evaluation of the influence of social media on youth

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EVALUATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTH RESTIVENESS IN NIGERIA

Chiji Longinus Ezeji, Ph.D Department of Criminology and Security Studies,

Caleb, University Imota, Lagos. Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Abstract The causes of youth restiveness are many and continue to increase every day, just as the miscreants who thrive on this misdemeanour improve on their talent for mischief. The youths constitute a large army of the unemployed and blame their plight on the society that does not care for them. Youth restiveness is the omnibus term for a host of anti-social and downright criminal behaviours perpetrated by a sizeable proportion of youth in various communities around Nigeria. This study evaluated the influence of social media on youth restiveness in Nigeria. The study adopted qualitative methodology. An interview technique was used to collect data. A total of fifty-five participants were purposively selected for the interview due to their vast knowledge on the topic under study. The findings revealed that the youth use social media to receive and share information and that fake news-play role in escalating violence, youths are involved in restiveness due to unemployment, rebel, youths and exuberance, youth restiveness leads to breakdown of law and order, low productivity, disruption of production activities. The recommends that the government should tackle the problem from the grass root, provide employment for the youth.

Keywords: Combating, Evaluation, Government, Nigeria, Restiveness Strategies, Youth.

Introduction Youth restiveness in Nigeria has been a prominent issue in recent times. There has been an increase in the occurrence of acts of violence and lawlessness, including acts like hostage-taking of prominent citizens and expatriate oil workers, oil bunkering, arms insurgence, occultism, etc., especially in the Niger Delta region. Moreover, the Northern part of Nigeria has also suffered a surge of violence between pastoralists and allied armed groups frequently called bandits who are made up of the youths, on one hand, and farmers supported by community and state-sponsored vigilantes, on the other (National Research Council, 2019). The situation is aggravated by the proliferation of deadly criminal gangs, thriving in a region awash with arms and which state security forces struggle to control. Largely occurring in rural areas, the violence has spread from its epicentre in Zamfara state to other states in the northwest and into states in North Central

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Nigeria. Poverty, unemployment, lack of infrastructure, and other factors have aggravated the problem of youth restiveness, lawlessness, and violence. Various forms of youth restiveness are economically, politically or religiously motivated. The young worldwide are a vital and important segment of the society in which they live. A disciplined, focused, and law-abiding youth can create a bright future for any nation. Conversely, a lawless, indulgent, and violent youth is a great threat to a nation's peace and security (Elegbeleye, 2005). In recent times, the media landscapes have been changing and social media has become a popular way to deliver messages directly to stakeholders. Social media is audience; driven and people must visit sites (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) or become followers to access particular information (Coombs, 2012). Many youths use social media to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with others. This sharing takes the form of text, audio, video or multimedia. Moreover, there is no time or space limits on social media as users generate information that can spread across borders and time zones within seconds. Social media encompass various digital tools and applications to aid communication and exchange of content among individuals, the public, and organisations. The fake news disseminated via social media has affected youth restiveness.

Nigerian youths engaged in restiveness; Recent media report showed cases of armed conflicts, killings, wanton destruction of lives and property kidnappings, looting, and pipeline destruction among others in most Nigerian States. The issue of insecurity in the country recently become of most concern to the Nigerian government and members of the public. The recent #End SARS# protest escalated violence in all the communities and states in Nigeria. Media houses were torched and many properties belonging to the government and private have been vandalised and some set on fire. Many lives were lost because of violence and action of some of the law enforcement officials. The problem that is facing the nation is how youth restiveness can be curbed in Nigeria. It is against this background that this paper seeks to determine the causes, effects and ways of keeping youth restiveness in Nigeria. Social media network sites are online platforms through which individuals, groups and organisations create presence and share information through texts, photos, music videos, etc. The more worrisome aspect of social media is its potency to be used to spread fake news with its significant negative effects on society and on youth’s decisions and violent behaviours. Strategies employed by youth include mass agitation, protests, demonstrations, looting, vandalism, occultism, ethnic militia, political thuggery among others. This trend of events demands for urgent and timely intervention.

The study resonates on the argument that government should provide a mechanism for keeping fake news at the minimum. There is need for government to provide central information guide on sensitive issues. The government should monitor information and announcements made via social media platform, in collaboration with internet service providers. There is a need to provide accurate and up-to-date information in the event of emergencies. Nigerian youth as future

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leaders need access to various information which will help them take their rightful place in the comity of nations. Such information should be geared towards creating the awareness that the future belongs to them should not be destroy it. The study based on the theories of social disorganisation and relative deprivation and argues that the social determinants of social disorganisation in a society are education, occupation, median family income and family disruption. It is argued that, a neighbourhood characterised by a high number of uneducated people, high levels of unemployed young people, high level of poor people and a high rate of divorce is a fertile-ground for crime and violence. It is suggested that social disorganisation encourages youth violence through its effects on family structures and stability. Whereas, relative deprivation refers to the disenchantment people feel when they compare their positions to others and realise that others in the group possess something that they do not have and when this feeling persists, it may lead to frustration, stress and aggression, which results to violence. In other words, relative deprivation is the distinction between one’s value expectations and value capabilities. Value expectation alludes to merchandise and opportunities that the individual needs and feels qualified for, evaluated, taking into account correlations with others.

Objectives:

This study aims to: (i) Identify the causes of youth restiveness in Nigeria. (ii) Determine the effects of youth restiveness in Nigeria. (iii) Evaluate the Role of Information on social media in escalating Youth

Restiveness (iv) Suggest ways for address youth restiveness in Nigeria.

Research Questions:

The following questions will be answered in this study:

(i) What cause restiveness among Nigerian youths? (ii) What effects does youth restiveness have on Nigeria? (iii) What role does information on social media play in escalating youth

restiveness? (iv) What are the appropriate for addressing youth restiveness in Nigeria?

2.0 Conceptual Framework/Literature Review

Definition of Concepts of Youth The National Youth Development Policy (2001) defines youth as people aged 18–35 years. Elegbeleye (2005) defined youth restiveness as “a sustained protest embarked upon to enforce the desired outcome from a constituted authority by an organised body of youths that is marked by violence and disruption of lawful activities. Information is new ideas or knowledge extracted from the environment for human use with the aim of modifying behaviour, effecting changes and enhancing the efficiency in all human endeavours (Ajegbomogun, 2008). Ndu


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(2000) and Yusuf (2001) saw youths as neither adolescent's nor children characterized by excessive energy that needs to be exerted, which if unguarded, is channelled into negative tendencies. Furthermore, Adewuyi (2008) defines the youth as people between ages 15 to 24 years. I n Nigeria, the people within the age limit of 30 to 35 years are considered youths, hence, they are allowed to participate in the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC). Youths are filled with energy and when this energy is positively channelled or guarded, they are highly productive, and hence they contribute to the overall development of society. Alternatively, when the energy is negatively channelled, restiveness and its resultant effects are felt. Chika and Onyene (2010) observed that being restive is to be unable to stay still, or unwilling to be controlled, especially because one is bored or not satisfied with certain decisions, changed or existing laws considered to be unfavourable. Youth restiveness involves the combination of actions, conduct and behaviour, which constitutes unwholesome, socially unacceptable behaviour exhibited by youths in society. Youth restiveness has been a device used by the youth to get what they want from the relevant authority (Chika and Onyene, 2010).

Relevance of Youth Youth are the foundation of a society and occupy a prominent place in any society. Apart from being the leaders of tomorrow, they outnumber the middle-aged and the aged. Besides numerical superiority, youth have energy and ideas that are society's great potentials. Their energies, inventiveness, character and orientation define the pace of development and security of a nation. Through their creative talents and labour power, a nation makes giant strides in economic development and socio-political attainments (The National Youth Development Policy, 2001). It is crucial to acknowledge the role of the youth in the peace and security of a nation. As the most active segment of any society, youth are the major determiners of peace and stability of a nation. Nevertheless, the degree of disorder and instability in society is determined by the youth. The absence of peace means that no meaningful development can occur, the extent of the youth's “responsible conduct and roles in society is positively correlated with the development of their country (Adewuyi, 2008).

Human society and the entire universe is simply and squarely a complex entity, individuals and groups have their complexities, needs, aspirations, hopes, goals, opinions, views and values that are social, economic, religious, psychological or political. Consequently, there is bound to be restiveness among different groups of people especially youths who are at their prime age. Restiveness among youths in Nigeria has become a behaviour pattern, which has degenerated into a topical global issue. Youth restiveness portray man’s negative side of social development. This negative development is rather unfortunate and has become one of the many security challenges facing man in contemporary society. In many occasions, lives and properties worth millions of naira have been lost or vandalised and some razed down by restive youths (Chukwuemeka and Agbara, 2010).

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Chika and Onyene (2010) assert that Youth restiveness has been a device used by the youth to get what they want from the relevant authority. There has been a proliferation of youth associations like students’ unions, ethnic cliques and cleavages as well as clannish orientation among students, which have legitimate restive reactions among the youths on campuses. The phenomenon of ethnic militia such as the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) in the west, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in the East, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in the North and Tiv Youth Organization (TYO) in the North Central, Movement for Emancipating the Niger Delta (MEND), Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) both in the South-South. These local forces which chain relevance in crime prevention and control but whose activities are parallel with State recognition are threats to national security.

Relative Deprivation Theory Relative deprivation theory is based on psychological assumption that frustration and aggression are precipitating factors that lead to violence and youth restiveness. The assumption of relative deprivation specifically measures individuals’ subjective evaluation of their financial and political position or other measurement of social examination. Relative deprivation is more critical when predicting individuals’ conduct, compared with “objective” measures of hardship, such as, poverty and inequality (Crosby, 2000). Early psychological theories of crime believed that the cause of crime lies in the individuals’ psychology. They argued that individuals with personality disorder are more likely to commit crimes than those within the borderline of nuerotypical personalities. Relative deprivation moved beyond the individual psychology to understand collective psychology that aggravates crime and violence. The idea of relative deprivation specifically measures individuals’ subjective evaluation of their financial and political position or other measurement of social examination. Relative deprivation is more critical when predicting individuals’ conduct, compared with “objective” measures of hardship, such as, poverty and inequality.

Crosby [2000) argues that individuals will encounter relative deprivation when they need something, or see that others have valuable thing, and feel qualified to have that thing, the individuals think it is his or her right to have it. Ikuomola et.al. (2009) indicates that youth violence is normal if the general practices and legislative issues that authorize vicious responses to violence are enormous. In any given society, deprived youth are usually pushed to the edges of society. While, in response to their social, monetary and political deprivations, greater numbers of youth have momentarily entered the world of violence and created a criminal sub-culture that consequently wreaks destruction on the security of lives and property. The above authors maintained that the perception of deprivation, marginalisation, and persecution of the individuals in a given community may lead to frustration and anger. People rebel because they were frustrated and angered by the enormity of the socio-economic and structural inequalities, which are inextricably entrenched in the fabrics of societies. Also, due to social


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marginalisation of the boys they react to their weaknesses by constructing sub-cultures based around violent conduct and other deviant behaviours, including theft and violence (Ikuomola et.al. 2009). Nervetheless, Burton et al. (1994) criticised the methodological pertinence of relative deprivation as an indicator of youth violence and reason that relative deprivation is not an imperative indicator of violence. They argued that clarifications of violence ought to start by analysing the social and political structures of the areas. (Skocpol, 1994) focuses attention on political mobilisation as the impetus and driver of violence in human social orders. Tarrow (1998) is of the opinion that there is the requirement for mass social movements for structured and organised youth violence in human society.

Social Disorganisation Theory The theory is concerned with why violence is more common and prevalent in some neighbourhoods than others. Among the questions raised are; which neighbourhood attributes advance social disorganisation in a society. Is there something about the qualities of these neighbourhoods that encourage violence and why is violence higher in some neighbourhoods than others? The theory suggests that social disorganisation within a society, especially in urban centres, is a consequence of industrialisation, migration flows, neighbourhood deterioration and the absence of social control (Rubington and Weinberg 2010). The classical social disorganisation theory influenced contemporary sociologists, in their analysis, they argued that socio-economic structures, residential mobility and ethnic heterogeneity are important factors for measuring the level of social disorganisation in any neighbourhood. Furthermore, social order requires that community members oversee and control teenage groups, neighbourhood kinship systems formed and active participation in formal and voluntary associations. However, the more complex a society becomes the more social control becomes difficult to instil. Poverty, residential mobilitycontrol public conducts of a people, and hence increase the likelihood of violence (Rubington and Weinberg 2010). It is argued that where people persistently move in and out of a particular neighbourhood, it becomes difficult for residents to know who to trust which consequently hampers social cohesion and erodes informal social control to prevent violence. Beside the absence of behavioural regulation, socially dispersed neighbourhoods tend to create “criminal conventions” that could be passed to progressive eras of adolescents. Doran and Lee (2005) added urbanisation, family disruption and concentration of youths in a neighbourhood to the theoretical formulation of SDT. In these analyses, urbanization was used as the main criterion of social disorganisation. It is argued that urbanization can have major effects on a neighbourhood’s quality of life. The deindustrialisation of inner-city neighbourhoods would directly wash-out the number of blue-collar jobs, and increases economic deprivation, leading to the growth of illegal drug distributions and consumptions in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods, and consequently aggravate youth violence (Doran and Lee 2005). The study argues that the social determinants of social disorganisation in a society are education, occupation, median family income and family disruption. It is argued that, a neighbourhood

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characterised by a high number of uneducated people, high levels of unemployed young people, high level of poor people and a high rate of divorce is a fertile-ground for crime and violence. It is suggested that social disorganisation encourages youth violence through its effects on family structures and stability.

3.0 Methodology

The study adopted qualitative methodology. An interview technique was used for data collection. Fifty-five participants were purposively selected for the interview due to their vast knowledge on the topic under study. The participants included officers from the police, community leaders and Youths from northwest States, Niger Delta, southwest and southeast Nigeria. Qualitative analysis was used for data analysis and interpretations.

4.0 Findings and Discussion

Causes of Youth Restiveness in Nigeria 80% of respondent agreed that the youths want a piece of the action. They pointed out that youths resort to restiveness because of their perceived marginalisation by the selfish elders and leaders in the community. To get attention, partake in, or get their “share”, they resort to a confrontation with their community leaders culminating in the rampant threats to communal harmony in the better part of the country today.

35 of the respondent agreed that the youths constitute a large proportion of the unemployed. Therefore, there is a tendency for them to look at their plight as the making of a cruel society that does not care for them. Since society places a high premium on wealth and honours: those who have made it create a strong negative feeling of dissent which drives the youth to rebel against society.

45 of the respondents agreed that the youth are described as full of youthful exuberance: a natural enthusiasm for life that has of late been channelled into unwarranted and socially unacceptable ventures that threaten the very fabric of society. The respondents pointed out that due to massive unemployment and poverty; the youth are vulnerable to the ploy of disgruntled community leaders, elders and politicians who recruit them as thugs for settling scores with perceived enemies. Consequently, these youths degenerate to severe misconduct bordering on outright criminality. The problem here is that, once idle youths get mobilised for nefarious activities, they become uncontrollable and the communities are worse for it.

All the respondents agreed that the activities of some of the government officials and the actions of police lead to recent restiveness in all most States in Nigeria.

44 of the respondents identified factors responsible for youth restiveness as the peer-motivated excitement of being a student, jingoistic pursuit of patriotic ideas, and perceived victimisation arising from economic exploitation. Other factors are:


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lack of humanitarian and social welfare, lack of good governance, corrupt practices of government officials, inadequate training programmes, unemployment, inadequate recreational facilities and lack of quality education.

25 respondents opined that good governance is required for the growth and development of any nation. Unfortunately, bad governance in Nigeria is more common than good governance. resulting in disjointed development.12 respondents identified the main characteristics of bad governance to include failure to properly distinguish between what is public and what is private, leading to private appropriation of otherwise public resources; the inability to establish a predictable frame work for law and government behaviour in a manner conducive to development, or arbitrariness in the application of laws and rules; excessive rules and regulations and so forth that impede the functioning of markets and encourage rent-seeking; priorities inconsistent with development, thereby resulting in misallocation of national resources; and exceedingly narrow base for, or non-transparent, decision making.

34 of the respondent agreed thatthe rising tide of unemployment and the fear of a bleak future among the youth in Nigeria have made them vulnerable to the manipulations of agents' provocateurs. These include aggrieved politicians, religious demagogues, and greedy multinationals that employ these youths to achieve their selfish ambitions.

25 of the respondents agreed that most rural communities and urban slums in Nigeria have no access to potable water, health facilities, electricity, communication facilities, industries and commercial facilities, etc. Behind social unrest and youth restiveness in the country is the agitation for equitable distribution of resources.

40 of the respondents pointed out that inadequate communication and information flow are factors responsible for youth restiveness. They opined that communication creates room for sharing information. It helps people express their thoughts and feelings, clarify problems and consider alternative ways of coping or adapting to their situation. Such sharing promotes social cohesion. People should have access to communication facilities, to communicate with the people making the decisions that affect them. However, people in Nigeria rarely participate in decision-making processes on issues that affect their lives.

41 of the respondents agreed that structural unemployment results in talents not being used where they are available, hence an “idle mind is the devil’s workshop” These respondents observed that psychological variables and deprivation are the basic product of conflict and restiveness of any kind. The more widespread and intense deprivation is among members of a population, the greater is the magnitude of violence in one form or the other.

9 of the respondents agreed that the unequal socio-economic development of the various ethnic groups in Nigeria led to inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic conflicts. The

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respondent pointed out that the dissatisfaction of the people of South-South, especially youths on the level of attention given to the development of their region and the damage to their ecology by oil spillage are the major causes of the alarming rate of youth restiveness. Youth restiveness occurs as reprisal attack.

12 respondents attributed youth restiveness to adults’ coercive control over their children, denial of participatory opportunities to youths, resource scarcity and financial constraints and leader failures, peer groups, and foreign interference.

40 respondents agreed that the following factors cause youth restiveness, such as the unequal distribution of natural resources, poor child upbringing, poverty, unemployment, political instability/frustration, corruption, bad governance, ethnic/tribal crisis, drug/alcohol abuse, religious crises, peer group/cult influence, over population, false teachings, insecurity, ineffective communication from political leaders.

27 respondents agreed that illiteracy, unequal distribution of natural resources, poor child upbringing, unemployment, poverty as causes of youth restiveness. Illiteracy among Nigerian youths has been a concern to many citizens. Knowledge and education acquired by individuals help them in their levels of patriotism, value orientations and healthy lifestyles.

The Effects of Youth Restiveness in Nigeria

35 respondents agreed that the obvious effects of youth restiveness on the Nigerian society are loss of lives and properties, which constitute a major threat to secure the state as well as its corporate existence. 6 respondents agreed that youth restiveness discourages genuine economic and democratic development.

45respondents agreed that effects of youth restiveness include upsurge of social vices/crime, destruction of lives and properties, civic unrest, retardation of national development encourages sectionalism, insecurity of the country, religious crises, high mortality rate, depreciation of natural resources, increased poverty, discourages foreign investment, and escalates unemployment, high mortality rate among youth.

Influence of Information on Social Media on Youth Restiveness Social media began with blogs and has been in existence for more than a decade. It uses social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, Internet forums, whatsApp, we-chart, wikis, podcasts, and video. Social media launched a social networking sites like MySpace in 2003 and Facebook in 2004, created social networks and blogs account for one in every four and a half minutes online. The problem is that many people have used various social media platforms to disseminate fake news.

The study reports that Nigerian communities depend on various sources of information, mainly the social media that are unverifiable and classified. Fake


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news is not helping matters as most citizens are at crossroads regarding authentic information concerning sharing money by government officials.

Recent unspecified social media post reported that legislators are taking home huge amount it added that the federal government gave each of them the sum of N2million for COVID-19, palliative every day. Such lies and falsehoods have misguided the youth into participating in youth restiveness.

32 respondents agreed that Nigerian citizens are misinformed and have affected the perception of people and reaction to every post on the social media. Most of the information disseminated via social media are not authenticated before forwarding to other people. Most of the people do not verify the sources of information before making it available to the public.

33 respondents agreed that social media is a platform where people share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with others. This sharing takes the form of text, audio, video or multimedia. There is no time or space limits on social media as users generate information that can spread across borders and time zones within seconds. Social media encompasses various digital tools and applications to aid communication and exchange of content among individuals, the public, and organisations. The respondents lament that most people go through psychological trauma because of the effect and fear over such news disseminated via social media platform.

38 of the respondents agreed that information is necessary for people to be liberated from the shackles of ignorance, misconceptions, economic stagnation, social unrest, and political instability. Social cohesion cannot be achieved without timely, accurate, and relevant information. Information has been likened to a stimulus that can condition a person to certain behaviour. The respondents agreed that information is “structured data that cause a human mind to change its opinion on the current state of the real world and contribute to a reduction in the uncertainty of the state of the system”. Information is a change agent, a reinforcer of ideas and opinions. It is therefore the responsibility of leaders to ensure that youth have access to information that will guide their actions.

37 respondents agreed that most Nigerian youth who participate in protests across the country are uninformed. They believed that information plays a vital role in wealth generation and that information is the critical economic resource in today's world.

Ways for Address Youth Restiveness in Nigeria 31 agreed that counselling intervention becomes a compelling necessity for the Nigerian youths. As restiveness stems from thinking (cognition), the use of cognitive behaviour restructuring is necessary.

37 of respondents agreed on the following strategies as ways to address youth restiveness: skill acquisition programme for youths, enlightenment campaign

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against youth restiveness, ensuring that the citizens have formal education, provision of employment opportunities, neo marginalisation of any tribe/ethnic group, provision of basic social amenities, restricting of security agents, adequate parenting of children, elections should be free and fair at all levels, religious tolerance, good governance, traditional rulers to take charge of their domains, implementation of school guidance and counselling, services at all levels of education, giving monthly allowances to unemployed youth and religious intervention on teaching.

34 of the respondents agreed that education is the primary conduit for value formation, it affords priority, value formation, character building, and focussing on building ethical standards in children regrettably are not given adequate emphasis in the school curriculum. For formal education to help address youth restiveness in the country, our education should be modelled towards value inculcation and citizen education at all levels of our education. Our education should be made to be functional to me to meet the students’ needs. More emphasis should be placed on vocational and technical education that will help students acquire skills that will introduce them to entrepreneurship development. Enlightenment campaigns against youth restiveness are also important.

The result revealed that youth restiveness is caused by illiteracy, unequal distribution of national resources, and poor child upbringing among others. The effects include the upsurge of social vices and destruction of lives and properties. Further results reveal that it can be curbed through skill acquisition programmes and enlightenment against the phenomenon. The paper concluded that counselling should be an effective way of addressing youth restiveness in Nigeria.

5.0 Conclusions In conclusion, the study revealed that the youth are described as full of youthful exuberance and natural enthusiasm for life that has of late been channelled into unwarranted and socially unacceptable ventures that threaten the very fabric of society. The finding reveals that due to massive unemployment and poverty; the youth are vulnerable to the ploy of disgruntled community leaders, elders and politicians who recruit them as thugs for settling scores with perceived enemies. Consequently, these youths degenerate to severe misconduct bordering on outright criminality. The problem here is that, once idle youths get mobilised for nefarious activities, they become uncontrollable and the communities are worse for it. factors responsible for youth restiveness were identified as the peer-motivated excitement of being a student, jingoistic pursuit of patriotic ideas, and perceived victimisation arising from economic exploitation. Other factors are: lack of humanitarian and social welfare, lack of good governance, corrupt practices of government officials, inadequate training programmes, unemployment, inadequate recreational facilities and lack of quality education. The effects of youth restiveness include upsurge of social vices/crime, destruction of lives and properties, civic unrest, retardation of national development


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encourages sectionalism, insecurity of the country, religious crises, high mortality rate, depreciation of natural resources, increased poverty, discourages foreign investment, and escalates unemployment, high mortality rate among youth. The study suggests that information is necessary for people to be liberated from the shackles of ignorance, misconceptions, economic stagnation, social unrest, and political instability. Social cohesion cannot be achieved without timely, accurate, and relevant information. The paper concluded that counselling youth empowerment should be an effective way of addressing youth restiveness in Nigeria.

5.1 Recommendations

To combat fake information, there is need for government to provide central information guide on sensitive issues. The government should monitor information and announcements, made via social media platform, in collaboration with internet service providers. There is a need to provide accurate and up-to-date information in the event of emergencies. Nigerian youth as leaders of the future need access to various information, which will help reposition them to take their rightful place in the comity of nations. Such information should be geared towards creating the awareness that the future belongs to them and that it should not destroy it; sensitizing them to the fact the future and its nature depend on the decisions and choices they make; creating in them a sense of history, especially of the noble and heroic contributions of the youth in the past to the development of Nigeria, in comparison with the ignoble role of many youth today; sensitizing them to embrace the rule of law and democratic ideals; liberating them psychologically and mentally from the control of self-seeking business and political elites. Encouraging them to raise issues relating to unresolved problems of nation building and the problem of neglect of the youth in the development process at every fora; mobilising them against the abuse of the system through sanctions; sensitising them to seek greater employment and educational opportunities as a means of redirecting their energy and ideas from anti-social activities to creative effort.

The paper recommends for effective counselling to youths, parents and political leaders at various levels of governance, should go a long way in addressing youth restiveness in Nigeria. The paper points that the implications for counselling are that counselling is a profession that assists individuals to understand themselves better, manage their life activities, develop their own points of view and make their own rational decisions. Most youth restiveness manifests as a lifestyle which should be changed if the victims are re-oriented positively. Need for counselling both in school and non-school setting. Counselling helps the youths acquire knowledge that they are ignorant of. Such information should liberate them from falsehood and misconceptions provided them by peers and adults who use them to fulfil personal wishes and later dumb them to their faith. The youths should be economically empowered through access to business and economic information.

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They need information on employment opportunities in all nations and communities. Access to entrepreneurial information will make youth inaccessible to those who want to recruit them for anti-social actions. Youths also need information that will get them economically empowered. Hence, the guidance counsellor gives them entrepreneurial information that will help them develop skills that can sustain them economically. Such information liberates them from psychological and mental torture they pass through in acts of restiveness. The government should organise group counselling of youths in school and non-school settings it will be helpful in reshaping the morals of the youth. Government and Youth organisations should organize workshops, talk shows, and seminars for youths in schools, youth organisations and youths in religious settings. During the conferences, seminars and workshops youths should be educated because the future belongs to them; they should not be used to destroy it. Also, topics on citizenship education, history, patriotism, rule of law should be incorporated in such sessions to help them understand their roles in society. Counselling sessions should be extended to the political elites, leaders at various levels of government and political tugs. Seminars and workshops should be organised for them on good governance.

Assertive training should be organized for the youths, report has it that most youths are recruited by highly placed individuals to act relatively in society, the youths should be equipped with assertive skills to be able to say no to such elders and peers without hurting them, youths should be urged to refuse political enticements.

Cognitive restructuring and behaviour modification skills are useful in keeping youth restiveness, professionals, guidance and counsellors should work towards restructuring negative views held by youths. They should try changing the insinuation that restiveness is the only way of expressing their views and demands; they should be modified to more rational ways of resolving problems.

Poor child upbringing is one of the causes of youth restiveness due to challenges in the marriages and family problems. Therefore, seminars, workshops and group counselling should be organised for parents to help them understand effective child rearing practices and characteristics peculiar to adolescents and youths and how best to handle such. Since the study also identified overpopulation as one of the perceived causes of youth restiveness, parents should be counselled on the positive effects of having small family size.

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