Testament Of Youth

The Niger Delta resulting job creation and Conflict Prevention initiative aimed to enhance peace and security in the country by providing young people with skills to local needs. The first phase of three years the program has resulted in the training of 300 young, at a cost of $ 2.4 million for direct employment in the private sector or self-employment opportunities. Although limited in terms of initial scope and cost, the proposed arrangement a desperately needed win-win for the Nigerian economy as a whole and for youth and the private sector in particular.

The volatile Niger Delta region - a network of shallow creeks leading into the Gulf of Guinea - is both the greatest blessing and a curse for the economy, and the constant focus of activity in all activists West Africa. The discovery of vast oil reserves in the region and the oil boom of the 1970s then resulted in massive destruction of agriculture, with massive displacement of rural communities in the fertile lands without adequate compensation.

The genesis of the conflict and militancy in the Niger Delta back to youth unrest in the early years of independence, which precipitated a perception of injustice surrounding the distribution of oil wealth. A secondary cause was severe environmental pollution from oil exploration, which devastated the local ecology and rendered large tracts of land along the Gulf of Guinea uncultivable. Together these cases processed young community conflicts in the Delta region (widespread in the military between 1983 and 1999) in hardcore criminal activities through the end of last century. Against all odds, the return of democratic governance only served to continue to grow and deepen the crisis.

Although Nigeria has rightly called "petro-violence" is viewed by many as a just struggle against the repressive practices of the federal government and western oil companies, there is little debate about the extent of its impact on national wealth. Bomb attacks, kidnappings and raids oil continues to cause an estimated $ 1 billion a month in revenue losses of oil, according to the Central Bank1 Nigeria. Mounting attacks against oil infrastructure in recent years have limited production to 66% of the installed capacity of three million barrels per day. In fact, international observers point to a direct link between these developments and the record level of $ 150 a barrel oil prices hit last year.

Naturally therefore, there are considerable implications for global and regional efforts around Abuja to end violence by state intervention and peace initiatives. The most recent and notable of these efforts was the unconditional amnesty to all militants of the Niger Delta hosted by President Yar'Adua UM last year. Unfortunately, just days after the announcement, rebels loyal to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) brazenly seized and destroyed an oil distribution center in the first assault of its kind ever held in Lagos, the economic capital countries.

The clear message from this and similar incidents is that the amnesty offer, but well-intentioned, does not resolve a longstanding crisis of great complexity. Although some militia leaders have expressed their intention to surrender, the stakes for Abuja are much higher than the distribution of the state of policing itself. Country's Central Bank is unequivocal in its view that direct the growth of the largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa depends critically containing unrest in the Niger Delta.

Although well over 40 million Nigerians are still jobless2 despite the recently announced sales of 29%. However, unemployment is one of many reasons behind youth unrest around the country.