Communal conflict, communal peacemaking and governmental intervention in Nigeria: Lessons from the Ife-Modakeke crisis

摘要

This article presents a contextual discourse on the communal conflict in Nigeria, using the Ife-Modakeke crisis as a case study. It conceptualises the key terms to understand the dynamics of communal conflict and its peacemaking processes vis-a-vis government as an institutional mediator. It reviews existing studies on communal conflict resolution and empirical underlying assumptions. It argues that peacemaking processes demand serious attention of government in a non-partisan mediation perspective. It x-rays the possible roles of government in peacemaking processes as well as its commitment problems. In concretising government efficacy, adaptable peacemaking principles are discussed for communal conflict resolution within the sociopolitical space of Nigeria and beyond. The paper concludes that governments can play a significant role in communal peacemaking, and recommends a few valuable principles.