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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp016q182n949| Title: | Youth and the Generational Dimensions to Struggles for Resource Control in the Niger Delta: Prospects for the Nation-State Project in Nigeria |
| Other Titles: | Prospects for the Nation-State Project in Nigeria |
| Contributors: | Obi, Cyril |
| Keywords: | Youth Nigeria Niger River Delta Region Political activity Minorities Civil rights Natural resources Ethnic relations Economic aspects Political aspects |
| Issue Date: | 2006 |
| Publisher: | CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) |
| Place of Publication: | Dakar, Senegal |
| Series/Report no.: | CODESRIA Monograph Series |
| Description: | The central objective of this paper therefore is to explore the various ramifications of the involvement of the youth in the struggle for resource control in the volatile Niger Delta. It is based on the analysis of primary and secondary materials, field observations, interviews and interactions with some of the actors in the Niger Delta Youth movements. The struggle for resource control is a complex one. It is essentially hinged upon the youths’ interrogation of the inequities in the control of the resources of the Niger Delta and how, they negotiate generational spaces in contesting their alienation, exploitation and impoverishment by the petro-partnership of the Nigerian state and global oil capital. Therefore, it transcends the current effort in statist and oil corporate discourses to criminalise the youth and through these rationalise brutal andrepressive tactics in suppressing protests in Nigeria’s oil-rich, but impoverished region. Beyond this, it analyses the nature, and role of the youth in seeking to transform the inequitable power relations and (re)gain ownership of the land and oil in the Niger Delta, and the prospects for the future. On this basis it is important to note that the youth in relation to their identity and consciousness are not an undifferentiated whole. Also in terms of the relationship between the youth and social transformation, just as Mannheim noted (1952: 276-322), there is a difference between the youth as a generation ‘in itself’ and the youth as a generation ‘for itself’. With regard to the Niger Delta, it is possible to discern complex elements at play – in defining who is a youth, and the calculations and local/global idioms that underlie youth engagement with the each other, the elders, the state, local elite, and oil multinationals. |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp016q182n949 |
| ISSN: | 2869781806 9782869781801 |
| Related resource: | http://www.codesria.org |
| Appears in Collections: | Serials and series reports (Publicly Accessible) - CODESRIA |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyril_Obi.pdf | 240.13 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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