THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF YOUTH RESTIVENESS, TERRORISM AND MILITANCY IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA AS PERCEIVED BY THE NIGER DELTA UNIVERSITY, BAYELSA STATE'S UNDERGRADUATES: IMPLICATION FOR COUNSELLING

Abstract

The focus of this research paper is on the causes and effects of Youth Restiveness and Militancy in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, as perceived by the Niger Delta University undergraduates in Bayelsa State of Nigeria: Implication for counselling. The design adopted for the study is the descriptive survey design. One thousand Six hundred and ninety (1690) undergraduate students of Niger Delta University formed the population of the study. While the sample size comprised 338 undergraduates selected through random sampling technique from the education faculty of the university. The researchers developed the Youth Restiveness and Militancy (YRM) Questionnaire with 21 items and used it for the study. Three research questions and two hypotheses were formulated for this study. For the two hypotheses, there were no significant differences on the basis of gender in the perceived factors responsible for youth restiveness and militancy in the Niger Delta Region and the perceived causes of youth restiveness and militancy on religion issues. The major issues shown on the results include slow or casual approach of government, corruption, unemployment, poverty and bad governance which are causal issues of the cankerworms. Furthermore, from the results, there were evidence that youth restiveness and militancy may culminate in economic stagnation, fear and suspicions, political instability, terrorism, et-cetera. Remediations to the canker worms include creation of employment for the youths, provision of counselling services in schools and communities, poverty eradication by government and so on. The following recommendations were made as fallouts from the study which included peace education at all levels of education, job creation for all youths and the provision of counselling services in the universities, secondary schools and the communities.