‘Lazy Nigerian Youth’? A critical discourse analysis of economic empowerment policies and the subtle bigotry of low expectations

This paper examines the construction of youth within Nigerian economic empowerment policies and how these constructions contribute to a subtle ‘bigotry of low expectations’. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) primarily informed by Fairclough's dialectical-relational model, while acknowledging insights from van Dijk and Wodak where relevant, the study analyses a targeted corpus of policy texts, including the National Youth Policy and NSIP/N-Power briefs, as well as presidential and ministerial speeches and mainstream media commentary from 2015 to 2025. The analysis was systematically supported by NVivo, which facilitated coding, memoing, and thematic development. We identify three dominant Nigerian policy discourses: the first negatively frames youth as idle or entitled, reducing unemployment to attitudinal failure; the second casts the state as paternalistic and youth as passive recipients, favouring tokenism over agency; the third securitises youth as potential threats, justifying surveillance. A counter-discourse from youth asserts their capabilities and rejects these labels. We argue these discourses constrain empowerment programmes by lowering expectations and obscuring systemic failures. Reframing empowerment as structural justice demands co-design, rights-based language, investment in jobs/skills, and power-sharing mechanisms. This study offers a transparent CDA of Nigerian policy and a framework to move from performative to dignified, inclusive practice.