Youth and Transformation to Political violence in North Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Political violence being a global phenomenon had attracted several scholarly researches and non-governmental organizations reports particularly in relation to the sponsors, causes and consequences of such violence on the society. However, not much attention has been given to the actors if any, particularly in the case of Kalare youth group in Gombe state, Nigeria. Since the emergence of a group of youth known as Kalare as a tools for political violence in Gombe state, political congresses and elections are always accompanied with these violence groups, who are mobilised to scare the opponent or to counter attacks the perceived enemies. This paper investigated the factors responsible for the transformation of Kalare youth to political violent groups. This paper uses qualitative method of social research contrary to the study done in 2007 by Bashir using quantitative method which concluded that the youth were involved into political violence as a result of unemployment rate among the youth. Contrary to the earlier result this paper found out that the youth were influenced by other factors with material motivation offered by politicians as the major factor that pulled the youth into act of political violence. Others are poverty, moral decadence, drugs and peer groups influence.  

Keywords: Youth, Transformation, Political violence, North Eastern Nigeria