Curbing Youth Restiveness In Niger Delta

Youth and restiveness are two words that have gained notoriety in the Nigerian context, especially in the Niger Delta region. With its oil resources which account for about 70 percent of the nation’s revenue, the Niger Delta region has become more or less the soul of Nigerian economy. Then, the question is “why youth restiveness in this region?
The word “youth”, according to Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, is defined as “when a person is still a child, especially the time before a child becomes an adult.” This may connote looking at the age bracket between eighteen and thirty five years. On the other hand, restive means “unable to be still or quiet, difficult to control, especially when one is not satisfied with something.”
The above definition of youth shows that youths have natural endowment of raw energy. They are always bubbling in spirit, with high hopes, big dreams, aspiration and ideas of what their future will be. To achieve this therefore they must not naturally be still or remain quiet, especially when their anticipation or future is heading towards the unexpected. They have to work if the basic needs of life must be met. Therefore, in this context, they have to be restive to an acceptable limit in order to lay a solid foundation for their future.
Permit me to identify and group restive youths into four categories. The first is the group that is geared towards genuine agitation for the rights and restoration of dignity to the Niger Delta . Example of this was the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) led by Late Ken Saro-Wiwa. The late social critic and other eight Ogoni sons were murdered by the late Sani Abacha’s government for agitating for the rights of the Ogoni people. We also have the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) in this group.
The second group is made up of youths who engage in self-seeking and criminal activities such as oil-bunkering, armed robbery and other heinous crimes. They are also being used as political thugs by politicians from this region to intimidate political opponents and to rig elections.
The third group comprises of youths who engage in supremacy contest among one another, in a bid to gain government’s recognition and attention. The supremacy contest between the group led by Asari Dokubo and another one by Ateke Tom for some years now is a clear example. Their activities in the Niger Delta have claimed many lives, as well as forestalling economic activities in the Niger Delta region.
The last group is made up of youths who are on a revenge mission for being used and dumped by politicians after getting to power.
Given the bad image the activities of the last three groups have, and are still causing the Niger Delta, there is an urgent need for solution.
Besides concentrating energies on how to retrieve the guns from some of these groups that have taken hostage-taking and a host of other vices as means of livelihood, the government at all levels should be sincere in the development of the Niger Delta region which produces about 70 per cent of the nation’s revenue.
For example, top priority attention should be given to education in terms of budget. If not up to university level, at least primary and secondary education should be made free to reduce the number of school drop-outs who, for lack of better things to do, join restive groups.
Meanwhile, government and the oil and gas companies operating in the region should provide employment for the youths of this region. The oil and gas companies should always respect the (MOU) agreement they entered into with their host communities to avoid unnecessary clashes with the youth bodies.
In addition, anti-corruption agency should double its efforts in fighting cases of corruption in the Niger Delta.
If these and many other suggestions are carried out by the Federal, State and Local Government, and oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, the issue of youth restiveness will be a thing of the past.
Enyina wrote in from Port Harcourt.