THE DISCURSIVE PRODUCTIONS OF IDENTITIES IN TOMBOLA NIGHT INTERACTIONS IN THE NIGERIAN ARMY

Abstract

Tombola Night interaction is often being organised for soldiers to
make them relax and socialise after some period of regimentation.
Despite the avalanche of studies on army discourses, those directly
related to Tombola Night interaction, and its associated identity, are
scanty. This, therefore, constitutes the gap that the present study
attempts to fill. The Theoretical Frameworks adopted for the study
are Wodak’s (2009) model of Critical Discourse Analysis and
Systemic Functional Grammar of M.A.K Halliday (1961, 1994). The
data, which were collected through Audio Tape Recorder, comprise
oral communication of soldiers of the Nigerian Army during Tombola
Night interaction, held at both officers’ and Sergeants’ messes of 2
Division Nigerian Army, Ibadan, in 2021. The data, which were
subjected to descriptive/qualitative analytical method, reveal
balanced social life identity and two associated activities: game of ticket
and bottom plate, which are indexed with lexical repetition/reiteration
and intonation cues. Thus, there is a nexus between the identity
constructed in the Tombola Night interaction and the linguistic forms
that characterise it, the attendant consequence of which could
promote the building of the much needed civil-military relationship