POL 4313: PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Faculty of Social and Management Sciences
BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO


POL 4313: PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Simulation of Conflict Management and Provention

A scenario of conflict in Nigeria is hereby imagined. It is this: “Nigeria is approaching breakdown of spoils politics whose consequences may lead to internal war, collapse of the state, emergence of warlords and private armies”.

As students of Peace and Conflict Resolution you are expected to study, discuss and debate this problem in a mock session of gathering/forum of professional organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Human Right Organizations, Women Organizations, Pro-Democracy Organizations, etc.

The intention is to dissect the problem and propose management, prevention and provention of the developing conflict situation.

Suggested guidelines for students study on the matter:

Þ Conceptual framework: Students are to note that conflict resolution and provention are literally the same. The only difference is that conflict resolution is a case of short-term approach to conflict which has already shown while prevention is the longer term policy approach to eliminate the sources of conflict.
§ Because of this difference, the procedures of conflict provention cannot be the same with procedures of conflict resolution.
§ In Provention there is the problem of what are the parties and what are the issues
§ Actually the parties in the case of the imagined conflict are not specific one, but the totality of the society.
§ The issues are broader of the common good, and of political interest and ideologies.
§ You have to be careful as conflict provention is like dealing with unknown and virtually never tried or never yet developed.
§ Again in conflict resolution the issues are observable but not in conflict provention
Þ What is the significant of this case – for stability; democracy and good governance; welfare of the people; sustainable development of Nigeria
§ Understanding the problem as conflict
§ Establish layers of causation
§ Democracy and intensification of the problem today
§ How the patronage system grows
§ What responses
§ The international communities
§ The civil society
§ The state
Þ The Risk Nigeria Faces because of the problem
Þ Risk Scenario; breakdown of order; state failure; growth of personalized rule with increasing spoils system; extending democracy
Þ Along the line what preventive measures are appropriate to challenge the causes? How can state collapse be recognized on the horizon and prevented? What are the effective remedies for the perceived causes and characteristics of the problem?


M.M. Yusif – January, 2007