“Who Morality <i>Epp</i>?”

In 2009, the Nigerian government set up a presidential amnesty program for militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of the country. From its inception, the program was enmeshed in a series of contradictions that are connected to the political economy of oil in Nigeria. In this article, we situate the practice of youths faking militancy to seek enlistment in the amnesty program in the context of a declining traditional obligations system and emergent responses of youth to family moral guidance. Based on accounts we collected from youths who sought enlistment in the 2017 special amnesty program organized by the government of Ondo State, Nigeria, we argue that the acts of nonmilitant youth seeking amnesty depict popular dissatisfaction with economic exclusion and also their awareness of the absence of ethical order in processes of accessing economic opportunities in Nigeria.