CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN NIGER DELTA REGION: AN IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY
ABSTRACT
This study is based on conflict and conflict management in the Niger Delta region: implications for educational productivity using practical situations to investigate whether education can truly be productive in regions associated with persistent crisis.
Furthermore, it sought to highlight some of the problems that the people of the Niger- Delta region have faced as a result of the crisis, as well as to determine why the conflicts have persisted and how these conflicts can be managed or controlled in order for there to be educational development in the Niger- Delta region.
Data were gathered through the administration of questionnaires, oral interviews, and group discussions for literate adults, illiterate adults, and local gatherings of Niger Delta adults, in that order.
According to the findings, the Niger-Delta crisis is having a significant negative impact on the region’s economic, social, political, and overall development. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the region’s educational standard is deteriorating.
Furthermore, it was discovered that a lack of employment opportunities, illiteracy, and the poor and unhealthy living conditions of the Niger Deltans have fueled the region’s conflicts. Furthermore, it was revealed that overall development in the Niger Delta region will aid in the promotion of peace and stability.
Finally, recommendations were made in an attempt to offer solutions to the region’s ongoing conflicts.
THE FIRST CHAPTER
1.0 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY/BACKGROUND
Conflict is a necessary part of human existence when social change is required, but conflicts that breed unhealthy killings, deprivation, and affect social security are inhuman and should be resisted and rejected.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with a population of around 140 million people and over 250 ethnic groups.
The Niger-Delta region is a network of hydrocarbon-rich creeks, lagoons, and mangrove swamp forests. It is estimated that the Niger-Delta region produces approximately 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day. With this level of productivity, Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and the world’s sixth largest.
Furthermore, these discoveries and production contribute to Niger-Delta accounting for nearly 95 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and 90 percent of its revenue (CBN, Annual report 2003). The Niger-Delta region is invariably vital and strategic to Nigeria and the international community.
Initially, the Niger-Delta region consisted of only six states: Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers, which were spread across Nigeria’s coastal fringes. The term Niger-Delta region now refers to all of the states that produce crude oil, with Abia, Imo, and Ondo joining the previous six.
Because of the complexity and multifaceted nature of the situation in Nigeria’s oil-producing communities, it is more appropriate to refer to it as a “crisis within a crisis.” Inter and intracommunity relations in the Niger-Delta region have recently been marked by a high level of conflict and violence. Beginning in December 1992, the conflict between Ogonis and the oil infrastructure grew more serious and intense on both sides. In May 1994, military repression became more severe.
On May 21, soldiers and mobile police officers appeared in the majority of Ogoni villages. On that day, four Ogoni chiefs were brutally murdered (all of whom were on the conservative side of a schism within MOSOP over strategy). Following the death of four Ogoni elders in May 1994, nine activists from the movement known as
‘The Ogoni Nine,’ including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were arrested and charged with incitement to murder. Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues denied the charges, but were imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death on November 10, 1995, by a specially convened tribunal hand-picked by General Sani Abacha. The activists were denied due process and were executed by hanging by the Nigerian state after being found guilty.
The Warri ethnic war, which began in March 1997, claimed hundreds of lives. Violence and conflict have also been reported between the Urhobos and the Itsekiris, as well as between different Isoko communities in Delta state and different Ijaw communities in Bayelsa state.
In Ondo state, the Ogonis have clashed with the Andonis, while the Ijaws have clashed with the Yoruba communities. In Akwa Ibom State, intercommunal violence has also been reported. Since around 1990, the level of hatred and suspicion among the various communities in the Niger-Delta has been on the rise.
Ken-Saro Wiwa (1990) forewarned about the escalation of inter-communal conflicts in the Niger-Delta region in an article titled “The Coming War in the Delta.” As he put it at the time:
…..After about three weeks, the Delta’s smoldering war claimed its first victims, six dead and twenty injured. I had predicted it in 1988 and had given ample warning. I am afraid that war will break out if action is not taken quickly to defuse the situation…. I must warn the Delta communities to refrain from resorting to violence in their just struggle for their rights…
The ‘worst is yet to come,’ as Saro-Wiwa predicted, has not only arrived, but has deteriorated to the point where the various communities in the Niger-Delta are characterized by tension, violence, mistrust, and attempts by each community to demonstrate that it is first among the exploited and despoiled victims of the Niger-Delta.
While highlighting the rise in inter and intracommunity violence, it is important to note that the relationship between communities in the Niger-Delta has been characterized by conflict.
The researcher is interested in investigating the conflicts in the Niger Delta region and determining how conflicts in the Niger-Delta areas can be effectively managed by eradicating the problems that people in the zone face.
1.1 DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM
Despite their contributions to Nigeria’s prosperity, the people of the Niger-Delta region have suffered gross social and economic infrastructure neglect, poverty, frustrations, ecological disasters, and other deprivations. It is important to note that the ongoing crisis in the Niger-Delta region has had a significant impact on educational productivity. Conflict puts vulnerable children in grave danger. It has the potential to displace children, destroy schools, and destabilize the educational system.
Children may be denied access to a good and safe education if no action is taken. Good education rarely survives major conflicts like the one that has engulfed the Niger-Delta region. Students and teachers are frequently forced to flee as school buildings are destroyed or taken over by armed forces, vital educational financial resources are diverted to military action, teachers’ salaries are diverted, and materials stop reaching schools.
Conflict in the Niger-Delta region has forced many families to flee their homes and end up living in temporary housing with no access to schools. The constant movement complicates education and makes it impossible to establish schools.
As the conflict continues, the desire to attend school fades, and the need for educational development slows as focus shifts to how to resolve the conflict. The purpose of this research is to look into the effects of conflict on educational productivity in the Niger-Delta region.
1.2 STUDY PURPOSE
This research focused on the effects of conflict on educational productivity in the Niger-Delta region. Despite the fact that there are numerous reasons and counter-reasons for these conflicts, the investigator demonstrated the root cause of the issues and how to effectively address the issues of inhuman activities occurring in the zone. This study investigated whether such conflicts are necessary. As a result, the study investigated:
1 The causes of conflict and their consequences for educational productivity in Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region.
2 The means by which these conflicts can be managed or controlled in order for educational development in the Niger-Delta region to take place.
3 The role of education in resolving the Niger-Delta region’s persistent conflicts.
1.3 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
During the course of the study, the following research questions were addressed:
1 Is the conflict in the Niger-Delta region caused by socioeconomic and cultural factors?
2 Is the conflict in the Niger-Delta region caused by a political factor?
3 Is the conflict in the Niger-Delta region caused by an attitudinal factor?
4 Has the conflict had an impact on students’ educational programs in the Niger-Delta region?
5 Is creating jobs in the Niger-Delta region a viable solution?
6 Is inter-factional dialogue a viable solution to the Niger-Delta conflict?
7 Is family rehabilitation in the Niger-Delta region a viable solution?
8 Can education help to alleviate the ongoing conflict in the Niger-Delta region?
THE HYPOTHESES 1.4
To corroborate the findings of the research questions, the following hypotheses were used in the study:
1 Socioeconomic and cultural factors have no bearing on Niger-Delta conflicts.
2 The conflict has had no significant impact on students’ educational programs in the Niger Delta region.
3 The provision of employment has no discernible impact on conflict resolution in the Niger-Delta region.
4 Dialogue between factional leaders has had no discernible impact on the Niger-Delta conflicts.
5 Education has no effect on conflict resolution in the Niger Delta.
1.5 THE STUDY’S IMPORTANCE
Because this study focused on the effects of conflicts on educational productivity in the Niger-Delta region, its findings will help enlighten society on the effects of conflict on educational development and what needs to be done to manage the situation in order for there to be development in society at large.
This research will help to raise awareness in the government about the importance of critically examining the plight of the Niger-Delta people. Furthermore, this study will inform and alert the people of the Niger-Delta that conflict is detrimental to educational productivity and development in the region, as well as provide useful information for those who wish to conduct research in this field.
1.6 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVE
This study is restricted to Niger-Delta indigenes, ‘youths and adults’ such as parents, married and singles alike, who live in the Niger-Delta region.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1.7
During the course of this research, the following theories were employed.
Theory of Human Needs
Psychologist Abraham Maslow (1954) is well-known for developing the hierarchy of needs, which categorizes human needs in order of urgency as follows: physiological needs; safety needs; aesthetic needs; and self-actualization needs. He believed that all people are motivated by the desire to meet basic human needs.
However, conflict theorists such as Herbert Kelman and John Burton applied Maslow’s ideas to conflict theory when they discovered and proposed that these needs are at the root of many deep-rooted and intractable conflicts. A denial of one or more of these essential human needs will, as a result, result in conflict, and the affected victims will fight indefinitely to ensure the fulfillment of the needs.
It is, however, critical for society to adapt to people’s needs rather than the other way around. According to Burton (2006), if violence is to be avoided, ethnic minorities must be given autonomous status; decision-making systems must be non-adversarial if leadership roles are to be collaborative.
It should be noted that there is a distinction to be made between personal interests and human needs. Man is known to be aggressive in his pursuit of material (physical) acquisition, which opens the door to conflict due to the costs involved. As a result, the necessary legal and bargaining institutions, as well as established processes, have been established. Non-material needs, such as needs for recognition and identity, do, however, elicit aggression whenever there is injustice.
With regard to human needs, there is no such thing as bargaining or compromise as there is with material acquisition. For example, what kind of remuneration is to be paid in exchange for youths who are unemployed in a given area, despite the fact that they are fully aware that if they are employed, they will be able to meet some of their personal needs? The lack of employment, on the other hand, leads to youths engaging in destructive anti-social behaviors.
THEORY OF STRUCTURE
The structural theory, according to the theory of structuration, could provide more insight into the interplay between people, power, structure, and resource exploitation and degradation in the Niger-Delta. Its main advantage is that it reveals the dynamics of forces as they relate to the individual. Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory is a comprehensive view of society (1979, 1981, 1992, 1984; Chokor1988). It examines society and social relations through the lens of:
1 Social structure;
Structures 2;
3 Organization; and
4 Space and time.
A social system is made up of repeated relationships between actors, who can be individuals, groups, businesses, or collectives. Relationships are formed as a result of established rules or social practices. Structures are viewed as recursively organized rules and resources that people draw on and reconstitute in their day-to-day activities, allowing a system to function.
The concept of agency refers to the individual’s role within society, particularly in the use of structure. The structure has duality in the sense that it is both enabling and constraining. As a result of the unbalanced distribution of power in society, the individual agent may be limited in expressing and achieving goals.
For example, the goals of owning and controlling oil resources are both hampered by federal laws and legal sanctions, but people, individually or collectively, are not completely helpless and can modify social system structures by seeking to recognize the rules (e.g. current and past agitation over the Niger-Delta issues led to the revision of 3 percent derivation to 13 percent as provided for in the 1999 constitution).
Space-time, on the other hand, simply shows that actions and decisions have space-time associations, emphasizing the importance of considering the impact of space and time on human relationships. The Niger-Delta, for example, has a terrain that local people have mastered over time, increasing their ability to modify structures by using them to their advantage in the process of negotiating social relations and resisting unfavorable external interventions.
Theory of Conflict Transformation
Lederach is the theory’s proponent (1995). According to the theory, conflict is caused by real issues of inequality and injustice. This inequality and injustice, however, are manifested by competing social, cultural, and economic frameworks in which resource allocation is frequently insufficient to satisfy all parties involved (George, 2000; Solomon and Mngqibisa, 2000).
Conflict transformation emerges as an alternative to the conflict resolution paradigm. As a result, it seeks to address issues that conflict resolution experts frequently overlook, such as structural culture and cultural identity, as well as the role that individuals can play in reducing the intensity and duration of conflict (Miall, Ramsbotham and Woodhouse, 1999).
According to Lederach and Rupesinghe (1995), conflict transformation emphasizes a multi-track approach that recognizes the need to involve a large number of actors in a variety of roles in order to achieve long-term peace. The theory’s main goals are to change the structures and frameworks that cause inequality and injustice, to improve long-term relationships and attitudes between conflicting parties, and to develop processes and systems that promote employment, justice, peace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and recognition.
The theory also allows for an examination of the conflict’s complexities. Conflict transformation theory acknowledges the need to transform the conflict at several levels, as identified by Varynen (1991), namely context transformation, structural transformation, actor transformation, issue transformation,
and individual and group transformation. This theory also recognizes the various roles that grassroot actors play or contribute to the process of conflict transformation. The grassroot actors are thought to play a critical role in the process of reconciliation and peace promotion.
These grassroot organizations are in charge of initiating the reconstruction of damaged properties, holding prayer meetings and vigils, holding commissions, organizing festivals of culture and art, promoting contacts among conflict parties, and even assessing the needs of the community.
In order to carry out the preceding, it is necessary to evaluate the underlying assumptions of cultural differences, foster an environment that encourages forgiveness and equality, and provide a forum for communication.
1.8 TERM DEFINITION
The terms listed below have been operationally defined as they were used during the course of the study.
1 Conflict: A conflict occurs when people, groups, or countries are involved in a serious disagreement and argument. It is also a debate in the political, religious, judicial, economic, and other spheres of society.
2 Education: This is a formal process of teaching and learning that takes place in a school, college, or university.
3 Conflict Management: It refers to the various methods of putting an end to a raging war or dispute between warring factions such as groups, societies, states, or even nations.
4. Adult: An adult is a physically mature person. It is also a person who is at least 18 years old. That is, someone over the age of 1
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