Socio-Cognitive Analysis of Selected Editorial Reviews on Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration in The Nigerian Tribune

Citation: Olusegun Oladele Jegede, Esther O. Senayon, "Socio-Cognitive Analysis of Selected Editorial Reviews on Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration in The Nigerian Tribune", Universal Library of Languages and Literatures, Volume 03, Issue 01.

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study examined the socio-cognitive dimensions of selected editorial reviews on Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in The Nigerian Tribune, with particular attention to how language constructs ideology and mediates public interpretation of socio-political issues. The study addressed the limited scholarly attention given to the interplay between discourse, cognition, and ideology in Nigerian newspaper editorial reviews. The specific objectives were to examine the dominant ideological positions embedded in the editorial reviews, analyse the cognitive models that mediate discourse interpretation, and explore how these ideological positions and mental models shape and reflect socio-political practices in Nigeria. Anchored in Teun A. van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive Model of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study adopted a qualitative research design and analysed selected editorial reviews on security, economy, and health during Buhari’s administration. The findings revealed that the editorial reviews predominantly constructed ideological positions centred on governance, accountability, national security, and public welfare. They also activated shared cognitive models through lexical choices, presuppositions, evaluative expressions, and references to collective socio-political experiences, thereby guiding readers’ interpretation of events and policies. The study further found that these ideological and cognitive structures reflected broader socio-political practices such as public criticism of governance, civic engagement, and negotiation of national identity in Nigeria. The study concluded that The Nigerian Tribune editorial reviews function as socio-cognitive sites where language, ideology, and public knowledge interact to shape political meaning and influence socio-political discourse in Nigeria.

Keywords: Editorial Discourse, Socio-Cognitive Analysis, Ideology, Cognitive Models, Nigeria.

https://doi.org/10.70315/uloap.ullli.2026.0301004