Impact of militancy on education and economic security in Niger delta region of Nigeria

Abstract

The extensive militarization of the Niger Delta region further elicited a long drawn militancy postures from the restive youth, and the impact of the opposing postures of both State armed actors and non-state armed actors, could be seen aggravating both education security and economic security of the region. It was against this background that this engages relative deprivation theory to investigate the impact of militancy on human security in Niger Delta. The study looked at economic security and education as constructs of human security. This study adopts exploratory research design; using content analysis of publicly available archive documents. The study relies on secondary data. The research is conducted by examining literature concerning militancy and human security in Nigeria. The literature was obtained through searches in publicly available material. Literature from non-serial publications, official reports, and conferences has been included particularly if they have been cited by other references in term of economic security and education security. The study revealed that militancy has negative effects on economic security and education security in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the study concludes that provision of employment opportunities and protection of schools with accessibility to education will go a long way to ensure human security particularly in the Niger Delta region. The study recommends that Federal, State and Local Government evolve adequate protections for education, as that is a conduit of learning tolerance, balance socialisation and civility as against violent narratives from militancy while efforts should be focused on provision of jobs and economic activities to counter the negative narratives of apparent poor governance, used as recruitment bait for the youths into mainstream of militancy in the region.