President Buhari’s Anti-Corruption War in Nigeria: a Multimodal Discourse Interpretations of Selected Cartoons

AYODEJI OLOWU, Department of Languages, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria;   ID LLCE2018-379;    Abstract: This study identified and analysed the visual and linguistic components associated with the selected cartoons satirising the war against corruption embarked upon by Nigerian President, Mohammadu Buhari. This was with a view to describing the essential communication devices the cartoonists have employed. Data for the study were drawn from the internet. Only six cartoons were purposively selected for this study. The selection of the cartoons was predicated upon the subject under consideration as these cartoons present satirical representations of the President’s insincerity in his war against corruption in the country. Analysis of the data followed the framework of Kress and Leeuwen’s multimodal discourse analysis. The results showed that such visual resources as colour, pictures, symbols and icons, gaze and posture enhance the semantic and communication prowess of the cartoons. In the whole, the study emphasises the vitality of visual and linguistic elements as important communication devices.