Nigeria’s political hangover: Military legacy, state repression and the #EndSARS protest movement

This article explores how Nigeria’s history of military rule continues to influence contemporary state responses to protest. Drawing on Eyerman’s theory of cultural trauma, it examines how historical experiences of repression – particularly during Nigeria’s era of military regimes – have become embedded in the country’s political culture. Using qualitative data from 50 in-depth interviews with participants in the October 2020 #End SARS protests in Lagos State, Nigeria, the study identifies key themes that highlight how militarized and authoritarian repression has produced intergenerational forms of protest fear, scepticism and resistance. Despite Nigeria’s formal transition to democracy in 1999, successive administrations have continued to deploy military-style tactics against unarmed protesters, revealing the enduring parallels between past military regimes and the modern administration. The findings demonstrate that the trauma of military rule is not only remembered but institutionalized, evidenced by the routine use of state violence, the erosion of civic trust, and protesters’ normalization and expectation of repression. By situating #End SARS within a broader historical trajectory, this article contributes to sociological debates on post-authoritarian trauma, protest cultures and the persistent legacies of militarized governance in postcolonial African contexts.