EDUCATION, DEMOCRACY AND THE CHALLENGE OF INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA
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This paper sees education as the acquisition of knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes of positive v'values which make an individual function effectively in his/her environment. 1c also holds education as the greatest instrument that can liberate man from the shackles of ignorance, j; superstition and mediocrity. The work is of the view that education currently practiced in Nigeria results in Nigerian youths being either non-educated or ill-educated, and both have the same effect-unemployment- which leads to frustration and hunger. This makes them willing tools in the hands of mischievous leaders. The paper further characterizes insurgency in Nigeria as being multi-dimensional - religious, political and economic—all having one thing in common: the detraction of lives and properties. The interface between education, democracy and insurgency is explored extensively. In conclusion, the paper insists that the inability of leaders to provide the dividends of democracy, qualitative and functional education to its citizen has made the youths to lack trust in Nigeria. Thus, the citizens that are prone to insurgency and other deviant behaviours are reacting to a nation that has no plan for them, and so have turned out to be thorns in the flesh l of all and sundry. Having looked at all this critically, the paper further proffers solutions which, i if implemented by both the leaders and the led, will bring about visible positive changes in the country. Among the recommendations strongly advocated here is that the nation’s school curTicu,um should be revisited in order to meet the present societal needs by the introduction of skill acquisition programmes in all tiers of the school system.