Delegitimising Nonviolent Resistance via Newspaper Headlines: The Case of Sit-at-Home Protests by Indigenous People of Biafra.

This article analyzes how Nigerian national newspapers represent the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their annual "sit-at-home" civil disobedience protests, which aim to highlight their secessionist agenda and alleged marginalization of the Igbo ethnic group. Using Van Leeuwen's Discourse Legitimation Approach on 114 headlines from four major newspapers between 2017 and 2019, the study finds that media coverage predominantly delegitimates IPOB through four discursive strategies: authorisation (citing political and religious leaders opposing the protests), metaphorisation (framing protests as violent confrontations or battles), moralisation (portraying protests as violent, illegal, or economically harmful), and discordancy (emphasizing disunity among pro-Biafra groups and low public compliance). The headlines largely depict IPOB protesters as non-conformists and troublemakers, aligning with a "protest paradigm" that favors police and government perspectives while underrepresenting the protesters' grievances.