CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN NIGERIA: THE PROSPECT AND CHALLENGES FOR PEACE (A Case Study of Ife and Modakeke Crisis, Osun State)

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CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN NIGERIA: THE PROSPECT AND CHALLENGES FOR PEACE (A Case Study of Ife and Modakeke Crisis, Osun State)

ABSTRACT

The conflict between the Ife and Modakeke appears to be a protracted and seemingly intractable intra-ethnic conflict that has continued to pit two groups of the same ethnic background against one another. This study, therefore examined the conflict resolution in Nigeria: the prospect and challenges for peace. The study found that the major causes of the conflict between Ife and Modakeke group include land issues, Ife-East Local Government, debate over Modakeke’s sovereignty, boundary disagreement etc. This study discovered that one of the shortcomings of the past methods of managing the Ife-Modakeke conflict is inability of bringing succour to the minds of those who records losses during the war. To effectively carry out this research, data was collected in form of questionnaire from respondents who are people of Ife and Modakeke. (150) one hundred and fifty questionnaire were administered, (137) one hundred and thirty seven copies were returned and (135) one hundred and thirty five copies are used. After critical analysis of the data collected, findings revealed that conflict is indeed an inevitable aspect of human interaction. There is the need to learn to manage them and deal with them in a way that prevents escalation and destruction, and to arrive at new, innovative, and creative ideas to resolve them.

Key word: Violence, Ife-Modakeke, Conflict Management, Crisis and Insecurity.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title       Page

Declaration I

Certification II

Dedication III

Acknowledgement IV

Abstract  V

Table of Content VI

CHAPTER ONE

Background to the Study 1

Statement of the Research Problem 2

Objectives of the Study  3

Research Questions 4

1.5 Research Hypothesis 4

1.6 Significance of the Study 5

1.7 Scope and Limitations of the Study 5

1.8 Limitation of the Study 5

1.9 Definition of Terms 6

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Preamble 8

2.2 Review of Related Literature 8

2.2.1 Concept of Conflict 8

2.2.2 Traditional Origin of the People of Ife and Modakeke 9

2.2.3 Historical Overview of Ife – Modakeke Conflict 11

2.2.4 The Causes of Conflicts between Ife and Modakeke 14

2.2.5 The Effect of Ife – Modakeke 15

2.2.6 Attempted Solutions to Curb the Crisis 15

2.2.7 Alternative instrument Used 17

2.2.8 How It Was Finally Resolved 19

2.3 Theoretical Framework of the Study 20

2.3.1 The Contact Theory 20

2.3.2 The Frustration- Aggression Theory 21

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Preamble 24

3.2 Research Design 24

Population of the Study  24

Sampling Size and Sampling Techniques 24

Sources of Data Collections  25

Data Collection Instrument 26

3.6.2 Administration of Data Collection Instrument 26

3.7 Method of Data Analysis  26

3.8 Validation and Reliability of Instruments 27

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS PRESENTATION

4.1 Preamble 29

Analysis of Respondents’ Characteristics and Classifications29

Analysis of Individual Research Statement31

Test of Hypothesis37

Discussion of the Findings44

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary 46

5.2 Conclusion  47

5.3 Recommendations 48

References 58

Appendix peace

 

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Over the past few decades, Nigeria has experienced many complex conflicts and socio-political problems ranging from inequality, corruption, kidnapping, oil pipeline vandalism, ethno- religious conflicts, the Boko-Harm insurgency/terrorist activities in the North-East and recently, the Fulani herdsmen (nomadic pastoralists) and farmer’s conflicts. According to Abbass (2012), the conflict between the Fulani pastoralists and farmers has been on the increase in recent times amidst allegation of trespassing on farmlands by the Fulani pastoralists(Blench, 2010). The encroachment on grazing fields and routes by farmers led to fierce struggle and violent conflicts between them leading to a massive humanitarian crisis involving the loss of thousands of lives and destruction of properties worth millions of naira(Bello, 2013a),(Chinwokwu, 2013). The conflicts according to some estimates have claimed the lives of over 20,000 people and about 2.6 million are displaced (Muhammed & Oladimeji, 2017). Although the Islamic extremist group, Boko-Haram exists in other northern parts of the country, they are predominantly in North- Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa (Sodipo, 2013). This geopolitical zone appeared to have suffered the most, judging by the level of economic dislocations, social unrest; and destruction of both lives and properties recorded in these areas (Faluyi, Khan, & Akinola, 2019). It took the rejuvenation of the command and control of the military by the Federal Government to check the rampaging militants and reclaim parts of the Nigerian territory lost to the militants. Still, the situation calls for more attention in terms of resolving the conflict and building peace in the area (Faluyi et al., 2019).

According to Abdulkarim, Abeeb Mohammed, & Idriss (2018), Boko-Haram insurgency and terrorist group operations have been on for over a decade beginning from 2009- up-to-date. Their cruel activities have been so devastating; they kill people in mass and indiscriminately too. They also kidnap people too, especially women, youths and children. A notorious example of this was the brazen kidnapping of the Chibok Girls on 14th April 2014 (Olojo, 2015) and the Dapchi Girls (2018). These two incidents which attracted both national and international outrage demonstrate not only the brutal nature of the insurgency but also the complexity of the crises. The group was reported to have taken over some villages and local government areas in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states and proclaimed Gwoza, a village in the suburb of Borno state as the seat of their caliphate. The frequent ransacking of villages and the attendant displacements, loss of lives and property has made life nasty and brutish in this part of the country and there appears no end in sight for the hellish situation. The 2014 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report that 82 per cent of people killed in terrorist attacks across the world were just in five countries namely, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria. The Index also identified Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Uganda as being at risk of increased terrorism due to the presence of the following four factors extrajudicial killing, lack of women’s political rights, lack of intergroup cohesion and political instability (Global Terrorism Index, 2014:2). Clearly, existing conflict resolution mechanisms have failed to arrest the conflicts in Nigeria (Olojo, 2015). There is, therefore, an urgent need to devise fresh and effective strategies of resolving the conflict. This study attempts to proffer programmatic conflict resolution and peace- building strategies for Yobe state Nigeria which is one of the frontline states engulfed by the insurgents and terrorists’ operations. In this chapter, effort is made to highlight the background of the study, statement of problem, research objectives and research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, delimitation and limitations of the study.

Since 2009 when the insurgents first launched an attack on Damaturu and two other towns, the state has continued to witness several attacks, including suicide bombings, burning and killing of innocent people and the destruction of houses/schools, properties, markets, shops, government institutions, department and facilities (Salawu, 2010).Because of the activities of the insurgents, many have either been killed or displaced. The persistent displacement of people forced the government and non-governmental organizations to create Internally Displaced Person’s camps (IDPs camps) to provide succor to the displaced persons (Abdulkarim et al., 2018).

Despite the government’s announcement in 2016, that the group had been ‘crushed,’ attacks continued throughout 2017 from Maiduguri city to the Lake Chad Basin, in IDP camps, universities, churches, mosques and even to other states such as Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau, which has hitherto not been part therein (Faluyi et al., 2019). The plight of refugees fleeing the violence is also worsening with the current severe drought and impending famine across northeast Nigeria.

According to Muhammed & Oladimeji (2017), the consequence of climate change has brought untold hardship and challenges on the northerners, especially the northeast region where majority of the Fulani herdsmen reside and carry on their pastoral activities. They were, however, forced to migrate down from the Sahel savannah to the Guinea savannah because of drought (low rainfall) which hampered the growth of weeds needed for animal consumption(Ubhenin, 2012). This movement led to the encroachment on the farmers’ land as well as forced cohabitation between the Fulani pastoralists and farmers which resulted in conflicts and crises and the destruction of life and property. All these conflicts have turned Nigeria north-east into a theatre of war according to the current Chief of Army Staff of the Nigeria military (Tukur, 2016).

Nigeria, a multi ethnic country located in West Africa has recorded a number of ethnic conflicts at inter-ethnic and intra ethnic dimensions some which began since preindependence and some since post-independence. Many of these conflicts have reoccurred severally and they have continued to threaten the polity. Historically, IleIfe on the one hand is widely acclaimed to be the cradle of the Yoruba group. And according to Oyeniyi (2010), Ile-Ife has been described as the political, religious and cultural headquarters of Yoruba-land. Oyo on the other hand was a Yoruba town spanning many parts and towns of Yoruba-land founded by an Ife prince known as Oranmiyan. And Modakeke is regarded as an Oyo town made up of Oyo refugees. Historical evidence show that the Modakeke are Oyo refuges who migrated at one point in time or the other to Ile-Ife from different locations of Yoruba Kingdom at the end of the Yoruba inter-tribal wars (Asiyanbola, 2010). In spite of the obvious historical interconnectedness between the Ife and Modakeke, the relation between both sides has not been very cordial.

The conflict between the Ife and Modakeke group appears to be a protracted and seemingly intractable intra-ethnic conflict that has continued to pit two groups of the same ethnic background against one another. There had been seven major wars between the Ife and Modakeke, that is 1835-1849, 1882-1909, 1946-1949, 1981, 1983, 1997-1998, and 2000. Based on this, the conflict appears to be the oldest intra-ethnic conflict in Nigeria because it has been going on for more than a century (Asiyanbola, 2007). Since its first outbreak in 1835, there have been a number of causes which have overtime varied or consolidated and culminated into open violent conflict that has on a number of occasions pit both Yoruba sub-groups against one another. Among them are land ownership, rent over land and the question of local government for Modakeke. For instance, the August 1997 violence was sparked off by the location and relocation of headquarters of the Ife – East local government council. The ultimate objective of the separatist sentiments has always been the creation of a separate local government for Modakeke. Indeed, the issue of a separate local government has been central to Ife – Modakeke relations and was certainly prominent among the concerns in the civil disturbances of 1981. It was both a cause and a suggested solution at the same time (Tokunbo and Oladipupo, 2006). The causes of the conflicts between Ife and Modakeke are many and varied and are partly economic and partly political and identity issues revolving around landownership issues, payment of land rent (Isakole), status of Modakeke community, local government creation and location of local government headquarters (Asiyanbola, 2010). Since 1847, various attempts have been made to resolve the crisis between the two communities by individual traditional rulers, Obas, state and federal governments as well as socio-political and cultural organizations (Ogbeide and Olatunki 2014). (Aja,2007) outlined the resolution process into the pre-colonial traditional peace approach, the colonial interactive peace approach and the post-colonial partisan peace approach. Considering the sporadic nature of the conflict in that it gets settled and re-ignites, and then it will be proper to state that these resolution methods brought about what one could refer as temporary relief. From records, it appears only a fraction of the Yoruba traditional institution (i.e. the role of Oba) has been applied towards the pursuance of peace. For further elaboration, the first attempt to resolve the crisis was made by Ooni Abeweila in 1847 to find a new settlement for the Modakeke (Shina and Ndukaku, 2010). Ooni Adelekan Olubuse attempted to resolve the crisis by implementing an 1886 treaty which recommended the expulsion of Modakeke from Ile-Ife. Since becoming the Ooni, Oba Okunade Sijuade has also spent much of his energy and time in resolving the crisis (Ogbeide and Olatunji, 2014). There have been a number of approaches and studies suggesting possible ways of permanently resolving or managing the Ife-Modakeke conflict but there has not been much emphasis on the role or ways in which traditional institutions have been able to manage the conflict.

This research work on conflict resolution and peace-building strategies in Nigeria is born out of the failure of previous conflict resolution strategies or mechanisms to halt and resolve conflicts and crises that have bedeviled the Ife-Modakeke conflict. It is imperative to point out that this research work focused on Ife-Modakeke conflict as the unit of analysis and on the strategies employed by federal, state and local governments in resolving the conflicts, efforts of non-governmental institutions (international and local), as well as the efforts of groups and individuals to resolve the conflicts, will be briefly explained.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The increasing spate of crises and conflicts currently ravaging and threatening the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria as a country is not an issue to toy with (Prof. Benjamin Osisioma, 2016). This is because it can consume the people of Nigeria and by extension, the people of the West African sub-region and possibly the African continent and in one way or the other every part of the continent will have a bite of the smoke and fire emanating there from (Chukwuma & George Atelhe, 2014). For over a decade, Nigeria has been facing serious security challenges ranging from ethnic-tribal conflicts to the religious crisis, the Niger Delta militants (Usoro et al., 2014) and more recently, the Boko-Haram insurgency and terrorist activities in the north-eastern part of the country. The group has since 2009 unleashed violence on the Nigerian state in unprecedented ways (Akinola, 2015). All these and the recent Fulani herdsmen-farmers saga (UNDP, 2017) has turned Nigeria into a theatre of war, a situation that has led to the death of thousands of people with about 2.6 million displaced, hundreds in hostage and hundreds kidnaped with their where about unknown including some of the 2014 Chibok Girls (Ikpe, 2017). The situation in the North-East, particularly in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa can be described as nasty and brutish as described by Thomas Hobbes in his State of Nature. Also, terrorism is not peculiar to Nigeria, but the peculiarity of poor state response is not debatable. The response of the Nigerian state in tackling Boko Haram crises is abysmally low compared with international standards, most especially as established under the Kampala Convention. The war against Boko Haram has been politicized in Nigeria and very few people observe the poor response of Nigeria in tackling Boko Haram. For example, it is argued that intelligence on Boko Haram was available to the Federal Government of Nigeria fourteen years before it explode.

There have been various studies on African peace and conflict which have provided novel theoretical perspectives and to a larger degree manages to capture the core issues explaining turmoil and violence in the continent. However, when assessed jointly, the publications are relatively weak in terms of systematically providing empirical evidence to substantiate its claims. The literature does not consist of any statistical study trying to substantiate claims of general patterns. The intention in this study is to present a preliminary report on ethnicity and urban landlords/tenants relationship and conflicts with a view to have a better understanding of the challenges facing local peoples and those on the outside who seek to interact with the group through business, humanitarian/development and political spheres. Among the issues that are examined are the construction of identity, and inter-personal relationship in the two communities.

1.3 Research Objectives

The broad objective of this research work is to examine the conflict resolution in Nigeria: The prospect and challenges for peace (a case study of ife and modakeke crisis, osun state. Specific Objectives are:

1 To examine the nature of violent conflict in Ife and Modakeke

2 To examine the extent of violent conflict in Ife and Modakeke

3 To examine the existing strategies in resolving conflicts and building peace in Ife and Modakeke

4 To identify factors hampering the effectiveness of conflict resolution and peace-building strategies

5 To suggest ways through which effective conflict resolution and peace-building strategies can be achieved in order to have lasting peace in Ife and Modakeke.

1.4 Research Questions

This research work attempted to answer the following questions

  1. What is the nature of violent conflict in Ife and Modakeke?
  2. What is the extent of violent conflict in Ife and Modakeke?
  3. What are the existing strategies for conflict resolution and peace-building in Ife and Modakeke?
  4. What are the factors hindering the effectiveness of conflict resolution and peace-building in Ife and Modakeke?
  5. What suggestions can be made in order to achieve effective conflict resolution and Peacebuilding strategies in Ife and Modakeke?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This research work is significant in many ways and will contribute to knowledge through re- examining the strategies and mechanisms employed in conflict resolution and peace building and the factors or barriers hindering the effective resolution of conflicts and peacebuilding. The research reveals the inadequacies of democratic systems in curtailing and resolving conflicts despite its acclaimed self-regulatory mechanism as posited by its proponents (Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, Rousseau, Alexis de Tocqueville and Schumpeter) and as evident in many parts of the world where conflict is currently ravaging such as in Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and a host of others. This inadequacy is attested to by (Rosato, 2003); (Crozier, Huntington, & Watanuki, 1975) and (Runciman, 2017). Therefore, there is an urgent need to re- examine the system. Rising from the above, this research draws attention to the rational thinking of the need to re-visit and re-examine the internal logic and workings of democratic systems with the view of fine-tuning it, if it must continue to serve as a political system worthy of practice, it also points to the fact that the inability of democratic systems to resolve conflicts calls for renewed search for alternative conflict resolution and peace-building strategies and mechanisms.

There is no doubt that African traditional society has her own indigenous ways of resolving conflicts and building peace before the introduction of the western conflict resolution procedures which, it must be noted, have been very effective (Rwebangira, 2013; Gibson, 2006),thus, the urgent need to revisit and revive these traditional or western conflict resolution approaches. The inability of the imported, stereo-type strategies and mechanism to effectively resolve conflicts, especially in Africa may not be far-fetched from the fact that they are devoid of our culture, values and tradition. Therefore, there is a disconnecting between the policies and the society they are meant to serve. African conflict resolution mechanism is people-centered and community oriented with the masses fully involved and participating (A down- top format (Mac Ginty, 2010). This is what makes the system work as opposed to the institutional, stereo-typed western strategy. This research work is significant to the government and people of Nigeria and Osun state who are in search of ways to resolve the lingering communal conflict which has been ravaging their communities over the years.

Afro-centric approach to conflict resolution is being proffered as the possible way out of the crisis as opposed to the hitherto fierce and coercive military approach. The study provides a channel for peace building for the government and the people of the region. It also contributes to the body of knowledge by showing that there could be more than one-way approach to conflict resolution and peace building. The study highlights the need to adopt a new approach such as dialogue, negotiation and reconciliation, and more importantly, to address the issue of conflict resolution from the economic development and structural base of society. Improving the living condition of the people by providing them with the basic needs of life such as water, food and clothing has the potential of reducing the widening gap between the poor and the rich which has often been the root cause of conflicts in most societies. After all, no matter the gravity of a war or conflict, it ends up on a round table discussion.

1.6 Scope of the study

This study will focus on the challenges and prospect of conflict resolution Nigeria. a case study of Ife and Modakeke crisis, Osun state will be considered by the study This research work is constrained in some ways. Although there has been a lot of conflicts and crises in Nigeria over the decades ranging from ethno-communal to resource control, but the  Ife and Modakeke  conflicts seem to have taken a new dimension in its set-up and mode of operation.

It appears this is the first time Nigeria is experiencing this magnitude of insurgency and terrorist attacks since her existence as a nation and had very little experience in dealing with such, this may be responsible for the lack of materials and knowledge on the scope, modus operandi and strategies of insurgent groups as well as the strategies of dealing with group activities. This research work, therefore, constrained by the lack of documents such as reports of commissions of inquiry, government white paper and other vital data necessary for the research work.

 

CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN NIGERIA: THE PROSPECT AND CHALLENGES FOR PEACE (A Case Study of Ife and Modakeke Crisis, Osun State)

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