The Youth Summit

This week I attended a two day Youth Summit held in Warri, Delta State. 15 “Youth Leaders” from each, of the core states (Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta) who are known to support hostage takers and in some instances have been directly involved in hostage taking and oil bunkering were invited to speak on issues of violence and hostage taking in the Niger Delta. A communiqué was issued after the summit which included a list of issues that the attendees would like the Federal Government to address such as unemployment, and illegal arms. I must admit although AAPW organized the program the fact that the attendees were paid N60,000 ($460) as an honorarium allows me to believe that the youth were there for the money, rather than to take advantage of the opportunity to unite and articulate their concerns. There is a very prevalent culture of corruption and nepotism hear in the Delta, and to a certain extent compensating individuals for attending meetings concerning their personal interests is somewhat normal, however I don’t see the link between sustainable peace and conflict transformation if you are paying individuals to address their concerns. Further, the majority of attendees are not in lucrative high paying jobs and one would imagine as political leaders they would be willing to volunteer their time for a worthy cause.
Over the course of the two day summit participation was limited to those that were invited to address the participants, and there was very little networking observed. One of the presenters, an attorney who represents the jailed leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, NDPF made it clear that he hopes the youth will make the distinction between engaging in criminal activities and political struggle. The communiqué emphasized the attendees do not endorse hostage taking, however this week in the Delta 9 soldiers were reportedly killed and five more expatriates were kidnapped from an Exxon compound.