Upcoming Event

Join us for the Brownbag Seminar entitled “Bullets, Batons and Silence: Analyzing The State Response to the 2024 End Bad Governance Protests in Nigeria” by Dr.Damilola Taiye Agbalajobi, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Obafemi Awolowo University.

Abstract

This study analyses the Nigerian government’s response to the 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests, a youth-led movement triggered by worsening economic conditions, fuel subsidy removal, and systemic governance failures. Using political opportunity theory, it examines how structural features of Nigeria’s political landscape shaped both the protests’ emergence and state reactions. Primary data were sourced from semi-structured interviews with participants, triangulated with human‑rights reports, official statements, and digital media archives. Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke) identified five themes: structural neglect; social media as a double-edged tool; expanding tactics of state repression; disinformation as a delegitimising strategy; and civic renewal amid fear and fragmentation. Findings show mobilization was rooted in long-standing socio-economic marginalization and catalysed by shared deprivation. The movement’s multilingual outreach—English, Pidgin, Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo—broadened resonance across regions. While digital platforms enabled coordination and visibility, they also exposed activists to surveillance and targeted repression. The state deployed a mix of physical force, intimidation, online censorship, and narrative manipulation to suppress dissent. Despite repression, the protests revitalised civic consciousness and demonstrated youth resilience. The study concludes by situating these dynamics within global patterns of protest repression and calls for stronger protections for civil liberties in fragile democracies like Nigeria.

Keywords: EndBadGovernance; EndSARS; protest; social media; repression; civic resilience.

About the Speaker:

Damilola Taiye Agbalajobi is a political scientist and gender specialist whose research spans gender and governance, women in politics and peacebuilding, gender and corruption, gendered impacts of climate change, gender-based violence, and the role of violence in elections. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, including World Development, and in edited volumes on women, power, and development.
Since 2008 she has received multiple travel grants to present at international conferences and has secured competitive research funding, notably serving as principal investigator on an NRF/TETFund project on the political inclusion of persons with disabilities in Nigeria. She currently serves as Political Settlement Researcher with the African Cities Research Consortium (Lagos team), and she just completed a fellowship as a Senior Research Fellow at the Global Forum on Democracy and Development — Bogota Hub.
Damilola holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Lagos and is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‑Ife, Nigeria. Her teaching and mentorship complement a sustained record of policy-relevant research and engagement across academic, civic, and international development spaces.