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SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND ITS IMPACT ON PROTEST PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA. A STUDY OF ENDSARS


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Abstract

In recent years, protest activities happened frequently in Nigeria.  These protests have had profound consequences and changed the landscape of Nigerian politics. Therefore, it is important to know who protests and the brain behind these protest.  This paper aims to answer two questions.  First, what kind of people (according to their Socio-Economic Status, SES) is more likely to participate in protest? Second, how does Socio-Economic Status influence protest participation with a special references to #EndSars protest in Nigeria?  The  hypotheses for this study  are  drawn  from  grievance  theories, resources  model  and  cultural  change  theory.  We  hypothesize  that  in  Nigeria EndSars protest,  people  with  higher  Socio-Economic Status tend  to  join  and influences others in the  protest.  The  mechanisms  are  material  condition,  civic  skills,  and  the  value  of  post-materialism. Empirically, taking advantage of the World Values Survey 2010−2012, we use confirmatory factor  analysis  to  construct  an  indicator  of  Socio-Economic Status including  education,  income,  and  class.  Then,  we conduct  structural  equation  modeling  to  test  the  mechanisms  through  which  Socio-Economic Status  exerts  influences. We find that in Nigeria, people with higher Socio-Economic Status are more likely to protest and influences the poor to join in the ENDSARS protest as well. Moreover, civic skills are the most important mechanisms. Material condition also has a positive effect. Although the value of post-materialism can influence protest participation, whether people hold this value is unrelated to their Socio-Economic Status.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

  • Background of the study

Globally, it has been established that major disruptive events such as group protest, civil conflict and politically motivated violence have been widely shown to disrupt economic growth (Bleaney and Nishiyama, 2002).

Political  participation  can  be  classified  into  two types:  conventional  political participation  and  unconventional  political  participation  (Barnes,  Kaase  2009). The former are mostly election-related activities such as voting, making donations, joining in rallies, or contacting representatives or government officials. In a democracy, it is common  for  citizens  to  engage  in  these  activities,  and  some  people  may  do  it  on a  regular  basis.  Unconventional political participation refers to the actions that citizens take to express their disagreement with the authorities. Examples are signing petitions and joining in activities like boycotts, strikes, or demonstrations. Although protesting against the government in a peaceful way is civil right in a democracy, in early years, people seldom take part in this kind of activities. However, the pattern of political participation has changed since 1970s. Scholars found that conventional political participation is no longer common.  This can be illustrated by the decrease in voting turnout and party affiliation (Dalton, Wattenberg 2000; Putnam 2002; Wattenberg 2012).  On the contrary, unconventional political participation takes place frequently (Dalton 2006 Jenkins, Klandermans 2015). This happens not only in advanced industrial countries, but also in developing countries (McAdam, Tarrow, Tilly 2001; Norris 2002).  In other words, protest has become a general political phenomenon in the contemporary world. This trend reveals that for ordinary people, political participation was originally concerned to the activities related to election or campaign. But as time goes by, going to  the  street  enters  into  the  repertoire  of  political  activities.  Consequently, protest behavior becomes a ‘conventional’ political action.  Klandermans (2013) terms this phenomenon as ‘movementization of politics’.  He thinks that the line between conventional and unconventional is getting blurred, and the distinction is probably not meaningful nowadays. Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, the historic eight-day general strike, mass rallies and street protests in Nigeria became the first national protest that brought the Nation to a standstill economically. From Monday January 9 to Monday January 16, 2012, the country was brought to a halt with both public and private businesses locked down to protest the increase in pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) with scores of protesters cut across all age bracket passing nights on major streets across the country demanding for a reversal to the old pump price of PMS (Lakemfa, 2012). In 2017, EndSARS started when Segun Awosanya and other activists on Twitter began to demand that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) be scrapped. A report by Amnesty International (2016), indicted SARS as being responsible for human rights abuse, cruelty, degrading treatment of Nigerians in their custody and other widespread torture. Also, Amnesty International (2020) documented about 82 cases of abuses and extrajudicial killings by SARS. This figure is probably conservative at best. The objective of the campaign was to catalyze mass action against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) set up to respond to armed robberies and violent crime. The campaign, which adopted a mix of online and offline strategies, was popularly known on social media as #EndSARS. Over ten thousand Nigerians signed a petition and submitted it to the National Assembly calling for the unit’s disbandment, citing various abuses against Nigerian youths. Although efforts were made by the National Assembly, the National Human Rights Commission, the Police Chief, and even the Vice President, not much changed. Coupled with this, the Police Act, which was adopted in 1943, leaves broad discretionary powers in the hands of police officers (Ujene; Orji and Obianger, 2018).

  • STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Nigeria’s economy is characterized by declining capacity utilization of major infrastructural facilities, large budget deficit, high level of unemployment and inflation. In addition, it is dependent on a single commodity, which is oil, with weak industrial base, low level of agricultural production and inefficient public utilities in health and social security. Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy by gross domestic products (GDP) and the continent’s most populous nation, saw its commercial and economic capital, Lagos, slowed, disrupted and then shut over a stretch of two weeks due to the activities of EndSars protesters, creating a cloud of uncertainty around its economy with an attendant erosion of confidence surrounding her economic development. No doubt, there were losses of revenues, means of livelihood, properties, and ultimately lives occasioned by activities of EndSars protesters. On the 17th October, 2020, the EndSars protest took a different turn as thugs began to attack peaceful protesters in cities and towns across Nigeria. In the country’s capital, Abuja for instance, on the 17th October, 2020, thugs launched an attack on protesters at Kubwa in the outskirts of the city. Two days earlier in Lagos, thugs had attacked protesters at the Lagos Government House, Alausa. On the 20th October, 2020, things snowballed into something larger, the looting and destruction of public buildings and private businesses, inspired by the looting of Covid-19 palliatives kept in some warehouses across the Nation brought the Nation to a standstill with police stations and other Para military security vehicles destroyed across the Nation (Nkasi, 2020). It is in view of this that this study is embarked on to examine the socio-economic status of protest participant and its impact on the economy.

  • OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The study has one main objective which is sub-divided into general and specific objective. The general objective is to examine the socio-economic status and its impact on protest participation in Nigeria with emphasis on the EndSars protest. But the specific objectives are;

  1. To examine the relationship between socio-economic status and protest participation in Nigeria
  2. To examine the effect of socio-economic status of protestant on democratic consolidation in Nigeria
  • To examine the effect of EndSars protest on Nigeria political consolidation
  1. To proffer suggested solution to the identified problem
    • RESEARCH QUESTION

The following research questions were formulated by the researcher to aid the completion of the study;

  1. Is there any relationship between socio-economic status and protest participation in Nigeria?
  2. Is there any effect of socio-economic status of protestant on democratic consolidation in Nigeria?
  • Does EndSars protest have any effect on Nigeria political consolidation?
    • RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher to aid the completion of the study;

H0: There is no relationship between socio-economic status and protest participation in Nigeria

H1: There is a relationship between socio-economic status and protest participation in Nigeria

H0: EndSars protest does not have any effect on Nigeria political consolidation

H2: EndSars protest does have an effect on Nigeria political consolidation

  • SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the Nigerian populace as the study seek to educate the populace on the benefit of peaceful protest as a tool for democracy growth in Nigeria. The study will also be of great importance to researchers who intend to embark on a study in a similar topic as the study will serve as a reference point to further research. The study will also be of importance to students, teachers, academia researchers, lectures scholars and the general public as the findings of this study will add to the pool of existing literature on the subject matter and also contribute to knowledge.

  • SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers the socio-economic status and its impact on protest participation in Nigeria with emphasis on the EndSars protest. But in the cause of the study, there are some factors that limit the scope of the study;

  1. a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study
  2. b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
  3. c) Individual privacy: Limited Access to the selected participant makes it difficult to get all the necessary and required information concerning the activities.

1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Socio-economic status

Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic and social position in relation to others

Protest

A statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something

EndSars

EndSars is a decentralized social movement, and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria. The slogan calls for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)

Protest participation

Political participation includes a broad range of activities through which people develop and express their opinions on the world and how it is governed, and try to take part in and shape the decisions that affect their lives

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Author: SPROJECT NG