Youth Militancy in the Niger Delta Region

The Niger Delta is a trouble spot in contemporary Nigerian politics and, in fact, a hotspot of youth militant activities. This is because the nature of oil exploitation and the politics of distribution of oil wealth has created disempowerment, frustration and deprivation that underpinned outbreak of violence and conflicts in the form of youth militancy. The literature is awash with causes and consequences of Niger Delta militancy. Also, the violent repression and the militarisation of the Niger Delta by the Nigerian state is well documented in literature. Perhaps, the main contribution of this chapter to the narratives entails interrogating critically the drivers that underpinned the recent post-amnesty resurgence or revival of youth militancy in the Niger Delta spearheaded by Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) since 2016. Thus, the main objective of this chapter is to comprehensively discuss the causes and consequences of youth militancy, with a focus on the recent post-amnesty resurgence of youth militancy in the Niger Delta as spearheaded by NDA. To achieve the above objective, the chapter is divided into seven main sections. The first section provides the background, overview and outline of the chapter. The second section tries to conceptualise and delineate the Niger Delta region. The third section traces the historical origin and evolution of youth militancy in the Niger Delta. The fourth section attempts to identify and describe the nature, methods, cases and instances of Niger Delta youth militancy. The fifth section identifies and explains various causes of Niger Delta youth militancy, with special focus on the revival of youth militant activities by NDA in 2016, whilst the sixth section enumerates the numerous effects of the Niger Delta youth militancy. Finally, the seventh section summarises the chapter by highlighting the salient points.