BEYOND THE THRESHOLD OF CIVIL STRUGGLE: YOUTH MILITANCY AND THE MILITIA-IZATION OF THE RESOURCE CONFLICTS IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The resource agitations and conflicts in the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria that were originally civil and communal have since been transformed into armed struggles conducted by disparate youth militia groups. Crime, violence and insecurity, state militarization, ethnic militia-ization and communal and ethnic wars now pervade the region. The study analyzed the youth militancy and militias in the context of deep economic and resource crises and found that multinational oil company strategies and state repression conduced the emergence and consolidation of the militia phenomenon from the youth who are plagued by unemployment and poverty. The study also found that infiltration of political elites, loss of focus and poor control have combined to turn the militias into perpetrators of crime, violence and insecurity and agents of private interests and greed. The consequences of militancy and militia-ization have been very disruptive and devastative to the economy, governance, inter-group relations, communal cohesion and security of the Niger Delta region.