Maintaining Peaceful Co-existence amidst Separatist Agitations in Nigeria: Social Workers’ perspectives

Abstract

Ever since independence, Nigeria has grappled with several separatist agitations. These agitations most times lead to colossal loss of lives and property with serious consequences on the peaceful co-existence among the various ethnic groups inhabiting the country. This brings to the front burner the role of social workers as change agent in promoting peaceful co-existence in a multi-ethnic/cultural environment. Eighteen social workers across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria were purposively selected and interviewed via zoom. Findings show that the participants believe that mistrust among the different ethnic groups that make up the country, lack of justice, fairness and equity are major cause of separatist agitations. To promote peaceful co-existence amidst separatist agitations, the participants believe that social workers through their various interventive engagements should build trust and promote justice, fairness and equity among all citizens irrespective of political, economic, religious or ethnic affiliations. To this end, the study recommends the need for social workers to mainstream peaceful co-existence in their various programmes.