Nigeria is Africa’s powerhouse
The continent’s largest economy...
...its most populous country...
...with a cultural influence on the rest of the world
What happens in Nigeria has significant effects across its borders
It’s also Africa’s largest democracy...
...but that democracy is at risk
The stakes cannot be higher to reverse the trend of democratic deterioration
And if Africa’s most influential democracy stumbles...
...the results could be grim for the entire continent
But Nigeria has youth on its side
Demography will be the game-changer
In Nigeria and across Africa, young people are demanding more of their governments
So what can the politics of Nigeria’s younger generation...
...tell us about the state of democracy on the continent...
...and where it might be headed?
It’s Friday morning and Mustapha is getting ready for school
He lives in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria
Good morning everyone
For most of Mustapha’s 14 years...
...this area has been a hotbed of violence
Today, life in this corner of Maiduguri seems calm
But while Mustapha’s school might look ordinary, appearances can be deceiving
Every one of the 2,000 pupils at this school...
...has been directly affected by terrorism
Like many of his friends, Mustapha was orphaned...
...by the jihadist group Boko Haram
He was nine years old
I will never forget that day that I lost my parents
Two strangers came into our house
We heard gunshots
They had killed both of my parents
Boko Haram isn’t the only threat to Nigeria’s security
Large parts of the country have become practically lawless
Kidnapping now affects everyone...
...from wealthy city-dwellers to rural school children
As the government struggles to contain not just kidnappers...
...but bandits, insurgents and separatists...
...it’s little wonder that many Nigerians are losing faith in their politicians
If a government is no longer able to provide security...
...it’s beginning to lose
The people who should protect...
...democracy are no longer interested in democracy...
...if it cannot secure their lives and property
When two nearby countries, Mali and Burkina Faso...
...failed to deal with insurgents, they suffered military coups
Few expect anything similar to happen in Nigeria...
...but the causes of its chronic instability run deep
Kidnapping is a billion-naira industry in Nigeria
It is driven by, in many ways...
...the economic situation of most young people...
...and the lack of opportunities and lack of jobs
Youth unemployment has reached 19.6%...
...and more than 30% of the population live on less than $1.90 per day
Nigeria has oil but it has not brought prosperity
Instead it fuels corruption
Many politicians seek office to get rich and will do almost anything to win...
...from stirring up ethnic tension to handing out cash on election day
The buying and selling of votes is quite a common feature of Nigeria’s politics
If you think about the short-term gain...
...a person is receiving in one transaction selling their votes...
...compared to, say, earning that kind of money over the course of a month...
...the incentives are really, really strong for an individual to sell their vote
It’s estimated that some 18% of residents of Nigeria’s...
...north-east were offered money or a gift for their vote in 2019
Countrywide, that figure rose to 21%
Vote markets are quite common in a number of African democracies...
...but also in Latin America and across Asia
Vote-selling corrodes democracy...
...very much from the inside, because at the very inception of this relationship...
...between citizens and the state, you have corruption at the heart of it
I’m Jonathan Rosenthal, the Africa editor at The Economist
If you’d like to read more of our Africa coverage...
...why not take out a subscription to The Economist?
You’ll receive daily and weekly updates on global affairs...
...and you can read us online...
...and in the app, as well as get our audio edition
For the very best offers click on the link below
And now back to the film
Nigeria’s current president, Muhammadu Buhari, is 80 years old...
...and he’s running a country with an average age of 18
The failure of older leaders to curb corruption...
...has led to simmering frustrations among young voters
But the erosion of democracy has sparked a fight-back from the country’s youth...
...and leading the charge is Nigeria’s thriving startup scene
When the shooting of a young man...
...by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS...
...sparked widespread protests...
...it was Nigeria’s startup leaders who stepped up to help the campaign
Being private-sector and being removed from kind of the patronage systems...
...that control our politics...
...Nigeria’s tech startups have been central to fuelling a lot of the political activism...
...we’ve seen in Nigeria
The analysis for this space company, the goal here...
...is to understand how space companies are performing
Temidayo Oniosun is MD of Space in Africa...
...a startup that consults with the African space industry...
...and governments across the continent
I think the EndSARS protest influenced a lot of things
But we’re seeing that we cannot trust people in government...
...to make smart decisions for us
I think a lot of startups played key roles during the EndSARS protest
Some donated money
We also had some, you know, people working in certain startups, actually...
...getting involved in some of the organisations that were providing support for...
...people that were physically protesting
The protests ended suddenly when soldiers opened fire...
...on demonstrators at Lekki tollgate
SARS was disbanded...
...but many protesters were still furious and police violence remains incredibly high
The protests had shown however...
...that young Nigerians would continue to demand to be heard
And in the run-up to the 2023 general election...
...there has been a surge of young people registering to vote
The country’s electoral commission registered nearly 10m new voters...
...over three-quarters of them were under 35 years old
They’re reaching a critical mass...
...where they can translate those numbers into influence
And some have gone further
Aisha Nyako is 31 years old. She was born and raised in Maiduguri
Last year she joined the Young Progressives...
...a grassroots party launched specifically to give a voice to young Nigerians
Now she is running to be Maiduguri’s Council Representative...
...at the State House of Assembly
Today Aisha is meeting potential voters at a camp for internally displaced people...
...where many struggle to find work
Aisha understands their frustrations
Trying to make ends meet as a single mother led to her own political awakening
Aisha is part of a growing trend in Nigerian politics
Young voters are demanding candidates who will serve those historically ignored...
...by the political process
Messages like this are hitting home
Young people now recognise that they are a formidable lot...
...they could actually make the change that is needed...
...to change any of the dominant party...
...or vote in any candidate of their choice
In Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, students and first-time voters helped...
...to fire up the campaign of this man
At 61 Peter Obi might seem an unlikely leader for the young...
...but his promises to fight corruption and move beyond ethnic politics...
...have struck a chord with the younger generation
But in a political system where the two main parties have deep pockets...
...decades of experience and few scruples, Obi faces an uphill struggle to win
It’s not just in Nigeria...
...where young people are trying to hold governments to account
Africa has some of the longest-serving leaders in the world...
...several of whom have been in power longer than most of their people have been alive
Many young Africans think their rulers are out of touch and self-serving
In Uganda have recently demanded an end to corruption
They’re not the only ones
Togo went for almost one year. Young people actually held protests...
...against the Gnassingbé regime
Protesters in Ghana have called on their president to step down...
...over mismanagement of the country’s economic crisis
There are so many social movements spearheaded...
...by young people in west Africa and Africa as a whole...
...holding government to account
Back in Maiduguri, activists like Aisha...
...are hoping to channel young people’s political awakening into change at the ballot box
Demography may be on Africa’s side...
...but there’s no guarantee the demands of the young will be satisfied
Enthusiasm could well give way to disillusion...
Young Africans literally cannot afford to give up
There are significant barriers to change in Nigeria
The economic hardship that Nigerians are going through...
...in the last six years
Government revenues have been down
Insecurity has become increasingly widespread
But on the flip side, there seems to be a sense of urgency...
...expediency that these issues need to be addressed now
There is no opportunity for delaying on any of these challenges
Thank you for watching
If you’d like to get more of our Africa coverage...
...click on the link below
And don’t forget to subscribe