What #EndSARS left behind in Nigeria: A generation caught between protest, politics, and departure

In October 2020, Nigerian youth-led protests against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad grew into a broader outcry over unemployment, insecurity and exclusion from governance, culminating in the Lekki Shooting that became a defining, traumatic memory for many participants.

Subsequent academic studies, including a 2025 survey of 400 respondents by political scientist Solomon Temitope Omotayo and 2026 research on the later Obidient movement, found the protests boosted political engagement and voting intentions for many young people, even though that mobilization did not change the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

Other researchers documented elevated psychological distress, depression, anxiety and PTSD among protesters, alongside a documented trust deficit in government accountability and police conduct, coinciding with the rise of Japa, the growing trend of young Nigerians emigrating.

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