Language Use in Nigerian Court Proceedings: A Discourse Analysis of Magistrate Courts in Ibadan

This study analyses language use in the proceedings of magistrate courts in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Nigeria, examining the communicative patterns, power dynamics, and access-to-justice implications of judicial language in a multilingual urban context. Language in court proceedings is simultaneously a technical legal instrument and a social practice that enacts the power relationship between the judiciary and those it serves, and in multilingual societies such as Nigeria, the choice of English as the exclusive official court language raises significant questions about inclusion, comprehension, and fairness. The study employs courtroom discourse analysis, drawing on observation notes, fieldwork interaction data, and publicly available court records from magistrate proceedings over a six-week observation period. Analysis focuses on speech act patterns between magistrates, lawyers, and defendants, the role of court interpreters and their challenges in rendering legal terminology in Yoruba, and the communicative disadvantages experienced by defendants with limited English proficiency. Findings reveal that magistrate court discourse is characterised by substantial power asymmetry that is linguistically enacted through control of the floor, interruption patterns, and the legal register's exclusion of lay language. Court interpretation is frequently inadequate, with interpreters omitting technical terms, compressing lengthy utterances, and occasionally substituting their own judgements for accurate translation. The study argues that access to justice in Nigerian lower courts is meaningfully impeded by language barriers and recommends statutory provision for certified court interpreters. Keywords: courtroom discourse, legal language, magistrate court, Ibadan, access to justice.