Boundary Dispute and the Health, Religious, and Political Life of Communities in South-East Nigeria

Abstract Background: Boundary dispute constitutes a persistent constraint on the institutional dimensions of community life in the South-East geo-political zone of Nigeria, in so far as contested claims over land ownership disrupt access to healthcare, undermine religious practice, and destabilise political authority within affected communities. This study investigated the effect of boundary dispute on the health, religious, and political life of selected communities in the South-East region. Objective: To establish the extent to which boundary dispute affects the health of the people in the affected communities in the south east geo-political zone of Nigeria, to determine the effects of boundary dispute on religious life, and to identify the effects of boundary dispute on political life of the affected communities. Methods: The study adopted a descriptive and correlational design involving 400 respondents drawn, through purposive and simple random sampling, from a population of 1,059,431 persons across the affected communities. Data were collected using a structured and validated four-point Likert-scale questionnaire whose health, religious life, and political life subscales returned Cronbach’s alpha reliability indices of 0.87, 0.91, and 0.85 respectively. Analysis was conducted using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, and simple linear regression, tested at the 0.05 level of significance. Results: Findings revealed that 55% of respondents reported that boundary dispute had a strong negative effect on health, 66% reported a strong negative effect on religious life, and 52% reported a strong negative effect on political life. Regression analysis confirmed that boundary dispute exerted a statistically significant negative effect on health (B = .580, β = .544, t = 11.952, p < .001), religious life (B = .389, β = .494, t = 9.372, p < .001), and political life (B = .199, β = .494, t = 6.046, p < .001), such that all three null hypotheses were rejected. Conclusion: The study concludes that unresolved boundary dispute structurally threatens affected South-East communities by compromising healthcare access, religious practice, and political authority, implying that institutional restoration requires integrated attention to all three domains simultaneously and sustainably. Keywords: boundary dispute, health, religious life, political life, community development, South-East Nigeria