An Appraisal Of Selected NCDC’s Unsolicited Sms On Covid-19

The present study is an analysis of attitude signification in selected SMS discourses on COVID19 by the NCDC, with the aim of revealing how language resources are deployed for the construal of attitudes and stances. The study adopted a participant-observation method of data collection. Data were collected from the mobile phones of research participants. Data collection period spanned from July to December, 2020 – the period in which the Federal Government relaxed the protracted nationwide lockdowns in Nigeria. Only coronavirusrelated SMS discourses were purposively collected from research participants. Twenty (20) unsolicited SMS were thus purposively selected for the present study. This study is undergirded by the attitude system of Appraisal theory to unpack government’s stance towards the COVID19 pandemic in Nigeria. From the data analysis, it is discovered that affect resources and judgement resources frequent preponderantly. The text-messages sent by the NCDC are strategically constructed using prominently negative affect resources and negative judgement resources, and surprisingly, there is no evidence of appreciation resources in the data. It is therefore argued that the explicit deployment of negative language resources is intended to foreground a sense of insecurity regarding public health matters during COVID-19, and the need for Nigerians to comply with the recommended non-pharmaceutical interventions against the deadly viral infection. The paper therefore concludes that the tactful deployment of language in the SMSs by the NCDC foregrounds that the Nigerian governments seek continuing cooperation and sustained solidarity, believing that, with such ‘attitude’, the current difficulties posed by the ravaging pandemic can be overcome.