Power, Language, and Resistance: A Post-Colonial Analysis of Yoruba in Nigerian Language Policy Discourse

Language policy discourse in postcolonial Nigeria operates as a field of power in which the relative status, functional allocation, and institutional support accorded to Yoruba and other indigenous languages are determined by ideological contestations shaped by colonial legacies, elite interests, and nationalist projects. This dissertation presents an original post-colonial analysis of power, language, and resistance in Nigerian language policy discourse as it relates to Yoruba, developing a theoretical framework that integrates Foucauldian discourse theory, Gramscian hegemony theory, and post-colonial linguistics with empirical analysis of forty years of Nigerian language policy documentation. Primary data were collected from National Policy on Education documents, National Assembly parliamentary debates transcribed between 1999 and 2023, policy implementation reports from the National Educational Research and Development Council, and interviews with language policy advocates, academic linguists, and civil society activists. The study applies genealogical discourse analysis to trace how Yoruba has been constituted as a policy object, how competing language ideologies have shaped policy outcomes, and how community resistance to Yoruba marginalisation has been articulated and suppressed within official policy discourse. Existing language policy scholarship in Nigeria has produced descriptive histories and sociolinguistic assessments without engaging the Foucauldian and Gramscian theoretical resources needed to expose the power dynamics underlying policy discourse. This dissertation makes an original theoretical and empirical contribution to African language policy studies. Findings will demonstrate systematic discursive mechanisms through which Yoruba is simultaneously celebrated and structurally marginalised in Nigerian official language policy. Keywords: language policy, power, Yoruba, post-colonial analysis, resistance discourse.