← Volume 3, Issue 2 Contents
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF SECESSIONIST AGITATIONS IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN SECURITY,
Perpetua O. Ezeji; Ozioma James-Gilbert; Ezinne Okoli; Nixon C. Udeji
- Journal
- Alvan Journal of Social Sciences
- Volume/Issue
- 3(2), 2026
- Pages
- 385-401
- DOI
- 10.67638/ajss-2026-v3-i2-031
- Keywords
- Educational attainment, Human security, Indigenous People of Biafra, marginalization, Secessionist agitations, southeast Nigeria, Sustainable development
- Corresponding author
- Perpetua O. Ezeji
- Email
- perpetua.ezeji@alvanikoku.edu.ng
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between educational attainment and those perceptions, with attention to their implications for human security, economic stability, and sustainable development in the region. Data were collected from 1,066 respondents across six Local Government Areas in Anambra, Enugu, and Imo States, with 907 valid cases analysed for the educational attainment variable. Public perception was operationalized as a composite score derived from five validated constructs/attitudes toward the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), its leadership (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu), the Biafra project, perceived marginalization, and the weekly Monday sit-at-home directive. This yielded an overall Cronbach's alpha of .798. Biserial correlation analysis returned a statistically significant but weak negative relationship between educational attainment and secessionist perception (r = −.104, p = .002, N = 907): respondents with higher educational qualifications tended toward more critical evaluations of secessionist agitations. The most pronounced educational gradient appeared on the sit-at-home sub-scale, used as a proxy for awareness of the economic costs of secessionist disruption, where agreement declined from 76.3% among respondents without formal schooling to 38.4% among postgraduate holders. Conversely, near-universal agreement with the marginalization sub-scale, which proxied perceived human security deprivation, persisted regardless of educational level, indicating that the structural grievances sustaining secessionist sentiment are not dissolved by formal schooling. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions contextualized these findings, foregrounding the salience of marginalization narratives, the prolonged detention of Nnamdi Kanu, and the economic burden of the sit-at-home directive. The paper argues that educational attainment moderates how citizens evaluate secessionist tactics without resolving the underlying structural conditions, i.e., political exclusion, infrastructural neglect, and cumulative economic attrition that constitute the material basis of secessionist grievance in the Southeast.
Citation
Perpetua O. Ezeji; Ozioma James-Gilbert; Ezinne Okoli; Nixon C. Udeji (2026). EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF SECESSIONIST AGITATIONS IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN SECURITY,. Alvan Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2), 385-401. https://doi.org/10.67638/ajss-2026-v3-i2-031
