"Once they see me, the first thing they say is, 'Yaw, how you dey man?' They'll speak pidgin first even if we go to correct English after that." Beginner's guide to pidgin "Surprisingly our listenership has grown even among people you might call elite," Yaw said. Radio Wazobia's popularity continues unabated. "Maybe it doesn't yet fulfil the criteria of being a national language but has all the major features of a language, and it doesn't come with any of the political issues of choosing a single national language." "Pidgin is used in some higher education classes where students are from various backgrounds, so it's the best bet for communicating," said linguist Godwin Iwuchukwu of Calabar University. Others, including academics who run the Lagos-based Naija Langueji Akademi, see the language as worthy of scholarly study, and important in bridging huge educational divides. "Broken English is OK if you are living off your wits but would you employ someone who can only speak that kind of English?" one Nigerian linguist said. There are others who are less than enthusiastic in a country where four in 10 adults are illiterate. More recently, in 2004, then president Olusegun Obasanjo banned a popular rap song called Jagga jagga (Rubbish Rubbish) which took aim at politicians who "scatter scatter" (ruin) the country. Kuti's fiery songs railing against corrupt leaders who "paddy paddy" money earned him beatings and jail sentences in the 1980s. "Fela said it a long time ago – the one language that can unify every Nigerian is pidgin," said Funsho Ogundipe, who played alongside Nigeria's most famous musician. So potentially powerful is pidgin's punch that authorities periodically clamp down on it. Some see its continued existence as a glaring symbol of a failed education system. Before, it was just blowing grammar," he said, referring to the traditional English of politicians' speeches. "Since Wazobia came, we have been enjoying, it's become like a kind of conversation. "The language of Wazobia is clear," said rubber farmer Sunday Ayodele, alternating Yoruba, his first language, with pidgin. The pungent smell of palm wine mingled with their loud exclamations as they listened to a Wazobia news bulletin. There is no electricity, but each household owns a radio. Three hours into the bush, at the village of Oniparagba, a dozen farmers gathered round a transistor radio. "We need to reswagger Nigeria," agreed his co-anchor. "Nigeria don become mathematics ," Yaw concluded. In a recent morning news bulletin, a parliamentary session descended into chaos when politicians "dey abuse them one by each". "Because we use just pure pidgin, the market women, the bus drivers, the mechanics that are not educated can listen to our news and actually understand what's happening in government." "The common man wants to air their views but speaking in English they're scared – they don't want to do gbagam ," said Radio Wazobia morning news presenter Steve Onu, aka DJ Yaw. Later, under colonialism, English became the language of prestige. Like its variants in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia, pidgin began as a form of broken English that allowed the country's coastal inhabitants to barter slaves and later palm oil with European traders. As cars swerve through sweaty streets, it can also be heard blaring on Radio Wazobia, a pidgin-only station played in crammed buses, sleek air-conditioned jeeps and roadside food stalls. It's used in slogans scrawled on crumbling walls and flashy billboards. In Lagos, a Nigerian policeman demonstrated how his English-imported spaniel, Milly, "dey hear pidgin well well" as she obeyed a series of pidgin commands. Current affairs, English and local languages are brewed together to dish up playful imagery at breakneck speed. Officially known as Naija, Nigerian pidgin is spoken by tens of millions across the country. The reply can range from a chirpy "I dey fine" to a downbeat "Body dey inside cloth," (literally meaning "I'm still wearing clothes").
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