Language and Religious Interplay of Nigeria’s in/Security Challenges on Selected Social Media Platforms

Social media in the last decade has increasingly become a veritable platform where people vent their minds on varied social and national issues. That Nigeria is bedevilled with myriads of security challenges – from terrorism, to banditry, kidnappings and secessionists agitations amongst others is not in doubt. What require amplification however, are how language forms and religious sentiments, particularly on social media, aggravate and or dowse in/security challenges. Adopting M. A. K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Semiotics (1978), this study examines selected social media platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter to determine how language forms and religious sentiments combine with images to flame or mitigate in/security challenges in Nigeria. The study found that religious sentiments – both positive and negative transcend language forms that comment on issues of conflict in the social media, while positive sentiments attempt to build/enhance/galvanise human coexistence, negative sentiments. tend to engender acrimony and disaffection amongst people. These coupled with varied pictorial images greatly impact in/security situations in the country. An understanding multimodality as a feature of communication thus greatly enhances construction and deconstruction of text including issues of conflict.