The Ideology of Post-truth in Nigerian Cities: A Discourse Historical Analysis
Keywords:
Post-truth, ideology, Nigerian cities, Aba, discourse historical analysis, discourse, 21st centuryAbstract
This paper examines how post-truth ideologies are communicated in Nigerian cities. In Nigeria, with the city of Aba (in Abia State) as a reference point, there appears to be instances of post-truth discourses. This paper seeks to discover the specific contents/topics of post-truth discourses in Aba, their discursive strategies, and the agents of post-truth dissemination in Aba. The paper adopts content analysis as the research design and the discourse historical analysis of Reisigl and Wodak (2009) as its theoretical framework. Data used for analysis are obtained through participant observation and secondary sources. By juxtaposing specific contents/topics and their reactions in the 20th and 21st centuries respectively, the paper finds out that the specific contents/topics of post-truth ideologies include: exam malpractice, pregnancy out of wedlock, fraud/duping, indecent dressing, non-participant in immoral activities, and greeting/respect. More so, based on argumentation and perspectivisation, the paper discovers that the arguments for post-truth are fallacious and that the perspectivisation is individualistic, instead of communal. Post-truth ideologies, as discovered, are introduced with discourses like: “It depends on how you see it,” “This is 21st century,” and “Who does it help?” In addition, the research discovers that culture borrowing borne out of interpersonal communication, social media as well as movies and music are the agents of post-truth dissemination. The paper concludes that post-truth ideologies are communicated in Aba with confidence through assertive statements and support individualism over communalism, which is contrast to the Igbo ideology of Ọha niile nwe nwa “A child belongs to everybody.” The paper recommends that post-truth ideologies should not be embraced in Nigerian cities because they do not conform to African culture in general.
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