Nigeria: Retooling the Media Culture in Nigeria for Conflict Management (III)

1 December 2012
opinion

The two things that keep the society going are conflict and peace. As is often said, conflict is an integral part of human life and it cannot be totally eliminated. However, whenever conflict occurs, it must be properly managed; else it threatens the very existence of the family, society and nation. Nigeria can be said to have had its own share of conflicts. Conflicts in most cases arise from either lack of communication or misunderstanding. The level to which one holds to his position in a conflict situation may be a product of the level of conviction the person has about its rightness; this rightness, in itself, is a product of the quantity and quality of the information available to the holder at a particular point in time. Point is, conflicts are mostly resolved by the provision of additional information that may make a holder change his/her position. Another point to note is the way and manner in which this information is provided along with its credibility rating by the parties involved in a conflict.

The conflict in governance and perspectives about the distribution of national resources by different composing regions led to a three year civil war which culminated in the loss of more than two million lives and property worth billions. Then, there were series of conferences and meetings, which eventually ended the war. Thus, as the saying goes, we must "jaw-jaw after war-war". Since then, there have been more conflicts cascading in different forms - coups and counter-coup d'états, to election violence, ethnic hostilities, boundary disagreements and religious conflicts. In all this, the country has managed to survive but it is pertinent to examine how the nation has survived these crises and the role of the media in the process.

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