CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The concept of youth restiveness is obviously what appears to be eating deep into the fabrics of our society today. This is because the Nigeria state has effectively not been able to build an appreciable degree of confidence among the youths, and ensure discipline within the ranks of the elite class, to manage the resources in the interest of the people of construct the much needed platforms of inclusion, participation and tolerance (Bassey, 2006). Thus, the youths in most instances relate to the Nigerian state as an uncaring and illegitimate institution. Their loyalties easily shift to ethnic union and in the country. The militarization of the Nigerian state since 1966 has led to the subversion of the federation, leaving so many groups and individuals from the decision making process.
The formation of cultic groups by the youths in most parts of the country represents a form of reaction to the problems and failure of the Nigerian state. For example, in the late 1990s up to 2000s, the security situation in the Nigeria Delta had remained tense and fragile.
Despite concerns and efforts toward resolution, the security situation deteriorated in 2005 with the emergence and proliferation of militant groups in the region. In tertiary institutions what is referred to as street of campus elites soon transformed into militants groups to perpetrate violence. Omeje (2006). In 1966, the youths who referred to themselves as young revolutionaries revolved against the Nigerian Federation by declaring independence of a Niger Delta republic. This was to ensure that oil wealth is deployed to developing their impoverished communities. In 1990, the Ogoni, one of the minority ethnic groups in the region demanded for a better deal from the Nigerian state.
In their Bill of Rights, which was presented to the government at that time, the Ogoni claimed that they has benefited nothing from oil production. In the 1998, a Federation of youth from the biggest ethnic group in the region – the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) met at Kaiama, Bayelsa State and called for the cessation of oil production because it has devastated their environment and pauperized their people. The Kaiama declaration was a watershed in the history of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta because the draconian state response to the peaceful gathering contributed to the transformation of civic protests to militant struggles.
In some parts of the country such as the Niger Delta, Jos in Plateau State and Northern Nigeria where Boko Haram operates, negative youth restiveness has become a legitimate way of. This has made these places attract international attention because it has become increasingly more volatile, insecure and a breeding ground for violence. It is characterized by chronic youth unemployment, youth alienation (except when used by the political class as tools of violence to acquire political power and later dumped or abandoned), abject poverty, deprivation, environmental degradation, lack of roads, hospitals, electricity, schools and other infrastructure facilities.
