Authoritarianism, Civil Society, and Resilience in Nigeria: A Political Sociology of Resistance

This study develops a political sociology of societal resistance to authoritarian governance tendencies in Nigeria, analysing the mechanisms through which civil society organisations, digital activists, and informal social networks maintain democratic resilience in the face of executive overreach, legislative capture, and security sector repression. The global literature on democratic resilience has identified civil society as a central actor in defending democratic institutions, yet the specific mechanisms of resistance in hybrid political regimes where formal democratic institutions coexist with authoritarian governance practices remain theoretically underspecified. Drawing on the social movement theory, the political sociology of civil society, and the resilience in democracies literature, the study develops an original framework designated societal authoritarian resistance that maps the conditions under which different types of civil society actors mobilise different forms of resistance capacity in response to specific authoritarian governance episodes. The framework is tested through comparative analysis of four civil society resistance episodes spanning the period 2016 to 2023, including resistance to social media regulation, the #EndSARS movement, judicial independence defence during the Emefiele saga, and electoral integrity campaigns during the 2023 elections. Primary data is generated through interviews with 62 civil society leaders, lawyers, digital activists, and journalists across the South West, South East, and North Central geopolitical zones. Findings reveal that societal resistance in Nigeria operates through hybrid formal-informal networks that draw on both professional civil society capacity and citizen-led digital activism, with each form exhibiting distinct strengths and vulnerabilities. The study contributes original theoretical and empirical contributions to African democracy studies. Keywords: authoritarianism, civil society resilience, Nigeria, societal resistance, democratic backsliding