Policy Roundtable on Understanding the Political Economy of Emerging Violent Conflicts in Nigeria

Why do violent conflicts persist despite years of interventions? A recent policy roundtable explored how deeper political, economic, and institutional factors continue to shape insecurity in Nigeria—and what must change to build sustainable peace.

“Violence is not only a breakdown of order; in some contexts, it has become a system of order.”

Addressing emerging violent conflicts in Nigeria requires more than expanding interventions. It requires dismantling the incentives that make violence profitable, strengthening accountability, restoring state legitimacy, and building inclusive governance systems that deliver security and opportunities for citizens.

At the Policy Roundtable on Understanding the Political Economy of Emerging Violent Conflicts in Nigeria, organised by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, participants examined a critical question: despite years of research, policy attention, and sustained interventions, why do violent conflicts continue to persist at troubling scales?

Nigeria continues to face complex security challenges, including insurgency, terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts, and separatist agitations. These overlapping crises have affected peace and stability, undermined socioeconomic development, and placed significant burdens on citizens, particularly women, girls, and young people.

Across many rural communities, violent conflicts have disrupted livelihoods, weakened social bonds, displaced families, and created environments of fear and uncertainty. In areas already facing limited infrastructure, scarce resources, and weak access to essential services, the consequences are even more severe. Communities have experienced cycles of retaliation, breakdown of trust, trauma, economic decline, and weakened institutions.

Participants noted that violent conflicts in Nigeria should not be viewed only as isolated security challenges. Increasingly, they are interconnected and shaped by deeper structural forces, including struggles over resources, power relations, institutional weaknesses, and elite interests.

A key insight from the discussion was that the challenge is not only operational but structural. In some contexts, violence has moved beyond being a breakdown of order and has become a system of order itself, creating incentives that sustain insecurity.

The roundtable concluded with clear policy priorities: disrupting violent incentive structures, strengthening governance systems, addressing illicit financial networks, reclaiming ungoverned spaces, ensuring accountability, and rebuilding public trust.

Sustainable peace will depend on addressing the root causes that enable violence to persist, not only managing its consequences.