MARGINALIZATION AND YOUTH UNREST IN THE NIGER-DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

A lot of statutory laws by the Federal Government gave the oil exploration companies the backing to operate and be accountable only to her.  The Federal government collects all rates and royalties without any recourse to the area where the huge amounts of money are sourced.

The principle of derivation as part of statutory allocation policy politically became a source of litigation against the Niger-Deltans of Nigeria, interest and ideological articulation (the Kaiama Declaration of 1998) of the people of Niger-Delta gave birth to joint task force co-named “Operation Restore Hope†therefore, the Niger-Deltans comparing their human and environmental destructions against the edifice in Abuja and other non-oil producing states of Nigeria, have come to their conclusion that “it is cheaper to die than to live†in so long as the government they ought to be part of unjust.   This study examines these problems and hypothesized that:

Youth unrest in the Niger-Delta region is closely linked to the presence of oil in the affected areas.

Federal government’s lack of prompt response to the plight of the oil producing communities in the Niger-delta region aggravates incidences of youth restiveness in the affected region.

Unemployment of the youths by the oil companies in the affected areas is a factor of kidnapping and hostage taking of oil workers.

The sustained youth restiveness in the Niger-Delta is a function of intra-ethnic conflicts secretly sponsored by the multinational oil companies.