Cementing Division among Feuding Ethnic Groups in North Central Nigeria: Reconciliation on Trial in Obi Local Government Area, Nasarawa State: Implications for Social Work practice
Abstract
Since the return to civil democracy, the seven ethnic groups in Obi Local Government Area have witnessed incessant violence that dwarfed all reconciliation efforts of Government. Given this observation, five specific objectives guided this study including, finding the causes of conflicts in the LGA, documenting conflict victimization experiences of community members, understanding their perception of reconciliation, causes of reconciliation failure, and factors that contribute to the realization of reconciliation and hence cement the existing fractured relationships in the LGA. A combination of multi-stage sampling (selection of communities), systematic random sampling (selection of villages/settlements) and purposive random sampling (recently displaced returnees) techniques were used to select 216 respondents from the study area; and data were collected using both qualitative and quantitative instruments. We found that conflict was not only intractable but also widespread with recorded victimization experiences across the ethnic groups. While causes of conflict centered on land-farm-crops destruction, reconciliation failure was blamed on socio- political and religious manipulations. Suggestions for sustainable reconciliation included conducting widespread consultations across the ethnic groups with women participating, providing counseling and support to victims of ethnic conflict, declaring a day acceptable to all for annual celebration of peace, and putting a stop to political manipulations of the conflicts, among others.
Keywords
Conflicts
Ethnic groups
North Central Nigeria
Reconciliation
Reconciliation
References
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