Youth Restiveness And Education: A Sociological Study Of The Niger Delta Region Of Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the factors that predispose youth

of the Niger Delta to restiveness and find out how education in the form of skills

acquisition and a general social education can help solve or reduce this social

menace. Faulty socialization was identified as the basic reason for this malady.

Other reasons include unemployment, poverty, marginalization, the problems in the

Nigerian educational system, negative national values, lack of parental guidance,

long viewing hours of violent films and the easy availability of guns and small

arms in the hands of the youth. The study drew upon two research designs, namely

the descriptive-survey and the quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test designs

involving 1339 respondents made up of 682 males and 657 females whose ages

ranged between 18 – 30 years. They were drawn from the four States of Akwa-

Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers. The 1st treatment group was exposed to skills

acquisition only. The 2nd treatment group was exposed to a general social

education and skills acquisition. The control group received neither skills

acquisition nor general social education. Five hypotheses were tested and five

instruments were used to generate relevant data for the study. The data generated

were analyzed using ANOVA, multiple regression, Pearson product correlation

statistics and independent t-test comparison as well as descriptive statistics of

simple percentages, mean and standard deviation. All the five hypotheses tested at

0.05 level of significance were rejected. The findings of the study indicated that

skills acquisition alone was not sufficient to reduce violent behaviour among the

youth. A combination of skills acquisition and a general social education was

found to be most efficacious in reducing attraction of the youth to violence. The

findings also revealed that the youth in the middle socio-economic class were most

favourably disposed to violence followed by those in low socio-economic

background. The findings also indicated that youth who have strong religious

affiliations were less prone to violence. A general social education should,

therefore, be included in skills acquisition training for youth.