STANCE AND ENGAGEMENT IN ONLINE DISCOURSE OF RELIGIOUS ENCUMBRANCES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Churches, COVID-19, Lockdown, Online Discourse, Stance and Engagement, Nigeria.Abstract
This study investigates the encumbrance of COVID-19 on the spiritual, health and general well-being of Nigerians and its implications. This study, based on a qualitative process, drawing inputs from Hyland’s Stance and Engagement Theory, explores the engagement elements and discursive strategies evident in the different stances of Nigerians on the government’s ban on churches and its implications on their spiritual well-being. Eighteen different online comments and reactions of Nigerians to four purposively selected news items in The Punch, Premium Times and The Guardian e-newspapers from May-July 2020 were sampled and subjected to discourse analysis. The analysis reveals that people’s affinity to religion, doctrine and clerics affected their attitude and stance on the ban on worship centres. It was also discovered that the discursive strategies embedded in the stances of the participants portrayed the church as an all-round solution centre and, by implication, whatever keeps them away from the church is out to destroy them. The engagement elements compelled the readers’ presence, tasked the readers’ cognition and guided them to the participants’ desired line of thought. Moreover, it was recommended that the government include religious bodies in policy-making, especially when it involves religious issues, to minimise resistance.References
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Two months without congregational worship… Clerics, other faithful share experiences. (2020, June 6). The Guardian: Saturday Magazine. https://www.guardian.ng
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