Destructive Nature of Communal Conflict in Nigeria: A Focus on Oruku and Umuode Conflict in Enugu State of Nigeria
- October 1, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Political Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue IX, September 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Adenyi Theophilus Okechukwu1, Nnamchi Kevin Chikwado2, Onyia Michael Chukwuka2
1Department of Political Science University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
2Department of International Relations/Peace Conflict and Strategic Studies, University of America Murrieta California, United States
Abstract: – This paper examines the destructive nature of communal conflict in Nigeria with a focus on Oruku/Umuode conflict in Enugu State. The specific objectives of the paper were to investigate factors that escalates the conflict, its effect on the development of the communities and to find out why the resolution strategies adopted by Enugu State Government and other Third Party interveners failed. Macro theory of conflict was adopted as framework of analysis. The study adopts documentary and survey research design while data were collected through primary and secondary sources. The secondary source are data in books, journals, internet materials, Court documents relating to the conflict, Government Gazettes on the conflict, memoranda and petitions submitted by the communities to different Panel of Inquiry, and recommendations of different Panels of Inquiry on the conflict. The primary source is data generated directly from respondents through interview. Purposive sampling technique was used to select forty (40) respondents inter viewed. The paper found that the conflict had led to loss of several lives and properties and created internally displaced persons who took refuge in the neighboring communities and within Oruku. The paper argues that resolution of such an intractable and destructive conflict requires neutrality by interveners and a change of strategy and approach with the adoption of conflict transformation through which both the actors, the issues, structural, behavioural and attitudinal aspects of the conflict will be transformed. The paper recommends that Government and third-party interveners should be neutral in their bid to resolve the conflict and that the youths who are combatants in the area should be demobilized and empowered. Those who were displaced by the conflict should be identified and rehabilitated by government or non-governmental organizations so as to alleviate their suffering and change their perception from the culture of war to a culture of peace.
Keywords: Conflict, Communal Conflict, Intractable Conflict, Oruku/Umuode, Destructive Conflict
