ABSTRACT
The research project was carried out in Ngor Okpala L.G.A of Imo State on the problem of youth unemployment and rural crime. The research is aimed at providing vivid and extensive insight on a wide range of the fundamental aspects of youth unemployment and rural crime. In this light very decisive steps were taken to analyse as possible all manner of issues enshrined in the study and understanding of the problems of unemployment and rural crimes in the lives of Ngor Okpala youth. In carrying out this study survey research design was used. Four research questions and hypothesis were formulated. The sample of 150 males and females was selected by probability random sampling techniques. The instruments for the study where the interview method and questionnaire containing nineteen open question, which were validated by the supervisor, the mothers were the respondents. The analysis of data was by use of frequency tables, percentages and chi-square. The major findings of the study were:
Youth unemployment and armed robbery are related.
There is a relationship between youth unemployment and drug abuse.
The unemployment situation is the brain behind burglary in Ngor Okpala
Rural unemployment leads to youth gambling.
The government should provide job opportunities and also ensure an equitable distribution of resources. The gap between the rich and the poor can be narrowed by creating employment opportunities for the citizens, provision of cheap food and shelter and ensuring that education is no longer a privilege but a right in these rural areas.
2) Achieving industrialization by establishing many industries in rural areas of Ngor Okpala, this will create more employment opportunities and reduce the high rate of rural crime.
3) Social amenities should be provided to rural areas especially in this area of study (the people of Ngor Okpala) because this is also a way of creating jobs and it will make many school leavers in the area to accept to work and reside in their rural homes without thinking about committing crimes.
4) There are empty lands in Ngor Okpala, what the government needs to do is to use them to encourage labour-oriented industries, production in the industries that will be established in order to achieve industrialization in our societies should be made labour-intensive instead of total use of machines. By so doing it will create an avenue for the rural youth to get employment and the rate of crime will be reduced.
5) Restructuring our educational system, pre-vocational courses like mechanics, electronics, woodwork, metal work, etc should be taught; these will make our educational products to be job-creators instead of job-seekers.
6) The government should ensure that there is equal distribution of wealth, political participation, economic activities and resources because there is a saying that “what is good for the goose is also good for the gander”. They should ensure that development is a multifaceted thing and not a one sided phenomena, the rural areas should be recognized to avoid crimes.
7) Most rural areas especially Ngor Okpala is traditionally based on agriculture and they take agriculture as their source of economy. So, the government should make agriculture more attractive. This can be done by developing agriculture and those in it should earn more wages, salaries so that it can attract the youth and at least create rooms for more jobs and the high rate of rural crime will be a thing of the past in Ngor Okpala LGA of Imo State.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM
The problem of youth unemployment and rural crime has over the years become an Area of interest and great concern to most nations of the world. It is the intention of this nations to completely eliminate or at least minimize youth unemployment and rural crime in their various nations. The menace of youth unemployment in Nigeria could be said to a recent occurrence because in the pre-colonial days’ great value and dignity was attached to labour as a means of acquiring wealth but now the end justifies the means. Even if unemployment existed it was not the intractable problem it is today.
According to Balogun (2010:82), he opined that of Nigerian’s 150 million population 40 million are unemployed. As 45% of the population is between the ages of 15 to 40 years this means unemployment mainly affect the youth. The Nigeria ruling class is incapable of solving this problem, only the working class can take on the task of eradicating youth unemployment and rural crime. Balogun (2010), argued that it is estimated that over 3 trillion naira has been spent since 2003 just to combat youth unemployment and rural crime. The question is where has this money gone and why does the menace still persist to solve the problem, the government buy a few thousand pepper grinding machines or five thousand bikes and distributes these to hungry youths numbering millions. These methods give rise to massive corruption and provide room for political patronage. These methods also have been used for close to 10 years now and what has it been able to achieve or deliver?
With the extent of human and national resources Nigeria possesses, she ought not to know any poverty, let alone this extent of youth unemployment and rural crime. According to Chigunta (2002:89) this large-scale unemployment among youths is encouraging the development of street youths in Nigeria. the street youths, denied of legitimate means of livelihood, grow up in a culture that encourages criminal behaviour in rural and urban areas where they engage in various activities such as petty trading, casual work, stealing, pick pocketing prostitution, touting and other illegal activities.
Globally, four out of every ten unemployed persons are young women or young men. In some countries, youth unemployment is three times higher than adult unemployment (Vremudia, 2012). Many youths have become pessimistic, feeling powerless to change their situation (Somavia, 2012). ILO 2011 report shows that one in two young persons was actively participating in the labour market. However, unemployment is only one dimension of the youth employment problem. Apart from high levels of unemployment, there is also a decline in the quality of employment available to youth. Many youths end up in situations informal employment and poor working conditions.
Thus the challenge is not just to create employment but to create decent work (Alabi and Alanana, 2012; ILO, 2012). With global unemployment at very high levels, the need to place employment at the centre of economic and social policies has been realized in Africa. The 2006 national census data showed that 20.18% of the Nigerian population were youth aged 15 – 24 years of age (National Population Commission 2006). To Egunjobi (2007), many social problems such as prostitution, robbery, alcoholism, domestic violence, social, religious and civil unrest and suicide to mention but few, become more severe in times of high unemployment. There is a linkage between unemployment, poverty and crime, when people cannot earn an income from legal, legitimate and social acceptable work/means; they turn to illegal activities.
The challenge of social and crime control become a serious issue as the rate of unemployment becomes increasingly unchecked (Alanana, 2003; Oni 2007). The level of insecurity in Nigeria today is rising at an alarming rate. Rubbery, prostitution, bomb blasts, assassinations, religious crises and other criminalacts have become the order of the day in our once peaceful country. These acts are carried out by no other persons than the youth who are considered to be the future leaders. The question here is: why will the youth of a country resort to criminal acts and even killing and bombing their fellow countrymen and women? The answer to this question is not farfetched. Okafor (2011); Alabi & Alana (2012) contented that poverty, unemployment, frustation, hopelessness, and the total lack of commitment of the leaders to the plight of the struggling Nigerian youths are some of the consequences of youth idleness.
Unemployment in Nigeria today has become every youth’s nightmare. It is no longer about going to school and graduating or learning a trade, but about how to face the reality of graduating and joining the brigade of the unemployed with no hope of a better tomorrow. Unemployment coupled with the ever widening social gap are believed to be the reason for youths’ engagement in illegal oil bunkering, kidnapping and arms dealing in the Niger Delta (Alabi, and Osagie 2006). Gilbert (2010) equally argues that the religious crises experience in some parts of the country could be traced to high level of youth unemployment and poverty. To this end, this paper seeks to examine the nexus between unemployment and youth criminality and or the challenges faced while controlling crime among the unemployed youths in Nigeria.
Ngor Okpala is a local government area of Imo state Nigeria, its headquarters are in the town of Umuneke Ngor. It has an area of 56Ikm and a population of 159,932 at the 2006 census. Ngor-Okpala is a notable place in Imo state because of her locational position. Ngor Okpala is the largest local government in Imo state and one of the largest in Nigeria. Ngor is the fastest developing local government in Imo state. Ngor Okpala is blessed with natural mineral resources which has not been tapped. This prominent status of Ngor Okpala as a state local government Areas and its consequent of population explosion and the problems of youth unemployment and rural crime makes it unique for this study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Youth unemployment and rural crime has been a threatening menace in Ngor Okpala as a whole, thus it has become necessary to give full attention as regards how to curb this ugly trend. With over 40 million Nigeria youth effectively unemployed in a population of 150 million, no doubt Nigeria has one of the highest youth unemployment in the figure of the world despite her economic potential. This situation clearly reveals its social essence when we consider it against the fact that Nigeria has 45% of her population between the ages of 15-45 years and due to the extremely low life expectancy of 45 years.
However, Nigerian youth are the hardest hit by this menace of employment. With this figures in mind, it does not need the wisdom of Solomon to clearly understand why there is so much crime, spates of kidnapping, youth unrest and most significantly an extremely unstable social economic structure that has hitherto been bedevilling Nigeria with particular reference to Ngor Okpala. It is one of the major social problems facing all societies in Ngor Okpala. It creates and perpetuates poverty and frustration and even aids uneven distribution of national wealth.
Moreso, it also contributes to low productivity and lack of economic growth it gradually contribute to increase in the level of crime and other anti-social behaviour in the communities and societies especially in Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State. As a result of unemployment the youth went into different rural crimes like robbing cars on roads leading to different villages in the local government.
Nevertheless, in my community Umuhu in Ngor Okpala local government there are recent cases of unemployed youths who engage in crimes like drug abuse and intake of marijuana, and this motivates them to unleash havoc on innocent villagers . Also, they go ahead to steal domestic animals and disrupt rural market in disguised theft. There are also reported cases of these individuals raping young innocent girls and also committing incest taboo and other abominable acts.
Consequently, the above is against the culture of the people of Umuhu community and Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State. This menace known as youth unemployment and rural crime is potentially dangerous as it sends disturbing signal to all segment of Ngor Okpala local government area of Imo State and Nigeria at Large.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
i this study generally investigates the problems of youth unemployment and rural crime with particular reference to Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State;
ii to describe the extent of youth unemployment and crime in Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State; and,
iii to determine crimes that are traceable to unemployment and to proffer solution and recommendation to the problems of youth unemployment and rural crime in Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
i What is the truth of the assertion that more youths in the society especially in Ngor Okpala take to crime because of unemployment?
ii. what is the extent of youth unemployment and crime in Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State.
iii. what crimes are traceable to unemployment and solution to the problems of youth unemployment and rural crime in Ngor Okpala local government of Imo State
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Youth-focused programming by donors has been growing in recent years. It is motivated by both ‘negative’ factors – the perceived threat posed by ‘youth bulges’, high levels of youth unemployment and high youth involvement in violence (crime), extremism and armed conflict – and the positive potential of ‘demographic dividends’ and recognition that youth can contribute to growth and development. Evidence of this comes from the Sustainable Development Goals, which explicitly target youth to a far greater extent than did the Millennium Development Goals, and the growing number of donors with specific youth policies/strategies.
Youth programming by donors covers a range of areas, notably education, health, social protection, peace-building, youth participation and voice, youth rights and youth employment. This review looks only at youth employment programmes. The objectives of youth employment programmes vary: in some, the goal is to promote overall development and poverty reduction; in others, it is specifically to reduce armed violence. Youth employment also features in violence (crime) prevention programmes, though often as just one element in a much wider range. Irrespective of the goal, interventions under youth employment programmes are similar: skills development and vocational training, education, entrepreneurship promotion, changes in legislation/regulations to encourage youth employment, engagement with the private sector and public works schemes.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The notion of unemployment, specifically youth unemployment, as a factor promoting violence is relatively common in the literature. Paul Collier identified the economic growth rate as ‘the single most (statistically) influential variable in determining whether a country returns to war within a few years of a peace settlement’ and saw unemployment as the likely route through which growth could affect violence (Collier, 2000, cited in Cramer, 2015: 1). He argued that unemployment was a source of grievance – providing a motive alongside greed – while the opportunity cost for unemployed young men to engage in violence and join armed groups was low (Collier, 2000, cited in Stewart, 2015: 4).
Cincotta et al. (2003), Heinsohn (2003) and Urdal (2004) (cited in Cramer, 2010) echo the view that youth unemployment is a key cause of insurgency or civil war. ‘It is believed that unemployment triggers participation in insurgencies, prompts people to join violent gangs, drives people to extremism, and that it is the primary reason behind domestic violence’ (Cramer, 2015: 1). Similarly, in relation to crime: ‘Disaffected young people who lack the economic opportunities to raise themselves out of poverty are more vulnerable than adults to participation in armed violence, crime, gangs, drug trafficking and other illicit activities’ (Ali, 2014).
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Youth: Youth is defined in the literature as both an age group and a social construct. As an age group, youth is positioned across the boundaries of childhood and adulthood. The UN General Assembly has defined youth as aged between 15 and 24 years. However, this definition varies across organisations and countries. In Jordan, for example, the lowest age range for youth is 12, whereas in a number of African countries, including Sierra Leone and Rwanda, the upper age range is 35. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) follow the UN definition of youth as aged 15–24 but consider adolescents as aged 10–19 and young people as aged 10–24. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as everyone under the age of 18. In sum, there is no single agreed definition of the youth age category. Youth is better understood as a transition stage between childhood and adulthood, rather than as a specific age group. The World Bank describes this as a period of semi-autonomy, when youth experiment with adult roles but do not fully commit to them (McLean Hilker & Fraser, 2009: 9). However, again, what it means to be an adult can be very different in different cultural contexts. Common markers for the achievement of adulthood include achieving economic independence, leaving the parental home, getting married and having children (ibid.). Inability of youth to find employment can prevent them achieving these goals, and thus ‘stall’ their transition to adulthood – potentially causing frustration and anger. Conversely, there will be factors that accelerate the transition to adulthood, such as conflict/economic crisis necessitating young people to generate income. A final point to note in relation to youth in the literature is that this often refers to young men only. ‘Young women can be invisible and doubly disadvantaged, and are left out of many youth-focused interventions, in part because they are not perceived to represent a threat. In some cultures, female youth as a category scarcely exists, for example in Darfur females become women when they menstruate, before which point they are considered girls’ (McLean Hilker & Fraser, 2009: 9). This review follows the UN definition of youth as aged 15–24 years; where evidence presented is based on differing definitions this is clarified.
Unemployment: This review seeks to assess the link between youth unemployment and violence. However, as noted earlier, in the absence of social protection programmes (e.g. unemployment benefits) in many developing countries, being out of work is not actually an option for many people. Nevertheless, the quantity and quality of work they have could fall far short of their expectations, leading to frustration and anger. Hence this review is not confined to young people who have no work at all but takes a wider perspective, looking at the links between unemployment, under-employment and employment in lowpaid, unsatisfying work, and violence.
Violence: With regard to violence, the review focuses on violence in the form of criminal activity; gang membership and gang violence; and domestic (inter-personal) violence. While there is much literature on the link between unemployment and extremism/recruitment by terrorist or extremist groups, this is not a focus area of the review. Similarly, the review focuses on stable, developing countries rather than countries in conflict situations or fragile states (though, given the limited evidence available on stable developing countries, some evidence from fragile/conflict-affected states is included), and does not look at the effects of youth unemployment in developed countries.