Join us for the Brownbag Seminar entitled ”听Democracy as Disempowerment: Insurgent Publics and the Political Economy of Post-1999 Nigeria” by听Professor Adelaja Odutola Odukoya听,听 Department of Political Science听University of Lagos, 听Nigeria

Abstract

The return of Nigeria from military authoritarianism to political democracy鈥攄istinct from economic democracy鈥攐n 29 May 1999 was greeted with widespread national and international support. This support was anchored on the assumption that democracy necessarily translates into good governance, improved material conditions, and the empowerment of the citizenry. Over more than two decades of uninterrupted civil rule, this philosophical assumption has hardened into a dangerous delusion. The existential conditions of Nigerians are today worse than they were in 1999, while the country has continued to regress deeper into an illiberal democratic order. This paper argues that this outcome is not accidental but is rooted in the unresolved tension between the political and economic foundations of democracy in Nigeria. While formal political rights and electoral competition have expanded, neoliberal restructuring鈥攅ntrenched through the convergence of domestic political elites and transnational capital鈥攈as produced economic authoritarianism, mass dispossession, and systematic disempowerment. Democracy, in this context, has functioned less as an instrument of popular empowerment than as a legitimating framework for elite accumulation and state capture. Given Nigeria鈥檚 long history of resilience and resistance, the paper notes that Nigerians have not been passive in the face of democracy鈥檚 unrealised expectations. However, unlike the organised civil society and labour movements that were at the forefront of the struggles against military rule in the 1980s and 1990s, the contradictions generated by the post-1999 democratic order have produced what this paper conceptualises as insurgent publics. These insurgent publics, despite their deep misgivings about democracy and their desire for transformative change, are characterised by weak organisation, multiple and dispersed centres of action, incoherent or absent ideological orientation, and largely episodic interventions. Against this background, the paper contends that the struggle for popular empowerment in Nigeria has, in a fundamental sense, yet to begin. The insurgent publics remain too weak to constitute an effective counter-force against a predatory domestic political elite that has successfully deployed the mantra of democracy for state capture, and in alliance with transnational capital have institutionalised neoliberalism as a mechanism of economic authoritarianism and disempowerment. The paper also notes that the ideological puritanism and sectarianism of the Nigerian Left have further undermined this struggle. Suggestions are advanced towards a viable pathway for popular empowerment in Nigeria.

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

杏吧原创 the Speaker:

Professor Adelaja Odutola Odukoya, fspsp.

Adelaja Odutola Odukoya, PhD.; a scholar-activist, is a Professor of Comparative Political Economy at the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos, Nigeria. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University and also doubles as the Chairman of the Joint Board of Postgraduate Studies at the Administrative Staff College, Topo, Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria. A fellow of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (FSPSP), his research interest is oriented towards the intersection between the state, class power and accumulation as a basis of understanding the crisis and contradictions of peripheral capitalist development in Africa. He also works on concerns dealing with indigenous knowledge, development, democratization and governance crises in Africa among other areas. He is widely published with over fifty publications within and outside Nigeria in influential outlets.

Join us for the Brownbag Seminar entitled “A Priori Understandings of Presidential Term Limits: Beyond Dogma, Experimenting With Term Limits in Africa” by听Dr. Kagiso 鈥淭K鈥� Pooe,听听Asst. Professor of Future Governance (Scenarios), The African School of Governance (Kigali).

Abstract

In 2012, Time magazine proclaimed that the world was entering an 鈥楢frica Rising鈥� moment, suggesting the continent鈥檚 one billion citizens might finally shake off the legacies of colonial and post-liberation struggles. However, twelve years on, the African Development Bank Group鈥檚 2024 report laments that Africa鈥檚 Gross Domestic Product growth has dropped to 3.1 percent from 4.1 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, the International Labour Organization reports that 72 million African youths are not in education, employment, or training. Two of Africa鈥檚 leading economies, South Africa and Nigeria, continue to suffer from systemic governance failures, as detailed in reports such as South Africa鈥檚 Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture and Nigeria鈥檚 investigations into the impact of governance policy on socioeconomic development.
These persistent challenges and, in some instances, the outright failure of governments and political actors to address public policy issues are now spurring experimentation with alternative governance models. In some cases, former liberation movements like the African National Congress, having lost outright political power, are turning to coalition governments. Meanwhile, states such as Burkina Faso, Egypt, and Zimbabwe have employed non-democratic means to usher in new or previously marginalised political elites.
This article contends that these non-traditional attempts to address complex policy failures have given rise to a nuanced site of academic and political struggle: presidential term limits. It argues that the success of states like Singapore and China, where head-of-state term limits have been flexible or absent, rightly challenges an uncritically accepted constitutional orthodoxy. While the traditional insistence on fixed term limits is constitutionally familiar, its necessity has never been scientifically proven. By examining ten African states, this article will assert that, given
the nature and complexity of contemporary public policy problems, experimentation with term-limit models should be encouraged.
杏吧原创 the Speaker:

Dr. TK Pooe is an assistant professor at ASG, where he teaches Anticipatory governance, management and delivery. He is a scholar and policy expert with an adjunct role at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Governance in South Africa. He teaches and supervises in areas such as reforming state-owned entities (SOEs), institutional strengthening, development planning, and scenario-based governance. With a public policy career spanning academia and government, TK has held teaching and leadership roles at North-West University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Before academia, he worked in development planning and oversight at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and Sedibeng District Municipality. He has consulted widely, including for the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, focusing on illicit financial flows in mining. As of 2022, he leads the WSG SoE鈥揈nergy Transition Consortium, providing strategic guidance on climate policy, carbon markets, and institutional post-carbon readiness.

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听Dr.Damilola Taiye Agbalajobi,听Professor of Political Science,听Department of Political Science,听Obafemi Awolowo University.

Abstract

This study analyses the Nigerian government鈥檚 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鈥檚 political landscape shaped both the protests鈥� emergence and state reactions. Primary data were sourced from semi-structured interviews with participants, triangulated with human鈥憆ights 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鈥檚 multilingual outreach鈥擡nglish, Pidgin, Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo鈥攂roadened 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.

杏吧原创 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 鈥� 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鈥慖fe, Nigeria. Her teaching and mentorship complement a sustained record of policy-relevant research and engagement across academic, civic, and international development spaces.