Youth-led justice: Empowering change through advocacy, activism, and collective action, By Jonathan Abakpa

Editor's note: In this piece, Jonathan Abakpa, a younker advocacy expert, examines however young Nigerians are reshaping justness done grassroots activism, utilizing movements like #EndSARS and #EndHunger protests to propulsion for lasting systemic reform.

For decades, young radical person not lone shaped the world’s demographic scenery but person besides stood astatine the forefront of civic information and societal transformation. Their power goes acold beyond representation; it has been instrumental successful driving movements for justice, equality, and systemic change.

In the United States, the conflict for African American liberation was importantly precocious by the activism and resilience of youth. Likewise, successful South Africa, the anti-apartheid movement, astir notably the Soweto Uprising, was ignited by the unwavering courageousness of young radical demanding state and equality.

Young Nigerians are rewriting laws and reclaiming justness done activism, storytelling, and grassroots movements. Photo credit: @SIRInyene
Source: Twitter

Amid this planetary question of youth-led activism, Nigeria has experienced its almighty surge of solidarity and corporate action. Young Nigerians person mobilized en masse, creating and occupying self-defined spaces to advocator for their rights and power nationalist policy.

A defining infinitesimal came successful 2020 with the #EndSARS movement, a bold and unprecedented run against constabulary brutality. This question not lone exposed heavy systemic injustices but besides sparked a caller epoch of civic consciousness among young people, reaffirming their immense imaginable to signifier Nigeria’s antiauthoritarian future.

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Long earlier the #EndSARS movement, Nigeria had a affluent bequest of pupil and younker organizing. In the 1960s, young radical played a pivotal relation successful resisting undemocratic subject rule, starring nationwide mobilizations for antiauthoritarian governance.

This contented of activism continued done the years, marked by notable efforts specified arsenic the anti-Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) protests and demonstrations against tuition hikes, boldly championed by dynamic pupil movements committed to societal justice.

However, implicit time, galore of these once-influential pupil movements person go progressively partisan, attracting disapproval for their increasing alignment with authorities interests. Rather than serving arsenic autarkic voices for younker and pupil welfare, they are often perceived arsenic promoting the docket of those successful power.

Although these movements played a pivotal relation successful younker and pupil organizing, they were predominantly male-led, with young men and boys often astatine the forefront. Consequently, portion the campaigns aimed to beforehand the well-being of students and young people, the unsocial perspectives and needs of girls and young women were often overlooked oregon marginalized wrong broader advocacy efforts.

In effect to these gaps, alternate younker organizing models person emerged crossed Nigeria, led by young radical mobilizing astir issues that straight interaction their lives. These youth-led movements person broadened their absorption from education, pupil rights, and antiauthoritarian information to quality rights, situation response, and humanitarian efforts, peculiarly successful the Northeast. In regions similar the Niger Valley, younker are progressively progressive successful peacebuilding and struggle resolution, reflecting the dynamic and evolving quality of younker activism successful addressing analyzable societal challenges.

While this evolving self-organizing question continues to turn and follow alternate methods of engagement, it has repeatedly faced the situation of a shrinking civic space. Youth efforts to signifier and mobilize—particularly done peaceful protest—are often criminalized, with specified actions often labeled arsenic treasonable.

In galore cases, young activists are subjected to prolonged ineligible trials, a wide usurpation of their law rights. This world disregards the cardinal information that young radical person the close to state of expression, and the instrumentality is meant to protect, not punish, them for exercising it.

Like galore different countries, Nigeria faces important challenges wrong its justness system, peculiarly regarding the attraction of susceptible youths and minors. Photo credit: AM_Saleeeem
Source: Twitter

A striking illustration is the #EndHunger protest, wherever 5 young individuals, aboriginal known arsenic the #ActivistaFive oregon #TheAbujaFive, were arrested and detained simply for holding placards. Similarly, Daniel Akande, Michael Lenin, and 8 others were arrested and detained for their roles successful organizing and starring the #EndBadGovernance protestation past year. These incidents exemplify the increasing repression that confronts alternative, youth-led self-organizing models successful Nigeria today.

Like galore different countries, Nigeria faces important challenges wrong its justness system, peculiarly regarding the attraction of susceptible youths and minors. Too often, young radical are subjected to wrongful detention, abuse, and denial of owed process, contempt nationalist and planetary ineligible frameworks designed to support their rights.

Youth advocacy organizations, arsenic captious players successful the combat for equity and societal justice, person a important relation to play successful addressing these systemic injustices. By leveraging self-organizing, youth-led, and girl-centered enactment models, these organizations can thrust transformative change, ensuring that susceptible youths are shielded from unfair attraction and wrongful detention wrong the justness system.

While the situation with the justness younker groups indispensable proceed to organise arsenic demonstrated successful youth-led movements specified arsenic #EndSARS and the #SheVotesToo campaign, young radical successful Nigeria person developed almighty models of activism rooted successful self-organisation and corporate action.

These “invented spaces,” created by and for young people, connection platforms to prosecute policymakers, thrust nationalist discourse, and request reform. When focused connected justness strategy reform, these spaces tin service arsenic channels to amplify the voices of young radical who person experienced maltreatment oregon favoritism wrong the system.

Creating dedicated platforms for justness advocacy, whether done online campaigns, municipality hallway dialogues, oregon younker parliaments, volition further supply a harmless situation wherever young radical tin stock experiences and co-create argumentation solutions. These spaces not lone empower younker arsenic agents of alteration but besides guarantee that advocacy efforts stay profoundly rooted successful the lived realities of affected communities.

Also, younker organisations/movements tin support minors and youths successful the justness strategy done the continued advocacy for legislative and argumentation reform. Such reforms should see mandatory ineligible practice for each minors, abolition of arbitrary arrests and detentions, and the afloat domestication and implementation of the Child Rights Act successful each Nigerian states, implementation of the Charters, specified arsenic the African Charter connected Democracy Elections, and Governance, and respects for the Fundamental rights of citizens arsenic enshrined successful Chapter 4 of the Nigerian Constitution.

Advocacy should besides people the constitution of child-friendly procedures wrong constabulary stations, courts, and detention centres. By gathering coalitions with ineligible experts, kid extortion agencies, and authorities institutions, younker organisations tin guarantee that reforms are grounded successful quality rights standards and bespeak the realities connected the ground.

Beyond policy, determination is simply a request for contiguous interventions that code ongoing injustices. Many minors and youths successful detention deficiency entree to ineligible practice oregon household support. Youth advocacy organisations, movements tin span this spread by establishing ineligible assistance desks and accelerated effect teams. These teams, composed of trained volunteers and spouse lawyers, tin intervene successful cases of unlawful detention, show constabulary practices, and supply referrals for intelligence and societal support.

Too often, young radical are subjected to wrongful detention, abuse, and denial of owed process, contempt nationalist and planetary ineligible frameworks. Photo credit: AfricaStoryLive
Source: Twitter

An indispensable constituent of systemic alteration is prevention. Youth organisations and movements indispensable instrumentality proactive steps to amended their peers astir their rights. Peer-to-peer acquisition initiatives, “know-your-rights” toolkits, and school-based ineligible literacy clubs tin empower young radical to navigate the justness strategy much confidently and debar entrapment by exploitative practices.

Additionally, youth-led monitoring of detention facilities—where harmless and legally permissible—can enactment arsenic a watchdog mechanism, helping to exposure maltreatment and clasp authorities accountable. These monitoring processes should beryllium supported by information collection, storytelling, and regular reporting to applicable authorities and civilian nine actors.

The powerfulness of integer activism cannot beryllium overstated. Just arsenic movements similar #EndSARS gained traction done online mobilisation, younker advocacy organisations and movements indispensable proceed to usage storytelling, media campaigns, and originative look to exposure injustices successful the justness system. Short films, societal media campaigns, podcasts, and ocular creation tin bring nationalist attraction to the plight of detained minors and physique momentum for change.

By framing stories successful human-centered, relatable ways, these campaigns assistance thrust empathy and solidarity. They besides situation ascendant narratives that criminalise young people, peculiarly those from poor, rural, oregon conflict-affected backgrounds, and alternatively represent them arsenic rights-holders deserving of dignity and justice.

Finally, lasting betterment requires the engagement of authorities and organization actors. As tin beryllium seen done initiatives similar the Democracy Convening and Girls Takeover, creating intergenerational dialog and mentorship betwixt younker and policymakers is essential. Youth organisations should actively prosecute partnerships with the Ministry of Youth Development, the Ministry of Justice, the Nigeria Police Force, and applicable legislative committees to power systemic betterment from within.

These partnerships should absorption connected co-creating policies, grooming justness actors connected kid and youth-sensitive practices, and institutionalising accountability mechanisms. In doing so, younker advocates determination from being extracurricular critics of the strategy to becoming co-creators of a conscionable and inclusive future.

Conclusion

Protecting susceptible youths from wrongful detention and unfair attraction is not a peripheral issue; it is cardinal to the broader conflict for societal justness and quality rights. Youth advocacy organisations and movements, guided by principles of self-organisation, lived experience, and intergenerational collaboration, are uniquely positioned to pb this charge. By combining nonstop ineligible aid, argumentation advocacy, adjacent education, integer activism, and organization engagement, they tin dismantle unjust systems and physique caller ones that honour the rights and dignity of each child. The aboriginal of justness successful Nigeria and so crossed the satellite depends connected it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed present are those of the writer and bash not needfully bespeak the authoritative argumentation oregon presumption of Legit.ng.

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Source: Legit.ng