UNEMPLOYMENT AND INSECURITY IN NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA: A REFLECTION ON GOMBE

Unemployment especially among youth has been identified as a major cause of insecurity and other forms of socio-economic and political problems in Nigeria. It exposes many youths to criminal activities like political thuggery, kidnapping, robbery and hired assassins. It is also believed that unemployment and its associated economic deprivation couple with helplessness, lures many young people into all sorts of restive activities which is not only a criminal, but also a dangerous misadventure. This study examined the phenomena of unemployment in Gombe state; its implication on security and how it effects social relations, the study also developed three research questions and one null hypothesis. Frustration-Aggression theory (FAT) was used as a theoretical guide for the study; the study used both primary and secondary sources of data, a sample size of 430 respondents were statistically drawn from the population of interest. The findings revealed that whilst government is not relenting on its efforts to stem the scourge of unemployment especially among youths and enhance socio-economic development, unemployment remained a challenge for socio-political stability as it always provide a fertile ground for youth recruitment into various groups with negative intent in the state; the study also discovered that the alarming trend of unemployment if not checked, will result in cataclysmic consequences. The study recommends the urgent need for government to engage the unemployed youths into various empowerment programmes such as skill acquisition and other productive ventures to ventilate their energies for greater national interest.