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Principles and Processes of Conflictology
The theme of this theoretical paper is aimed at reinforcing attempts being made to establish CONFLICTOLOGY as an independent field of study or discipline. The theme covers the concepts, scope, characteristics, principles and processes of conflictology as well as the processes, stages and strategies of conflict resolution. The need for evolving specific theories and research methodology of conflictology and expanding the scope of the discipline is suggested.
The Ife/Modakeke Crisis An Insider View
The History of Ile-Ife, the Ancient Capital City of Yorubaland is mythical. No one can say about the origin and the year it was created. It is the home of antiquities and ancient works of Arts in terracota, Ivory, Bronze and woodcarvings.
The age and the origin of the city is shrouded in mystery that has not been solved. Even that legend Oduduwa met Ife Aborigines when he arrived at the ancient city.
In the center of the city is the Aafin (Palace) of the Ooni, who is the traditional head of the Ife Kingdom. Surrounding the palace are city sections grouped into areas in the traditional patter. Each section of the city has a traditional chief who is in charge of the affairs of the area for better administration.
Obalufe (Orunto) is next in Rank to Ooni. The towns administration is carried out by the Ooni through Obalufe, he also controls Iremo, Obajio controls Moore; Obaloran controls Ilode; Wasin controls Ilare; Obalaaye controls Iraye the original name for Modakeke. )
The Ife/Modakeke Crisis: An Insider View
We are all painfully aware that the most recent communal clashes between Ifes and Modakekes ate deep into the very fabric of the Yoruba race. We have all watched in distress and anguish as our people in the two communities of Ife and Modakeke unleashed mayhem on each other. The loss of lives and destruction of properties that have resulted from these clashes sadden us all.
This is why I share the concern and wish of all men and women of goodwill that everything should be done to put an end to these periodic clashes.
Historical accounts have it that Ifes and Modakekes are sons and daughters of the same parents. As Yorubas, their ancestry is traced to Oduduwa the progenitor of Yoruba race.
It was the collapse of Old Oyo Empire in the 19th century (Rev. Johnson 1921) which caused a flood of refugees down south, leading one of the displaced Oyo group of people to settle down in the area known today as Modakeke.
Modakeke has thus existed as a town for more than two hundred and fifty (250 years) (Rev. Johnson 1921). It has its own traditional system with a traditional ruler and hierarchy of chiefs. It is proud of its record of healthy growth demographically, economically, culturally and its contribution to national development in all spheres.
Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba race, occupies a pride place in Yoruba history; as such its traditional ruler, the Ooni of Ife, is seen as the Arole (custodian) of Oduduwa, the progenitor of Yoruba. Ife is the source of all that is Yoruba and the Ooni the father of all Yoruba people which today spreads over eight contiguous states of the Federation of Nigeria; be they Modakekes, Ifes, Ibadans, Ekitis, Ketus and so on. Not only does this position bestow on Ife and Ifes a pride place in Yoruba. History shackles them as well. They owe a sacred responsibility to defend and protect all interests concerning the Yorubas, Modakeke inclusive.
The Shariah Conflict: An Insider View
The urgent need to bring sanity and justice to the fabric of Nigerian society, through divine Laws (Shariah) is quite apparent, as well as desirable. The main objective of the shariah law is therefore to construct human life on the basis of Ma’rufat (virtues) and to cleanse man of all munkarat (vices).
These virtues are good qualities that have been accepted by human nature, while vices are the opposite of virtues. In this regard, the overall meaningful development of any society squarely depends upon the moral behaviours and attitudes of its people, hence the agitation for the introduction of Shariah law by the adherents of Islamic Religion in some parts of Nigerian polity.
The Shariah Conflict: An Insider View
Sometimes significant changes begin with unnoticed events. It is believed that sociologist should not be caught idle when these significant changes emerge. This probably has to do with their conviction that human society itself is in motion. No society is static. It either moves forward, progressively or it relates backward retrogressively. Therefore it becomes imperative that if a society must progress then the totality of its values must conform to this doctrine of societal dynamism.
Nigeria as a case study, too, is a nation in motion. Its peoples tend to actualize their dreams through a lot of social changes. Thus, the habit and societal perception of Nigeria during colonialism can not be said to be the same in the postcolonial era. What were the societal values in the postcolonial era has been a subject of enormous change in this millennium. Talking about change. One institution that has been affected by this is the Nigerian legal system. The legal system during colonialism became affected by the independence of Nigerian in 1960. The military administration that succeeded the first republic has some impact on the legal system and thus both the political and economic organisation of Nigeria has brought a lot of changes into the legal system.
The Shariah Crisis in Nigeria: An Insider View+1
The Sharia imbroglio was precipitated by the official declaration of Zamfara as a Sharia state[1]. This declaration resuscitated the Islamic criminal jurisprudence, which had been compromised by the penal code in the formative years of modern criminal justice system in colonial Nigeria[2]. The crisis epitomizes an ideological clash between the positivist and sociological jurisprudential fixation of law. The command theory of law, and the societal’s (wholly or partial) perception of what the law should be were stretched to their limits.
The Sharia impasse makes a re-assessment of its utilitarian value within Nigeria’s socio-cultural milieu, both urgent and imperative. What degree of popularity and acceptability does a law require to achieve its objectives in the context of Nigeria’s heterogeneity? What is the relevance of the source and constituents of a law to its acceptability and conformability? How could the re
introduction of the Sharia criminal jurisprudence inflict a wound so deep on the nation’s psyche and distort its socio-cultural land scapes with such a seismic and reverberative force? If a law is meant to foster peace and orderliness, how could it be the object of conflicts and dissections – a supreme irony that the Sharia now is? This thesis essays a dispassionate view of the Sharia’s nature, history, potentials, resurgence and prospects within Nigeria’s body polity and constitutional democracy.
Management of Religious Conflict In Nigeria: The Form Of Government Intervention.
The Nigeria State is a product of marriage of convenience by the colonial master. It is composed of heterogeneous groups with uncompromising identity struggle at the detriment of a nation state. The elite and the political class have continued to champion the subversive treats of ethnicity, tribal and religious bigotry, thereby making it difficult to have a way out of the social and persistent armed conflicts among the various communities in Nigeria.
The present mechanism of managing conflicts by the government has not yielded any changes but has rather aggravated the rate and preponderance of armed conflict in the country. This paper examined the regional perception of Nigeria on religion and the form of government intervention in conflicts. Institutional frameworks that will promote the use of other options apart from force were recommended.
Communal Conflict and Traditional Conflict Resolution the Ugep/Idomi 1992 Conflict Experience
Conflicts are part and parcel of man’s existence. This is because disagreements among peoples are so natural. People must disagree to agree and conversely, it becomes logical that they should agree to disagree. That is logic of the conflict equation. But such agreement or the disagreement to agree does not in themselves constitute conflict. In conflict resolution these human tendencies and reactions are causal factors to conflict situations. If these tendencies of action and reaction, which are natural in nature and in relation to human conflicts, are as old as man then it is pertinent probing how man has coped traditionally with his conflict situations. It has been argued elsewhere that societies which are stable are not those that are conflict free but those that have in place structures for the successful management of conflict situations. Traditional African societies were stable because they have in place structures for the resolution of conflicts.
In this paper, the Ugep-Idomi conflict of 1992 is here X-rayed in support of the contention that traditional African societies have and do hold such conflict resolutional mechanism secret and locked in their ways of life. These structures have been formed from centuries of custom before their disruption by colonialism. The Ugep-Idomi conflict of 1992 shows that even when modernization has acculturated such traditions of the people, yet it passed by, and so these traditions are still effective.
Enhancing Managers’ Skills through Conflict Process Review
Conflict needs to be constructively managed if it is to have positive outcomes for the organizations and the individuals concerned. A study was carried out among Nigerian managers who were asked to remember a conflict episode in which they had been involved in the past and to evaluate, in retrospect, the way they had handled the conflict. Results revealed that a majority of respondents showed evidence of positive learning as a result of the process review, that more respondents seemed to have learned from their mistakes than from their successes, that women managers were more likely to recall unsatisfactory conflict episodes and men satisfactory ones but that both men and women were equally likely to learn from the process review. Respondents who learned from the review of conflict episodes were those who examined themselves critically and made a conscious effort to understand the opposite side’s point of view.
Conflict and Conflict Resolution in the Niger-Delta the Bayelsa Experience
Conflicts, crisis, youths restiveness, hostage taking, kidnapping are recent phenomena that appear synonymous with the Niger Delta, the oil rich region of the Nigerian Nation-State. This region serves as the economic nerve center of the federation. Since the discovery and the production of oil in commercial quantities in 1958 at Oloibiri. Annual budgets of the country had largely depended on oil, with oil revenue accounting for about 80-90% annually which translates into huge financial resources to the federal government, little or nothing is left behind to alleviate the sufferings of the people of this region from whose land bank accounts of transnational companies abroad and the treasury of the federation are been swollen.
The concern of the people from this region is that the Nigerian State has not been fair. The formula being adopted after the discovery of oil is fraudulent to the extent that it deprives them the right to control their resources. They hold ths view against the backdrop that before the discovery of oil and oil revenue the principle of derivation was 100%.
The feeling of neglect, deprivation and underdevelopment has given rise to so many violent conflicts in recent times. From Ondo State in the SouthWest to Cross River State in the South-South region. Notable among these conflicts are: the Ijaw-Arogbo/Ilaje crises, the Warri Crises, these are inter-ethnic crises over resources and Local Government Headquarters, the invasion of Opia, Ikiyan, Odi, Ikebiri, Olugbobiri, Isoko/Olomoro Crises, Evwreni killing and so on.
These are resources driven. The Kaiama declaration, the Ogoni Crises and so on are political and resource driven.
Campaign for Women in Peacebuilding
Although this paper is on women and peace building, but this writer finds it necessary to first review the peace building theories which recognises the feminist approach too.
Conflicts and Conflict Resolution
Conflicts and conflict resolution are current and relevant issues in contemporary world. The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in New York and Washington on the 11th September 2001 and the retaliatory strikes on the Taliban government in Afghanistan are very much with us. Conflict is endemic worldwide. The causes, expression and legitimacy of conflicts are discussed.
Some ways of resolving conflicts are discussed. This paper is interested in communicating peace for development and cooperation. Some graphical representations have been attempted to make the presentation clearer.
Cutaneo-Chroma (Skin Color) As Post-Colonial Hierarchy: A Global Strategy for Conflict Resolution
The post-colonial hierarchy is a critical dynamic of global coexistence. power is associated with those sovereignties characterized by light-skinned populations. Those characterized by dark skin are denigrated and assumed less qualified to negotiate global issues as equals. Although political objectives are expected to stimulate conflict, skin color is directly correlated with the present world order. Moreover, most post-colonial sovereignties are heterogeneous in one way or another and yet do not engage in destructive conflict. From a global perspective, conflict resolution will require post-colonial sovereignties—particularly those of relative light skin--to forfeit their self-serving denigration of others. Strategies for conflict resolution should ignore skin color and incorporate measures designed to improve problem-solving, moral reasoning and general etiquette skills of those engaged in any negotiation process.
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