"So Many Nigerian Words! Where Did Those Come From?" As President Trump Meets Prof Ugwuanyị

By Chris Agbedo, Ph.D

Picture the scene: President Trump, still dazzled by surprising fluency, is now introduced to Prof. Kingsley Ugwuanyi, the sociolinguistic virtuoso from Agbamere Eha Arụmọna in the university town of Nsukka, who gave the Trump and his ancestors’ English Language a Naija upgrade! Yes; Prof Kingsley Ugwuanyị has helped enrich the Oxford English Dictionary with bona fide Nigerian English vocabulary. Cue the same framed photo-op energy, but this time with real linguistic fireworks.

Trump climbs to the podium, beaming:

“Professor Ugwuanyi, such wonderful words! _- gele_ , _Naija,_ _suya_ , _eba_- so many! Where did you learn to create such beautiful English?”

Prof Ugwuanyi, who began life in a rustic village community but rose through academia to a postdoctoral fellowship at SOAS, University of London, would likely smile before answering. Among his achievements: consulting on – and personally drafting many of – the latest twenty or more Nigerian English entries added to the OED, recording their pronunciations for audio clips, and championing these lexemes as cultural signifiers of Nigeria’s creativity and global influence.

“Mr. President,” he might say, “I did not ‘learn’ these words abroad; they come from my country’s vibrant speech. I merely made sure Oxford heard them. Cheers to Nigerian English, not as a neat novelty, but as its own powerful variety.”

Let’s pause to unpack the marvel here. Prof Ugwuanyi, originally from Nsukka’s Eha Arụmọna, earned First Class honours at the Lion’s Den, the only University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN, and became a Ph.D. candidate in sociolinguistics before moving on to roles at Northumbria and SOAS, all while researching Nigerian English ownership and identity . His focus includes how Nigerians perceive English as their own language, not just adopted imitations.

In January 2025, as part of a round of OED updates, he oversaw the official addition of at least 20 Nigerian English lexical items, including gele, Naija, japa, agbero, yarn dust, and more – drafting definitions and recording pronunciations, many of which draw on his own voice and expertise .

His latest scholarship includes a 2025 special issue in World Englishes, titled “Introduction to the Special Issue on Nigerian English,” exploring socio-pragmatic, phonological, and cultural features of Nigerian English and arguing for its global recognition as a legitimate branch of English.

Now, one can only imagine Mr. Trump, fish-faced and nodding, listening to Ugwuanyi detail the unique morphological, semantic, and pragmatic innovations of Nigerian English – the reduplication (small small, inside inside), the hybrid verb‑noun cross‑carpeting, the semantic repurposing of japa as noun and verb, the identity-rich Naija – all terms arising from lived Nigerian experience, not imported imperatives.

The psychological irony is divine. Trump might believe he is praising Prof Ugwuanyi’s mastery – and in truth, it is the Nigerian people, through voices like his, who have taught the world new words. The same man, who once expressed surprise that an African president speaks well now addresses the scholar, who owns the English of his homeland, redefining global English one OED entry at a time.

In this imagined exchange, Ugwuanyi is not a learner, but a teacher, the kind Trump could never fully appreciate, because he still sees language as hierarchical affirmation rather than communal creation. And yet, here is a Nigerian scholar – village‑born, globally‑trained – who has made English recognizably Naija, irrefutable proof that language belongs to the people, who speak it.

On a final note, Trump may ask, “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?” But the real answer is that Prof Kingsley Ugwuanyi taught the world how Nigerians speak beautifully, and that is why English just got a little richer. Naija no dey carry last, joo!

AGBEDO is a Professor of Linguistics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN.