Between protest sites and polling stations: Exploring the mobilisation of protest gains and losses for political expediencies

Existing Social movement (SM) studies have revealed diverse patterns and drivers of SM outcomes. A few have also probed how SMs use different communication tactics to engage electorates, and how political parties emerge from SMs. In addition to demonstrating the reinforcing effects of SMs on elections and SMs' ability to alter political

party agendas, other studies have shown that SMs and political parties can form alliances. While these findings indicate plausible interrelations between SMs and political parties, further research have yet to interrogate the significance of certain SM outcomes, either as gains or losses, for political actors, particularly during election cycles - from campaigns to

turnout and voting, outcome and aftermath. To tackle the empirical gaps created by these, this research asks, 'what resources and political opportunities do political actors appropriate from new social movements, and how do these opportunities aid the mobilisation or demobilisation of publics behind

democratic agendas?' Also, what social networks and discursive coalitions in Nigeria drive electorally-relevant narratives? Mapping the discursive exchanges and experiences of

Nigerians between the 2020 #EndSARS protests and the 2023 general elections, among other things, will create new pathways to understanding (un)democratic manifestations under protest and election climates. This research is grounded in theoretical perspectives offered by political opportunity structures (POS) and Foucault's notion of discourse towards evaluating constraints and

opportunities that steer social movement-government discursive exchanges. Although POS establishes that mobilisation capacities and outcomes are underpinned by opportunities and constraints presented by the political-institutional setting of collective action, it is left to be seen how discourses can be mobilised and manipulated to drive political agendas. I

seek to challenge assumptions of the sociology of discourse by hypothesising that SMs do not just create social change by creating institutions through alternative discourses, but they also create discursive formations that are exploitable by political actors. SIGNIFICANCE Nigeria's 2020 #EndSARS protests is one of the largest movements that Africa has

witnessed in its recent history, and the 2023 general elections have been described as Nigeria's most competitive elections. The Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, when speaking about the elections opined that "#EndSARS was a significant momentum in the mobilisation of alternative force within the nation" (ChannelsTV 2023). Arguably, the

coincidence of events and exchanges [as were witnessed] between both cycles are probable infrequent occurrences in any country's political life. Thus, these moments will be maximised towards theorising an African dimension of SM-elections interrelations, which remains absent in SM research. Although focused on the Nigeria context, this study

will uncover new socio-political underpinnings of global challenges manifesting as democratic backsliding, political apathy and negative politics in Africa. In a decade marked by pronounced forms of autocracy, military takeovers, misinformation and speech censorship, this study will point civil society and legislative actors to institutional and

socio-cultural requisites for the resilience of democracy in Africa. In a post-pandemic digital age, this study will emerge as a bridge between traditional SM theories and extant manifestations of digital activism.