STRUCTURAL METAPHORS IN THE HATE SPEECHES OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS IN FACEBOOK COMMENTS ON THE #ENDSARS PROTESTS IN NIGERIA

This study examines structural metaphors used as expression of emotions. It explores the language use in Facebook conversations occasioned by the #EndSARS protests which almost grounded socio-economic activities in Nigeria. The study investigates three different such Facebook Status updates which comments were presented and analyzed. It was found out that 16 out of the 28 statements selected in the three status updates were structural metaphors. These were presented and analyzed accordingly. It was, thus, discovered that the comments, though could be termed as hate speeches at the surface level, a cognitive analysis reveals that they were actually expressions of emotions of the interlocutors who felt dissatisfied and infringed of their rights as citizens. Accordingly, such emotions were expressed based on three thematic preoccupations. The first was a protest against the perpetual brutality by the personnel of the Nigerian Police Force called SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad). The second was a show of revolution against the leadership of Nigeria that is populated by the old generation. The last was another expression of a counter-protest by individuals from a particular region of the country who viewed the #EndSARS protest as an orchestrated plan to discredit the central government headed by a man from this region. The recurrence of structural metaphorical expressions, thus, indicates that there are feelings of disaffection against the establishment and the teething regional sentiments that seemed to herald the politics of the 2023 general elections.