LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI’S ADMINISTRATION IN SELECTED NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS’ EDITORIALS, 2016-2021

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.