Sustainable Peace Education as a Response to Violent Conflict in Nigeria

Nigeria’s enduring violent conflicts amongst insurgency groups remain a threat to the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Nigeria’s political legitimacy. Northern Nigeria’s illiteracy rate has allowed insurgency groups to proliferate. Violent acts among insurgents have intensified. The will to contain violent conflict through counterterrorism and Nigeria’s military counter-insurgency actions have contained the terrorist clusters’ enterprises. However, the failure to sustain peace efforts remains an obstruction to impede unremitting violence. This chapter proposes knowledge intervention to initiate peace processes by constructing resilience through peace education models aimed at vulnerable youth. Social scientific scholarship from the global south is interrogated. The proposed intervention considers responses to violent conflict that address innumerable levels, mandate the need for a constructive intervention supported by theoretical, applied peace education to address violent conflict. The intervention reduces strains via an intersectional analysis of educational preconditions and consequences. The guidelines deliver a foundation for additional improved interventions, relying on interdisciplinary regulators and policymakers as change agents. The examination, background and nature of conflict are measured against United Nations’ peace education models that successfully deconstruct violent conflict through sustainable peace education and development initiatives. We conclude that youth peace education in the north is vital in addressing the roots of conflict.