NASARA JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY

Members of every society express unquenchable desires to formulate constructive political ideologies that galvanise into meaningful development. One of the endearing means of achieving such desires is through constructive political discourse. Central to political discourse is language, a divine gift that gives man dominion over other creatures. Language is sociological but also philosophical. It enables members of a sociological group to interact meaningfully in the society and realise their individual goals thereby, fulfilling their purposes of existence. The above, notwithstanding, language is malleable; it can be manipulated by its users to build or destroy; to unite or disunite. In recent Tiv political outings, it has become an ideological strategy for members of a political party to insult, ridicule, and lampoon opposing groups using political songs and slogans. This manipulative system of politicking always results in violence causing immeasurable damage to individuals and the entire polity. Consequently, the study unravels the causes as well as the impact of abusive use of language in Tiv contemporary political experience. The study employs Politeness Principle and Conversational Principle to achieve the set objectives. Data is collected through participant observation and document review; while content analysis is used for data interpretation. The researcher recommends, inter alia, that people who engage in political discourse should do so with politeness by saying only what they know, what they can prove; they should be brief, precise and objective in their presentations.

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