BEYOND AMNESTY AND ADVERSARIAL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION

Abstract

The Nigerian state is yet to come up with a viable management strategy to address the Niger Delta conflict with a view to achieving durable peace in the region. Unfortunately, adoption of adversarial conflict management strategy by the Nigerian state in order to stem the tide of insurgency and militancy in the region increased the intensity of the protracted social conflict. Besides, despite its initial and immediate positive effects, the on-going Amnesty initiative of the federal government lacks the capacity to tackle the underlying factors of the conflict and the policy has gone under heavy criticisms, owing to its implementation shortcomings. This article not only explored the dynamics of the violent conflict but also evaluated the effectiveness of the two major conflict management approaches of the federal government and the activities of ethnic militias together with criminality in the region. It further revealed the motive behind the persistence of violence, prevalence of economic and security threats in the region. This article, which adopted an analytical-critical method, also contended that there is a possibility of a recurrent violence in the region in the near future, should the prolonged negotiations between the government and the Niger-Delta people eventually fail to metamorphose into the long-awaited visible developmental transformation of the area. The paper therefore concluded that there is an urgent need for the Nigerian state to be genuinely committed to social justice in order to record an enduring peace, socio-economic stability and sustainable development in the Niger Delta region.