Department of Languages and General Studies

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Start date: 2010Subject: search.filters.subject.Nigeria

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    A PRAGMA-SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL MEMES OF THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA
    (Covenant University, Ota, 2026-08) ADEWUMI, Adetola Theresa; Covenant University, Dissertation
    In modern online discourse, memes have emerged as a strategic tool for expressing and conveying opinions and ideologies on political, economic and socio-cultural events. They have been evidently important in shaping perception of the voting public in Nigeria especially during electoral processes. On this premise, this study examines political memes shared on social media platforms in Nigeria during the 2023 presidential election, as well as analyse their linguistic and visual components. The research seeks to identify pragmatic act and semiotic resources to realise varying interpretations embedded in the memes. The problem addressed is the need to understand how political memes are conveyed online through multimodal resources and the significance of the study lies in its contribution to pragma-semiotics and online political discourse. Using a qualitative method, twenty (20) memes sourced from different social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and blogspots, were analysed using Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Act and Kress and van Leuween (2006) Visual Design Grammar theories as framework for the analysis. Findings reveals that meme authors employ contextual variables such as strong criticism, persuasion, comparisons, etc. enhanced by pragmemes like shared situational knowledge, reference and metaphor to create memes aimed at lampooning electoral systems. The study further displays the deployment of semiotic designs categories under representational, interactive and compositional modes to evaluate symbolisms, framing, salience, social distancing, colour, mood as tools for visual interpretations. Results also indicate strong influence of political ideologies, age differences, political and economic instability and previous records of manipulations in the electoral system as motivating factors for the creation of this memes. Overall, ideological views though subjective, are portrayed through the political memes as tools to creating awareness against underlying illegitimate practices in the Nigerian electoral system.
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    Between Tradition and Modernity: Patriarchy and Power Dynamics in #ArewaMeToo Discussions on X Platform
    (Ianna Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Volume 7, Number 2,, 2025) Chimuanya, Lily; Uduak-Abasi, Uyah
    Background: Language is crucial to the production of discourses that legitimize sexual violence and rape since language is a symbolic system of power. It is through such power of discourse, that sexual violence and rape victims form linguistic narratives that enable them to share their experiences. Objective: This research examines the patriarchal, religious, and cultural practices that legitimise sexual violence in Nigeria on the X platform. Methodology: This study employed a qualitative design using Fairclough’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis. Data were purposively gathered and thematically coded. The sampled tweets comprise 100, manually gathered from #ArewaMeToo on X, produced by Nigerians. These tweets were numbered randomly from T1 to T100 based on how the data was gathered. (‘T’ represents tweets). Results: Results indicate that strong religious and cultural explanations underpin the prevalence of rape and sexual violence practices in Northern Nigeria. It also provides evidence that patriarchal power structures enhance these practices. This accounts for the prevalence of certain ideologies that accompany such events, such as the ideology of silence and fear, shame, and stigma. Unique Contribution: This study has revealed how X serves as a platform for users to express opinions on posts made by survivors and victims’ experiences of rape and sexual violence. Conclusion: This study concludes that the conversations on the Nigerian X platform reflect some ideological perspectives and contentions underlying rape and sexual violence as well as reactions showing disapproval for such ideologies. Recommendation: Further studies may embark on a critical discourse analysis of other hashtags that address rape and sexual violence and a critical discourse analysis of gender inequality using other social media platforms
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    CHINUA ACHEBE’S IKEMEFUNA: A POETICS OF THE NIGERIAN SOCIO-CULTURAL NARRATIVE
    (2021) Ayinuola, Fortress Isaiah; Onwuka, Edwin; Uba, Immanuel
    This paper attempted a reconstruction of the Achebe’s prosaic rendition of Ikemefuna’s experience in Things Fall Apart into another form – the poetic form. Thus, we present a spaciotemporal exploration of Ikemefuna of the Igbo cultural setting transformed metaphorically into the Nigerian youth setting. The poetics of Nigerian Ikemefuna is that of mutual suspicion, fear of regional, religious and ethnic domination, aggravated by the hopelessness of a battered national psyche with prodigals in power. The narrative of Ikemefuna is a metaphor for the battered Nigerian youths, scape-goaticism and the Nigerian socio-cultural contradictions. Through the use of literary devices like imagery, metaphor, symbols and juxtaposition we poetized the narrative of Umuofia/Ikemefuna and Nigeria/youths. We adopted Vladimir Propp’s concept of fabula and syuzhet, where the manipulation of the fabula by the author/poet creates syuzhet, variations of fabula. We examined the role of de-familiarization, Barthes view on variations which resulted in the death of the author/poet and Oscar Wilde’s opinion that the critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The syuzhetal defamiliarization technique enabled us to reconstruct Achebe’s prosaic Ikemefuna into a poetic variant – the poem: Ikemefuna. This mode of generating a new meaning in another literary form has not only enhanced poetic innovation, criticism and craft; it has enhanced readers/writers ability to critically and creatively articulate Nigerian diverse socio-cultural experiences.
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    Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery: An Appraisal of Causes and Effects in Nigeria
    (Migration Letters Volume: 20, No: S7, 2023) Osimen Goddy U.; Olu-Owolabi Fadeke Esther; Apeloko O. D.; Awogu-Maduagwu Edith Abisola
    Human trafficking is widely recogni::.ed as a form of contemporary slavery with a range of socioeconomic ramifications. In Nigeria, this form of contemporary slavery is common. Nigeria, regrettably, is a source, transit, and destination country for trafficking, which is a disgusting position to hold. With the associated effects and implications on people's life in the nation, the epidemic has taken on complicated dimensions and grown elusive. It is on this backdrop this study looks at the causes and effects of the scourge in Nigeria, using Edo State as a case study. The study which adopts the descriptive survey research design method. Data collected were analysed and expressed descriptively. The study revealed among other things that, poverty and unemployment are the main drivers of human trafficking in Nigeria. The necessity to build coordinated and well-articulated initiatives that fight human trafficking in Nigeria is thus suggested, among other things.