From Social Vulnerability to National Resilience: A Statistical Assessment of the Impact of Social Work Education on Nigeria's Evolving Security Environment

Abstract

Nigeria’s evolving security environment is increasingly shaped by the interaction of violence, poverty, displacement, unemployment, educational exclusion, social fragmentation and weakened community resilience. This study statistically assesses the potential impact of social work education on national resilience within this environment. It adopts a documentary and secondary-data research design, drawing on Nigerian and international statistics published between 2021 and 2026, including data on multidimensional poverty, youth disengagement, education, terrorism, displacement and social-work education. The analysis is complemented by evidence from recent studies of social-work curricula and conflict-management preparedness in Nigerian universities. Nigeria’s 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index estimated that 62.9% of the population, approximately 132.9 million people, were multidimensionally poor, while 14.4% of young people aged 15–24 were not in employment, education or training in Q1 2024. At the same time, terrorism-related deaths increased by 46% to 750 in 2025. The study finds that social-work education can strengthen national resilience through early identification of vulnerability, psychosocial intervention, conflict prevention, community engagement, reintegration and social protection. However, its security impact depends on curriculum relevance, professional capacity, institutional deployment and inter-sectoral coordination. The study recommends repositioning social-work education as part of Nigeria’s preventive national-security architecture