CODE SWITCHING AS A POLITICAL ACT

Abstract

This study examines code-switching as a political act in Kano State, Nigeria, where multilingual communication is a common feature of everyday life and public interaction. The study was motivated by the need to move beyond the general sociolinguistic treatment of code-switching and to explore its political significance in relation to persuasion, identity construction, audience connection, and power. Two objectives guided the study: to examine the communicative functions of code-switching in multilingual interaction and political discourse, and to analyze how and why code-switching operates as a political act in contemporary public communication. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative research design. A purposive sample of 20 participants was selected from Kano residents who were familiar with multilingual communication and political discourse. Data were collected through open-ended interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that code-switching performs important communicative functions such as enhancing understanding of political messages, creating closeness and solidarity with audiences, reaching diverse language groups, making speeches more persuasive, reflecting shared identity, and emphasizing important points. The study also found that code-switching functions as a political act by helping politicians win support, construct ethnic or group identity, show solidarity, persuade listeners, include or exclude audiences, and project grassroots leadership. The study concludes that code-switching is not merely a linguistic habit but a deliberate communicative and political strategy through which meanings, relationships, and power are negotiated in multilingual societies. It recommends that political actors use code-switching responsibly and that further studies should expand research on language and politics in multilingual settings such as Kano.