POS 212- Civil Society and Conflict in Nigeria

Attempts to define civil society have been very difficult and confusing and there is the problem of agreement as to whether the concept itself can be applied in Africa. Recent years has seen a proliferation of the literature about the concept of civil society and its contribution to peace. To borrow from Ekiyor (2008:1) defining civil society and identifying which organizations fall within the framework of civil society continue to be a challenge. According to her, the difficulty of conceptualizing civil society in West Africa is that there is a tendency to focus on non- governmental organizations (NGOs), excluding groups and associations that reflect West Africa’s associational culture, such as traditional governance structures. To be sure, the concept of civil society is not new. It has been contested within political philosophy, sociology and social theory for hundreds of years. What is new is the increasing emphasis on the concept over the last decade and it has become a buzzword within international and national development.  

Conflict is a phenomenon in all relationships and groups and thus needs to be accepted as part of our everyday life. As such conflict is natural, inevitable, necessary and normal, and the problem is not the existence of conflict but how to manage it (Mayer, 2010:1). Conflicts are products of social structure and character of society of which the civil society is an integral part. This raises the issue about role of civil society in conflict processes, in terms of its emergence, management, and resolution. Following the attainment of independence in 1960, Nigeria has experienced various shades of conflicts. These conflicts vary from clusters of ethno-religious conflicts, protracted civil wars, inter and intra state conflicts. In her observation, Ekiyor (2008:1) submitted that: these conflicts have resulted in millions of death, the displacement of many (countless number of internally displaced persons), proliferation of small arms and libyght weapons (SALW), and the stagnation of growth and development.

 It is a common knowledge that Nigeria is a country of extraordinary diversity (Human Rights Watch, 2006: 5) and as such, one of extraordinary complexities. This complexity is a reflection of the avalanche of ethno-cultural and religious groups co-habiting the territory and the intricacies of conflicts as a result of interactions among them. Perhaps cognizance of the latent threats of conflicts to the political stability of the emergent nation-state, the Nigerian political actors put measures in place (to address these intricate, multifaceted conflicts) that would neutralize the potential threats and accommodate the divergent interests of the various ethno-cultural groups.

However, government in the early 1970s up until late 1990s through the instruments of the state –the police and the military was busy monopolizing the issue of conflict management with the use of force to crush violent conflicts in Nigeria, with little or no input from civil society organizations (CSOs). Rather than arrest, the situation, there has been an increase in violent confrontations between armed groups and soldiers. As a result, it became impossible for state actors to prevent, manage or resolve conflicts without the assistance and involvement of non-state actors (Ekiyor, 2008:1). Again, research has shown that the role of civil society organizations in development, humanitarian and environmental issues has generally been addressed following the return to civil rule in Africa in the late 1990s; the same cannot be said of their participation in conflict management.

Thus, the relationship between civil society and conflicts in any society cannot be wished away. The two according to Ezirim (2009) are intertwined in the sense that once there is one, there is bound to be the other, and they therefore complement each other’s activities in the state. Giving the significance of civil society organizations in democracy, governance and conflict settings is less agreed, the number of agencies that are engaged in developmental policy, humanitarian aid, human rights protection and environmental policy has increased substantially over the last two decades. A similar development is witnessed in the field of conflict prevention, peacemaking and post-conflict regeneration.