IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH (IJSSMR )

E-ISSN 2545-5303
P-ISSN 2695-2203
VOL. 11 NO. 1 2025
DOI: 10.56201/ijssmr.vol.11no1.2025.pg.384.410

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Valuing Reconciliation and Implications for Peaceful Co-existence among Feuding Ethnic Groups in Obi Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Edward Dauda Ibrahim Anzaku, PhD., Prof. Moses U. Ikoh, Dorothy Akpovye Bage-John, PhD.

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Abstract

The study examined conflicts among seven ethnic groups in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State in North Central Nigeria. The objective was to understand their perception of reconciliation and what can be done to realize peaceful co-existence among them. The study design was survey, using both qualitative and quantitative instruments to elicit information from 216 respondents. The selection of respondents involved a combination of multi-stage sampling (selection of communities), systematic random sampling (selection of villages/settlements) and purposive random sampling (recently displaced returnees) techniques. We found that the ethnic conflict was not only intractable but also widespread, in different episodes, with damaging socio- economic and psychological impacts on community members. However, respondents opined that ‘living in a multi-ethnic settlement’, ‘sharing same market’, ‘going to same place of worship’, ‘allowing their children to attend similar school’, and cross-ethnic marriage’, among others, can fast track the realization of peaceful co-existence. It strengthened the hypotheses of the ‘need- based theory hypotheses’ and the ‘resource theory of social exchange’.

keywords:

Ethnic group, Fulani herdsmen, Peaceful coexistence, Reconciliation, Social exchange

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