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Paper short abstract

This paper evaluates youth-led protests using a symbolic–substantive outcomes framework. Analysing #OccupyNigeria and #EndSARS, it shows that protests yield mainly symbolic and limited substantive change, while strengthening democratic resilience and civic engagement in sub-Saharan Africa.

Paper long abstract

Over the past two decades, scholarship on youth political participation in sub-Saharan Africa has highlighted two dominant trends: growing youth disillusionment driven by persistent developmental failures, and the rise of youth-led protests, often critiqued as evidence of electoral apathy. Yet, in contexts characterised by weak electoral institutions and limited prospects for free and fair elections, this interpretation underestimates the political significance of protests.

This paper re-examines youth-led protests as consequential modes of political participation and potential frontiers of democratic resilience. It introduces a conceptual framework that distinguishes between symbolic and substantive protest outcomes. Symbolic outcomes refer to short-term governmental responses, including public declarations and temporary policy measures, while substantive outcomes capture long-term, systemic, and structural changes that address the underlying drivers of protest mobilisation.

The framework is applied to two youth-led protests in Nigeria: #OccupyNigeria (2012) and #EndSARS (2020). While these protests articulated immediate demands around petroleum subsidy policies and police accountability, respectively, they were underpinned by broader calls for societal transformation, particularly an end to corruption, impunity, and poor governance. The paper analyses protest demands, state responses, the extent and durability of policy commitments, and their evolution over time.

The findings suggest that although both protests yielded limited substantive change, they played a critical role in reshaping political discourse, expanding civic space, and contesting state authority. The paper concludes that youth-led protests should therefore be understood as integral components of contemporary democratic practice and resilience in sub-Saharan Africa.