The Institutional ineffectiveness in Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Youth Combatant in Niger Delta part of Nigeria

Akanbi, Ayandeji Lateef (2018) The Institutional ineffectiveness in Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Youth Combatant in Niger Delta part of Nigeria. PhD thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).

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Abstract

The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) is a strategy programme designed purposely to re-orienting the former youth combatants into normal civilian lives including children, youths and adult involved in any form of violent conflict according to the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP). The youths that involved in the conflict need to be re-oriented into normal civilian status. The Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta part of Nigeria adopted DDR programme, similarly, to what it has been apply to any war affected areas and nations as a strategy to transfer the militants into the civilian status and be productive positively instead of being the agent of destruction. Despite the implementation of DDR as part of the post-conflict peace building process in the Amnesty programme, the Niger Delta violent conflict remains unabated. The impacts of institutions such as Amnesty Operational Framework, family structure, socio-economy structure, religious system, education, and community participation in the reintegration of the youth militants in the Niger Delta are largely ignored in most studies. This study examines the appropriateness, capacity, and capabilities of the institutions that are responsible including the operational framework of Amnesty programme for the reintegration of the youth militant into normal civilian. The Frustration-Aggression and Anomies theories approach were adopted to provide the in-depth explanations on the factors fuelling the crisis in Niger Delta of Nigeria. The study is conducted in Delta State and Bayelsa State of Nigeria as the core centre of the Niger Delta and as the operational base of the youth militants as well as being the hub cities of the multinational oil companies. These areas surrounded by the Lakes and Ocean that give the youth militants the advantages of escaping through the water after their nefarious operations. Qualitative and Survey methods of data collection were used to obtain the data from the stakeholders in the conflict. The methods include the in-depth interviews of 24 key informants, 12 focus group discussions, non-participant observation, 250 administered survey questionnaires and the descriptive statistics is adopted for the data analysis. Ninety per cent of the ex-youth combatants that attended the Amnesty programme have returned into their heinous operation activities while the region still iv witnesses increasingly cases of insecurity of lives and property. However, the Western approach in the designing of the operational framework of the programme made it difficult to reflect the basic needs of these youth combatants. The Niger Delta still witness cases of robbery, burglary, vandalization of oil installations, piracy and other anti-social acts while substantive numbers of youths still roaming the streets of the cities without any tangible means to survive, which it is an indication that the DDR of Amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is still under-achieved. The findings indicated that the institutions that responsible for the reintegration of youth militants need to be identified and considered with their capacity and the capabilities in the operational framework of Amnesty programme for the effectiveness of DDR Programme in order to prevent the youth militants to return to their heinous activities. Recommendations include empowerment and strengthening the institutions to enable them to perform their roles effectively.

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