerian pidgin. The authors argue that Nigerian stand-up comedians are social critics and communicators whose purpose of condemning immoral acts of political leaders is driven by their desire to change the society for the better.

Sunday Ofuani, in the sixth article, examines the compositional utility and rationale of figurative-sounds in the vocal music of some eminent Nigerian composers. He argues that sonic idioms creatively permeate sonic-imagery, sonic-reference, and sonic-allusion of replicated phenomenon. He concludes that Nigerian contemporary composers in their search for indigenous sonic materials stylistically indulge in utilizing figurative sounds in their vocal music.    

Ayọdeji Adedara, in an ecoparadox based article, examines some gubernatorial speeches of Babatunde Fashola selected across his eight-year tenure as governor of Lagos State, Nigeria. He identifies the extent to which the Fashola administration was ecocentric both in policy formulation and programme implementation, noting that the speeches show that the former governor was an earth-friendly leader. However, the fact that some aspects of the speeches portrayed instances in which economic considerations got primacy over environmentalism contra the expectation that political leaders should value the environment the same way they value economic interests. The paper concludes that the framing of climate change in governmental discourse needs to transcend valuing the nonhuman world only extrinsically.

In the eight article, Abosede Babatunde emphasises the need to rethink the Eurocentric conflict management strategies often adopted to manage conflicts in Africa given their inherent inadequacies. Consequently, she makes a case for more creative, contextual, and innovative approaches to conflict resolution in Africa that would combine both African and Western conflict management strategies.

Carol Anyagwa’s article investigates the dominant linguistic pattern of Catholic liturgy in Lagos based on data elicited from seven out of the fifteen deaneries of the Church in Lagos. It opines that there is a subsisting case of unconscious linguicism resulting in a tendency towards mono-lingualism and the domination of English over Latin and indigenous Nigerian languages. It concludes by recommending the need to reverse the trend.

The tenth article by Adeyẹmi Adegoju and Bukunmi Adetunji is concerned with the use of linguistic resources to thread ideology in selected political teachings of Pastor Bakare. The authors focus on the pastor’s elucidation of leadership-citizenship responsiveness required for building an enduring and participatory democratic culture in Nigeria. They observe that the pastor is ideologically radical in his texts‘ structuring with the intention to ignite nationalism in his audiences in order to consolidate democracy in Nigeria.   

Lastly, Adewale Tiamiyu examines the significances of the romantic period in two romantic plays through the analysis of their actions based on the dichotomy of the classics and the romantics. The author applies the Greïmas’ theory in three different dimensions to illustrate the conflict between the classics and the romantics and concludes that while men grow classical in marriage, women often desire to retain their degree of romanticism in courtship.

Finally, it is my desire and hope that the academic community will find the articles in this volume interesting, meaningful, and useful in their quest to expand the frontiers of knowledge.

Prof. Olufunkẹ Adeboye

Dean, Faculty of Arts

Editor-in-Chief