Humorous memes on Nigeria’s economic downturn as “Èmi ló kàn’s,” what they will eat? <i>cassava, eee! agbado, eee! corn and … manifests</i>

Abstract Recently, there has been an unprecedented high cost of living, widespread frustration, and discontent among Nigerians who attribute their experiences to the high-handed leadership style of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), popularly called Èmi ló kàn. To mitigate the arduous experiences and emotional stress caused by PBAT’s impromptu stringent policies and self-imposed exchange rate brouhaha, individuals seek out social media platforms with user-generated humorous memes (HMs). This study, cast in the interpersonal theory of multimodality, multimodality, and uses and gratification theory, investigates how HMs are deployed as resources to evaluate themes that project indices of economic downturn in Nigeria. The data for the study comprises eighteen (18) purposively selected online memes analyzed by deploying theoretical concepts that are symbolic, interactional, analytic, reactional, etc., to interpret the memes both in isolation and as ensembles. Eleven thematic classes of memes that project and accentuate current harsh economic realities were categorized. The study posits that memes evoke distinct reactions, which positively signal intersubjective engagements on the economic downturn, and do not only serve for humor but also to mitigate shared experiences, propagate public awareness, castigate and satirize government’s ineptitude, help users to make important lifestyle changes, and find moments of levity in adversity.