Discursive Strategies and Ideological Construction of IPOB’s Agitation for Secession in Online News Comments

The activities of separatist campaigners which have intensified, especially in the Southern part of Nigeria, have attracted considerable scholarly attention. Most of the studies particularly on the media construction of these secession campaigns have largely focused on coverage, reportage and framing. However, it appears much attention has not been devoted to the discursive strategies and stance of the public on the secessionist agitation. This study, therefore, examines the discursive strategies and ideological approaches of non-social actors to the secession campaign of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in online news comments. Hundred (100) comments in response to news articles on IPOB agitation and government counter-agitation activities reported between July and September 2021 were purposively selected for analysis. Guided by the ideological strategies of van Dijk, the analysis indicates that the ideological stance of commenters is revealed through strategies such as actor description, polarization, self-glorification, lexicalization among others. The strategies embody ideological prejudices of positive self and negative other presentations which enable the commenters to assert ethnic and regional affiliation, express commitment and justification for self-determination, present grievances and depict wide-ranging attitudes towards the government.