Lasisi Adeiza Isiaka

Since 1960, Nigeria has seen eras of ethnic crises, most of which grew from perceived inequities and quests for justice. In this study, I investigate how leaders of the Igbo-Biafran movement (past and present) harness rhetorical strategies and digitality to frame grievances and induce secessionist agitation. There is a knowledge gap in the linguistic historicizing of ethnic-based conflicts in Nigeria, much less the use of digital technologies in framing grievances and calling to arms. This is especially visible in Nigeria’s multi-ethnic ecology, where languages are crucial for ethno-mapping, ethnocentric appeals, and narratives of belonging. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, speech act theory, and cyberpragmatics, I illuminate the linguistic means for curating victimhood in Ojukwu’s war memoirs, and in digital discourses of the new Biafran movement—to show how the agency of online-offline discourses not merely constitutes a synergistic tool for visibilizing inequities but also for animating grievances and collective actions.