"... títí di ọjọ́ ìbò, tí a bá rí wọn, pípa ni ó."
In an average Yoruba person, lies the ability to use words and unravel speeches coated in poetics. An aged Yoruba man is capable of dishing words with proverbs, anecdotes, etc. carefully to douse situation while beating with same words. As such, the rhetoric of killing — say the metaphor of killing, either literally or literarily, is a faulted diction on the side of political players like Senator Fadahunsi where "to kill" is either directive or figurative. Speaking without gauge led to the Yoruba axiom; Ẹnu òròfò níí pa òròfò.
Recently, literary studies, by extension the humanities have burdened itself with the inter/multidisciplinary task of humanising other walks of life. Scholars keep blurring the line between literature and medicine, literature and technology, linguistics and healing, theatre and therapy, religion and science, journalism and security, philosophy and technology, communication and finance, history and statistics, etc. Tech giants hire creatives to push their inventions with stories that capture the hearts of potential investors and customers. Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence tools is only achieved with proper prompting, i.e. diction. Language use itself is central in AI usage. Humanities is central in livelihood across broad, hence, the need to understand that humanity is central to all.
A law that cannot bend will break. As such, countless law breakers continue to bask in Kirikiri, Panti, Kuje, et. al. Bending is the human face which Lady Justicia must have, when she removes her blindfolds.
Even newsrooms no longer use "kill" to indicate success of armed troops in neutralizing and un-aliving terrorists. In tranductology and Contrastive Analysis, a lot is lost when words migrate across tongues, yet semantics itself is what is achieved in the end.
Senator Fadahunsi's remarks generated backlash, disclaimers and call for caution; "... kill them," "...kill them with votes." It is an all shade of wrongs coming expressly or figuratively. The provocation which led to his outburst can be justified as a senator concerned about the continued death toll in his constituency — totally unacceptable.
Even in stage performance, imitation remains a tool which actors use in representing death and other fatal depiction — Greek tragedy transforms spectacular violence into language in its most poetic manner. A character might be killed, commit suicide, or die, but the physical act normally occurred inside the skene, as death is made audible and verbally visible, but ocular. To avoid a descent like the Renaissance English tragedy which is willing to make a spectacle before the audience, Actors in Nigerian politics should not only read or be committed to policy make, they should understand that arts in any form, present the better way to be, away from the make-good feeling which philistines think it offers. Metaphors in a painting are not pointers to meaning alone, they tell of the humanist point applicable to other fields including politics.
Even the arts employ words carefully.
Choosing to use words in any poetic manner possible, does not guarantee for literary arbitrariness. Metaphors are guided and creatively deployed — its dexterity is what distinguishes good writers. As much as Sen Fadahunsi means no harm, Nigerian political audience are inept of further explainers to words already out there. Eyin lohun/ l'oro." The fragility of words always calls for caution when they are used with and without metaphor coating.
Humanities aims to make existence sustainable by providing necessary model influence in fields where human values are less essential in its operation yet serving humanity. To communicate is not enough, for communication is a process. Language being central, must be learnt. Politicians must learn to use words including the president. George Orwell's Politics and the English language, perhaps, will give them a hold of communication better, because when "all is fair in politics," killings will not be farfetched as an end to justify the means.
