Abstract
The debating activities of the public sphere stimulated the development of pre-modern Europe. So far, such activities had failed to do same for Nigeria – a country in dire need of development. This paper investigates why public discourse in Nigeria has so far failed to develop Nigeria. To do the investigation, I purposively selected eight textual exemplars from stories which three Nigerian newspapers wrote when they covered the 2005 National Political Reform Conference in Nigeria. I presented the selected textual exemplars on a text box and then subjected the texts to interpretation using the method of critical discourse analysis. When I triangulated my interpretation with comments I got when I interviewed the journalists behind the interpreted texts, I found reasons why the mass media, as presently organized, cannot constitute an appropriate arena for development-boosting public discourse in Nigeria. On this light, I suggested some re-adaptation in a way that could motivate intellectuals into fashioning credible arenas for development discourse activities.
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