By July 2024 the cumulative impact of President Bola Tinubu's 29 May 2023 inaugural policies — fuel subsidy removal (PMS ₦197 → ₦617 → ₦1,030/litre), naira float (official rate from ₦461 to ₦1,600/USD), unification of the multiple exchange windows, removal of electricity subsidies — had produced an inflation rate of 34.2% YoY (NBS, July 2024), food inflation of 40.9%, and a real-wage collapse of approximately 60% for the urban working class. The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics multidimensional poverty headcount had risen from 133m (2022) to 156m (Q2 2024).
#EndBadGovernance — coordinated by the 'Take-It-Back' movement of Omoyele Sowore, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Civil Society Coalition Against Poverty, and a decentralised network of regional cells — called Ten Days of Rage from 1 to 10 August 2024 with the demands of subsidy reinstatement, ₦615,000 monthly minimum wage, electoral reform and the release of political detainees. Protests broke out across Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zaria, Maiduguri, Suleja, Niger State (where 6 were killed in a single day at Suleja and Minna), Borno, Adamawa, Plateau and the South-East.
The state response was disproportionately violent in the North. Live-round shootings at Suleja, Niger State (6 dead, 35 wounded), Kano (7 dead in three days), Kaduna and Maiduguri produced an official confirmed toll of 22 dead by 10 August (Amnesty International put the figure at 24, civil-society coalitions at 30+). Approximately 1,200 protesters were arrested; at least 11 minors are documented to have been detained and charged with treason in Abuja (acquitted by the FCT High Court in November 2024). President Tinubu was on a private visit to London when the protests began; he addressed the nation on 4 August (day 4) calling for dialogue and made no policy reversal.
The cycle 1989 (Anti-SAP) → 2012 (Occupy Nigeria) → 2024 (#EndBadGovernance) is a perfect repetition: imported macroeconomic prescription, immediate consumer-price shock, urban youth mobilisation, state lethal force, no structural reversal. The naira has continued depreciating; food inflation remains in the high 30s through 2025; the subsidy has not returned. The next iteration of the cycle is implied.