Perceived Causes of Youth Restiveness by Security Personnel in Sokoto Metropolis

Perceived Causes of Youth Restiveness by Security Personnel in Sokoto Metropolis

Purposes of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to carry out an investigation on the perceived causes of youth restiveness by security personnel in Sokoto Metropolis. The followings are the specific purposes of this study:

1. To find out the causes of youth restiveness by security personnel in Sokoto metropolis.
2. To find out the perceived effects of youth restiveness by security personnel in Sokoto metropolis.
3. To find out the techniques for curbing or ameliorating youth restiveness by security personnel in Sokoto metropolis.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Conceptual Framework

Concept of youth restiveness

Chukuezi (2009) defined youth restiveness as a combination of actions or conduct that constitutes or runs contrary to accepted societal norms and standard. Youth restiveness has now assumed a global dimension in all the continents of the world where the youths are unsatisfied with government policies or where government has neither provided promulgated social welfare policies nor thought of implementing people oriented programme that will capture restiveness in youths. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the aetiological factors, effects, patterns and possible remediation using the potential in counselling and functional literacy for empowering the youth in Nigeria.

Restiveness among youths globally and those in Nigeria has become a behaviour pattern which has degenerated into a topical global issue. Youth restiveness portrays man’s negative side of social development. This negative development is rather unfortunate and has become one of the many security challenges facing man in the contemporary society. In many occasions, lives and properties worth millions of naira have been lost or vandalized and some razed down by restive youths. As observed by Chukwuemeka and Agbara (2010), human society and in fact the entire universe is simply and squarely a complex entity. In view of this, individuals and groups have their complexities, needs, aspirations, hopes, goals, opinions, views and values which could be social, economic, religious, psychological or political. Consequently, there is bound to be restiveness among different groups of people especially youths who are at their prime age. The term youth has been variously defined. Ndu (2000) and Yusuf (2001) saw youths as neither adolescents nor children characterized by excessive energy that needs to be exerted, which if not guarded, is channelled into negative tendencies. The United Nations general assembly and World Bank cited in Adewuyi (2008) define the youths as people between the ages 15-24 years. In Nigeria, the people within the age limit of thirty years are considered as youths hence they are allowed to participate in the national youths service scheme (NYSC). For this paper, for NYSC definition for youths is adopted.

Youths are filled with energy and when this energy is positively channeled or guarded, they are highly productive, and hence they are likely to contribute to the overall development of the society. On the other hand, when the energy is negatively channeled, restiveness and its resultant effects are likely to be felt.

Chika and Onyene (2010) observed that to be restive is to be unable to stay still, or unwilling to be controlled especially because one is bored or not satisfied with certain decisions, changed or existing laws considered to be unfavourable. Youth restiveness involves the combination of actions, conducts and behaviour which constitutes unwholesome, socially unacceptable behaviour exhibited by youths in the society.

Youth restiveness has been a device used by the youth to get what they want from the relevant authority. Chika and Onyene (2010) asserted that youth resistance to conditions, issues and unwelcomed leadership regimes dates back to 1934 when Herbert Macaulay floated a political party to kick against dependency with fellow elite youths that had contact with the West. In addition, political parties like the National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), the Northern People‟s Congress (NPC), the Action Group (AG), has their youth wings as vibrant as the other parties. Since then, there has been proliferation of youth association like students‟ unions, ethnic cliques and cleavages as well as clannish orientation among students which appear to have legitimized restive reactions among the youths on campuses.

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CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

Wright et al., (2016) described research design as “the overall strategy for conducting research that defines a concise and logical plan to address established research questions through the collection, interpretation, analysis, and discussion of data”. The study research design describes the type of research used, hypotheses, research problem, dependent and independent variable (Creswell, 2012). This study employed a descriptive research design method. The descriptive research design is used to systematically and accurately describe the characteristics of a study population (Diekmann, 2019). The descriptive research design was used because the study relied majorly on primary data collected from sampled respondents.

Population of the study

The population of the study is the total number of individuals from whom the study data was gathered in the study area (Adèr et al. 2018). The target population for this study comprised residents of Sokoto metropolis. For the purpose of this study, a target population of 1690 was used.

Sample and sampling technique

In this study, the researcher used the Taro Yamane formula to determine the sample size. Yamane (1967) provides a simplified formula to calculate sample sizes.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the data analysis which was obtained from the questionnaire distribution procedure to the respondents with respect to the study. Data were analyzed and presented in percentage and frequency tables. Two hundred copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents, and all copies were properly filled and returned. This gave a response rate of 100%, which was suitable to be used for the study.

Sociodemographic representation

Table 4.1: Sociodemographic data of respondents

Table 4.1 below shows the socio-demographic data of respondents. The majority of the respondents 173 (51.1%) were aged between 35 and 45 years. Also, a majority of the respondents 168(49.8%) were married. Most of the respondents 203(60.1%) were Christians, 106 (43.5%) were working in the Civil service, and 204 (60.4%) were BSc. / HND degree holders.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

This study examined the perceived causes of youth restiveness by security personnel in Sokoto Metropolis. There is no doubt that educational development, as well as other infrastructural development in the study area, has suffered some set back orchestrated by the restive activity of the youths. As a result, many have dropped out of school and resorted to activities such as kidnapping, and other forms of criminality. As a consequence for these restive activities, most facilities including the social development Institute located in Sokoto metropolis have been looted while some other institutions have been deserted including primary and secondary schools. With this situation, future educational development in the areas is even more at risk. The study was structured into five chapters. Chapter one introduced the context of the topic by describing the problem that led to executing this project. Chapter two discussed the review of related literature. The literature review was done on the basis of conceptual framework, theoretical framework and empirical review. Chapter three described the method employed in this research. Here, the study used a descriptive survey method to collect data from sample respondents using self-structured questionnaires. Chapter four presented the results of the analyzed data and discussed the findings by comparing it with previous researches. Finally, Chapter five gives the summary, conclusion and recommendations of the study.

Implications of the study

The implication of this is that educational development has been hampered drastically and unless efforts are channeled towards curbing the youth restiveness in the area, worst is expected. As crucial as educational development may seem, yet where there are restive activity, educational programs and activities cannot thrive. Rather than provide a supportive atmosphere, where the youths are engaged in restive activity, there will be retrogression of education rather than progressive development. Consequently, the government and all stakeholders must put hands on deck towards tackling it. This can be done in the following ways:

1. Through embarking on education and empowerment programs including giving monthly allowances to unemployed youths, training and acquisitions programs especially in areas where there is relative peace and stability so that they can pass the message to others as they are trained.
2. Embarking on media and enlightenment campaigns whereby the youths could be the target while positive and negative consequences of youth restiveness could be reemphasised as a way of discouraging them from those actions.
3. Through counselling and mentoring sessions, both government and private individuals, including NGOs.
4. Engaging religious and traditional leaders to reach out to the youths in order to receive spiritual and social transformation that could lead to a change of attitude. Through religious intervention, citizens, including the youths, can be taught the fear of God. A typical example is a reach-out program organised by churches such as Salvation Ministries, Omega Power Ministries (OPM)amongst others, in Port Harcourt, where cultist and ex-militants are reached out to so that they can embrace Christ and give up their old live styles and weapons of violence. This can be extended to the rural areas, including the area of study, targeting the youths, especially those engaged in restive activities.

Conclusion

The causes of Youth Restiveness by security personnel have been unfolded by this study from the perceptions of the residents of Sokoto metropolis. All these were caused by the actions and inactions of the governments, individuals and groups in governance. The impending doom is the imminent collapse of the country’s economies, politics and social wellbeing of Nigeria. Causes of youth restiveness have been linked to a variety of factors as responsible for it. Some could be institutional such as corruption, bad leadership, unequal distribution of resources and unemployment as well as ineffective communication from political leaders, while others could be Psychological (instability/frustration, illiteracy, drug abuse) and caused by the youths (peer/cult group influence)  or their parents (poor child upbringing, poverty) as the case may be. With the study area, it could be said combinations of these factors are responsible.

The way out is to admonish all well-meaning Nigerians (Youths and government) to embrace peace and harmony, while those in power should urgently address the necessary solutions recommended in the study.

Recommendations

1. The federal government should take positive steps toward addressing poverty in the country, honestly.
2. Steps should be taken to ameliorate the issues of high prices of essential commodities such as electricity bills, fuel pump prices, rents, housing problem, etc.
3. Counselling services should be made available to youths in schools and out of schools.
4. Casson in collaboration with the government should promote family and community counselling.

For national peace and cohesion, the following services should be made available:

1. • Undertaking leadership training for youths from different religions, backgrounds, faith and ethnicities should be addressed.
   • Organising short-term residential camps for our Restive youths, Terrorists and Militants.
   • For national integration, multicultural activities should be organised.
   • Promoting inter-state youths programmes like football, athletics, etc
   • Symposia and seminars on national integration should be organised.
2. For peace and orderliness to reign in Nigeria, job creation must be given a priority for our idled millions of youths.
3. Churches, Mosques and religious bodies should admonish their followers to preach peace which is their onerous goal.
4. Our school curriculum at all levels should imbibe moral and peace education in their syllabi for our youths to be reformed.
5. The national anthem and pledge should not be recited and sang for singing sake. Their messages should be internalized and practiced in our daily lives, especially by the youths.
6. Finally, our complex and heterogeneous societies and ethnicities, peaceful co-existence should be practiced by our teeming youths to foster unity in the country.

Limitations of the study

The study will be faced with a lot of challenges and one is the problem of finance. There is nothing like research grant to aid self-sponsored study. Consequently, there is not going to be enough funds to print questionnaires and to also transport the researcher to meet the desired respondents. Another one is time; the researcher is currently busy with the demand of his academics. A lot of assignments are available for the researcher to do and coupled with his desire to read and learn at the same time. These are the major challenges of this study.

Suggestion for further studies

This study assessed the perceived causes of youth restiveness by security personnel in Sokoto metropolis. The following is suggestion for further study:

• Effect of youth restiveness on academic performance among students in Sokoto State.
• The causes and effect of youth restiveness by senior secondary school students in Sokoto metropolis.

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