International Organizations and Conflict Management in Nigeria A Case Study of Area 1 IDPs Camp in Abuja (2011-2015).

Conflicts in Nigeria have resulted in countless loss of lives and property, severed relationships, reprisal attacks and rising tensions within the polity. This is evident in the brewing hostilities between the indigenes and settlers in Plateau state, the destruction of pipelines in the Niger Delta and the near-extinction of some communities in Borno state. While conflicts have both positive and negative effects, Nigeria has largely been saddled by the negative effects which results in dislocation of agricultural and economic activities, destruction of capital infrastructure and decline in the country’s economy. The most apparent effect of these conflicts are the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs’) Camps spread all over the country. Nigeria has the 3rd largest IDP crisis in the world and according to the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA, 2015), the Number of Internally displaced persons stood at 2.1 million. With Nigeria being the giant of Africa, the resulting consequence of continued crisis will ultimately have devastating effects on the West African sub-continent and Africa at large.

Hence, as a result of this unfortunate situation, there has been various attempts by the government, private individuals, Non-Governmental Organizations and International Organizations to resolve, transform, manage and suppress these conflicts while managing the victims of these conflicts. While the effort of the government is fundamental in the management of these poor victims, it is almost insufficient due to the growing numbers of displaced persons all over the country. In spite of this gap, many IDPs’ camps across the country are taken care of by other actors which include philanthropic individuals, Non-Governmental Organizations and International Organizations. These non-state actors unignorably play a huge role in holding down the situation especially the International Organizations. According to Nesbit (2003), these organizations are “involved in basic services in refugee camps, trauma counseling for victims, providing food or medical services, or facilitating dialogue between warring factions”.

Conflict management is key to modeling the post-conflict stage and preventing the re-occurrence of the crisis situation. In fact, the concept of conflict management acknowledges that conflict is inevitable but can be redirected towards development or hindered from getting violent via effective management techniques. Since conflict management is crucial to the post-conflict stage of Nigerian conflicts, there arises the crucial need to study conflict management vis-à-vis the major actors involved in conflict management.