Citizens, in any polity, collectively function not only as political agents, but also represent a shared fountain of information and a channel for policy feedback. This research study investigated citizens’ perceptions of a specific policy programme in Nigeria (conditional cash transfer, CCTs), and the ways the politics of social protection are informed and shaped by the intersection of the realities of citizens’ lived experiences and the actions and interactions between elites, public and institutional actors. The crucial question of how the Nigerian CCTs operated and what the participants (beneficiaries) perceived as its main advantages and weaknesses, and the nuanced construction of public attitudes towards conditional cash transfer programmes (social protection) are addressed. Employing a qualitative methodology, encompassing in-depth interviews (with key informants), semi-structured interviews with respondents and focus group discussions with selected groups within certain communities, the study reflected the religious and demographic divide of Nigeria to capture the lived experiences of beneficiaries and their perspectives of the CCT programmes. The distinctive attributes of Nigeria’s informal social welfare arrangements are described, and the study affirms the salience of politics and contextual variations in the implementation of CCTs. Findings also reveal the importance of contextual dynamics, the necessity of understanding the politics, the political settlements of a country and how it is useful in explaining the national experiences of social policy development. The study is only the second of such on Nigerian social protection, thus contributing to academic discourse on social policy dynamics and redistributive programmes in development contexts by empirically connecting the nexus between political contexts, actors, institutions and the citizens to public attitudes and trust in government. The findings enrich our understanding of social protection in Nigeria and may act as a guide to future policy actions as well as future research into Nigerian social protection
