NJOMACS

Nnamdi Kanu’s speeches are full of representations of those for and against Biafra’s secession. Studies on Biafra’s secession concentrated on the representation of Nnamdi Kanu, Biafrans, international observers with little attention paid to how he uses language to represent Nigeria and those he perceived as its local collaborators as social actors. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the representation of Nigeria and local collaborators as social actors in his live broadcasts. Theo van Leeuwen’s Representation of Social Actors, served as the framework while the descriptive design was adopted. Nnamdi Kanu’s broadcasts in 2020-2021, a period marked by consistent and increased agitation for Biafra’s secession were purposively selected. Five broadcasts were downloaded and transcribed verbatim into English text and were subjected to discourse analysis. Six social actors were identified namely: Nigeria, the Nigerian Government, the Yoruba nation, some governors within Igbo land, Fulani and Niger Delta which he tagged as local collaborators. The social actors and their social practices were excluded through suppression and backgrounding; or included via nomination, activation, collectivisation, association and disassociation.The study concludes that Nnamdi Kanu represents social actors fighting against Biafra’s secession negatively.