Pragmatic Presupposition of Newspaper Headlines on Children's Involvement in Terrorism in Nigeria

Terrorism discourse in Nigeria, with its different manifestations, nomenclatures, and dynamics, has continued to attract investigations, particularly on how to curb the act, but the involvement of Nigerian children as child soldiers in the phenomenon, which could unveil how and to what extent they are available to be engaged by terrorist groups, has hitherto received less scholarly attention. This paper addresses this gap by examining the pragmatics of media portrayals of child soldiers in terrorism in Nigeria. The data, consisting of 105 headlines from five Nigerian newspapers between 2014 and 2021, was analysed using the pragmatic presuppositions and pragmatic act theory. Findings reveal predominantly three presupposition triggers, namely recruitment, usability, and donation as signposts to child soldiers in Nigeria, manifesting existential and lexical presuppositions. The triggers index context of terror with the ostensible use of words characterising activities such as bombing, killing, and attacking innocent Nigerians, and inferencing how children are deployed by different terrorist groups in the country. With the presupposed component of intentionality, the headlines not only inform, alert, indict, and urge, but also assert the indisputable involvement of children in terrorist acts. From the findings, it can be inferred as a pragmatic orientation that media reportage presupposes the vulnerability of Nigerian children in the hands of terrorists.