IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hic/wpaper/426.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Let the poor breathe! Poverty and anti-government protests in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Tuki
  • Hussaini Kwari

Abstract

Despite the rising incidence of poverty in Nigeria and the increasing frequency of anti-government protests driven by citizens’ inability to meet their basic food needs, there remains a notable gap in research exploring the link between poverty and protest participation in Nigeria. Drawing on the human needs theory and survey data from Afrobarometer, this study investigates how poverty—both at the individual and communal levels—relates to Nigerians’ willingness to participate in anti-government protests. Individual-level poverty is assessed using an index capturing the frequency with which respondents and their household members lacked access to necessities such as food, water, cooking fuel, medicine, and income over the past year. Communal wealth is measured by the mean annual nighttime light intensity within a 30 km radius of respondents’ dwellings. Regression analysis reveals that higher scores on the lived poverty index increase the likelihood of Nigerians having protested in the previous year. They also increase their willingness to participate in future protests, and reduce their likelihood of choosing not to protest. Likewise, greater nighttime light intensity decreases individuals’ likelihood of having been involved in past protests, reduces their willingness to participate in future protests, and increases their likelihood of opting not to protest. These results are robust across different operationalizations of protest and to the use of individual survey data covering 36 African countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Tuki & Hussaini Kwari, 2025. "Let the poor breathe! Poverty and anti-government protests in Nigeria," HiCN Working Papers 426, Households in Conflict Network.
  • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hicn.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/HiCN-WP-426.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dalton, Russell & Van Sickle, Alix & Weldon, Steven, 2010. "The Individual–Institutional Nexus of Protest Behaviour," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 51-73, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jansesberger, Viktoria, 2024. "Storms, floods, landslides and elections in India's growing metropolises: Hotbeds for political protest?," Working Papers 28, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    2. Borbáth, Endre & Hunger, Sophia & Hutter, Swen & Oana, Ioana-Elena, 2021. "Civic and Political Engagement during the Multifaceted COVID-19 Crisis," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 311-324.
    3. Arístides Vara-Horna & Zaida Asencios-Gonzalez & Dennis López-Odar & Marivel Aguirre-Morales & Ingrid Cirilo-Acero, 2024. "The Role of Subjective Well-Being in Cuban Civil Protest against the Government: A Moderated Mediation Model," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-23, January.
    4. Nora A. Kirkizh & Olessia Y. Koltsova, 2018. "Online News and Protest Participation in a Political Context: Evidence from Self-Reported Cross-Sectional Data," HSE Working papers WP BRP 58/PS/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Shen Yang & Alfred M. Wu, 2024. "The Political Effects of Economic Inequality: Evidence from Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 749-769, January.
    6. Sargis Karavardanyan, 2024. "Economic Development, Inequality and Dynamics of Social Movements in the United States: Theory and Quantitative Analysis," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 22(2), pages 421-474, June.
    7. David Johann & Markus Steinbrecher & Kathrin Thomas, 2020. "Channels of participation: Political participant types and personality," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-13, October.
    8. Daniil Romanov & Andrey Korotayev, 2019. "«Non-Violent, But Still Dangerous»: Testing The Link Between Youth Bulges And The Intensity Of Non-Violent Protests," HSE Working papers WP BRP 69/PS/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    9. Godfred Bonnah Nkansah, 2022. "Youth Cohort Size, Structural Socioeconomic Conditions, and Youth Protest Behavior in Democratic Societies (1995–2014)," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    10. Ekaterina V. Kruchinskaya, 2021. "Factors Of Mobilization To Protest, Their Impact And Variability: Hierarchical Bayesian Approach," HSE Working papers WP BRP 79/PS/2021, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    11. Iacoella, Francesco & Justino, Patrica & Martorano, Bruno, 2021. "Do pandemics lead to rebellion? Policy responses to COVID-19, inequality, and protests in the USA," MERIT Working Papers 2021-014, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Xi Chen & Alfred M. Wu & Fen Lin, 2023. "Why Hong Kong People Rebel: The Role of Economic Frustration, Political Discontent and National Identity in Non-Institutional Political Participation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 79-98, August.
    13. Joseph Horrocks-Taylor, 2018. "Dirty Water, Muddied Politics: Hybridisation of Local and National Opposition to Kumtor Mine, Kyrgyzstan," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-18, April.
    14. Strauch, Rebecca & Jansesberger, Viktoria & Koos, Sebastian & Spilker, Gabriele, 2024. "Voices of change in the Global South: Understanding the dynamics of environmental protest," Working Papers 37, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    15. Bargain, Olivier B. & Jara Tamayo, Holguer Xavier & Rivera, David, 2025. "Social Gaps, Perceived Inequality and Protests," IZA Discussion Papers 17769, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Borbáth, Endre & Gessler, Theresa, 2020. "Different worlds of contention? Protest in Northwestern, Southern and Eastern Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 910-935.
    17. Frederick Solt, 2015. "Economic Inequality and Nonviolent Protest," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1314-1327, November.
    18. Li Donni, Paolo & Marino, Maria & Welzel, Christian, 2021. "How important is culture to understand political protest?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    19. Coppens, Tom & Van Dooren, Wouter & Thijssen, Peter, 2018. "Public opposition and the neighborhood effect: How social interaction explains protest against a large infrastructure project," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 633-640.
    20. Patricia Justino & Bruno Martorano, 2016. "Inequality, Distributive Beliefs and Protests: A Recent Story from Latin America," Working Papers - Economics wp2016_06.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:426. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tilman Brück or the person in charge or the person in charge or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hicn.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.