ACHIEVING NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SEMIOTICS

Abstract

In the last few years in Nigeria, several unsavouring incidents, pronouncements, and exchange of words along ethnic and sectarian divides abundantly point to an inexorable conflict of monumental proportions but quite unfortunately, these signs are not seen, recognized or attended to by the leadership of this nation. This failure, it is feared, could ignite a conflagration that could affect the very existence of the nation or least, its proper development. This paper, Achieving National Development through the Deployment of the Engine of Semiotics, seeks to address the above concern by identifying some of the regrettable indices with negative effect on the nation, within the lens of visual and social semiotics. The data for this study are numbered cartoons, selected through random sampling of some of our National Dailies, and adopted as references which are not to be further expanded but for emphasis. Also, some cogent headlines and comments in these Newspapers, which are relevant to buttress the stance of the researcher, are highlighted as excerpts to lend credence to the work since the researcher is not alone. Findings are that Nigeria have continued to view the signs identified in this paper naively, even at the highest levels of government, as teething problems in nation building process rather than the terminal disease they constitute to national development. The paper concludes, amidst some recommendations, that an in-depth knowledge of Semiotics would enable our national leaders to identify and interpreting these humongous signs with a view to finding solutions to them.