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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Over the years, Nigeria has experienced series of attacks and blests in most parts of the country. The violent agitations by militants in the Niger Delta” (MEND). So many splinter groups hide under this body to carry out their nefarious acts of rebellion against the Nigerian state to express their grievances over the degradations of their environment through the operation of the multinational oil companies.
Similar groups exist in other parts of the country and they include; the “oduduwa people congress (OPC) which is located in the south-west. They are often called the Afeinifere group. There exists also the “movement for the actualization of sovereign state of Biafra” in the south-East while the „Boko Haram” uses the Northern part of the country as their operational base.
This research study will critically scrutinize and evaluate the activities of the latter amongst the afore mentioned political and religious sects, because that is the thrust of this research. It can be deduced that poverty
and youth restiveness are instrumental to the incessant crisis that has bedeviled our beloved country „Nigeria‟. People are said to be poor when they experience lack of sufficient income to purchase material needs which often excludes individuals from partaking in generally accepted activities of daily life in the society at large. According to ALI MASRUI in his „paradox of retardation”, Africa is not the poorest of the regions of the world but it is the most retarded. He argued that Africans are richly endowed and as such, they have no reason to be poor.
Despite the fact that June 10,2006 marked 50 years of oil exploration and production, and over $400billion accrued to the Nigerian state in terms of revenue, Nigeria is still referred to as one of the poorest countries in the world. This often makes one to wonder how much of this revenue actually found its way into the region where this oil is produced in the way of investment in infrastructure or the development of human capital. Such economic growth is yet to be translated to economic development and an appreciable increase in the standard of living of the Nigerian masses. The economic, social and cultural
rights of the people in the Niger Delta which is the main oil producing region in the country, continous to be unrealized thereby increasing and escalating the level of frustration and tension both within and between communities. This increasing marginalization, environmental degradation and the attendant with the multinational oil companies, preserve poverty, perceived insensitivity on the part of the state and failure of the state to ameliorate the sufferings of the people, have pushed or rather forced the inhabitants of the region specifically the youths to the edge.
These amongst other perceived injustice have made the youths to become very hostile and restless therefore creating an atmosphere of fear, chaos and tension. This drift to violence has unleashed a monster that is now a nuisance to everyone irrespective of personality. The attack are so indiscriminate that even babies, the aged, oil companies and asset to pipelines are frequently targeted for attacks and sabotage.
Having established a relationship between poverty and youth restiveness, we shall now take a look at the Boko Haram crisis for a comprehensive understanding of the research study. Boko Haram as the name denotes, does not have one particular meaning. The name more or less connotes different meanings to different people. The group is a Nigerian Islamic group that seeks the imposition of Shariah group belief (Shariah law) throughout the whole of Nigeria. Figuratively, members of this group believe that “western education is a sin”. Presently, the group has an undefined structure and chain of command. It is of a paramount importance to note that the official name of the group is „Jama‟ Atu Ablis Sunna Lidda‟awati Wal-Jihad‟, which means or rather is tantamount to “people committed to the propagation of the prophet‟s teaching and Jihad.
Since its formation in 2002 in Maiduguri by the leader of the group Mohammed Yusuf, the Boko Haram has been a thorn the flesh of Nigeria‟s security agencies, precisely the police force, over its opposition to western education that it believes is a sin. In the year 2004, the Islamic fundamentalists group relocated its base to Ranamma, Yobe state. The new location was named‟ Afghanistan”, and from there the group set about attacking and leaving members of the Nigerian police lifeless.
In and interview with BBC in the year 2004, Yusuf the leader of the group was quoted as saying that “this war that is yet to start would continue poor a very long time. Five years later i.e. in the year 2009, Yusuf was killed under the police custody in a violent clash between the Boko Haram and the security forces. Nevertheless, his demise did not quell the activities of the group he founded, it rather made them grow more in aggression.
Amongst the various crisis due to bombings carried out by Boko Haram are;
The Nigeria sectarian violence in the year 2009.
The Bauchi prison break 1st Abuja – 2nd Abuja the northern Nigeria bombings in the year 2011.
The attack on the police headquarters on June 16, 2011.
The attack on the ………………….Madala Catholic Church (St Theresa) on the 25th of December 2011 just to mention but a few.
In conclusion, at this juncture, this research work will critically analyze the three concepts i.e. poverty, youth restiveness and Boko Haram in order to create a better understanding in the minds of the readers and more so to contribute to existing knowledge of literature.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It is no longer news that the activities of the Boko Haram and other similar politically religious sects have often led to loss of property, lives and even the breakdown of law and order, peace and security in the Nigerian society at large. From the foregoing, it has been observed that a lot of attacks have been made on so many states which includes even the state capital (F.C.I)
What puzzles most observers is that most of these attacks appears not be executed by suicide bombers, yet the culprits often get away unharmed. This leaves a big question mark in our security agencies as regards their duty in the protection of lives and properties, and the procurement of weapons of mass destruction to combat this menace which is eating deep into the Nigerian society today.
Opinions are however divided over the propelling force of this group, for instance while some argue fact. It is in a bid to eradicate these incessant chaos and destruction which has often led to loss of assets, that we pose a few research questions in a view of obtaining reasonable and positive answers. Thus:
i. What is the relationship between poverty and youth restiveness in Nigeria.
ii. Does the Boko Haram crisis pose a threat development and Nigeria‟s corporate existence?
iii. Is military option capable of lacking the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria?
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main thrust of this study, is to establish the following significance:
i. To ascertain the relationship between poverty and youth restiveness in Nigeria
ii. To find out if Boko Haram crisis poses it threat to development and Nigeria‟s corporate existence.
iii. To explore whether military option is capable of lacking the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will definitely put the 1cmp on the cake to already exuding literatures of poverty and youth restiveness in Nigeria. Its importance lies in the fact that it is currently a prevailing cancaworm and it is very spontaneous and topical.
Moreso, it will act as a guide to the government in their guest the problems associated with poverty in Nigeria.
1.5 LITERATURE REVIEW
This review is precisely concerned with pre existing views and perceptions of various scholars and academicians as regards their contributions to the subject matter, which is the research study. It is as a result of this, that we will take two major variable into review/ these related variables are poverty and youth restiveness.
When talking about poverty, organizations often use different definitions. According to the World Bank organization; it
Poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a society at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in the society (UKCAP, 1997; Galloway, 2002).
What the world bank organization is saying in essence is that poverty cannot be defined separately without talking the economic situation into keen consideration. When individuals or a given greater number of citizens in a country cannot purchase their insatiable needs (both material and non-material), then they can be referred to as wallowing an abject poverty. This, according to the world bank organization, is as a result of the denial of their income as a result of the fact that the principles of „PAYE‟ i.e. pay as you earn, is not always applicable to
every society; therefore, individuals tend to pay higher taxes than they earn, and this leaves the bourgeoisies richer while the peasants and proletariat keep on getting poorer.
According to the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee: “These are basically three current definitions of poverty in common usage”, these in clued: absolute poverty, relative poverty and social exclusion. They not only mentioned the afore listed, but also went ahead to elucidate on them.
Absolute poverty is defined as the lack of sufficient resources with which to keep the body and soul together. Relative poverty on the other hand, defines income or resources in relation to the average. It is concerned with the absence of the material needs to participate fully in accepted daily life. Social exclusion as the third division of poverty, is a new term often used by the government.
According to the prime minister, social exclusion can be defined as …… a shorthand label for what can happen when individuals or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low
incomes, poor housing, hich crime environments, bad health and family breakdown. From the afore mentioned, we can see that the farmer i.e. WBO, concluded or rather condensed the absolute and relative poverty definitions of the latter into a single meaning. Nevertheless, the definition given by the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee is more comprehensive because it encompasses all facets of human existence. We must note that definitions differ according to their narrowness or breath that is in terms of whether they are confined to the material core.
The nature of that material core and whether they embrace also rational/symbolic factors associated with poverty.
Nolan and Whelan (1996:193) are among those who aroue for a definition towards the narrower end of the scale on the grounds that too broad a definition runs the danger of losing sight of the distinctive „core notion of poverty‟.
Following Townsend (1996:188), they define poverty in terms of the inability to participate in society (which is
broader than more absolute‟ definitions confirmed to subsistence needs), but emphasize that what is distinctive is the inability to participate owning to lack of resources. This confines their definition to those areas of life where consumption or participation are determined primarily by command over financial resources (1996:93) veit-Wilson, 1998,2004). By implication they exclude non-material elements found in broad UN definitions, for example, ‟lack of participation in decision making”, “a violation of human dignity‟, powerlessness‟ and susceptibility to violence‟ (cited in Langmore, 2000:37) similarly, they exclude some of the non-material aspects emphasized by people in poverty themselves, such as lack of voice, respect and self-esteem, isolation and humiliation (UKCAP,1997, Galloway, 2002).
At this juncture, we must note that it makes sense to pitch the definition of poverty towards the narrower end of the spectrum of non poverty. Another source of variation is definitions of poverty reflected in the literature on measurement, lies in whether they are rooted an conceptualizations that are concerned with; on the one
hand, a person‟s material resources especially income, and on the other, with actual outcomes in terms of living standards and activities (Nolan and Whealan,1996).
Stein Ringer (1996) defined poverty from two dimensions namely; the first case and the second case. In the first case poverty is defined indirectly through the determinants of ways of life, while in the second case, he defined poverty directly by way of life (1987:146). Practically, these two approaches are often treated as complementary (as in Nolan and Whelan‟s definition above.
Ringers own definition is not unusual in combing the two: “a low standard of living, meaning deprivation in way of life because of insufficient resources to avoid such deprivation‟ (1987:146). Put simply, someone is “poor” when they have both a low standard of living and a low income‟ (Gordon etal, 2000:91). A.B. Atkinson in his definition of poverty, make a related, but more fundamental distinction between a concern with standard of living and a concern with a citizen‟s right to minimum level of resources (1989:12). He also added in 1990, that poverty is increasingly being conceptualized as a denial of human and citizenship rights. This conceptualization of poverty is also helpful from the perspective of understanding and combating written poverty. Millar and Glendimning (1991:464), propounded the feminist definition of poverty, saying that the feminist concept of poverty can be described in terms of an individual right to a minimum decree of potential economic independence. This view, focuses on the individuals capacity to be self-supporting on the grounds that people who are financially dependent upon others must be considered vulnerable to poverty (1992:9).

We must note that the notion of vulnerability is helpful to understanding the situation of women without an independent income who nevertheless enjoy a comfortable standard of living. From these, we can now gather information that poverty is the inability to participate in society involving both a low income and a low standard of living.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 restiveness”, 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 Nigeria”.
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.
The youths can also acquire knowledge and are so full of future promises and positive expectations. It is often believed that once these innate potentials in them are fully exploited and properly channeled, only then can their contributions to national development be immense. The youths can also be referred to as the most committed group in the organization of voluntary social work or community development (CD) projects in their various localities. They often engage in these acts of nation
building during their service years in the (NYSC) that is “national youth service corps that is “National youth service corps”.

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