Abstract
The prevalence of insecurity in Nigeria has prompted the need for continued research on its causes and how best to tackle it. In doing so, researchers deployed different linguistic tools, techniques, and/or strategies that explore and proffer solution(s) to the problem. This study examined the linguistic styles used by two published academic articles on insecurity in Nigeria; how and why such linguistic choices were made; and the articles’ areas of convergence and divergence. The work also examined the articles’ possible effects on target audience. The study revealed that J. Omede & A. A. Omede’s “Terrorism and Insecurity in Nigeria: Moral, Values and Religious Education as Panaceas” provided more examples of cases of insecurity in Nigeria and offered more recommendations than Folashade B. Okeshola’s “VIOLENCE AND INSECURITY IN NIGERIA: THE BANE OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT”. However, both articles exploited stylistic devices to clarify their research topics and validate their findings. The stylistic tools deployed by the studied articles across different levels include, among others, bolding and numbering of topics and subtopics, bullets, and capitalization (graphological level); alliteration and assonance (phonological level); simple and complex words, and adverbs/adjectives for description (morphological level); simple, compound, and compound complex sentences (syntactic level); lexico-semantic techniques, and idioms (semantic level). Both studies foregrounded parallel structures in order to highlight the types, causes and effects of insecurity in Nigeria. In their recommendations, the former focused more on educational measures while the latter focused more on good governance.
Keywords: Published Articles, Insecurity, Linguistic Styles, Nigeria
DOI: 10.36349/alqajolls.2025.v01i01.016
author/Ahmad, Shehu Musa
journal/AL-QALAM JLLS 1(1) | December 2025
