THE ROLE OF MEMES IN POLITICAL MOBILIZATION AND YOUTH MOVEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE TABLE OF CONTENT

TOPIC IS SUITABLE FOR:
1-Mass Communication
2-Political Science
3-Sociology
4-Peace and Conflict Studies

TOPIC: THE ROLE OF MEMES IN POLITICAL MOBILIZATION AND YOUTH MOVEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE

TABLE OF CONTENT
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 
1.2 Problem Statement  
1.3 Objectives of the Study 
1.4 Research Questions 
1.5 Hypotheses (where applicable) 
1.6 Significance of the Study 
1.7 Scope of the Study 
1.8 Limitations to the Study 
1.9 Operational Definition of Terms  
 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Conceptual Review  
2.2 Empirical Review  
2.3 Theoretical Review  
 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 Research Design  
3.2 Population of the Study 
3.3 Sampling Unit  
3.4 Sampling Technique  
3.5 Sampling Size Determination
3.6 Method of Data Collection 
3.7 Method of Data Analysis 
3.8 Ethical Consideration
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis
4.2 Test of Hypothesis 
4.3 Discussion of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary of the Study
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations
5.5 Limitations of the Study
5.6 Suggestions for Further Studies
References
Appendix

ABSTRACT 
This study was carried out to examine the role of memes in political mobilization and youth movement using the Nigerian Police Force during the #EndSARS movement as a case study. The study was specifically carried out to examine the extent to which political memes were used during the #EndSARS movement in relation to the Nigerian Police Force, assess the influence of memes on youth political mobilization during the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria, determine the role of social media memes in shaping youths’ perceptions of the Nigerian Police Force during the #EndSARS protests, examine the effectiveness of memes as tools for political communication and awareness among Nigerian youths during the #EndSARS movement, and assess the relationship between exposure to political memes and youth participation in the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive survey research design. The study population comprised 25,000 youths residing in Lagos State, Nigeria who were actively exposed to #EndSARS-related content on social media platforms, while a total of 394 respondents were selected as sample size using the Taro Yamane formula. Out of the 394 questionnaires distributed, 374 were returned and 374 were validated for analysis. The questionnaire was used for data collection, while the data collected were analyzed using frequency tables, mean scores, standard deviation, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis with the aid of SPSS version 25. From the responses obtained and analyzed, the findings revealed that political memes were extensively used during the #EndSARS movement in relation to the Nigerian Police Force with a grand mean above the cut-off mean of 3.00. The study also showed that memes significantly influenced youth political mobilization during the #EndSARS movement with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.71, P = .000. Likewise, social media memes were found to have a significant role in shaping youths’ perceptions of the Nigerian Police Force during the #EndSARS protests at r = 0.68, P = .000, while memes were also found to be significantly effective as tools for political communication and awareness among Nigerian youths during the #EndSARS movement at r = 0.74, P = .000. Furthermore, the study revealed that there was a significant relationship between exposure to political memes and youth participation in the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria at r = 0.76, P = .000. The study concluded that political memes played a significant role in political mobilization and youth movement during the #EndSARS protests by increasing awareness, shaping perceptions, enhancing political communication, and encouraging youth participation in protest activities. The study therefore recommends that government agencies, civil society organizations, and communication practitioners should strategically utilize political memes for civic engagement and public awareness campaigns, social media users should ensure responsible creation and dissemination of political meme content, educational institutions should promote digital media literacy among youths, and policy makers should integrate innovative digital communication strategies into youth engagement and democratic participation initiatives.
Keywords: Memes, Political Mobilization, Youth Movement, #EndSARS, Nigerian Police Force, Political Communication, Social Media.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION (Preview)
1.1 Background of the Study
Contemporary political engagement has been revolutionized by the rise of the internet meme as a means of communication, especially among young people who make up the majority of digital users. Memes are not only funny Internet gags in the U.S. and Europe anymore, but also a useful means of ideological persuading, civic engaging, and political mobilizing. Memes are a key ingredient in the United Kingdom's 2017 general election as they enabled incidental political exposure among young people on social media (McLoughlin and Southern 2020). In the same vein, Penney (2020) argues that political memes were a key vehicle for young people's political expression in the United States because they combined politics and humor in a way that was appealing to people online. Building on this, Mihăilescu (2024) points out that the political participation in the digital cultures is redefined by the meme creators, who increasingly influence the narratives of the current political debate. This corresponds to the findings of Halversen and Weeks (2023) who argue that political memes have an impact on audiences and creators, fostering participatory political activity. In the context of digital activism, memes have thus become ingrained in the troposphere of global political awakening and youth consciousness, with humor, symbolism, and visual rhetoric all being used to provoke political awareness and collective consciousness.
The global phenomenon has been further reinforced by scholars that argue for the intersection between participative culture, social networking platforms and youth activism. Political internet memes are successful because, as Leiser (2022) posited, they fulfil the psychological needs of belongingness, identity formation and emotional expression for digital users. Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik (2021) suggest in a similar argument that popular culture and online media environments promote "cross-cutting" political discussions among youth, which can foster a sense of "collective political involvement. Memes are not just for fun; they are also powerful tools that can be used to convey political messages and drive public opinion. Humor as an integral part of internet memes can serve rhetorically to convince audiences using visual and textual symbolism (Hakoköngäs et al. 2020), and memes can be a form of “weaponized” politicisation of the visual that can shape public discourse (Peters and Allan 2021). Moreover, Ahmed and Masood (2024) say that memes help to minimise political cynicism among young people because political engagement becomes more accessible and relatable to them. In this way, digital meme culture has become ensnared with global youth movements, activism and the larger process of democratizing political communication online.
In Africa, the increasingly use of mobile internet and social networking applications has boosted the use of memes in political engagement and opposition. As noted by Moreno-Almeida (2020), memes can be seen as “snapshots of digital participation” in this politically sensitive environment, where citizens use humor and satire to contest the power. In the same vein, Njoroge (2025) analyzes the Kenya 2022 elections, observing that memes were an important political tool that allowed young Kenyans to poke fun at the leaders and engage in online mobilizations. Similarly, Muya and Onyinge (2026) contend that meme culture in Kenya grew political satire and took it to the digital space as performative digital activism that had a profound effect on urban youth. Not just in East Africa, Cervi and Divon (2023) write, but playful activism on social media platforms gives people a way to combine entertainment and resistance, which has boosted engagement in collective movements. Similarly, Sinpeng (2021) shows how the hashtag activism and meme circulation in Thailand's #FreeYouth movement helped to make youth-led movements visible and durable. These viewpoints taken together indicate that the meme has been firmly entrenched in African and global political communication as it reduces political messaging and creates a sense of emotional response and social solidarity among youth online.
The integration of social media, youth activism, and political communication in Nigeria has spurred academic interest in the impacts of memes in socio-political movements. Mustapha and Omar (2020) argue that social media has played a significant role in shaping youth political engagement in the 2019 general election across Nigeria as it has created opportunities for citizens to engage in politics and political debates. This is bolstered by Obisesan (2022) who refers to the Nigerian youths as the “#tag generation” as they are more technologically connected and have transformed political engagement with the use of digital platforms. In addition, mobile social networking platforms are key tools for socio-political contestations and digital activism in Nigeria as posited by Uwalaka and Nwala (2023). In this context, internet memes became a way to satirise, criticise and comment on politics. Adegoju (2022a) clarifies that Humour and Semiotic expressions in Nigeria's Political Communication are expressions that are used to gauge government and political promises among the citizens of the country. Likewise, Unuabonah and Oyebode (2021) show that the multimodal discourse strategies used in Corona protest memes in Nigeria helped to express the political discontent and civic resistance. Thus, the culture of memes in Nigeria is an expression of a broader trend in which the meme has become more than a mere entertainment tool and is now used as an effective means of public discourse and political awareness.
With the evolution of digital political participation in Nigeria, meme culture was becoming more recognizable as a means of collective mobilization or activism on issues by urban youth. As a result, Imoka (2023) posits that the digital media and popular culture have played a vital role in the construction of youth activism in Nigeria by providing a platform for identity formation, resistance and civic expression. Similarly, Akinlami (2024) describes how hashtags and meme activism bolstered online political campaigns and public mobilization in the evolving democratic context in Nigeria. This has become more apparent on politically charged occasions like elections and protest movements. Adebomi (2024b) observes that in the pre-election crises of 2023 in Nigeria, internet memes were used to depict public concerns, polarization, and societal conversations using multimodal framing strategies. A related study by Adebomi (2025) also illustrates the way the memes in the Obidient movement created political identities and mobilized support for digitally active youths. Moreover, Benaiah and Osuntoki (2024) argue that the mobilization of social media was a major factor in the participation of youths in current political mobilizations in Nigeria. Such advancements suggest that memes are increasingly becoming a medium of communication that can be used to simplify the multifaceted political contexts and also encourage civic awareness and emotional solidarity as well as collective participation by Nigerian youths.
The #EndSARS movement was a pivotal moment in the history of digital activism, youth mobilization, and public perception of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), especially in Lagos State where the movement was centered. As pointed out by Dambo et al. (2020), the #EndSARS movement was one of the most significant online protest movements in Africa as it allowed for quick mobilization, easier access to disseminate information and assistance in raising the movement's international visibility. To substantiate this claim, Adeniyi (2022) argues that the Nigerian youths resorted to digital framing during the protests against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to question the policing practices of the police and make a claim for collective agency against police brutality. Memes were very much at the heart of this digital resistance culture as they articulated anger, humour, solidarity and political consciousness in very relatable ways. Okesola and Oyebode (2023) note that the “soro-soke” generation successfully made use of the multimodal nature of protest memes to spread resistance narratives, and to spread the call for civic engagement during the protests. Likewise, Mohammed and Dominic (2024) state that the #EndSARS campaign was mobilized and peace advocacy was greatly aided by the use of digital asset such as memes and hashtags on social media by the youths. Thus, the #EndSARS protests serve as a pertinent background and context for this discussion and analysis of the role of political memes in the mobilization, political communication and perception of the Nigerian Police Force in Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole.

1.2 Statement of the Problem
The increasing use of internet memes in political communication has transformed the nature of youth participation in social movements across the world, particularly within digitally driven protests and campaigns. The #EndSARS movement in Nigeria showed that social media could be a key mobilizing, awareness, and resistance space for fighting the police brutality that is linked to the Nigerian Police Force. According to Dambo et al. (2020), the movement gained unprecedented visibility due to the ability of digital platforms to easily disseminate protest content among Nigerian youths and Uwalaka and Nwala (2023) argue that the mobile social networking applications boosted socio-political engagement and collective action among Nigerian youths. Digital political communication should improve informed civic engagement and constructive relationship between citizens and state institutions. But the proliferation of political memes during the #EndSARS protests led to new facets of youth activism and perception, and online mobilization, which have not been sufficiently explored in academic literature. While memes were used in this protest to condemn police brutality, show solidarity, and rally supporters, there is little empirical evidence that shows how far memes moved the youths towards developing a certain attitude about the Nigerian Police Force and to actively participate in the protest.
While various studies have investigated social media activism, online protesting, and digital political participation in Nigeria, few of these studies are specifically interested in interrogating the politics of memes especially in the context of the Internet. For example, the study of Adeniyi (2022) looked at youth agency and framing in the #EndSARS movement, and Mohammed and Dominic (2024) investigated the processes of youth mobilization and peace advocacy in the #EndSARS protests through a study of social media. Likewise, Obisesan (2022) wrote on youth political participation in the digital culture within Nigeria and Mustapha and Omar (2020) explored the role of social media in the Nigerian elections. In the context of West, scholars like Penney (2020) and Halversen et al. (2023) have examined the impact of political memes on youth political expression and their political participation online. Similarly, Okesola and Oyebode (2023) analyzed multimodal #EndSARS protest memes. However, these studies tend to focus on the general concept of digital activism, multimodal discourse or online involvement, and do not fully examine the impact of the exposure to political memes on youth mobilization particularly in the context of the Nigerian Police Force and the #EndSARS protests. Therefore, there is a conceptual and contextual gap in the understanding of the role of memes as a strategic tool of political communication and mobilisation among Nigeria youths.
This lack of knowledge necessitates a targeted study on the role of memes in influencing political consciousness, civic engagement and public perception during the #EndSARS protests, especially in Lagos State where the protests were most prominent. Adebomi (2024a) states that internet memes are now widely used to frame political realities and drive public discourse in Nigeria, and according to AlAfnan (2025) memes are now an integral part of the political debates on social media. Digital communication tools like memes should enable youths to be more aware of politics, participate in politics more informatively, and engage in more constructive civic activities in an ideal democracy. However, the role of political memes in mobilizing Nigerian youths, influencing their perception of the Nigerian Police Force and influencing their participation in the #EndSARS movement has received little consideration. Hence, this study aims at filling this gap in the literature by exploring how much of the meme was used during the protest, the effect of the meme on youth political mobilisation and the extent to which the meme was effective as a tool of political communication and awareness during the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to examine the role of memes in political mobilization and youth movement with specific reference to the Nigerian Police Force during the #EndSARS protests. The specific objectives are to:
i.Examine the extent to which political memes were used during the #EndSARS movement in relation to the Nigerian Police Force.
ii.Assess the influence of memes on youth political mobilization during the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria.
iii.Determine the role of social media memes in shaping youths’ perceptions of the Nigerian Police Force during the #EndSARS protests.
iv.Examine the effectiveness of memes as tools for political communication and awareness among Nigerian youths during the #EndSARS movement.
v.Assess the relationship between exposure to political memes and youth participation in the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria.
OTHER PARTS OF CHAPTER ONE INCLUDE:
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope of the Study
1.7 Limitations to the Study
1.8 Definition of Terms

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW (Preview)
This chapter critically examines relevant literature that would assist in explaining the research problem and, furthermore, recognizes the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps. This chapter, therefore, focuses on the concept of memes, the concept of political mobilization, the role of memes in political mobilization, the influence of memes on youth movements, and the role of memes in shaping political awareness and participation, with particular reference to the Nigerian Police Force. The chapter covers the following subheadings:
2.1 Conceptual Framework
2.2 Theoretical Framework
2.3 Empirical Review
2.4 Summary of Literature Review

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY  (Preview)
Research Design: The study adopted a descriptive survey research design.
Population of the Study: The population of the study comprises youths residing in Lagos State, Nigeria, who actively use social media platforms and were exposed to contents relating to the #EndSARS protest, with an estimated accessible population respondents.
Sample Size Determination: The study adopted the Taro Yamane formula to determine a sample size of 394 participants.
Sampling Technique: The study employed stratified and purposive sampling techniques to select the individual respondents.
Research Instrument: The study utilized a structured questionnaire as the instrument for data collection.
Methods of Data Analysis: The collected data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations to summarize and present the demographic characteristics of the respondents and their responses. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.

CHAPTER FOUR; DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
MAJOR FINDINGS (Preview)
The analysis results were presented in tables. Based on the results obtained from the analysis, the following findings are made: 

i. The study found that political memes were extensively used during the #EndSARS movement in relation to the Nigerian Police Force, as evidenced by a grand mean of 3.91, which is above the acceptance benchmark of 3.00.

ii. The study found that political memes significantly influenced youth political mobilization during the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria, as evidenced by a grand mean of 3.92, which is above the acceptance benchmark of 3.00. The corresponding hypothesis test further showed a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.71, t-value of 20.33, and p-value of 0.000 (p < 0.05), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis.

iii. The study found that social media memes played a significant role in shaping youths’ perceptions of the Nigerian Police Force during the #EndSARS protests, as evidenced by a grand mean of 3.93, which is above the acceptance benchmark of 3.00. The corresponding hypothesis test further showed a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.68, t-value of 17.89, and p-value of 0.000 (p < 0.05), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis.

iv. The study found that memes were effective tools for political communication and awareness among Nigerian youths during the #EndSARS movement, as evidenced by a grand mean of 3.93, which is above the acceptance benchmark of 3.00. The corresponding hypothesis test further showed a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.74, t-value of 21.31, and p-value of 0.000 (p < 0.05), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis.

v. The study found that there was a significant relationship between exposure to political memes and youth participation in the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria. The corresponding hypothesis test showed a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.76, t-value of 22.56, and p-value of 0.000 (p < 0.05), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis.

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter covers the following outline:
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary of the Study
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations
5.5 Limitations of the Study
5.6 Suggestions for Further Studies

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