Chain Reactions Africa's Youth Trends Report Urges Political Leaders To Understand Changing Youth Behaviour

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L-R: Franklin Ozekhome, Executive Vice President, Chain Reactions Africa; Israel Opayemi, Managing Director & Chief Strategist, Chain Reactions Africa; Temi Iwalaye, Public Relations Manager, Tecno; Segun McMedal, President & CEO, Upticom Marketing Company, and Tuga Olatunde, Head, Market Sourcing and Procurement, Tecno, during the unveiling of Aramanda 4.0, The Youth Culture & Trends Report by Chain Reactions Africa, at Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Ikeja. 


Chain Reactions Africa has urged Nigerian political leaders and government institutions to pay closer attention to changing youth behaviour and expectations ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The call was made on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, during the public presentation of the firm’s fourth youth trends and culture intelligence report, titled Youth Futures 2026: A Culture Intelligence Report on African Youth, held at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

The event brought together young Nigerians, creatives, culture-shapers, marketing professionals, government representatives and other stakeholders.

Speaking at the event, the Managing Director and Chief Strategist of Chain Reactions Africa, Israel Opayemi, said young Nigerians should no longer be viewed as a constituency to be engaged only during election periods.

He said their experiences and changing attitudes towards work, migration, identity, technology, relationships and public institutions were influencing broader expectations of leadership and governance.

Opayemi cited data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which showed that Nigerians aged 18 to 34 accounted for 37,060,399 of the 93,469,008 registered voters in the 2023 general elections, representing 39.65 per cent of registered voters.

He said the figure demonstrated the potential significance of youth participation in the 2027 elections.

According to Opayemi, the report found that young Nigerians continued to have confidence in themselves, their peers and their communities, while trust in formal institutions remained comparatively weak.

He said institutional trust would increasingly depend on what institutions actually deliver rather than assurances or promises.

“Institutions do not earn trust by asking for it any longer. Rather, they earn it by doing the thing they were supposed to do or promised to do and being held accountable when they fail,” he said.

Opayemi also identified what he described as a growing gap between the pace of social and cultural change and the speed of institutional response.

He urged governments and businesses to incorporate cultural intelligence into policy and business decision-making rather than relying solely on periodic reports.

He also referenced the #EndSARS protests, saying the experience had influenced how a generation of young Nigerians assesses the actions of government and state institutions.

Presenting findings from the report, the Executive Vice President, Strategy and Innovation at Chain Reactions Africa, Franklin Ozekhome, said trust among young Nigerians could still be rebuilt through effective service delivery and accountability.

He cited digital tax processes, visible infrastructure projects and effective responses to public complaints as examples of actions that could improve institutional confidence.

Ozekhome identified youth employment, mental health infrastructure, digital rights and online safety, as well as policies affecting the creative economy, as areas where he said gaps existed between young people’s realities and policy responses.

He also cautioned political leaders and businesses against treating young Nigerians as a single, homogeneous group.

According to him, differences in social and economic conditions mean that youth attitudes and decision-making patterns vary across cities and regions.

Ozekhome also warned against the use of disinformation and negative narratives in political communication, noting that digital platforms that enable youth mobilisation could also be used to spread coordinated false information.

He described four paradoxes identified in the report as “Intimacy Without Trust, Visibility Without Safety, Belief Without Institutions and Mobility Without Arrival.”

The report, according to Chain Reactions Africa, was produced by strategists, trend spotters, culture anthropologists and industry experts working across brands, business and youth culture in Africa.

The firm said its findings were intended to help businesses, policymakers and other stakeholders better understand the changing expectations and behaviour of young Africans.

It urged political leaders and institutions to listen to young people, demonstrate competence and accountability, and develop policies that reflect the realities of different youth communities across Nigeria.

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