Technology, Power, and Democratic Regression in Nigeria: Surveillance Infrastructure, Political Control, and Civic Resistance

The relationship between state surveillance technology deployment and democratic governance outcomes in Nigeria represents an urgent but largely unexamined area of inquiry, particularly given the documented use of digital tools for monitoring political dissent, civil society actors, and opposition movements in the period from 2017 to 2024. This study investigates the nexus of technology, power, and democratic regression in Nigeria through a critical political economy framework that integrates surveillance studies theory, authoritarian technology scholarship, and African democratic theory. The research employs a multi-method design incorporating a systematic analysis of Nigerian government surveillance technology procurement records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, 72 interviews with civil society leaders, digital rights advocates, security sector actors, and technology policy scholars, and a computational analysis of documented digital repression incidents drawn from the African Internet Shutdown Archive and Freedom House digital freedom reports. Findings document the acquisition and deployment of intrusive surveillance technologies including social media monitoring platforms and mobile device extraction tools by both federal and state security apparatus without legislative authorisation or judicial oversight. The study identifies three mechanisms through which surveillance technology deployment contributes to democratic regression: chilling effects on civic expression and assembly, the systematic targeting of opposition coordination infrastructure, and the normalisation of extrajudicial digital interception. An original Democratic Technology Accountability Framework is proposed, drawing on comparative evidence from Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa to identify institutional design features capable of constraining authoritarian technology use. Keywords: surveillance technology, democratic regression, digital rights, Nigeria, political control.