DISCOURSES OF POWER, DOMINANCE, AND RESISTANCE IN INTERNET REACTIONS TO TWITTER BAN IN NIGERIA
When the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, pronounced the ban on Twitter in the country from June 5th, 2021, to 13th January 2022, there was an outcry among the populace from both within and outside the country. This backlash was mostly felt by internet users who out rightly condemned the move, describing it as a draconian policy of subjugation, harassment, and intimidation of the citizens. It should be noted that the ban on Twitter came as a result of the nationwide protest tagged #EndSars. In this study, we set out to examine from a sociolinguistic perspective the internet reactions to the government policy of the Twitter ban by President Mohammed Buhari. Altogether thirty-six texts were elicited from four media outfits: Aljazeera, BBC and The Guardian Newspaper. Two of the media outfits are foreign while the remaining one is Nigeria-based. The data were codified and labeled as: DATUM 00 -1-8 in Aljazeera news report, DATUM 00-1-8 in BBC news report and DATUM 00-1-13 in The Guardian news report. The analysis was carried out using a Discourse and Critical Discourse analytical approach. The analysis reveals cases of political disenchantments, linguistic labeling, political reverberations of unwanted policies, political intolerance, and ideological projections of ethnic cleavages.
Key Words: Discourses, Power, Dominance, Resistance, Internet Reactions, Twitter Ban, Nigeria
