De- Okanimee Institute for Peacebuilding & Conflict Resolution

PEACE-BUILDING, CONFLICT RESOLUTION, AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA STATES: Peace is a fundamental human aspiration and a primary goal of States and community development. Peace-building is an essential pre-condition for individual well-being, States, community development and national advancement. If the states desire for peace and development goals is to be reached, concerted efforts to peace building and conflict resolution programmes and engagement from the society, community and grassroots levels are needed. Not just needed but now in Nigeria states.
PEACE EDUCATION’S APPROACH: Promoting peace education innovative methodology in the society and among our states will help our youth in understanding the need for peace and conflict resolution among themselves and among communities for development needs. Peace Education programs are designed to foster positive behavior change in children and youth by enhancing their ability to embrace peace, prevent and resolve conflict in their lives. By involving vulnerable children and youth in our states in constructive peacebuilding and conflict resolution programs should be at a critical stage at every state and communities in Nigeria, these will helps to fill a void in their lives, thus reducing the likelihood that they will engage in delinquent behavior, conflict and violence. Although peace education alone cannot prevent conflict or build peace, programs programs that emphasize the need for non violence — i.e., fair play, teamwork, respect for one’s opponent, and adherence to mutually agreed upon rules — can contribute to broader peace-building efforts. When peace education and conflict resolution are implemented effectively by well-trained professional, it will help to bridge relationships across social, economic and cultural divides and can create a shared identity amongst groups that would otherwise risk being in conflict. By sharing peace and conflict experiences, participants from opposing groups grow to feel that they are increasingly alike, rather than different. Peace education can also provide a constructive venue for peaceful dialogue and can help to build resiliency amongst disunity and victims of political conflict.
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP: Effective peace-building and conflict resolution interventions in states require programmatic and policy-based approaches. For effective peacebuilding and conflict resolution policy and mechanism, there is need for every state to create a ministry or body for peace and conflict resolution as to engage and over see the approach of grassroots mobilization for conflict resolution, Chiefs, parents, society, community leaders and governments in peace and conflict resolution, dialogue and other initiatives. To implement the above, there is need to work with local and national partners, including state Ministries of Education, various municipal authorities, community chiefs, youths, and other charitable bodies, as well as the professional peacebuilding and conflict resolution institute and bodies. (In our daily lives, we are all involved in a number of conflicts. Sometimes, the conflicts may be small. For example, a person may ignore us while we are talking. Sometimes, the conflict may be more serious. For instance, two individuals may get into a fight and start behaving violently towards each other. Whether big or small, conflict is not confined only to individuals and the people around them. Conflict can also arise among those who are not associated with each other. A conflict can, for example, arise between people and the prevailing laws. Besides, conflict can also arise at the national and international level. Thus conflict can be internal among individuals within a community, between individuals. It can also be external conflicts between individuals or groups outsiders. Conflict is endemic to all social life. It is an inevitable part of living because it is related to situations of scarce resources, political powers, power relations and role-differentiation. Because of its ubiquity and pervasive nature, the concept has acquired a multitude of meanings and connotations. The normative concept of conflict, influenced by preoccupation with stability and equilibrium in organizational/national design, links conflict to violence, destruction, inefficiency, disunity and lack of development.
In summary, it is important to know and understand that conflict is a living thing: for it get born, it get to child and grows to adult, at a point it gets sick and the drugs administer to it shows whether it will live or die. It also important to note that conflict management is a time bomb waiting to explored, hence, conflict should be resolved and not managed. The better the state authorities embrace peace building and conflict resolution the better for our society and for our development.

If you are interested in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution, join our Institute and you will surely become a person to make our Nation and environment a peaceful place to live. You can join as a member or as a fellow. The world and our nation and community need men and women with knowledge and skills for peace making and conflict resolution....DIPCR.
Contact: No 3 Worlu Plaza New Igbo/Etched Road by Eneka first Market junction Port Harcourt Rivers State.....+234-08037108628

I don't think Nigeria leaders are ready to end insecurity as many of them are benefiting from insecurity which is man made. The real and greatest challenge in Nigeria is Conflict and until the government and the people in authority come to the knowledge and accept that conflict is the major issue, they will continue to apply the wrong method of using the military or force with no results. Nigerian live with ethics conflict, religious conflict, tribal conflict, economic conflict, political conflict etc, with non be addressed or resolve, and you expect an end to insecurity. The lack of resolving various Conflicts confronting Nigeria and Nigerians that brought about insecurity. I am willing to go into debate with any one to prove that conflict is the major problems in Nigeria and not insecurity. If the amount that the government have spent in so called insecurity was spent in conflict resolution and peace building, we would have seen great results. You can not keep on doing the same thing and expect result. No amount of military power or involvement will end insecurity. The government both federal, state and local government should seek expert with knowledge in peace building and Conflict Resolution that will work in truth and give advice them as to know more about the topic for an action to be taken. Please, don't involve foreign country, it should be internal among Nigerians.

Develop your knowledge and skills in Peace building and Conflict Resolution by taking on face to face or on-line certificate courses.

IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH
In the normal sense, every Nigeria should be prude of the country because the Almighty God has so blessed the country with human and economical recourses that we ought not to lack anything. I see nothing wrong with Northern, I see nothing wrong with the Eastern and I see nothing wrong with the westerns, but I see everything wrong with most of the learned men and women, with most of the statesmen and with most of the elites who have refused to stand and speak the truth when the country most needed it, particularly in the issues of 2023 presidential election. To be truthful, never in the history of Nigeria election have we witnessed the interest and involvement of the Nigeria Youths, who are the leaders of tomorrow come out enemas and voted for change only to be disappointed by the above class of people led by INEC Chairman and INEC staff who claim it is in their power to allocate votes and pronounce president without following their own guide lines and the Nigeria constitution; even when there was complaints from various political parties that needed to be addressed; yet not addressed by INEC.
It seems to me that, most Nigerians learned men, statesmen, elites and politicians have set aside the major contention of 2023 presidential election, whose root issues are election manipulation, change of figures, rigging, INEC not following its election guide line and not meeting up the Nigeria constitutional requirement. If after the years of independence and military rule we as a country have not learnt to call evil – evil and good – good but have see to election rigging as normal, then, we are not fit to be a country, for we have nothing good to Passover to our youths who look onto us. Here is a country that sees a group of its citizens as not fit to vote their choice in election and even threatening them to go back to their state without a strong warning from the president of the country to such on called action, yet we are quick to go outside the country and talking about people creating tension and committing treason in the same country. As long as we set aside the major issues of the 2023 presidential election, in order wise shifting the goal post because it suits us, we will never get it right as a country. Why focusing the roots issues and discussions of 2023 presidential election on lies, manipulations, threat, intimidations, and conflict manipulation instead of addressing the election rigging, allocation of figures, change of results, not depending on the results from polling units and 2023 INEC election guide lines. It shows we are not ready to correct and improve on our mistakes and resolve our conflicts as a country. No Nation or country building on faulty ground abnormality to be normal, will ever make improvement and development of such nation or Country possible.
From, Daniel T. Okanimea – DIPCNG.

2023 ELECTION
As we Nigerians face the most important day come 25th February, 2023 in the history of our country; for this is the first time in the history of Nigeria that the Youths has indicated their interest to change the political narrative of our country Democracy. The Youths across Nigeria should not allow our election to be a sources of violence and anarchy. Nigerians and especially the youths must refuse the temptation of yielding to the politicians who are desirous for promoting violence, conflict and using the youths as their evil instrument for their selfish ends.
This election gives us room and opportunity to choose leaders that will bring about, the Birth of a new nation. Hence, we have the choice to make the right choice, work into our future and embrace peace-building and Conflict resolution across Nigerians. Please, Nigerians, let’s make our choice remembering our children and their future and also our youths who are the leaders of tomorrow.
GOD BLESS NIGERIA
DIPCRNG

Nigeria and Nigerians need a transformation government and not a government of continuity.

De- Institute for peace building and Conflict resolution.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND FRIENDS.
MAY OUR DESIRE FOR PEACE AMONG THE SOCIETY BE A REALITY.

Can peace efforts ever succeed in Nigeria?
All human society is open to conflict because conflict is natural and disputes thrive in every society which involves divergent interests. Since, conflict is an inevitable among humans, evolving conflict resolution strategies to amicably settlement of conflict is the panacea. In the present day, the most intractable conflicts in Nigeria are political in nature. The political class, Leaders and those who benefits from conflicts have made every effort in the country to resolve conflict difficult and they also make every effort to peace to always fail due to several reasons among them insincerity, failure to fully understand the real issues at stake and lack of knowledge of the scope of a particular conflict, Greed, ego, lack of policy and mechanism for conflict resolution, absent to relevant law to back peace agreement, disrespect and disregard to peacemakers. When these issues are put together, it results to the reason for the failure of peace efforts in the country, disregard to peace building professional/ institution and absent of training among our political class and those in authorities on peacemaking and conflict resolution.
The recent issues towards 2023 elections where a team comprising former military leader, Abdulsalam Abubakar, Bishop Mathew Kukah of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese etc. attempted to create a platform for peaceful campaign among the political parties and electoral peace in Nigeria by getting political leaders to sign an agreement to ensure peace during their campaign and during elections in 2023. Their efforts were noble but ill-fated. To start with, what law and punishments awaits who fail to abide to the agreement or peace accord. Do the respected leaders ever imagined or think that a presidential candidate can successfully command his followers to avoid violence. This is because the foot-soldiers are not necessarily party members only. Many are mercenaries also called tugs who see the electioneering period as employment opportunities thereby converting the material benefits they get to support a party or its candidate into a binding contract to fight any opponent of their benefactor. To have expected candidates of political parties who are out to win by all means and to have been able to stop persons they neither know nor had access to, from political violence was certainly over on obtainable. Again, the process of the peace accord seems to have no legal backing and punishment for failure to abide to the agreement in the political party candidate; hence, some of some presidential aspirate find it unimportant to attend.
The politicians who promotes, cause chaos and anarchy during elections do not even value the pace accord not to talk of promoting peace build and conflict resolution among themselves and their parties; less to talk of the citizens and the entire country as regards to peace building. So, why do peacemakers waste their energies asking party leaders whose only interest to is win election by all means and with all amount of violence to sign any peace agreement? Are the envisaged political leaders the only ones whose followers disrupt elections? It is of course not so, as it is now obvious that INEC, Police and Judiciary operatives are among those who make it difficult for us to have peace during elections. Why were leaders of such groups not part of the agreement?
If we can excuse the dilemma of Peace accord team whose intentions are usually just to fulfill all righteousness and are distorted by the politicians, we can hardly say same for the supposed peacemakers within the political class. The conflict between the PDP FIVE governors of Rivers and the PDP party Chairman is a good example. Considering that the governors belong to the same political party – PDP, one would have expected that the party would practically deal with what can be termed an in-house conflict. But rather than do that, the party exposed her lack of unity of purpose and direction in conflict management and resolution. The party’s presidential flag bearer did not even help matters and these are people expected to handle many conflict confronting the nation if elected as president of the country. How?
What have been seen of Nigerian politicians and Leaders so far gives an insight into poor management of conflict in political parties in Nigeria. All our politicians want to be in government, none wants to manage the party so as to sustain the viable channel for attaining power. The All Progressives Congress APC is yet to act differently from PDP in handling conflict issues. Those who think party leaders should have promptly resolved their conflict without outsiders knowing about it greatly miss the point. The truth really is that party leaders who should ordinarily serve as peacemakers to keep the party alive for all times are actually the instigators and catalysts of the conflict, just like almost all Nigeria leaders are instigators and catalysts of the conflicts in the country.
Unfortunately, party national leaders and even Nigeria leaders, who ought to have been neutral even if the case is in court, took sides. Pushed by those who often play god, would want conflict not resolved for their selfish gain. To establish that what they wanted was not peace but power, even if the judiciary makes pronouncements to the conflict issues, they continued to insist on their stand. As the conflict worsened, clear factions emerged and it becomes difficult to resolve.
In the light of the above, the politicians/Presidential flag bearer bringing religion, tribe and ethnicity into their campaign instead of issue base is another way of promoting conflict during and after election. If we look back to 2015 and the issue of 5% and 95% in no way contributed to the present conflict and some level of non support to the present government. it is also important to note that any candidate who through conflict by their use word and in the atmosphere and support for violent within their parties and during campaign, will never value the importance of peacebuiling and conflict resolution even when they wins; hence, the citizens will suffer it and more conflict and violence in the country.