FROM ‘LAZY YOUTHS’ TO 'COCKROACH REVOLUTIONS': WHY NIGERIA’S OBIDIENTS AND INDIA’S GEN Z ARE SHAKING THE OLD POLITICAL ORDER - 'SINA KAWONISE

Reuters reported today that a bizarre but powerful political movement called the Cockroach Janta Party has exploded across India’s social media landscape after the country’s Chief Justice, Surya Kant, compared some unemployed youths to “cockroaches” and “parasites.” Instead of shrinking in embarrassment, India’s Gen Z did what modern youths do best: they grabbed the insult, turned it into a logo, added memes, sarcasm and rage, and launched a movement that now boasts nearly 15 million Instagram followers — far eclipsing the less than 9 million followers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP on the platform. What began as satire has rapidly evolved into a warning siren for India’s ageing political establishment.
And somewhere in Nigeria, millions of Obidients looked at India’s “cockroach revolution” and probably whispered in unison: “These are our people.”
Because Nigerians have seen this movie before.

Years ago, late President Muhammadu Buhari famously described Nigerian youths as “lazy,” triggering outrage among a generation already battling unemployment, inflation, police brutality, collapsing universities and epileptic electricity. Like India’s young people today, Nigerian youths were insulted not by random internet trolls but by the highest levels of authority in the land. The message from power was unmistakable: the youths themselves were the problem.
Unfortunately for the political elite, young Nigerians also possess two dangerous qualities — memory and internet access.

The insult never disappeared. It simply evolved into political energy.
That energy eventually found expression in the Obidient movement, the largest digitally-driven political uprising in Nigeria’s democratic history. By the 2023 election cycle, supporters of former Anambra State governor Peter Obi had transformed social media into a permanent political battlefield. TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube became occupied territories where old political propaganda died daily from public ridicule. Political godfathers who once controlled newspaper headlines suddenly discovered that memes travel faster than press releases.

Now, with the 2027 elections approaching and Obi contesting under the National Democratic Congress against incumbent President Bola Tinubu and serial presidential contestant Atiku Abubakar, the Obidient movement has only grown louder, younger and more digitally sophisticated. If India’s Cockroach Janta Party calls itself “the voice of the lazy and unemployed,” Nigeria’s Obidients have effectively become the voice of citizens tired of being governed like unwilling participants in a badly managed group project.
The similarities between both countries are becoming almost poetic.

In India, millions of educated youths are struggling with unemployment, inflation and shrinking opportunities while elderly politicians lecture them about patience and nationalism. In Nigeria, graduates spend years hunting for jobs that pay less than data subscriptions while politicians who have been in power since military rule insist that “renewed hope” is around the corner, somewhere between the next fuel price increase and another national grid collapse.

In both countries, the ruling establishments continue behaving like confused landlords shocked that tenants are angry about leaking roofs.

What should terrify the political elite is not merely the humour. It is the numbers.

Fifteen million followers in less than a week for India’s Cockroach Janta Party is not a joke. It is a political earthquake disguised as comedy. The fact that the movement already dwarfs the ruling BJP on Instagram should send cold fear into every political war room in New Delhi.

Nigeria’s establishment should be equally worried — very worried.
The Obidient movement may not have a formal “cockroach” logo, but its online and street influence is enormous and relentless. Nigerian political elites already learned in 2023 that traditional structures, bullion vans and rented crowds cannot fully compete against decentralised digital anger powered by millions of frustrated youths with smartphones and unlimited sarcasm.

Every attempt to mock or dismiss young Nigerians only seems to strengthen the movement further. Call them lazy, they organise spaces on X. Call them unrealistic, they launch fundraising campaigns. Ignore them, and suddenly your entire speech has become a viral TikTok parody with Afrobeats in the background.

Even more dangerously for the old establishments in both India and Nigeria, the youths are no longer intimidated by political titles, grey hair or “long experience.” A generation raised online has developed immunity to manufactured political grandeur. They see many of their leaders less as untouchable statesmen and more as tired recurring characters in a soap opera that should have ended seasons ago.

One particularly brutal Nigerian meme recently imagined a presidential debate where candidates were first required to answer survival questions before discussing policy: “What is the current price of rice?” “How many hours of electricity did your neighbourhood get yesterday?” “Have you ever renewed a passport without calling a senator?” In the fictional debate, moderators reportedly suspended proceedings after all candidates demanded diplomatic immunity.

The ruling elites of both countries should understand what is happening here: This is no longer ordinary opposition politics. It is generational rebellion wrapped in humour.

India’s Cockroach Janta Party and Nigeria’s Obidients represent something larger than elections. They represent millions of young people who are exhausted, economically cornered, digitally connected and increasingly impossible to silence. The old establishments spent years dismissing them as lazy, unserious, entitled or noisy.

Now the “lazy youths” are organising.

And for the political old horses in both Nigeria and India, that should be a deeply frightening development.