BAD GOVERNANCE AS BOON TO YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA: THE PUBLIC SPHERE PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
Despite its strong economic surge in recent past, Africa’s economic performance remained non-inclusive. More particularly, the economic growth of Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, is also non-inclusive. The country’s economic growth does not translate into economic opportunities for its people. Youths, who are the dominant demographic cohort in the region, are idle, jobless, and poor. To address this problem, this study explores the link between bad governance and youth unemployment and political violence in Nigeria. Using Habermas’ theory of the public sphere, the study argues that the dictatorial, “representational culture” of governance that Nigeria assumes serves as a boon to youth unemployment and political violence in the country. Through secondary data analysis, the study founds that as few powerful elites become active, they, in turn, are subjugating their subjects—the majority of whom are youths—to passivity. As a result, the subjects feel marginalized in their own land, with no voice, job, and hope—thus taking arms against their leaders and against their own state.
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