POVERTY AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE AMONGST YOUTH IN NIGERIA

1.1 Introduction

Youth is the intermediary stage in the life cycle of an individual. The youth period is a time of rapid development physically, psychologically and emotionally, which comes with a heightened awareness of self that often focuses on individuality, personal identity and fitting into the social main stream (Sanusi, 2010:1). The Nigerian Ministry of Youth Development recorded that youth cover up to 70% of the entire Nigerian population (NPC, 2009, Nigerian Ministry of Youth Development, 2012).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Human beings must be made citizens before they can be made men, but in order that they be made citizens government must give liberty under the law, must provide for material welfare and remove gross inequality in distribution of wealth. (Rousseau, 1762 cited in Alan & Conway 1998 :143). Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with over 153million people (FGN, 2006). It is home to one-sixth of the world's black population (Chukwuemeka, 2009:405). A country naturally abundantly bless with human and natural resources. As at 2004 the International Monetary Fund reported that the country has an estimated crude oil reserve of 24 billion barrels (See USAID, 2007:1), with over N 29.8 trillion in revenue from sake of cruse oil only (Tell,2008).

Paradoxically, over 70% of its population lives in abject poverty (Sanusi, 2011). It is classified by UNDP as 141 poorest nations on the Human Development Index. Poverty in Nigeria from all empirically verifiable fact is a deliberate creation of the Nigeria's political class; it acts as a clog in the wheel of the country movement to a true, people's democracy. Thus state poverty in Nigeria is compounded by the widening class polarization politically and economically, where over “95% of the country wealth is controlled by about 0.01 percent of population” (Oshewolo 2010:267). Transition to the Nigeria's current democratic dispensation referred to as the Fourth Republic began in 1998. This transition to what could properly be described as civil rule evoked and was facilitated by the massive mobilization of “the rich” and “the poor”.

This was evident in the enthusiasm and pomp which the transition was received. Sooner than expected, there emerged a post honeymoon effect of the entire process; which “effect” is premised on the failure of the democratic government to deliver on its promised democratic (goods) dividends. It was the hope of the people that democracy not only provides liberty, but it also improves social and economic condition of the people. These are the motivating factors of democratic participation. Rather than improving the socio-economic well-being of the people, Nigeria's democracy has turned a burden on the poor. But rather than providing democratic good, poverty is further created and corruption almost institutionalized, the net result being the receding of the euphoria that earlier accompanied the country's democratization and a sharp decline in democratic participation.

Mass poverty is a mechanization of the political class to exclude the majority of the people from the political process and shrink the political space for their selfish interest. Doubt therefore remains about how firm democracy's root can become entrenched in a country where over 70 percent of the population are poverty personified. It is our position that mass poverty poses a threat to democratic participation and democratic consolidation than all other variables put together. While there is a seemingly general consensus that mass poverty undermine democratic participation, the ‘how' is not much less clear. This is the task of this undertaking. Poverty is a social problem that leads to other social, economic and political disturbances. Poverty is a global phenomenon but it is more common among developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. Nigeria is the Africa's most populous country.

As contended by Mukhtar, Mukhtar & Mukhtar (2015:3), apart from being oil rich, “the country also has large landmark and a lot of mineral resources which if used wisely, the country will achieve rapid political and socio-economic development”. But the reverse is the case in the country because large scale corruption, poor economic policies and bad governance have rendered majority of the country's population poor. Three months after assuming his office, the Nigerian Vice President, Osinbajo (in the Vanguard, August 20th 2015), expressed concern that over 110 million Nigerians lived below poverty line. The consequences of poverty are many and notable among the effects of poverty is violence.

That is why Nigeria has been experiencing many security challenges in forms of criminal activities, violence and conflicts over the years (Omotor, 2009; Adenrele, 2012; Afegbua, 2010; Onuoha, 2014; Mukhtar, Isyaku, & Sani, 2016). The formation of youth violent groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the Niger Delta Avengers in the south-south, Bakassi Boys, in the south-east, Yandaba in the north-west, Yan-kalare and Yan-sara-suka in north-east, as well as the most notorious terrorist group, known as Boko Haram, also in the north-east (Mukhtar, et al. 2016) are all but manifestations of high rate of unemployment among teeming youths and poverty incidences in the country. While the major cause for the formation of the above violent groups in various parts of Nigeria is either poverty or unemployment among the youth population, these violent groups have many serious implications on the fate of the democratic governance in the country. Violence has taken a severe toll on Nigerian economy, its peoples' political, social, and even spiritual lives.

Crime and violence are so palpable, so pervasive and so devastating to many Nigerians (Nwosu, 2002). It is even more disturbing to find that, the country's political leaders are using joblessness and poor living conditions of the youths to employ them as political thugs. This manner in which members of our political class in Nigeria engage the services of jobless youths as thugs for the purpose of intimidating political opponents and their supporters during elections is growing. These youths, who are mainly uneducated or semi-literate, are often encouraged to unleash violence, cause political violence, break the law at will, in which virtually nothing can be done to stop them once they have made up their mind to unleash these havocs on their intended targets (Usman, 2010).

Violence has become so common in the Nigerian society; at domestic, community and national levels and it has the tendency for causing national instability. For example, when there is insecurity in a nation, such as those emanating from the Boko Haram and the Niger-Delta Avengers, the prospect of democratization is threatened, as the leaders will shift attention from welfare services and dispensation of democratic dividend to resolving the violence emanating from the activities of these groups, even if it will affect the wellbeing of the citizens. Hence, the ban of okada rides, curfews, and too much check points are authority's reaction to the. In addition, election processes have been suspended in places like Gombe State and political administrations in Yobe State, Borno State, and Adamawa State, have suffered setback in the towards the end of the year 2015.

Therefore, in Warri-South Local Government Area where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Poverty and Political Violence amongst Youth in Nigeria.

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1.3 Statement of Problem

Elections are the central processes of democratic representative government because in any democracy the authority of government derives solely from the consent of the governed. The principal mechanism for translating the consent into governmental authority ideally is by holding free and fair elections. Nigeria‘s fourth republic appears to be very chaotic, incessant violent conflict ranges from religious, identity to communal. Elaigwu (2005a) identified 17 major violent conflicts in Nigeria from May 1985 to May 1st 1999. However, from May 31, 1999 to June 2005 he identified at least 121 cases of conflicts in Nigeria. He attributed sudden increase in violent conflict in the country to:a strong central government; popular agitation for decentralised structure; dissatisfaction with the distribution of available resources; communal conflicts and demands by some sub-national groups for greater self-determination (Eliagwu, 2005b).

He continued that the years of military rule suppressed these issues from exploding into uncontrollable conflagration. He likened the Nigerian polity as a bottle of wine, properly corked and airtight. With the dawn of democracy and the opening of the bottle, the wine explosively popped up (Eliagwu, 2005b). It appears the dawn of democracy provided the atmosphere to ventilate bottled-up frustrations, grievances and fears generously and often times recklessly (Adebanwi, 2004). Though there are several works on conflicts in Nigeria, few appear to link violent conflict in Nigeria to democracy with particular focus on the fourth republic. For example, Haliru (2012), focused on ethnicity, Onapajo (2012), focused on religion and political violence, Saheed (2012) emphasised economic dimension of social conflicts in Nigeria. In Nigeria, elections have become an avenue for legitimization of bad governance.

This assertion hinges on the fact that incumbent government holds on to power at all cost while opposition parties in a bid to capture state power, resort to all manner of irregularities. The result of this is usually violence of one sort or the other. Events which unfolded in Plateau State during the last election show that the most contentious issues about the election have to do with political violence which hitherto, is unheard of in Plateau State politics. The political atmosphere in the state became unusually tensed while many interest groups emerged with the intent to capture power. The result of these was a bitter warfare that ensued between these factions, leading to allegations, killings, kidnappings, etc that were politically motivated, In fact a gubernatorial candidate, Jesse Aruku, of the Action Congress was assassinated on July 2nd 2006. It is in view of the above that the researcher intends to investigate the effect of poverty and political violence in Nigeria with emphasis on Warri-South Local Government Area.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Poverty and Political Violence amongst Youth in Nigeria. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the role of poverty in instigating political violence
2. To ascertain if there is any significant relationship between poverty and political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area
3. To examine the effect of political violence on the democratic process of Nigeria
4. To ascertain impact of poverty as a catalyst to political violence in Nigeria

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Does poverty instigates political violence?
• Is there any significant relationship between poverty and political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area?
• Is there any significant impact of poverty as a catalyst to political violence in Nigeria?
• What is the effect of political violence on the democratic process of Nigeria?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Poverty is not a catalyst to political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta state Nigeria
• H1: Poverty is a catalyst to political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta state Nigeria

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant relationship between poverty and political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta state
• H1: There is a significant relationship between poverty and political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta state

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1.7 Significance of Study

The findings of this study will be of great benefit in ameliorating the menace of political violence in Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta state by proffering effective recommendation on the need to implement poverty alleviation programs in Nigeria, the study will also be of great importance to the care givers and parents on the need to educate their children on the nemesis of political violence, The study will also be of great importance to the department of political science as the findings of this study will contribute to the pool of existing literature in the subject matter.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Poverty and Political Violence amongst Youth in Nigeria, using Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).