FRAMING NIGERIA IN AFCFTA: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA NARRATIVES BEFORE AND AFTER IMPLEMENTATION AND THEIR REFLECTION OF GLOBAL POWER DYNAMICS.

This dissertation investigates how international media have framed Nigeria’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement from 2018 to 2024, unpacking the narratives that shape global perceptions of African economic agency. While AfCFTA represents the continent’s most ambitious step toward regional integration, Nigeria’s pivotal yet complex role has been narrated through a range of frames that both empower and constrain its image. Existing literature on African trade and development often focuses on institutional or policy analyses, but limited attention has been paid to the symbolic power of media discourse in mediating Africa’s global economic identity. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the study first conducts a quantitative framing analysis of 40 purposively selected articles across four leading international outlets- Reuters, Financial Times, The Africa Report, and Mail & Guardian, mapping dominant frames, tone, and temporal patterns. This is followed by a multimodal critical discourse analysis of six key articles, examining how textual and visual elements co-produce meaning through lexical choices, imagery, and ideological cues.