18: LANGUAGE, RELIGION, AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATION

Nigeria's religious and linguistic plurality makes public communication an important site for the construction and negotiation of social identity. This study examines how religious language constructs belonging, represents social groups, and shapes relations between religious and ethnic communities in contemporary Nigeria. The study adopts a qualitative discourse-analytic design, combining Social Identity Theory with Critical Discourse Analysis. Four publicly available religious communications issued in 2024 and 2025 were purposively selected: the August 2024 Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) intervention during the nationwide protests; Sultan Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III's 2025 Eid-el-Fitr message; Archbishop Daniel C. Okoh's 2024 Eid-el-Kabir message; and Okoh's 2025 World Interfaith Harmony Week intervention. The analysis focuses on pronoun use, naming and labelling, inclusive and exclusive constructions, religious vocabulary, appeals to shared values, and representations of religious and national identity. The findings show that religious discourse can construct both bounded and inclusive identities. Exclusive labels and oppositional representations may sharpen in-group and out-group distinctions, while inclusive pronouns, shared moral vocabulary, and appeals to common citizenship can broaden religious identity into civic identity. Recent Nigerian scholarship similarly shows that digital and electoral discourse may reproduce religious othering through demonisation, stereotyping, and exclusion. The study therefore argues that religious communication is not simply a vehicle for theological instruction but a form of social action with consequences for social cohesion. It recommends greater linguistic sensitivity among religious communicators, stronger interfaith literacy, responsible media mediation, and deliberate use of inclusive discourse in public religious communication