Fuel Subsidy Removal and Mind Control Game In Nigeria: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

Abstract

This paper addresses the arguments for and against fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria as a political discourse in the Nigerian media.We examine the political discourse from the theoretical and methodological perspectives of discourse structure, linguistic function, and ideological bearing to determine how the groups on both sides of the divide exploit their social power to control the public discourse and by extension control the mind and actions of one another.The results of the analysis tend to show that the more powerful group represented by the Federal Government struggles to redefine the discursive structure of those properties of the social situation that are relevant for the production and comprehension of the fuel subsidy discourse to change the personal/social cognition and mental representations of fuel subsidy by Nigerians as one sure way of achieving the ultimate aim of reproducing dominance (power abuse) and hegemony.The less powerful group led by the organized labour combats this mind control onslaught by enlisting discursive strategies that provide information from which derive alternative knowledge and beliefs needed by the Nigerian masses to challenge the discourses and information about fuel subsidy, which they are exposed to by the Federal Government.

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