Renaming for Power: A Content Analysis of News Reportage on Tinubu’s Infrastructural Legacies

This paper investigates the symbolic politics behind the renaming of public infrastructure during President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, with a focus on how Nigerian media frame these acts of political memorialization. Anchored in Agenda-Setting Theory, the study conducts a content analysis of 12 news articles published between 2024 and 2025 across four prominent Nigerian news platforms; Daily Trust, Punch, This Day, and Daily Post. The selected reportage covers the renaming of major national landmarks, including the International Conference Centre in Abuja, the Minna Airport, and the inauguration of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks. By quantitatively examining word frequency through content analysis, the study explores how news media either reinforce or contest the symbolic capital embedded in infrastructural renaming.The findings suggest that the media act not only as channels of information but as active players in legitimizing or challenging presidential legacy-building. Varying coverage styles; ranging from celebratory framing to subtle critique, reveal underlying editorial ideologies and political alignments. This paper argues that infrastructural renaming serves as a discursive strategy of power inscription, while media reportage functions as a key arena for shaping national memory and contesting historical narrative ownership. Ultimately, the paper contributes to discussions on media framing, postcolonial leadership symbolism, and the instrumentalization of public memory in Nigerian democracy.