Abstract
The realisation of genuine national unity within its ethnically diverse society has always been the primary challenge facing Nigeria since its Independence in 1960. This study investigated the discursive recontextualisation of national unity through newspaper congratulatory announcements (NCAs) within Nigeria’s ethnically diverse society, focusing on the pseudopatriotic undertones of the privately sponsored NCAs. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the agenda-setting theory informed the theoretical underpinning of the study. The data is drawn from four major dailies, covering the period between 2011 and 2016. Multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) and the visual grammar (VG) are used as analytical methods to examine 97 privately sponsored NCAs. Dominant themes in the NCAs are highlighted along with the type of national unity projected in the NCAs. The analysis revealed that, in the name of promoting unity, private individuals and global conglomerates utilize pseudo acts to boost profits, enhance customer index, and construct their corporate image in the eyes of the ruling regimes and the general public in their host communities. It was also found that the envisioned future of the country as a united reality appears to contradict the common perception and lived experiences of the people. This study is meant to highlight the way certain ideologies are promoted and further interests are realised through the print media in the name of pseudo-patriotism. Further research may investigate comparable representations likely found in other newspaper genres as well as additional semiotic resources such as Nigeria’s Civil War artefacts and monuments, statues, and other national symbols. Keywords Pseudo-patriotism; newspaper congratulatory announcements; unity; multimodal critical discourse analysis; Nigeria
Highlights
The values of diversity, teamwork and multi-cultural unity have been immensely utilised in television commercials and advertisements when it comes to Independence Day or National Day celebrations in countries all around the world
This article is focused on the discursive recontextualisation of the problem of unity within ethnically diverse Nigeria, as it is re-enacted and communicated through privately sponsored newspaper congratulatory announcements (NCAs)
Special attention is paid to the discursive actions believed to have been performed in the name of promoting unity by the principals of the NCAs to further opportunistic objectives
Summary
The values of diversity, teamwork and multi-cultural unity have been immensely utilised in television commercials and advertisements when it comes to Independence Day or National Day celebrations in countries all around the world. In India, Cadbury, the chocolate company, introduced the Unity bar on India's 2019 Independence Day, which had four different variations in one bar ranging from dark, blended, milk, and white. It received its fair share of criticisms, promoting diversity was the principal motive behind this concept. As attested by Koch’s (2019) study on corporate advertisements surrounding National Day holiday celebrations in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), corporate actors around the world are regularly promoting scripts that make the ‘country’ central by drawing on and effectively generating themes that serve the interests of the particular nation and their own business interests
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