Civil Society Organisations and Conflict Management: The Nigerian Experience

Abstract

Intra-state violent conflicts have been on the rise in many states in recent years. Climate change has been negatively affecting available resources in many communities, and this contributes to the spate of unhealthy competitions and violent conflicts in many communities. This is further compounded by the increasing waves of terrorism. Nigeria is not spared of this experience. From North to South, East to West, violent conflicts have negatively impacted on public service delivery and business activities in the world largest community of blacks creating a drawback in the development stride in local communities and society at large. There have been attempts by successive governments to address the violent conflicts, but much of which have been through the use of government security agents, and since violence begets violence, the approach has not really resulted in positive peace required to create the right business clime for the people. Following this, civil society organisations stepped in with a view to filling the gap occasioned by government’s failure to effectively manage the situations. The various civil society organisations explored tools, from traditional religion, Christian religion and modern conflict resolution mechanism to intervene in the conflicts. This paper examined the roles of these organisations in conflict intervention in Nigeria.

Key words: Civil society organisations, conflict, intervention, Nigerian experience, implication, public service delivery, business activities