A Pragmatic Analysis of Selected Nigerian Online Discourses on The #Endsars Protest Of 2020

This study examines the pragmatic acts performed in selected Nigerian online discourses surrounding the #EndSARS protest of 2020. The study is motivated by the need to extend pragmatic analysis of #EndSARS discourse beyond written social-media posts and placards to spoken online video discourse. It adopts Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts Theory as its analytical framework, with particular attention to the contextual strategies of shared situation knowledge (SSK), reference (REF), relevance (REL) and voice (VCE). A qualitative research design was employed, using six audio-visual recordings purposively selected from four YouTube channels and covering the period from 9 to 21 October 2020. The audio portions of the recordings were transcribed, and fifteen excerpts were selected and analysed according to the pragmatic acts they performed and the contextual resources that shaped their interpretation. The analysis reveals a range of pragmatic acts, including requesting, reporting, questioning, insisting, informing, accusing, lamenting, reminding, encouraging, deciding, warning and narrating. The findings further show that SSK, REF, REL and VCE were particularly prominent in interpreting the selected expressions. These contextual strategies enabled speakers to establish common ground, identify persons and institutions, connect utterances to the protest situation, and express forceful positions. The study concludes that the meanings of #EndSARS online discourse are shaped by the interaction between linguistic expressions and the socio-political context in which they occur. The study contributes to research on Nigerian protest discourse by demonstrating how pragmatic acts in spoken online material function to communicate demands, express dissatisfaction, encourage collective participation and articulate expectations of governmental action.