Face-Saving Strategies and Context Collapse in Nigerian Socio-Political Social Media Discourse

Public discourse in Nigeria’s digital sphere has increasingly become a site of political contestation and identity struggle. As social media users engage in critique of governance, they often confront the dual challenge of maintaining self-presentation and managing exposure to multiple, overlapping audiences. This study examine how Nigerian social media users deploy face-saving strategies amid context collapse in online political discourse. Drawing on Brown and Levinson’s theory of face and Faireclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis framework, it analyses Twitter (X) and Instagram posts under the hashtags #TinubuMustGo and #RevolutionNow. Findings reveal that users employ humour, ambiguity, and anonymity to mitigate face threats and negotiate public critique within surveillance-prone environments. These strategies reveal how Nigerian digital citizens creatively navigate censorship, preserve social image, and construct collective resistance within the digital public sphere.