Transnational Activism in the Rhetoric of Politics among Nigerian Netizens
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/jolan.vol6no1.471Keywords:
National Cohesion, Nigerian Netizens, Resistance, Oligarchical Governance, Transnational ActivismAbstract
This paper analyses the discursive and rhetorical strategies used by Nigerian netizens in their tweets, Facebook and WhatsApp posts to construct resistance against Nigeria’s oligarchical government. Screenshots of tweets from X (68), Facebook posts (42) and WhatsApp posts (34) of Nigerians and a purposive sampling of 22 excerpts formed the data for this study. Informed by Critical Discourse Analysis and Aristotelian rhetoric, the analysis shows that Nigerian netizens deploy different forms of mobilisation, such as irony, satire, metaphors, hashtags, and intertextual references, to construct injustice and complex crises, to delegitimise corrupt leadership, to mobilise collective outrage, and to counter hegemonic narratives. This type of transnational practice is not only a form of resistance but creates solidarity, political consciousness as well as accountability though it also shows how weak national cohesion is when there are deepening governance crises. The paper contends that digital resistance is a strong form of socio-political intervention in Nigeria’s democratic struggles.
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