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NAIROBI/LAGOS — Governments in African countries including Nigeria and Uganda are facing growing discontent, with planned protests by youthful demonstrators calling attention to long-standing issues including high unemployment, corruption and economic stagnation.
It comes against the backdrop of massive youth-led protests in Kenya over the past month in opposition to proposed tax hikes and corruption.
In Nigeria, planned nationwide protests against corruption and economic hardship are set to begin on Aug. 1. While asserting that Nigerians had the right to peacefully demonstrate, the military on July 25 promised to intervene to “prevent any violence.” The recent relaunching of a $70 million youth investment fund and the announcement of vacancies in the state-owned oil firm NNPC have been seen as moves to forestall the demonstrations. President Bola Tinubu also met various local leaders and clerics ahead of the planned protests.
Uganda witnessed a heavy police crackdown last week as youth-led campaigners attempted to march to the country’s parliament to protest alleged corruption in government. Over 100 people were arrested even as President Yoweri Museveni claimed the protests were financed by foreign entities.
“It’s a wake up call” to African governments, Dr. Xavier Ichani, an international relations researcher at Kenyatta University, in Nairobi, told Semafor Africa. “Governments need to move with speed and address the grievances of the people,” he said, adding that a failure to do so will see the masses “rise up.”
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With a median age of 19, Africa is home to the world’s youngest population. More than 400 million people on the continent are aged between 15 and 35. A limited number of employment opportunities, coupled with questionable governance and a rising cost of living, has been central to the frustration of youth across the continent.
Social media has helped African youths in different countries to make connections between their challenges. Young Ugandans and Nigerians, for instance, have used X to mobilize and discuss issues in much the same way that Kenyans coalesced on the platform before taking to the streets. In some instances, Kenyans have used social media to share experiences and ideas on how to stage the most effective protests.
“This is also a new era of Pan-Africanism because the struggles of African youth are the same,” 28-year old Collins Waiguru, who has been attending protests in Kenya, told Semafor Africa. “A lot of these countries have corrupt political classes and yet the people are poor, with no jobs.”
Step Back
In Kenya, mostly Gen Z and millennial protesters forced the government to drop proposed tax hikes contained in the unpopular Finance Bill 2024 in July, and continue to demand the resignation of President William Ruto. Sixty people have been killed over the course of the protests in Kenya, according to the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). Protesters’ demands include the prosecution of police officers involved in extrajudicial killings.
President Ruto dismissed nearly his entire cabinet at the height of the protests and placed several senior opposition leaders in key positions in his new cabinet — ostensibly providing greater political stability for his administration. He also reappointed several cabinet secretaries he had earlier dismissed, fueling protesters’ anger.
Kenyatta University’s Ichani argued that the youth protests were unlikely to immediately trigger regime change in African countries. But he said they could fundamentally alter voting patterns in future elections and force concessions from governments, just as they did in Kenya.
The View From Lagos
Joachim MacEbong, a governance and policy analyst based in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, emphasized that Africa’s youth had shared frustrations, from “South Africa to Morocco.” He said governments needed to effect policies to accelerate job creation, and reduce corruption. MacEbong described the level of corruption as unsustainable in many “barely growing” African economies.
“The immediate causes of the protests in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and elsewhere are different, but the broad drivers are the same,” he observed. “So when Nigerian youths see their counterparts in Kenya and Uganda rise in protest, they find that there is no shortage of things to protest about at home.”