By Farooq Kperogi My good friend Professor Moses Ochonu casually wrote a lighthearted Facebook update a few days ago about a former Nigerian...
By Farooq Kperogi
My good friend Professor Moses Ochonu casually wrote a lighthearted Facebook update a few days ago about a former Nigerian classmate of his addressing him as “sir” and the discomfort this socially awkward salutational courtesy from a friend activated in him.
It’s a phenomenon I’ve also observed in my Nigerian social and familial circles; one I had planned to write about but hadn’t found the motivation to do so until now.
There has obviously been a noticeable pragmatic and semantic shift in the use of the term “sir” in Nigeria.
Nigerians inherited the British English meaning and use of “sir,” which is often deployed to denote and connote deference, institutional hierarchy, social asymmetry, or what one might call elder veneration.
In other words, you address people as “sir” if you respect them on account of their superior social and economic status, higher cultural prestige, greater academic attainment, or age.
As with Britons, Nigerians’ first encounter with “sir” often begins in early childhood education, where “sir” is used for teachers not just as a marker of respect but also of disciplinary hierarchy.
We were also taught to call our fathers, uncles, and much older cousins “sir.”
So, from an inchoate age, we have internalized the association of the term “sir” with high prestige, recognition for achievement, and authority.
Adding to this, the fact that “Sir” is an official title of knighthood conferred by the British monarchy on people it considers as possessing exceptional personal merit redounds to the term’s reverence in both Britain and Nigeria.
By contrast, in the United States, “sir” has a slightly different meaning. It is used in everyday polite conversation, especially in the South, mostly as an indicator of courtesy and discursive civility rather than as a marker of social hierarchy, although it can sometimes suggest that.
I pointed this out in my August 31, 2008, column titled “Reflections on my Visit to Nigeria (II).”
I wrote: “One other thing: in Nigeria, I found myself calling people ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ 'indiscriminately.' In British and Nigerian traditions, ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ are linguistic markers of social distance; in southern America, for the most part, they are not. They are mere markers of politeness.
“People who are clearly my social superiors here have called me ‘sir.’ I used to be discomfited by this. Not any longer. I have since come to terms with the fact that American culture is deeply socially horizontalizing: it is very informal, casual, encourages a relaxed attitude in interpersonal relations, and generally discourages the drawing of gratuitous social markers.”
Indeed, I now call my male students “sir” and my female students “ma’am” as a matter of habit.
President Barack Obama was recorded during his presidency addressing a server at a restaurant with the term “ma’am.” This is the norm in the southern and midwestern United States.
In those parts of the country, every male is a “sir,” and every woman is a “ma’am,” irrespective of differences in social status, educational attainment, or age. This usage is even more pronounced in customer service, police interactions, and the military — but also appears more generally when speaking to older people or strangers.
Against this backdrop, two notable shifts are emerging in Nigeria with regard to the use of “sir” (and “ma’am,” rendered as “ma” in Nigeria).
The first shift is generational and social. When I lived in Nigeria, we didn’t call friends or close family friends in the same broad age range as us “sir” or “ma,” however socially superior they might be to us.
Those honorifics were reserved for strangers or much older relatives. We used other linguistic pointers to signal our reverence to close friends and family who are slightly older or more successful.
Today, however, full siblings, close friends, former classmates, etc., pepper conversations with more successful siblings, friends, and former classmates with “sir” and “ma.” What's up with that?
This shift even deviates from British usage. In Britain, “sir” is not widely used among adults in everyday interpersonal interactions. Siblings, friends, former classmates, and neighbors don’t address each other as “sir” or “ma’am,” even when there is a wide social and symbolic gulf between them.
The second shift appears to reflect a different impulse altogether. Increasingly, the use of “sir” in Nigeria seems to mimic America’s more democratic usage of the term, particularly among the highly educated, upwardly mobile, and politically connected class.
I first noticed this a few years ago when a Nigerian senator from the South, who is almost old enough to be my father, called me “sir.” I was confused.
I also observed a similar pattern in a Facebook exchange involving Dr. Aliyu Tilde, a prominent northern Nigerian intellectual, and his followers, many of whom are young enough to be his children and clearly not as educated or as culturally connected as he. He called most of them “sir,” including (or especially) those who disagreed with him.
Then there is Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed (until recently the Political Adviser in the Tinubu presidency), whose famed conciliatory demeanor and politeness on Twitter cause him to address many young men who attack him as “sir.”
Perhaps this shift in the use of “sir” among the Nigerian political class with intellectual leanings is not merely mimicry of American usage. It may also function as a strategic marker of modesty or humility, which are forms of political capital.
In that sense, it could be read as an extension of the British usage, but one in which reverence is extended by the upwardly mobile to those who don’t expect it, in hopes of earning their amity and loyalty.
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