Singing Hunger in Protest Music: Nasboi’s “Hunger Games” and Post-Election Realities in Nigeria’s “Emilokan” Era

This article examines “Hunger Games” (2024), a protest song by Nigerian artiste and skit maker Nasboi, as an indictment of the economic hardship, political repression, and widespread disillusionment that have characterized Nigeria’s 2023 post-election landscape under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s “Emilokan” administration. Situating the song within Nigeria’s long-standing tradition of politically conscious music, from the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti to the contemporary commentaries of Falz and Burna Boy, the study critically dissects how “Hunger Games” reflects collective frustration and subversively positions popular music as resistance. The analysis of the study demonstrates that Nasboi’s aesthetic strategy—combining satire with repetition—renders individual hardship as communal refrain, positions Lagos as a synecdochic marker of national precarity, and brings into focus the gendered economies of provision shaping masculine identity under strain. Also, through its recurring hook, we submit that the song becomes a form of sonic rhetoric, oscillating between lament and chant to mobilize sentiment and condemn policies and patronage that sustain scarcity. This study advances interdisciplinary debates by illustrating how popular music operates simultaneously as a diagnostic of state–society dynamics and a catalyst for civic discourse where institutional avenues are limited.