Africa’s activist generation deserves US support

It’s early afternoon on Oct. 20, 2020. Thousands of young Nigerians are camped at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, Nigeria, a commuter choke point in the bustling commercial capital of Africa’s most populous nation. The protesters have mobilized under the hashtag #EndSARS; a mass action campaign seeking to dismantle the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

What started two weeks earlier as a demonstration against police brutality was now something much more. As Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains, there had been “End SARS” protests since 2016, but October 2020 was different. 

This movement had morphed into a reckoning over the failure of Nigeria’s democratic institutions to stand stronger than its corrupt and unaccountable politicians. It was about an empowered youth who had found their voice, and about the hopes for a new Nigeria, one able to realize its considerable productive, entrepreneurial and artistic potential.

The mood at the toll gate was celebratory as dusk approached. Tens of thousands crowded together waving Nigerian flags, singing, reveling in a moment when they felt in control of their destiny.

And then they were not.

Uniformed forces were deployed, government officials cut the security cameras, turned-off the street lights, and the shooting began. 

When it was over, more than 12 people were dead, and dozens injured. After the carnage, the Feminist Coalition, a leader of the protest, called for a tactical retreat, urging Nigerian youth to observe government curfews. Meanwhile, the Lagos state governor, who imposed the 4 p.m. lock-down, labeled the protestors “miscreants.”

The #EndSARS movement is part of the rise of an activist generation in Africa, the most important political trend on the continent over the last two decades. The demand for change echoes throughout Africa. It is being felt in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and beyond.

Unlike their parents before them, these young people are empowered through education and technologies, with social media platforms connecting them with like-minded people across the globe. They reject a governing status quo that squanders their national resources and corrupts politics. They are nationalistic and proudly African. And let’s remember that Africa is set to quadruple its population by the end of the century to 4.4 billion people, and 60 percent of them will be youths.

They are not miscreants.

They are democracy’s keepers.

History will judge them well, but their path ahead will not be easy.

Last week, former Nigerian Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, released findings from #FixPolitics; an organization that seeks to foster an engaged electorate and mobilize a compelling public campaign for constitutional, political and electoral reforms in Nigeria and Africa. Ezekwesili said the current environment is dominated by a political class that frequently acts without fairness or adherence to the rule of law, “causing political, economic and social stagnation for the nation and people.”

However, she noted that the research shows that citizens can drive systemic change and compel the kind of constitutional and electoral reform required to achieve good governance.

The #FixPolitics data is consistent with the findings from Afrobarometer, which highlights the importance to democratic institutions of citizens who are not only deeply committed to democracy, but who adopt a critical perspective toward their country’s current leaders and government.

Taken together, the results point to the need to address voter disenfranchisement, well before elections, at the points of political entry, including the selection of candidates, the election laws, and the make-up of the electoral bodies.

On Oct. 21, the day after the killings at Lekki, then-presidential aspirant Joe Biden issued a statement in solidarity with the #EndSARS protesters asserting that the United States must stand with Nigerians who are peacefully demonstrating for police reform and seeking an end to corruption.

It’s unusual for a presidential candidate to weigh in on a foreign policy matter, but in this case, not surprising given the campaign’s policy on the African Diaspora, which sees democracy and governance as foundational principles of U.S.-Africa engagement.

Candidate Biden’s intervention is a good start, but it’s just a start.

As a congressional staffer who follows Africa told me, “we are paralyzed by an outdated diplomatic playbook. There is a wave of democracy rolling across Africa, inspired by American values, and we are not riding it — We’re not even enabling it.”

As the Biden administration formulates its policy for Africa, it ought to hold-tight to the fact that the Democratic ticket was propelled to a significant extent by #BlackLivesMatter supporters, young and hopeful voters who reject the status quo of inequities in society.

Yes, we must work on issues of national security, public health, the COVID-19 debt burden, bilateral trade and investment, global warming, and the predatory practices of competitor nations like Russia and China. But let’s not overlook the obvious: that our greatest export to the world (despite our many imperfections) remains our democratic system of governance.

It is my hope that the Biden administration will make a greater investment in democracy promotion, working with the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy, whose collective funding has been under attack the past several years.

Furthermore, I hope that a new playbook can be shaped with civil society and other changemakers, including the women and youth movements, to help create the enabling environments for political inclusion, and challenging laws that disenfranchise voters and repress media freedoms.

The days of accepting election outcomes rigged by ruling elites must be over. Africans have made their voices heard.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate president-elect Biden, stating: “Your election is a significant reminder that democracy is the best form of government, and that the most powerful group are not the politicians, but the voters who can decide the fate of candidates for elective office at the polling booth.”

Bingo, Mr. President — That’s exactly what we’re going for.

NOTE: This post has been updated from the original to correct that while democracy assistance funding has been under attack the last several years, it has not been cut.

K. Riva Levinson is president and CEO of KRL International LLC, a D.C.-based consultancy that works in the world’s emerging markets, award-winning author of “Choosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africa’s First Woman President” (Kiwai Media, June 2016). You can follow her @rivalevinson