-
Poverty And Youth Restiveness In Nigeria An Evaluation Of The Boko Haram Crisis
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 6]
Page 3 of 6
-
-
-
Sen. takes a step backwards from both income and living standards to ask why they mother. His answer is
that
they don‟t matter in their right, for they are simply instrumental to
what really matters, namely the kind of life that a person is able to
lead and the choices and opportunities open to her in leading that life.
At the heart of this approach as an understanding of living as
involving being and doing‟. Sen uses two key words to express this idea.
„functioning‟s and capabilities‟. The former refers to what a person
actually manages to do or be; they range from elementary nourishment to
more sophisticated levels such as participation in the life of the
community and the achievement of self-respect. The latter on the other
hand, denote what a person can do or be, that is, the freedom people
enjoy to choose between different ways of living that they can have
reason to value (1990). He argues that money is just a means to an end
and that they goods and services or „commodities‟ it buys are simply
particular ways of achieving functioning‟s.
According to Karl Max,
money may be instrumental but it is also insparable from the power that
it confers: I can carry (money) around with me in my pocket as the
universal thing into the hands of the private person, who
as such
uses this power (1987). Therefore he of the view that one danger of
downplaying income when defining poverty is that it can be used to
justify a policy stance opposed to raising the incomes of those in
poverty.
The European commissions definition of poverty which was
adopted in 1984 goes thus: the poor shall be taken to mean persons,
families and groups of persons whose resources (material and cultural,
social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable
ways of life in the member state in which they live. Poverty is a crisis
that is habitual and it conveys message of hardship which is difficult
to deny. It speaks publicly through visible misery, persisting
destitution, endemic hunger and visible malnutrition (Akanmidu, 2004).
Due
to its nature, the endemic poverty afflicting the people of the
Niger-Delta amidst plenty, has led to a state of hopelessness and the
recourse to violence against the state and multinational oil companies
operating in the region. Although poverty is central to the concept of
social quality, its reduction represent an indicator of social quality,
it is only one of a number of conditions that serve
to diminish social quality and cannot serve as the sole measuring rod (Beck etal; 1997:11:2001).
Relative
poverty places poverty in the context of inequality within societies.
The act of comparison between those on lower and inphering ethnic
groups, inevitably highlights any inequalities of material resources
that may exist between the groups being compared.
At this juncture,
we must note that relative poverty and inequality are not necessarily
synonymous as they are sometimes juxtaposed. Inequality is concerned
solely with the comparison between groups, while relative poverty adds
to that comparison, the notion of the incapacity to meet certain needs,
broadly defined to include participation in society. Thrust of these
findings is that it directly leads to restiveness of youths all over the
country (Nigeria).
Moreso, failure to give quality attention to the
review of the meaning of youth restiveness as propounded by scholars,
will render this review incomprehensive. This is because by so doing by
reviewing the concept of “youth restivenessâ€, we will be able to
establish a relationship
between the two variables (poverty and youth restiveness).
On
the 14th of January 2010, the former inspector of police Mr. Mike Okiro
identified; marginalization, unemployment, youth exuberance and above
all poverty as a major attribute of youth restiveness in the country.
Okiro said this in a lecture which was titled “youth restiveness and
electoral process in Nigeriaâ€.
In the past, youths were perceived as
heroes of nationalist movement. As students, they were the militant wing
of the anti-colonial struggle. The Sikist movement, popularized the
anti-imperialist consciousness theorized by the earlier elder
nationalist (onoge) in the year 2004. the famous political bureau report
of 1986 also affirmed linkages of youth and national destines without
recourse to philistine, pejorative slander. In the context of Nigeria‟s
historical experience, youths and students have rendered very valuable
and vital contributions to the struggle for liberation and national
development. They can constitute a reservoir of energy and dynamism. For
any national struggle or campaign if they are correctly guided,
mobilized
and fully integrated into the social fabrics of the nation. They may
also, constitute a threat to national survival and stability if they are
allowed to drift, are unemployed, if they are undisciplined and morally
bankrupt. We must note that there is no nation upiring to major
national greatness and success that can afford to ignore the youths and
allow them to often constitute a major social problem in the society.
This is because of the fact that they i.e. the youths happen to be or
rather constitute a very vital source of manpower and they have in their
possessions the existence of availability of leadership potential.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 6]
Page 3 of 6
-
-
ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Over the years, Nigeria was experienced series of attacks, agitations, restiveness and blests ranging from diverse regions and localities. References are; hostage thing in the south-south region, the Niger Delta militancy crisis, the Boko Haram crisis in Northern Nigeria (which is the case study of this research work) etc. most restiveness of youths has often been done under the puise of a ring or body, this makes their operational activities fast and broader. All these group exist in the divers ... Continue reading---
