Interrogating Governance Challenges in Nigeria Through a Semiotic Appraisal of Select Political Cartoons by Mike Asukwo

Abstract

This paper addresses governance challenges in Nigeria through a semiotic examination of select political cartoons by the prominent Nigerian cartoonist, Mike Asukwo. These cartoons provide a critique of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. The data consists of 20 political cartoons published in the BusinessDay Newspaper in 2025. A sample size of 4 cartoons were purposively selected and analysed based on their relevance to the topic under study as well as the presence of rich semiotic resources. Roland Barthes’ (1977) model of analysis, particularly his perception of denotation and connotation theories anchored on three levels of signification (linguistic, literal and symbolic) was used as the analytical framework to examine how the verbal and visual elements employed in the cartoons interrogate governance challenges in Nigeria. The analysis revealed the use of caricature, analogies, facial expressions, gestures, and colour as compositional devices at the denoted level to depict objects, ideas, and people that have connections to real-life events and experiences. Also, rhetorical devices like allusion, personification, irony, symbolism, hyperbole, contrast and condensation were used in the cartoons at the linguistic, literal, and symbolic levels to construct humorous satirical messages. Corruption, abuse of power, lack of empathy, and weak public institutions are identified as some of the critical factors that promote bad governance in Nigeria. The study provides a contextual lens for understanding how political cartoons function as a tool for meaning-making and speaking truth to power within the interpretive fields of semiotics and multimodal discourse.