Young People in Nigeria Are Taking on Political Corruption and Police Brutality

In conclusion, Oduala says, “the dividends of the #EndSARS protests can be seen in the Obidient movement. If young Nigerians can do it with #EndSARS, why can’t they with politics? That is the link between the two movements.” 

The results of the elections were announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the early hours of Wednesday morning, about four days after the elections were conducted. Nigerians woke to the news that Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling party was their president-elect. 

That same morning this reporter observed an increase in the presence of security operatives and checkpoints in Abuja, as though authorities were waiting to swiftly clamp down on any agitation. Instead, there was mostly silence. In the city’s streets, though, passersby could be heard uttering angry hisses followed by “Na wa o,” a Nigerian exclamation meaning “This is serious/terrible,” which can be used to express disbelief, frustration, or absurdity.

Young Obidients greeted the electoral results with mixed feelings: On one hand, they were disappointed by the prospect of another administration of the ruling party, with some residents considering relocation to avoid a continued cycle of economic decline and security threats; on the other hand, the Labor Party garnered support from huge numbers of Nigerians who voted for “mama, papa, pikin” — the Labor Party emblem features a mother, father, and child on it — for presidential and legislative House positions across the board. 

Labor Party candidates gained power in longtime strongholds of the ruling and opposition parties, winning House of Representative seats in places like Lagos and in the Senate in places like Abuja. These victories were nothing short of a miracle for Obidients, who, at the start of the movement, had been dismissed as “four people tweeting from a room.” 

Says Perpetual, “Look at the power of ‘four people tweeting’ on a platform that had been banned two years ago by the current administration. Look at what we’ve been able to achieve.” 

She, like a lot of other Obidients, believe the elections were rigged in favor of the ruling party and against Obi. “We are in court to recover our mandate, and we will be successful,” Perpetual says of the petition to reschedule the elections, which is now being considered by the country’s Presidential Elections Tribunal.

Deigha, the law student, does not have as much faith in the courts as Perpetual does. Deigha is “hoping for success,” she says, but “I have never really seen, especially in this country, that the presidential election has been [overturned].”

“There hasn’t been a post-independence Nigerian election that has not had violence and rigging in the mix,” says Akinyemi. “There were a lot of first-time voters at the 2023 polls who would’ve stayed away but hoped things would be different. It was the hope that hurt the most. Technology — which they thought wasn’t as fallible as man’s desire and greed — failed when it mattered.”

The results of the election may have dashed the Obidients’ hope some, but the movement has created a paradigm shift in the Nigerian political space. Already, there are about 40 elected Labor Party members in the National Assembly and one elected governor, where previously there had been none.

Young Nigerians have been shot at and killed in the demand for their rights. They have been intimidated, bullied, and disenfranchised in trying to exercise their civic rights. But they are still standing up for what they believe in. Oduala insists that their courage and resilience be applauded.

The Obidient movement, Oduala says further, is hope sustained: “We witnessed a generational disruption, and for the first time in Nigeria’s political history, Nigerian politicians were no longer confident of their seats. That arrogance and ego — that they were entitled to our public offices — disappeared.”

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