Interrogating memes as platforms for critical political and socio-economic discourse in Nigeria’s digital sphere: A case study of the Meerkat’s meme trend

This study interrogates the agency of memes as tools for critical discourse on Nigeria’s socio-economic and political realities, using the Meerkat meme trend as a case study. Situated within the context of Nigeria’s burgeoning digital sphere and its discursive potentials, the study underscores the utilization of the Meerkat meme trend to anchor critical conversations around the country’s sociopolitical and economic realities. Using a mixed-method approach comprising digital ethnography and semiotic analysis, the study analysed 70 memes that engage critically with Nigeria’s socio-economic and political realities. These were purposively selected from a pool of 170 memes harvested on social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram and WhatsApp on the trend between June and August 2025. The analysis highlights the semiotic elements deployed in the memes to represent salient issues such as bad governance, electoral malpractices, economic hardship and bribery and corruption. Drawing on the authors’ contextual knowledge, the study demonstrates how the issues depicted in the memes resonate with Nigeria’s contemporary challenges and how digital platforms provide discursive spaces that sustain and amplify these conversations. In doing so, it foregrounds the agency of the memes–digital media nexus in facilitating critical engagement with Nigeria’s sociopolitical and economic conditions. Theoretical and practical implications are highlighted accordingly.