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Tweeting the Violence Narratives in Nigeria: A Critical Stylistic Study of Tweets on the Benue Massacre

Adinoyi Abdulbasit Anavami

Abstract

Violence, insecurity, and brutal killings have become urgent issues in Nigeria, capturing the attention of social scientists. This study critically examines the violence narratives in Nigeria, focusing on the linguistic strategies used in X discourse to narrate and frame the Yelewata Benue massacre. The aim is to analyse the linguistic techniques in tweets that depict and frame the Benue massacre, and investigate how victims, perpetrators, and government actions are portrayed through critical stylistic devices. Using a qualitative approach, the study applies Jeffrie's (2010) model of Critical Stylistics as its analytical framework. The analysis concentrates on five carefully selected tweets to explore how they report, resist, accuse, call for action, and criticise the government and public responses to the Yelewata massacre. The results indicate that tweets tend to highlight victims through quantification and emotional language, while perpetrators are often referenced indirectly or directly labelled. Governmental actors are depicted unfavourably due to their silence and negligence in fulfilling their primary duty to protect citizens. Contextualising the discourse within Nigeria's socio-political landscape, the study underscores the role of critical stylistics in unveiling how digital narratives of violence depict power, responsibility, and collective grief. It concludes that X functions as a space for communal outrage, mourning, and political critique, employing language and stylistic devices to shape Nigeria's fractured reality.

Keywords:Tweeting, Violence, Narratives, Nigeria, Critical Stylistics, X, Tweets, Massacre, Benue State.

Introduction

Violence and insecurity have become a recurring menace in Nigeria, establishing the government's inability to uphold its constitutional obligations to its citizens. Chapter four section 33(1), 34(1), and 53(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, ensure that life, dignity, and liberty of citizens are to be protected from unlawful harm by the state, supported by the following statements. Section 33(1): "Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life?". Section 34(1): "no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment?". Section 35(1): "every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty?". These sections ensure no citizen of Nigeria is to be deprived of life unlawfully, prohibiting torture, inhuman degradation, slavery of any sort, or forced labor. Thereby placing a duty on the state to protect citizens' physical and psychological well-being. Despite these acts, violence and insecurity have prevalently escalated, becoming regular headlines in the daily news. The continuous disregard for life by some sovereigns in their quest for power suggests a weakness in the universal legal instruments for the protection of the right to life (Onuegbulam & Ani, 2024). Nigerians continue to suffer as armed violence and brutal killings have taken the lead in the country's list of security challenges, others include: kidnapping, armed robbery, drug trafficking and abuse, banditry, militancy, communal clash, and many other forms of violence, demonstrating the disconnect between what is expected of the state and what is attainable. Yakubu et al. (2025) emphasise that "recurring cycle of violence threatens the legitimacy of democratic institutions and processes."

Violence is an inevitable part of human existence (Mathew & Chijioke, 2023; Aluya & Terver, 2024). It is a behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. At the same time, insecurity is simply the state of being open or exposed to danger, threat, or any form of harm, creating a lack of protection. Nigerians now live in fear of violence lurking around. The chances of going a day without danger or violent attacks have become very slim. Europa Institute for Gender Equality establishes that violence is "any intentional course of conduct that seriously impairs another person's psychological integrity through coercion or threats." The country's economic stability is significantly impacted as farmers are unable to access their farmlands, and citizens are hesitant to travel or pursue economic and business opportunities. In 2018, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics recorded one hundred and thirty-four thousand six hundred and sixty-three (134,663) cases of violent acts in Nigeria. These violent cases were categorized into three: violence against property, persons, and against lawful authorities. With a total number of sixty-eight thousand five hundred and seventy-nine recorded cases, violence against property ranked highest. Fifty-three thousand six hundred and forty-one violent cases against persons were recorded, and twelve thousand four hundred and forty-three violent offences were recorded against lawful authorities. The report also emphasised that offences against persons were as follows: murder, manslaughter, infanticide, concealment of birth, rape, and other forms of physical abuse.

Amongst the 36 states in Nigeria, Benue State has suffered some of the most gruesome attacks and violence. Mathew & Chijioke (2023) reveal that violent activities between herdsmen and farmers have displaced more than 100,000 people in Benue and Enugu States and left them under the care of relatives or in makeshift Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps. ACLED data states that Benue experienced about 722 violent attacks and 3,251 deaths between 2015 and 2024 (Oluwole, 2025).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Adinoyi Abdulbasit Anavami
Department of English Literary Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
Bingham University, Karu,
Nasarawa State, Nigeria
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