Countering Political Narratives through Nairaland Meme Pictures

Abstract

As part of opposing Nigerian politicians' impunity, animosity and incompetence, Internet meme pictures were utilized on the politics thread of Nairaland.com, a Nigerian online community forum for engaging Nigerian societal issues. During Nigeria's 2015 electioneering, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their respective candidates, Goodluck Jonathan (GEJ) and Muhammadu Buhari (GMB), contested for the office of president, both claiming to be suited to effect new and positive changes within Nigeria's sociopolitical space. This narrative was naturally propagated in Nairaland discussions and meme pictures. Contestatory meme pictures, however, arose amidst Nairaland discussions to oppose this narrative, mimick, and ridicule it, instead condemning the candidates as corrupt and incompetent politicians. Twenty-one meme pictures have been selected through a non-participant observation of twenty discussions on the politics thread of Nairaland, during the electioneering period (the official presidential campaign dates) between October 2014 and January 2015. These are discussed using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework to examine the processes through which contesting issues of power are embedded within them. In showing how pictures become visual representatives (pictorial representations) of the different levels of political animosity and ineptitude exuded by Nigerian politicians, this paper thus reveals the protest value of Nairaland meme pictures in resisting the sociopolitical imbalances that characterize Nigeria's electioneering. © Cahiers d'Études africaines.