A Stylo-Pragmatic Study of Selected #Endbadgovernance Protest Posters in Nigeria

This article is published in AL-QALAM Journal of Languages and Literary Studies, Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2025 (A Publication of the Department of English and Literature, Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria)

A STYLO-PRAGMATIC STUDY OF SELECTED #ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTEST POSTERS IN NIGERIA

By

Umar, Mudashir Ayinla¹, Waheed Olanrewaju Salawdeen, Ph.D² & Hamzah Abdurraheem, Ph.D²

Department of English, School of Languages, Federal College of Education, Iwo, Osun State¹

Department of Languages (English Unit), Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Nigeria²

Corresponding Author’s Email and Phone No.: umarma@fceiwo.edu.ng; +2348064042578

Abstract

One of the sources of effectuating language is a poster. It employs a range of linguistic and visual resources to convey messages of protest, persuasion, and social commentary, making them a fascinating site for examining the intersection of multimodality and pragmatics. The purposes of this study are to examine how various pragmatic resources for activating protest and critical social commentary are realized, to investigate how linguistic and visual strategies of conveying meaning and achieving communicative goals are employed, and to analyse how a range of semiotic resources are used to construct and contest social meanings, identities, and power relations. Data (posters) for this qualitative research were gathered from different online news outlets comprising the Cable, the Punch, the Guardian, Channels and Tribune. Simple random sampling technique was deployed to select six (6) #Endbadgovernance protest posters from 1st August to 10th August, 2024, from the available data population. Afterwards, modified Leuwen's (2005) Multimodal Communicative Acts (MCA) and Mey's Pragmatic Acts (PA) were deployed for their stylo-pragmatic analysis. Findings showed that from the textual part of the PA pragmeme, inference (INF) is the most potent tool in protest poster design as it is severally used in all the data to earn it 100% representation. Image was also discovered as the most powerful tool of MCA with 100% realisation while language and typology got 83% apiece. In conclusion, language researchers can simultaneously read meaning to concepts like pictures, banners and the likes, using inputs from the analytical linguistic tools of the fields of social semiotics (Multimodal Stylistics) and Pragmatics.

Keywords: Multimodal Communicative Acts, Poster, Pragmatic Acts, Pragmeme, Protest

Introduction

In recent years, Nigeria has witnessed a surge in social activism, with citizens employing various strategies to express dissent and advocate for change. One prominent aspect of this activism is the use of protest posters, which have become a ubiquitous feature of Nigerian streets and social media platforms. These posters employ a range of linguistic and visual resources to convey messages of protest, persuasion, and social commentary, making them a fascinating site for examining the intersection of multimodality and pragmatics.

In the basic schema of the literary pragmatics that was anticipated by linguist Teun van Dijk in his early article titled ‘The Pragmatics of Literary Communication’ (1977), he raised nine key intellectual questions as wish list for literary pragmatics and problems as the major issues to be unravelled in the field: namely an understanding that the primary unit of language is the text, as opposed to word-, phrase-, or sentence-level structures, and an emergent awareness of language as discourse, that is, a contextually- and situationally-embedded social phenomenon. For this reason, the guiding questions for the study of literary pragmatics made him consider Stylistics as a text-based field while Pragmatics is viewed as a context-based field, both co-functioning to decompose meanings (Warner 2014, pp. 364-365).

Linguistic explorations and investigations have moved beyond text alone; they have navigated towards multifarious ways of representing 'acts' and understanding between the writer and the reader. This is what Halliday (1985, p. 68) considers as 'dialogic' and distinguishes it on a cline of four basic kinds: offering information, demanding information, offerings goods and services, and demanding goods and services. This leads to van Leuwen's theory in 2005 where he asserts that images need to be studied as 'interactions' rather than just 'representation' due to their tendency to achieve all the four kinds of linguistics functions as highlighted by Halliday. Hence, van Leuwen (2005, p. 120) declares "but clearly, images are also used to do things to or for or with people: to persuade (advertisements), instruct (patterns for dress making), explain (diagrams in textbooks), warn (image of skull and crossbones on a door), and so on."

According to Mey (2016), pragmatics is concerned with the study of language in use, examining how contextual factors shape communicative meaning. In the context of protest posters, pragmatics can help us understand how language is used to persuade, protest, and comment on social issues. Recent studies have employed pragmatic frameworks to analyse protest discourse, highlighting the importance of context, inference, and implicature in shaping communicative meaning (e.g., Kecskes, 2019; Verschueren, 2019). However, few studies have stylistically examined the pragmatics of protest posters in Nigeria, where language and visual resources are combined to achieve communicative goals.

Statement of the Problem

The stylistic and pragmatic features of posters have received scant attention in the literature, and particularly in African protest discourse. The Nigerian context, with its complex history of political unrest and social activism, provides a rich site for examining the language and visual strategies of protest. Recent studies have explored the role of social media in Nigerian protests (e.g., Akinfemisoye, 2017), but the linguistic and visual aspects of protest posters remain not well explored. By investigating the stylo-pragmatic features of protest posters in Nigeria, this paper aims to fill this gap and contribute to a deeper understanding of protest discourse in non-Western contexts.

Through a stylo-pragmatic investigation of #Endbadgovernance protest posters in Nigeria, this work intends to uncover the linguistic and visual strategies employed by protesters to convey their messages. It is hoped that this study will contribute to a deeper understanding of protest discourse in non-Western contexts, unravel the complex dynamics of protests and shed light on the role of language and visual communication in social activism. Simply put, by examining the stylo-pragmatic features of protest posters in Nigeria, this paper aims to fill a significant gap in the literature and provide insights into the language and visual strategies of protest in Nigeria.

Objectives of the Study

This paper aims to combine stylistic and pragmatic tools to achieve three objectives which:

- examine the various pragmatic resources used in selected #Endbadgovernance protest posters in Nigeria, and how they realise pragmatic acts of protest, persuasion, and social commentary;

- investigate the stylo-pragmatic features of selected #Endbadgovernance protest posters in Nigeria, and how they employ linguistic and visual strategies to convey meaning and achieve communicative goals; and

- analyse the intersection of multimodality and pragmatics in selected #Endbadgovernance protest posters in Nigeria, and how they utilize a range of semiotic resources to construct and contest social meanings, identities, and power relations.

Review of Related Literature

Multimodal Communicative Acts (MCA)

Leuwen's Multimodal Communicative Acts (MCA) theory proposes that communication is a multimodal process, combining images, language, gestures, and other modes to convey meaning (Leuwen, 2015, p. 5). According to Bateman (2014, p. 162), MCA highlights the importance of considering the interplay between different modes in communication. This is in line with Kress’ (2010, p. 12) argument that MCA provides a framework for analysing how multimodal resources are used to create meaning in social contexts.

In practice, MCA has proven to be a multifaceted tool. To validate this statement, Kress (2010, p. 23) and Bezemer (2012, p. 145) have applied it to examine the role of multimodality in educational settings and construction of knowledge; Kress (2013, p. 167) and Bateman (2014, p. 171) have utilised it to analyse social change; Bezemer and Kress (2016, p. 23) have deployed it to investigate construction of identity; Jewitt (2017, p. 67) has employed it to address political discourse and social relationship. Thereafter, their studies agree with Leuwen’s (2015, p. 10) emphasis on the need to consider the social and cultural context in which multimodal communicative acts occur.

Researches have shown that application of MCA has thrived on the areas of education, text analysis, and many more. This is buttressed in Jewitt (2017, p. 45) on the implications of MCA for understanding the relationship between language and image. Bezemer (2012, p. 15) also explores the application of MCA in the analysis of multimodal texts while Bateman (2019, p. 201) discusses the potential of MCA for analysing multimodal data in digital contexts. Consequently, Leuwen (2020, p. 5) reflects on the development of MCA theory and its applicability for scientific analysis in various fields.

Pragmatic Acts (PA)

Mey's Pragmatic Acts theory (2016) emphasizes the importance of social relationships and power dynamics in shaping communication. As Verschueren (2019, p. 56) notes, "Mey's approach highlights the role of context in shaping pragmatic acts, which is a crucial aspect of communication." To further this point, Kecskes (2019, p. 34) avers that "Mey's theory provides a framework for understanding how pragmatic acts are adapted to specific contexts, taking into account the social and cultural background of the communicators."

Even though some authors have raised concerns about the theory's emphasis on individual agency; one of them is Sbisa (2019, p. 78) who argues that "Mey's focus on individual agency might overlook the role of larger social structures in shaping communication." However, it is noteworthy that Mey's theory has been influential in understanding the role of cognition in communication such as inference and implicature (Kecskes, 2019; Verschueren, 2019); it has been applied in various fields, including language teaching (Garcia, 2017) and communication disorders (Simmons-Mackie, 2018). To buttress this, Garcia (2017, p. 13) notes, "Mey's theory provides a framework for understanding how Pragmatic Acts can be taught and learned in the language classroom."

To explain Pragmatic Acts, Mey (2001, pp. 221-223) argues that both illocutionary and perlocutionary forces are vexing dilemma and thus should be subsumed under Pragmatic Acts – ‘pract’ which is the force of pragmeme (generalised pragmatic acts realizable from general situational prototype) and ipra or practs (individual pragmatic acts which refers to a particular pragmeme as its realisations). The combination of the two parts above thus leads to ‘practing’ or what can otherwise be referred to as ‘allopracting’ (a ‘pract’ being realised in an actual and different situation).

Elements that are present in the activity chain of communication are the feature matrix from whose cells the language user may either fill or leave empty (which is represented by Ø null symbol, meaning the borderline case of silence). However, elements in the textual chain are abronyms; ‘INF’ stands for ‘inference’, ‘REF’ stands for ‘(establishing) reference’, ‘REL’ denoting ‘relevance’, ‘VCE’ meaning ‘voice’, ‘SSK’ for ‘shared situation knowledge’, ‘MPH’ representing ‘metaphor’, while ‘M’ stands for ‘meta-pragmatic joker’ – an element that directs our attention to what happens on the meta-pragmatic plane.

Interface between MCA and Pragmatic Acts Theories

Recent authors have noted that MCA provides a framework for analysing the multimodal resources used in Pragmatic Acts (Bezemer & Kress, 2016, p. 23). This assessment is further validated by (Kecskes, 2019) that MCA's emphasis on materiality and embodiment resonates with Mey's focus on the situated and adaptive nature of communication. Hinging on this, it is understandable that Leuwen's MCA theory revolutionized the scientific style to linguistic study by highlighting the multimodal nature of communication, where language, images, gestures, and other modes converge to convey meaning. In contrast, Mey's Pragmatic Acts is a context-dependent theory which focuses on adaptive aspects of communication, emphasizing the importance of social relationships and power dynamics.

The intersection of MCA and Pragmatic Acts theories has far-reaching implications for understanding the relationship between language and image (Jewitt, 2017, p. 45) which further has implications for understanding the relationship between language and cognition (Kecskes, 2019, p. 45); in fact, the intersection of MCA and Pragmatic Acts theory highlights the significance of considering the role of power dynamics in shaping communication (Fairclough, 2017, p. 123). Therefore, by integrating these frameworks, researchers can gain a more intricate understanding of how multimodality shapes communication and how pragmatic acts are adapted to specific contexts.

Methodology and Theoretical Framework

This qualitative research gathered its data from different online news outlets like the Cable, the Guardian and the Punch among others. Using simple random sampling technique, six (6) #Endbadgovernance protest posters were selected from 1st August to 10th August, 2024 before employing both Leuwen's (2005) Multimodal Communicative Acts and Mey's (2001) Pragmatic Acts for analysis of the data. Both theoretical bases were inter-relatedly applied as analytical tools as shown below in the modified schematic framework for this study:

Fig. 1: Modified Leuwen’s MCA (2005) and Mey’s PA (2001) as Stylo-pragmatic Acts

Empirical Review

Stylo-pragmatic analysis of posters has emerged as a vibrant area of research that keeps captivating scholars worldwide. This approach harmoniously merges stylistics and pragmatics to decipher the linguistic and visual nuances of posters. This is why Kaczmarek (2022) observed through the realm of visual activism that protest posters serve as a potent tool for challenging dominant discourses if the visual elements, such as images and colours are well utilised in shaping the tone and conveying the message.

Oyebode (2019) offered a compelling examination of the multimodal discourse of Nigerian political posters, illuminating the use of visual metaphors and allusions to convey political messages. Equally, Adegoju (2020) skilfully applied the stylo-pragmatic approach to the study of Nigerian protest posters. Therein, he discovered the strategic employment of rhetorical questions, imperatives, and inclusive language to foster solidarity and urgency among protesters. In fact, the intersection of protest posters and digital media made Bouko (2022) investigate the dissemination of protest posters via social media platforms, while in the same year, Serafini (2022) scrutinized the impact of digital tools on the design and production of protest posters.

Equally, Elham (2023) explored the visual rhetorical strategies deployed in election posters to yield a favourable representation of candidates, establishing their visual ethos, visual pathos, and visual logos from the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary election in Kurdistan Region. The findings show that election posters are ideologically and programmatically designed visual artefacts wherein various visual rhetorical strategies are employed to construct a positive picture of the candidates. Also, Isaiah and Tersur (2024) examined the visual images used in online news discourse during the 2023 Nigerian general elections. The researchers analysed ten images from two online newspapers, Vanguard and Business Day, using Kress and Van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar Theory. The findings reveal that the analysed visual images represent the major presidential candidates' political, religious, and cultural affiliations.

Data Presentation and Analysis

Datum 1

In this datum, the visual and pragmatic features of protest include the images of a man holding a poster, another faceless person doing the video, a man in sun glasses paying attention to the man with poster and security agency in their patrol vehicle. The Multimodal Communicative Acts (MCA) of these men are their unsmiling faces, the hand-waving, the complaining lip-rounding as well as a firm holding of the poster suggesting visual eagerness of an aggrieved protesters who want to demand answers. All these contextually combine with the PRAGMEME of assertive pract – ‘the poor will have nothing else to eat’ to suggest that the poor are tired and seriously angry; the real reason the security personnel are staying with the protesters in order get them under control in case the protest gets out of hand. 

Further forward, the poster the man holds is multi-modally expressive, having the assertive - ‘the poor will have nothing’ written in yellow colour on blue background, and - ‘one day’ and ‘else to eat but’ written in red colour; hence, viewers of this protest scenario apply the PRAGMEME of shared situation knowledge (SSK) from their textual part of Pragmatic Acts to make inference (INF) that danger looms for Nigerian rich oppressors. The PRAGMEME of conversational acts and the proximity of their co(n)text to the security operatives is thus a reference to how tired the protesters have grown about the situation of their country, Nigeria.

Datum 2

This young man breaks out of the whole image frame of other protesters to display his PRAGMEME of directive pract - ‘Reverse fee hikes in public tertiary institutions’ which is an allopract of request. The connection of the MCA and the PRAGMEME therein lies in the textual colour combination and the activities of the protesters. The MCA typology of red bold words – ‘reverse fee hikes’ represents the hot emotion of the young man protester and the topmost of his desire from Nigerian government. It is intentionally written in red print to divert viewers’ attention to the message and to suggest danger that looms on inability to pay school fees by many average Nigerian students. This coincides with his PRAGMEME of physiognomy which is filled with scornfulness and tiredness that wear the face of the young protester.

By MCA of language and PRAGMEME of inference, viewers could see that the young man is a student of a higher institution of learning and he needs special attention, the reason he is backing the procession of other protesters to air his most personal concern. And to ascertain the level of national popularity of the protest, a press man is seen in the company of the protesters trekking by adjacent left side of the young-student protester, giving viewers the PRAGMEME of shared situation knowledge (SSK) that the protest is covered by the press which in turn gives every Nigerian citizen the PRAGMEME of VCE by letting their voice(s) be heard.     

 

Datum 3

This datum bears the subject matter of the nationwide protest for ten days – ‘END BAD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA’. Stylo-pragmatically, many MCA and PRAGMEME features combine in this poster to communicate to viewers. First, the MCA of the image of the weeping woman wearing green, white and green scarf means that Mother Nigeria (the country of the protest) is crying profusely, as it could be seen through the white-coloured, multiple lines of tears rolling down the cheeks of the lady; this necessitates the protesters’ use of MCA typology of red colour for the words ‘END’ and for the background of ‘IN NIGERIA’ to call the Government attention to the possible impending danger through the PRAGMEME of directive pract. The big effect of the verb ‘end’ performs the allopract of urgent request to bring ‘bad governance’ to an end ‘in’ the context of ‘Nigeria’.

Additionally, it could be inferred that the PRAGMEME of facial and bodily expressions of the protesters, heightened by the seemingly uncontrollable weeping of the lady (Mother Nigeria), is a reference to the bad and melancholic mood of Mother Nigeria. To avoid this unpalatable and unbearable situation, the protesters are in dial need of wiping Mother Nigeria’s tears by crying out loud, this necessitates the MCA of the image of public address system mounted on a vehicle to trigger the viewers’ PRAGMEME of shared situation knowledge (SSK) on how highly determined they are to let their voices be heard, so as for the mother to stop crying.  

Datum 4

 

The above datum has the stylo-pragmatic acts of MCA and PRAGMEME features combined to situate this poster in the context of northern Nigerian market, due to the glaring appearance and dressing of the two young protesters standing in front of the poster. At the middle of the poster, the MCA of image shows an eye in the middle of the flag of Nigeria (with green-white-green colour) circumnavigating different food items around it. This functions together with the first PRAGMEME of declarative pract - ‘Nigerians are suffering’ and its pragmeme of allopract, informing the Nigerian government about the bad experience. In fact, in the MCA image of the congested market scenario, two Nigerian flags are held by the flanks of the protesters to depict that this rough space is, by PRAGMEME of inference, that of a Nigerian market where sellers’ umbrellas are indiscriminately captured.

The fact that the dominant participants in this protest are the youth, according to the MCA of image, calls for immediate solution to restore peace in the nation. Therefore, the second PRAGMEME of directive pract – ‘stop the hardship now!’ which is accompanied with the MCA typology of exclamatory mark from the youth protesters represents the pragmeme of allopract, ordering the Nigerian government to take a proactive measure of stopping the hardship, an instruction which must be harkened to by the Nigerian high echelons to wrestle the nation away from penury. To cap it all, there are PRAGMAEMES of SSK and inference in the context that suggest the coalition of many stakeholders in this market demonstration, the man with orange-coloured armless top and faze cap may represent a market union, the two young men holding Nigerian flag, one with nose mask and the other with faze cap could stand for activists while the two boys in front of the poster might visibly represent common Nigerian market business men.   

Datum 5

 

In this datum, the stylo-pragmatic acts suggest lack of settlement and lack of coordination among the protesters as they are scattered while they express their grievance. There are two clear pragmeme of practs therein; the most visible is the PRAGMEME of directive pract (ordering the Federal Government of Nigeria to) - ‘bring back corruption-free fuel subsidy’ at the middle of the whole MCA of image, leaving the incomplete pragmeme contained in the poster of the other protester by his left side insignificant. The MCA biggest typology of ‘bring back’ and ‘fuel subsidy’ shows the importance of the words while the typology of ‘corruption-free’ in red colour makes the viewer to draw the PRAGMEMES of inference and allopract that the protester is urging the government for restoration of fuel subsidy that is free from corruption.

Nevertheless, the second PRAGMEME to the right ‘rent must be monthly’ is also that of directive pract, it is an unreserved commanding act that is blatantly giving no option to Nigerian Government, except to oblige to his order via the high modality choice. Its MCA typology of ‘monthly’ in red colour shows the importance of the word and thus makes the viewer to apply the PRAGMEME of SSK to relate with the kind of bad treatment Nigerian house rent payers receive from their house owners and house caretakers, which could have prompted the protester to hold such poster. In fact, it further places the protester in the context of one of Nigerian house rent payers.

Datum 6

This datum stylo-pragmatically presents two young-man protesters demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the state of education in Nigeria. The MCA of images comprising rough and defective poster size, and the tatty appearance of the bearers compel the reader to use the PRAGMEME of inference to situate them in the context of poor Nigerian students who still strive hard to take active part in the protest. By the PRAGMEMES of SSK and reference to Nigerian public schools, the young men’s PRAGMEME of directive pract could be seen in – ‘politicians must enrol their children in public schools’. The use of ‘must’ in the pract is the MCA high modality language, which combines with the pragmeme of allopract to vindicate the compulsory request of the young protesters.

In furtherance, the red painting and bolder representation of the words – ‘politicians’ and ‘public schools’ makes them the topic of the poster. The two young protesters see the two as not working together, which they could believe as the major drawback for the country’s educational system; hence, the panacea is for politicians’ children to attend Nigerian public schools. The space of their protest is a tarred road which suggests the PRAGMEMES of SSK and inference for viewers of these protesters that vehicular movement is totally restricted which is why they stand protesting freely and comfortably at the middle of the road.  

Discussion of Findings

The combination of both Multimodal Communicative Acts and Pragmatic Acts in analysing the data for this study showed that there could be reasonable nexus among the inherent texts, images, colours, postures, language use and typologies to interpret meaning according to the context of situation. This reflects in all the data as MCA of images, languages and typologies are inter-relatedly combined to interpret the meaning of each protest poster from datum one to datum six respectively.  

It was also noticed that the most used type of pragmeme of pract is directive pract which occurred five (5) times leaving it at 83% while the most deployed pragmeme of allopract are requesting, instructing and demanding; they also combined to occur five (5) times, the same frequency as pragmeme of pract to constitute 83% of the overall data as it could be seen in data 2 to 6 respectively.

From MCA element, it was found that image has 100% realisation because it cuts across all the six data. Likewise, colour red is the predominantly used as it appeared in five (5) of the data analysed as in data 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 to constitute 83% of the data. The MCA of bold or big typology is also actively used five times as contained in data 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 which in turn makes it have 83% of the overall data. Therefore, both image and typology are very powerful tools of MCA. 

It was also discovered that from the textual part of the Pragmatic Acts pragmeme that both inference (INF) and shared situation knowledge (SSK) are the most potent tools in protest poster analysis as they are severally used in all the data to earn them 100% representation; although, inference was used more than once in some data. However, the least represented Pragmatic Acts pragmeme is VCE (Voice) so as to allow the posters to do the talking. On the other hand, from the activity part of the Pragmatic Acts pragmeme, it was seen that most of the elements are basically complementary to speech acts (pract and allopract) which also applied to all the data analysed.

Finally, it was deciphered that most Nigerian protesters during #Endbadgovernance protest ceased the opportunity to stage their various discontents with the situation of things in Nigeria as two of the six (6) analysed protest posters in data two (2) and six (6) border on education, culminating to 33% of the data. In contrast, all other data have various focuses apiece. Datum one focuses on poverty, datum two on general Nigerian concern, datum three on deteriorating business and market value, and datum four on fuel subsidy.      

Conclusion

This study has proven that the linguistic fields of Multimodal Stylistics and Pragmatics have a great tendency to cooperatively combine in analysing both functional and contextual meanings of texts, images, colours, gestures and paralinguistic activities in any linguistic data that has multiple modes of meaning expression. The deployment of the modified theoretical framework for analysis of #Endbadgovernance protest posters in Nigeria has presented language researchers an opportunity to simultaneously read meanings to concepts like pictures, banners and the likes, using inputs from the analytical linguistic tools of the fields of Social Semiotics (Multimodal Stylistics) and Pragmatics. Consequent to this, further researches are encouraged on posters, whether on protest or any other data, using other meaning-exploring theories of language to reveal more of the complexities of meaning composition and decomposition in linguistic data.

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