Functional education, militancy and youth restiveness in Nigeria’s Niger Delta: The place of multi-national oil corporations (MNOCs)

Abstract

The oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been in global focus for sometime due to youth restiveness and lately, militancy occasioned by the disruption of activities of multi-national oil corporations, hostage taking of both foreign nationals and Nigerians alike. This paper opines that functional education is the only panacea to the prevailing situation in the region. By functional education, the paper means such that will equip youths of the region to compete favourably with their peers from within the country and beyond, for job placements (at high levels) in oil companies. The paper calls on the multi-national oil corporations to take ‘the bull by the horns’ in this respect by building and equipping the primary and secondary schools in the region to international standards; and also, paying some reasonable allowances to teachers in such schools to avert their attraction to other sectors. The paper sees this as a long-term, but most effective instrument to curb the negative tendencies of youths in the region. Key words: Functional education, militancy, youth restiveness, Niger delta, multi-national oil corporation.