Abstract:
The representation of political leaders in editorials provides insight into the media organisations'
perception of their policies, activities and socio-political reforms of these leaders. Previous
studies on Nigerian presidents' administrations have explored their socio-economic reforms,
policies and progress, as well as their effectiveness, with little attention paid to their media
framing and linguistic evaluation. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the
representation of the Buhari administration from 2016 to 2021 in Nigerian newspaper editorials,
with a view to determining the media framings, ideologies and strategies deployed.
Teun van Dijk's model of Critical Discourse Analysis and James Martin and Peter White's
Appraisal Theory were adopted as the framework, while the descriptive design was used. Eight
Nigerian newspapers were purposively selected through quota sampling. Six were from the
Lagos/Ibadan axis (Punch, Nigerian Tribune, The Sun, The Guardian, Vanguard and ThisDay),
while two were from the Kaduna axis (Daily Trust and Leadership). Ninety-eight editorials on
President Muhammadu Buhari's administration were selected from the newspapers: Punch (16),
Nigerian Tribune (12), Leadership (8), Daily Trust (12), The Sun (14), The Guardian (13),
Vanguard (12) and ThisDay (11). The selection of the newspapers was based on their wide
circulation, while matters of insecurity, economy and corruption informed the choice of the
editorials. Voyant, a digital tool for text analysis, was employed to analyse the excerpts. The
data were subjected to critical discourse analysis.
Four representations of the administration were identified: tactful retardation, mendacity,
reticence and disdain for the rule of law. Tactful retardation and mendacity were used to capture
the administration's approach in handling matters of insecurity, especially in the degradation of
Boko Haram. Reticence describes the administration's selective judgment on corruption cases,
and disdain for the rule of law captures its disregard for legal institutions. Propagandism,
passivism and absolutism were the three ideologies evident in the editorials, and monoglossic
and heteroglossic positionings were the two forms of engagement strategies utilised in
negotiating meaning with readers. External sources whose views corroborated editors'
perspectives were cited, while authorial presence was fully pursued by others using bare
assertions. Minimal engagement tools were explored by Punch, The Sun and ThisDay, while
The Guardian, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune, Leadership and Daily Trust engaged the readers
effectively with interrogatives, deixis, modal and comment adjuncts, conditionals and cohesive
devices. Similarly, Punch, The Sun and ThisDay predominantly conveyed negative perception
of the administration with occasional appreciation of its achievements, whereas Nigerian
Tribune and Vanguard consistently offered counsels on how to reclaim masses' confidence. The
Guardian also used the negative affect randomly, but Daily Trust and Leadership were more
cautious and discreet in the appraisal of the administration.
Through the media representations, ideologies and engagement strategies deployed to
negotiate meaning with readers, Nigerian newspapers' editorials reveal President
Muhammadu Buhari's administration's efforts to deliver on democratic dividends and the
attendant challenges with governance.
