In 2008 alone, the country lost $ 20.7 billion in oil profits due to militant violence in the oil-rich but volatile Niger Delta region1. A report from the Presidential Technical Committee to the Nigerian government attributed the fiscal loss to the activity of armed militants at the oil facilities that resulted in closures and spills. The conflict has significantly paralyzed oil exports, the country’s main source of income, from 2.6 million barrels in 2006 to a current figure of just 1.78 million barrels. The human component of this economic tragedy is even more appalling: at least 1,000 lives lost and another 300, including 44 oil workers and foreign businessmen, kidnapped.
The Nigerian government considers four of the nine states in the delta region as conflict zones, and foreign travel to these locations is strictly restricted. The area of 70,000 square kilometers, a pillar of the country’s economy, represents 85% of state revenues2. The armed insurgency in the region is rooted in a perceived sense of negligence on the part of both the oil companies and the national government, a sentiment that is corroborated by empirical evidence. Despite its strategic and economic importance, the Niger Delta region’s human development indices are well below national averages. Additionally, pollution from oil and gas exploration has decimated indigenous livelihoods such as fishing, bringing home disease, malnutrition and high mortality rates, as well as serious environmental repercussions.
However, localized symptoms in the Niger Delta are only part of the problem. Poverty remains endemic despite the billions that pour into the national coffers. Successive government policies of the last century did not include the vast majority of Nigerians; 76 million of whom are officially classified below the poverty line, while a staggering 35% of the population continues to live in extreme poverty3.
However, poverty has an unavoidable social cost, and for an impoverished people, crime is often an easy step out of deprivation. Although it is difficult to obtain reliable independent data, Nigeria has a massive unemployment rate that adds thousands of new graduates to its list of unemployed each year. The country’s leading newspaper “This Day” reports in a September 2007 story that young Nigerians make up half of the population, 95% of whom are unemployed4. By the government itself, more than 70% of the population was unemployed that year. Since then, the figure has dropped to just under 29% to match recent independent World Bank findings. Even at this rate, however, more than 40 million Nigerians are currently unemployed. It is significant that the policy changes made after 1999 did little to mitigate the situation, largely due to a misguided focus on capital-intensive firms that generated few job opportunities. The situation was made worse by acute infrastructure shortages, forcing hundreds of factories and informal sector industries to lay off workers.
Consequently, juvenile delinquency has been on the rise, fueled by decades of underinvestment in the social sector, coupled with poor poverty alleviation and ineffective unemployment reduction initiatives. Over the years, billions in annual oil revenue entering the country raised the bar on its economic and social aspirations, resulting in a climate of criminal propensity.
For a nation with millions of unemployed youth, the abrupt result has been an increase in violent crime by individuals and gangs, including frequent assaults, muggings, robberies, carjacking, extortion, and kidnapping. Fraud is an especially huge criminal subsector here. In fact, the US Department of State specifically warns travelers heading to Nigeria to beware of innovative scams hatched via the Internet that pose the risk of both financial loss and personal danger.
During many years of political and social upheaval, the accumulation of petty crime has transformed Nigeria into an established transit point on drug routes heading to Europe and North America. Due to its strategic location, the country has also become a center of massive economic corruption and criminal activity. However, since 1999, a climate of renewed collaboration with international law enforcement agencies has led to substantial crackdowns on syndicated criminal activities across the country. A notable achievement in this regard has been a national initiative against money laundering of drugs, which resulted in the removal of Nigeria from the Financial Action Task Force list of non-cooperative countries in 2006. However, monitoring continues. The country’s commitment to the fight against economic crime.
The combination of poverty, inflation and unemployment in Nigeria has created a situation where opportunities for gainful employment are scarce and crime is often a means of survival. The same is true for much of sub-Saharan Africa, where legitimate opportunities are shrinking. Across Nigeria, the highest incidence is property crime, related to survival: robbery, armed robbery, cheating, etc. Inherent flaws in the criminal justice system only add to the problem. Dealing with public order is especially difficult due to the existence of a triple criminal justice system, which includes a Penal Code, a Penal Code (based on Islamic edicts) and customary law, some of which are informal and unwritten.
Juvenile delinquency is currently one of the biggest obstacles on Nigeria’s path to accelerated economic development. One of the government’s central priorities, in the context of long-term development goals, remains the mobilization of its significant young population to lead a business revolution. Nigeria’s emerging leadership has, in principle, at least realized the urgency of implementing fundamental initiatives regarding the creation of new jobs for sustainable and inclusive growth. For Nigeria, developing entrepreneurship is a social and economic imperative. The following issues require critical consideration as part of any concerted government effort in this regard:
* In the warfare of Nigeria’s turbulent past, maintaining political stability and the authority of democratic institutions is critical to the success of any worthwhile youth revival initiative.
* Improved per capita income, standard of living, and related human development indices through the implementation of informed changes in social and economic policies.
* Effective poverty alleviation programs that focus on business development as a viable means of legitimizing prosperity. Mobilization of the youth workforce to promote rapid business development in both rural and urban areas.
* Massive revision of the educational system to correctly address local realities. Focus on skills and vocational development programs that translate into practical job opportunities.
* Rehabilitation programs for Niger Delta militants and other criminal elements that focus on equipping them with practical skills and harnessing their economic potential.
For a country beset by a bewildering array of problems, piecemeal measures can hardly be effective in the long term. Hopefully, Nigeria has at least started to take positive action.
In June this year, the government of President UM Yar’Adua announced a declaration of amnesty for militants in the Niger Delta region. The proclamation recognizes that the militancy arose out of the state’s inability to meet the aspirations of the local population and the need for sustainable development in the Delta states. He goes on to add that most of the militants are “healthy young people whose energies could be harnessed for the development of the Niger Delta and the nation as a whole.”
As is the case with most seemingly insoluble problems, the problem of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria also contains its solution!