Discursive Representation of Social Actors in the 2025 Federal High Court Ruling on

This study examines discursive representation of social actors and ideologies in the judgement on Nnamdi Kanu by the Federal High Court of Nigeria in 2025. The study employed qualitative research design and thematic/content analysis and Teo van Dijk’s Ideological Square (2006). Twenty (20) excerpts were purposively sampled from the primary document (the court ruling). The analysis reveals that the court judgment employs about nine (9) discursives to represent the Federal Government and their allies positively while representing Kanu and his out-group social actors negatively. These discursives embed anti-separatism, moral righteousness, legal formalism, national security, state legitimacy, and judicial authority ideologies to construct the decisions of the court as legal and just and condemn the actions of Kanu, IPOB, and their allies. This study concludes that the judgment’s representation of social actors reflects and reproduces broader power dynamics and ideological contestation in Nigeria’s legal and political landscapes and CDA scholarship.