Millennial activism within Nigerian Twitterscape: From mobilization to social action of #ENDSARS protest

Abstract

This article demonstrates how Nigerian youths responded to the tragic shooting of a Nigerian by agents of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), in Delta State, Nigeria. We examined the activities that characterized the #ENDSARS protests on social media and subsequent physical protests that represent youths' ability to plan, organize, execute, and stimulate the Nigerian Government to act. The methodology adopted consists of a qualitative artifact and textual analysis of tweets between September 11 and October 11, 2020. The findings revealed the various strategies Nigerian Youths used to shape the discussion on police brutality and influence the Government's decision to abolish the SARS Unit of the Nigeria Police Force.

Keywords

• Social media
• Millennial activism
• Police brutality
• #EndSARS
• Nigerian twitterscape