Editor’s note: MWI research fellow Tammy Palacios hosted a Nigerian Civil Society Working at the New Lines Institute, where she is a senior analyst, to develop recommendations for policymakers to help combat extremism and support peacebuilding across Nigeria. This external research article describes the issues their group tackled, including early signs of vulnerability to extremist ideologies, and offers suggestions for building dialogue between local and national governments and staying engaged with Nigerian youth.
Nigeria, warmly referred to as “Big Brother” by many people across Africa, teeters on the edge of chaos. Discontent among Nigerians has reached a boiling point, and their voices of frustration are growing louder. The protests that took place across the country from August 1–10 were a cry for help, a call to action, and a demand for change.
Those protests, organized under the hashtag #EndBadGovernance, have largely subsided, but unrest continues to smolder in a handful of states with frangible stability and an especially aggrieved citizenry who have a distrust of security and governing entities. Their continued dissatisfaction may well reemerge as further protests or manifest more broadly in unrest and conflict that could turn violent. However, it is more likely that the protest movement will slowly dissipate and that the government response will not fully address their concerns.
Read the full article at newlinesinstitute.org.
Tammy Palacios is a senior analyst leading the Priority Sustainable Counterterrorism initiative at the New Lines Institute and 2023–2024 research fellow with the Modern War Institute at West Point. Palacios previously served as program head for the Nonstate Actors program at the institute, where she worked in the field of violent and nonviolent nonstate actors.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.