Abstract

Nigeria has since over a decade been embroiled in fleeting threats to peace ranging from armed conflicts to insurgency, kidnapping and extortion, armed banditry, pastoralists–farmers conflicts, indigene–settler conflicts, ethno–religious conflicts among others. These violent events have separately and in combination inflicted varying degrees of hardships and losses on both human lives and the country at large, culminating in massive depletion of productive force, forced displacements, and enormous military spending at the expense of basic human needs. This is in spite of both the institutional and policy responses being deployed to stem the tide.

Against this backdrop, this exploratory study is motivated to ascertain the underlying causes of the seemingly intractable threats to peace across Nigeria. In doing so, data generated from both primary and secondary sources were utilized to arrive at the conclusion that the raging violence is rooted in materialist and existentialist motivations. As a result, the study anchors on the entitlement analytical guide to recommend a shift from the security approach to a peaceful alternative in responding to the threats to peace by creating an enabling environment for the conflict actors to concede incompatible goals, especially the illegitimate goals, as this is a desideratum for a compromise of interests encapsulated in peace.