Abstract: The study examines issues that breed conflicts in Nigeria; identifies stakeholders of peacebuilding; and analyses factors hindering peacebuilding in Nigeria. This is with a view to exposing impeding factors to peacebuilding in Nigeria. The sources of data for the study were secondary data and the author’s observation. The study revealed, that the pattern of emergent of Nigeria into nationhood, where diverse ethnic groups were forcibly incorporated into a nation by the British imperialist habitually breed conflict. The study further identified issues such as – ethnicity; control of natural resources; creation of states/local governments and the siting of their administrative headquarters as a threat to peace. Other issues include – land ownership; boundaries/land demarcation disputes; land inheritance problems; religious intolerance; and youth unemployment/restiveness. Furthermore, the study revealed stakeholders for peacebuilding to include – political actors; state actors; military/security actors; economic entrepreneurs/business actors; civil society/Non-Governmental Organisations; international/regional organizations; the media; professional groups; religious groups; and traditional institutions. The study also discovered that successive government has not been engaging and caring for her youth populations, this has continually made them readily available for recruitment into insurgents. The study concluded that for national cohesion and integration, socio-economic, as well as political development peace must be maintained.

Peace unarguably is the most treasured and the greatest asset of a man. Conflict on the other hand, though an unavoidable part of man is the greatest threat to peace. Peace has to do with being in cordial relations with the people around us, whether a small community or a larger society. It is a known fact that to understand the importance of peace, there must be conflict. Although conflict is pervasive and pandemic all over the world, yet man needs peace for development and advancement. Ever since the end of the Cold War (1948-1989), nations, states as well as international organizations have continually involved in peacebuilding and peace-making with a view to solving national and international conflicting problems.

The term “peacebuilding” was added into the political lexicon of governance and states’ administration in 1975 when Johan Galtung coined the term in his pioneering work titled “Three Approaches to Peace: Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, and Peacebuilding.” The term was however popularised in the year 1992, following the announcement of the then United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s laudable programme tagged Agenda for Peace. Since then, “Peacebuilding” has been one of the daily used phrases, especially in the face of the continued threat to the world’s peace and sustainability.

Nigeria as a nation has continued to have its fair share of challenges to peace, as the nation continues to encounter serious and various shattering conflict situations, spawned by incongruous fusion of multi-ethnic groups into one entity known as Nigeria. For instance, Nigeria comprised of over 300 multicultural ethnic nationalities, the consequence of the incongruous merger is the plaguing socio-political, economic, religious, ethnicity, and communal conflicts that continue to torment the nation and its inhabitants. Ethnicity, for instance, has continued to undermine the nation’s political development and has also cost the nation its economic development. Resource control issues, on the other hand, have bred various militia groups in Southern Nigeria, while the dreaded Boko Haram in the Northern part of the nation continues to threaten the nation’s development and its corporate existence as a united nation. Arising from the foregoing, the study examines issues that breed conflicts in Nigeria; identifies the stakeholders for peacebuilding; as well as analyses factors hindering peacebuilding in Nigeria.

This section attempts a clarification of the twin concept of ‘Peace’ and ‘Peacebuilding’. Peace appears to be an independent variable while building in peacebuilding is a dependent variable. Peace, therefore, is indispensable to peacebuilding, such that without peace, there can be no peacebuilding. In other words, peace is key or the heart of peacebuilding, it is only when there is a peace that one can build on it.

What then is ‘peace’? The concept of peace has been variously defined by different scholars, without a consensus on how ‘peace’ should be accurately defined. The word is derived from the Latin word ‘pax’, which means a treaty, a deal or an agreement to end the war, dispute, and conflict between or among people, groups of people or nations. The Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines peace as “freedom from civil clamour and confusion”. It is also “a state of public quiet.” In other words, to have peace, there must be an atmosphere that is free from uproar and chaos, where there are no restrictions or obstructions to people’s daily activities.

Peace according to Howard (n.d.) is not only the absence of war; but also “the maintenance of an orderly and just society”. He further states that orderly has to do with protection against violence and threat from invaders, while “just society” in this context means, a society where people are protected from exploitation and abuse by the power that be within the society (Howard, cited in Cortright, n.d.). Matsuo (n.d.) states, that ‘peace and war are, as it were, in “zero-sum” relationship’, such that, if there is a war, it means there will be no peace, and if there is no war, there is peace.

Ibeanu (2006), sees peace as activities geared towards reducing conflict and increasing development within specific societies and the wider international community. Thus, to guarantee social, political, and economic development there must be peace. To Ahamefule (2013), peace is a condition where there is no war; where people are not annoyed by other people; and where there is calmness; without worries or anxieties.

Peacebuilding, on the other hand, has become a daily discussed subject among social scientists, human scientists, politicians, international organizations as well as concerned global citizens. Given the mix-up surrounding the meaning of the concept of peacebuilding which made some people see it as mere crisis intervention, there is a need to properly clarify the concept to remove the misconceptions around the concept.

“Peacebuilding” to Brinkmann (2006) means, transforming from a condition or situation of violence to more political, socio-economic equality, justice, fairness as well as security for all within cultural plurality. Brinkmann takes further steps to identify two aspects of peacebuilding. According to him, the first aspect of peacebuilding is concerned with reducing or transforming violence, while the second aspect is about improving on ‘existing peaceful activities or to encourage new ones’. It should be noted, that the timing is imperative in the planning and application of peacebuilding activities, as some activities will produce positive results very quickly while others will be noticeable in the future (Brinkmann, 2006).

Boutros-Ghali (1992) sees peacebuilding as the channel through which war-affected areas or places are rebuilt. It is a process of identifying and supporting those structures which will enhance, strengthen as well as solidify peace, to avoid a reversion into conflict. Peacebuilding according to Doyle and Sambanis (1999) ‘depends on the prior achievement of a minimum standard of peace’. That is, peacekeeping is the foundation for peacebuilding, therefore, a failed peacekeeping will have ‘opposite effect, calcifying a conflict over time and making peacebuilding impossible’ (Doyle and Sambanis, 1999).

While peacebuilding is not intended or an attempt at eliminating conflict from society, it is about building an environment for negotiation, reconciliation, mutual understanding, and compromise that allows for resolving conflict issues before it degenerates into violence and conflict. In creating room for negotiation and reconciliation there is a need for peacemakers to break the truce. Peacekeeper needs to meet peace-builder, as they are inseparable partners. In his study, Maiese (2003) considers peacebuilding to be a process that facilitates the establishment of durable harmony by preventing the recurrence of violence. To him, peacebuilding is about peace sustenance, where every hand is on deck to keep peace and make it endure.

To Conflict Information Consortium; cited in Alliance for Peacebuilding (2013), peacebuilding is a way of facilitating durable peace as well as preventing the recurrence of violence through addressing root causes and effects of conflict through reconciliation, institution building, and political as well as economic transformation. To Johan (1975), peacebuilding is a systematic way of creating self-supporting structures that could check causes of wars and at the same time proffering alternatives to war in situations where wars are looming. According to Barnett, Kim, O’Donnell, and Sitea, (2007), peacebuilding is seen as external intercessions designed ‘to prevent the eruption or return of armed conflict’. To them, peacebuilding is about addressing sources of conflict to stem out anything that can bring back or induce conflict, so that peace could be sustained. In a similar vein, Lederach (1997) defines peacebuilding as “a multiplicity of interdependent elements and actions that contribute to the constructive transformation of the conflict.” Transformation in this context means, conversion of conflict to peace or constructively mediate in the conflict. It also means changing people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that will lead to transformation dynamics between individuals and groups to achieve a more stable, peaceful coexistence. Alliance for peacebuilding (2013) defines peacebuilding as the process of establishing civic order and governmental functions in countries that are emerging from a period of war or other types of upheaval. The Alliance for peacebuilding further stresses that peacebuilding encompasses all efforts directed towards managing, mitigating, resolving, and transforming ‘central aspects of conflict’. It equally involves applying diplomacy, civil society peace processes, and informal dialogues, negotiations, and mediations. These are with the view to addressing the root causes of violence to nurture reconciliation and preventing the reoccurrence of conflict.

Peacebuilding is the identification and support of measures needed for transformation toward a more sustainable, peaceful relationship and structures of governance, to avoid a re-lapse into conflict, (UN, 2005). Peacebuilding is also perceived as attempts to conquer the structural, relational, and cultural contradictions hastily causing conflict, especially in strong support of peace making and peacekeeping. Inspirations of peacebuilding are drawn from developmental imperatives facing mankind and conflict resolution initiatives (Ifesinachi, 2009, cited in Uzuegbunam, 2013).

Flowing from above, peacebuilding can be seen as methodical and rational approaches geared towards determining and removing sources of conflict, reconciling parties in conflict as well as addressing or tackling perceived issues that can trigger future conflict.

Ordinarily, the nation called Nigeria probably might not have had any serious business with peacebuilding, but for the system or pattern of her emergence into nationhood that has continued to seriously threaten its corporate existence. Nigeria unlike the USA and Switzerland who bargained to come together was forced nationhood. Even after more than five decades of its independence, Nigeria has not got it right in terms of national cohesion and integration; socio-economic as well as political development. One can at the juncture ask, what has been wrong or what was wrong with the patterns of Nigeria’s emergence into a nation? The answer to this is not far-fetched. Distinguished scholars such as Suberu and Agbaje in their study have described the nation as ‘devolutionary federations’. They further submitted regarding Nigeria as a federation thus:

The Nigeria federation…was established to ‘hold together’ the diverse ethnicities and nationalities that had been forcibly and arbitrarily incorporated into a Unitary Colonial State under British imperialism (Suberu & Agbaje, 2003, p. 336).

The need for peacebuilding in Nigeria could further be understood by the astounding disclosure made by Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, and Northern Nigeria while delivering a lecture at Harvard University in the United State of America. According to him,

Many people consider Nigeria as a theatre of absurd conflicts and interminable crises…with the Jos crises festering for years, with post-election violence and suicide – bombings; it is difficult to think otherwise. When we consider Nigeria’s population of 150 million, half the population of West Africa, its over 250 ethnic and language groups, its regional and geo-political configurations, its landmass and its diversity in religion and culture, we may be constrained to reach a different conclusion (Abubakar, 2011).

With the above comments coming from eminent Nigeria scholars as well as a respected and first-class traditional ruler in Nigeria among many other comments, Nigeria has no choice but to constantly seek for peacebuilding to protect the fragility of the nation, and preventing the escalation of constant conflicts that pervade the nation.

Therefore, Nigeria needs peace and peacebuilding for many reasons. Some of the reasons can be summarised as follows:

In other to put the subject of peacebuilding in a proper perspective, there is a need to state those issues that generate conflicts in Nigeria. These issues could be easily categorized under the following:

Nigeria’s type of federalism brought together over 300 ethnic groups, with over 1000 dialects, and with different cultures and histories. This has made ‘national question’ in Nigeria one of the most complicated in the world. The main ethnic groups in the nation are the Yorubas, Hausa-Fulani, and the Igbos who constitute the majority in terms of the nation’s population. The multi-ethnic nature of the nation over the years has been one of the factors that breed conflicts. In the past few years, thousands of people have been killed in ethnic clashes. The fear of being schemed out of politics and socio-economy of the nation by the different ethnic groups has always generated political worry and tension that consequently led to conflicts. Different ethnic groups had from time to time been trying to outsmart one another, and for this reason, it has always resulted in conflicts.

One of the major causes of conflict in Nigeria is the issue of economic and resource control. The neglect of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where the country’s wealth is mainly derived from through the exploration and exploitation of crude oil has remained one of the sources of conflict and hostility in Nigeria. Oil bearing Niger Delta communities have remained economically marginalized and underdeveloped. This has continually forced the people to agitate for empowerment, development and to even control the resources in their domain. Consequently, the Niger Delta areas are prone to inter and intra communal conflicts. The fact that the areas are subjected to massive exploitation of natural resources without any meaningful development in terms of social services delivery has made the conflicts a recurrent one as the people in the areas continued to agitate for what they see as their rights. As cited in Opone (2014, p. 1) the major reason for incessant conflict in the Niger Delta Areas was quests by the indigenous people of the areas for ‘enhanced revenue allocation, sustainable development, and environmental protection, fairness, equity, and social justice’. Paradoxically, the inhabitants of the areas were subjected to abject poverty amid plenty.

This has led to a situation where different militia groups continue to emerge, such as; the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND); the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). Besides, this has led to a situation where people from Igbo extractions are clamouring for secession. That is, to have their nation and to separate themselves from Nigeria. The two most outstanding groups in the struggle are, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, (MASSOB) and The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The creation of states and local government areas had on several occasions resulted in violence and conflict in Nigeria. The creation of states and local government which is supposed to be for development had on many instances led to the destruction of lives, properties, and even developmental projects. For instance, the location of the administrative headquarters of local governments had on different occasions brought about crises and conflicts in some parts of Nigeria. In Warri, part of Delta State, the relocation of headquarter of the Warri-South local government early sited at Ogbe-Ijoh which is an Ijaw town to Ogidigba an Itsekiri town generated conflict between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups. Similarly, the creation of the Ife East Local Government and the positioning of headquarter at Oke-Ogbo, part of Ile-Ife bred conflict between the Ife and the Modakeke.

All over the world, due to the importance attached to land ownership and usage, people continue to struggle for it. The land conflict has thus become a widespread issue that occurs in different parts of the globe. The land is one of the most common factors that breed conflict in Nigeria, be it intra-ethnic or inter-ethnic. The issues attached to land include the struggle for the ownership of land, land boundaries, and land demarcation issues as well as land inheritance issues. Conflicts and disputes do occur among neighbouring communities, as well as between and among towns living close to one another. For example, a series of conflicts that occurred between the Ife and Modakeke and between the Tiv-Jukun as well as that of the Umuleri and Aguleri communities were associated with land ownership. Similarly, conflicts do occur among siblings and families over the inheritance of land. The use and ownership of the inherited piece of land have on many instances bred disaffections among the member of the same family which within a short time snowballed to conflict.

In addition to the above, some conflicts have to do with land grabbing and land invasions. The cases of land grabbing are peculiar to major cities of Nigeria where people pay a huge sum of money to purchase land and the ‘Omo Onile’ the land grabber will just surface and take over the possession of land from the purchaser. Similarly, there are also cases of a land invasion. In the middle belt and many parts of northern Nigeria for example, there have been several cases of land invasion by the Fulani herdsmen. This has resulted in the killings of many Nigerians by the arms carrying Fulani herdsmen. The case has since been extended to southern parts of the nation where the Fulani herdsmen have continued to invade on peoples’ land, while they (the people) appear helpless, as the government has not been able to curtail the situation.

Religious intolerance is another source of conflict in Nigeria. Nigeria’s vast population is fragmented into two main religious lines (Islam and Christianity). In Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, the formal introduction and implementation of the criminal aspects of the Muslim sharia legal code in some states in the northern part of Nigeria, in October 1999 sparked off conflict. The northern Muslim political and religious leaders established the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) to further promote sharia to other parts of the nation. The Christian groups in the southern and Middle Belt of the country reacted against this. The Christians alleged that the step was a calculated attempt by the Muslim, and the northern agenda to Islamize the nation.

Ahmed Sani Yerima who was then a Governor of Zamfara State was reputed to have first introduced and applied the sharia code into Zamfara State as means of adjudging and adjudicates the law. His decision was applauded and supported by the local population most of who were Muslim adherents. The introduction of sharia generated tension and mutual mistrust with a further division of the nation along the Muslim-Christian pole.

Similar to the above is the presence of other variations of local Muslim groups or sects in Nigeria which include Sunni, Shia, Ahmadiyya, Salafi, Sufi, as well as Boko Haram extremists. These different sects have always had an altercation that led to serious conflict.

The youth of a state undeniably is the driving force for development. For them to be a tool for the state’s development; they must be well planned for by their parents on one hand, and the government on the other hand. The parents are expected to give their children adequate training, while the government is expected to provide an enabling environment for youth to earn their living. This is because; youth could be the most volatile when their energies are misdirected or misapplied. Of the 166 million Nigeria’s population, youth constitute more than 60%. There is no gainsaying the fact that youth are important factors in the development of a state, hence, they should always be put into consideration while formulating governmental policies. Failure to consider them in the policies of the state could mar the developmental activities of the state as it could lead to their restiveness.

Youth restiveness could be seen as their refusal to be controlled due to an unsatisfied stance to the unfavourable condition of the state. Owing to improper planning for youth as manifested in the areas of their unemployment, especially when they have basic qualifications and strengths to work with, the youth in Nigeria are found to be involved in most of the violent conflicts that have occurred in different parts of the country. Youth restiveness has been a recurring issue in our contemporary time, as there have been an upsurge in violence and conflicts across the nation. In the northern part of the nation are the cases of Boko Haram insurgencies that have led to the killings of several people and destruction of properties. In the south are the activities of different insurgents that specialize in hostage-taking, oil bunkering, etc., all these insurgents are parading not less than 98% of youth as their members.

Stakeholders are those people, or group of people who have ‘stake or interest’, or those who are aﬀected or concerned by a particular problem. It could also be those who can be aﬀected by a particular problem. Regarding peacebuilding, different sets of people or groups of people from different walks of life are the stakeholders. They include:

5.1. Political Actors: these are – leaders of recognized political parties, state actors (e.g. government at different levels, ministries, departments of government), the legislative bodies, and the judiciary.

5.2. Military/Security Actors: the security sector comprised the Military, the Police, the Air Force, the Navy, and other Para-military segments). Constitutionally, these sets of actors are saddle with the responsibility of providing adequate security for the people and their properties as well as to protect the nation against external invasion or aggression.

5.3. Economic Entrepreneurs/Business Actors: these are the people managing companies, multinational companies, business mogul, and traders, who are in the areas of economic and business activities in the country. These sets of people need their business to be protected and where there is no peace there cannot be any business transaction.

5.4. Civil Society/Non-Governmental Organisation: Civil society denotes a collection of organizations such as – community groups, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), labour unions, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, and foundations. These groups; for the fact that their member covers an array of organizations; they are very useful and indispensable in peacebuilding activities.

5.5. International/Regional Organisations: these include the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS, etc. who from time to time seek peace and strive that peace is maintained regionally and internationally.

5.6. The Media: the media is referred to as the collective communication channels or apparatuses involved in storing and disseminating information especially to the people. The media include specialized communication businesses such as print media or the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television). The media report any breakdown of peace, as well as sensitize people on the need to maintain peace and on the essentiality of peacebuilding.

5.7. Professional Groups: this includes the academia, the businessmen, journalists, bankers, engineers, medical personnel, etc. these sets of professionals can mobilize their members to support peace initiation and equally involve in peacebuilding across the nation as they have member across the nation.

5.8. Religious Groups: in Nigeria, the major religious affiliation of the citizens are – Christianity, Islam, and traditional religion. Although under each of the religions there are different sects. The religious leaders too are usually involved in peacebuilding in Nigeria. Their involvement could be physical when they preach peace to their followers; or when they are involved in the settlement of conflicts. Their involvement could also be spiritual when they ask to pray or propitiate for peace to reign.

5.9. Traditional Institutions: traditional institutions are also stakeholders in peacebuilding. The leaders of traditional institutions include – Oba, Emir, Sultan, Obi, and other titleholders who are spread all over the country. The institutions do involve in keeping peace in their domains, besides, conflict cases that are brought to the palaces are amicably settled by the Oba/Emir/Sultan/Obi, and other titleholders. The traditional institutions equally go all-out to maintain an atmosphere of peace.

Given the fact that peacebuilding is a complex task, all the stakeholders involved in peacebuilding must be up to the task of peacebuilding activities. For effective peacebuilding, people should come together and find a way of forging ahead in peace and its sustenance. In essence, peacebuilding always involves many sets of actors to achieve a successful peacebuilding process.

6. Building a Sustainable Peace through Peace Education and Culture of Peace

The year 2000 was remarkable in the United Nations’ quest for peacebuilding across the globe, as the year was declared by the UN General Assembly as ‘the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World’. While it is a truism that peace is desirable to human-being, it is worthwhile to build an enduring one.

To build an enduring peace, it is imperative to institute peace education, where people are involved in knowledge and skills acquisition that will not only ‘foster dialogue culture’, but also ‘encourage constructive skills to conflict resolution, nonviolent conflict resolution techniques’ (Engdaw, 2013). This could be achieved through the proper enlightenment of citizens about their rights as well as respecting other citizens’ rights.

Similarly, it is very essential that the ‘culture of peace’ is maintained in the state. One may then ask, what is the culture of peace? Culture of peace could be simply defined as: values, attitudes, and behaviours that reflect and inspire social interaction and sharing based on the principles of freedom, justice, and democracy, all human rights, tolerance, and solidarity, that reject violence and endeavour to prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation and that guarantee the full exercise of all rights and the means to participate fully in the development process of their society (UNESCO, 2013).

Thus, given the UN declaration, peace could be said to be revolving around the values of equality vis-à-vis access to information, with respect to authorities; to relationships between women and men. It is also about fraternity involving tolerance, solidarity among the people, as well as liberty, which has to do with cooperation and democracy (Fernández-Dols, Hurtado-de-Mendoza & Jiménez-de-Lucas, 2004). The Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace earlier adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in its Resolution 53/243 of 1999 emphasized eight action areas which include:

The UN, for statistical consistency and accuracy across the globe, sees ‘youth’, as ‘those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years’. In a similar vein, in the UN unanimous adoption of resolution 2250 of 2015, slightly increase the range of the years of people to be addressed as the youth. According to this agreement, youth are classified as persons aged 18 through 29. Youth constitutes about 70% of Nigeria’s population. And the Council advised Member States of the UN to put all machinery in motion in ensuring that youth are accommodated and involved in peace processes and dispute resolution.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Banki-Moon in 2015 while presenting the ‘Plan of Action to prevent violent extremism’ recognized the importance of youth in peacebuilding. Moon referred to youth as ‘untapped resource’ waiting for empowerment to offer their contributions toward nations’ development. Youth constitute the majority of the world’s population; given the fact that more than 600 million of them live in fragile and conflict-affected societies (UN, 2015), the United Nations has then drawn the attention of the world to the fact that youth are the most vulnerable to any conflict that occurs. This is because; youth are either affected as victims or as perpetrators of the violent conflicts in any part of the world. Thus if care is not taken, youth may continue to constitute a threat to global peace and security. In a similar vein, with the adoption of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2250 in December 2015, the importance of involving and engaging youth in peacebuilding was emphasized. It was realized that there is a connection among youth, peace, and security, and thereby, called for the inclusion of youth into institutions and mechanism for conflict prevention, resolution as well as for building sustainable peace.

However, the youth’s involvement in conflict prevention and resolution has not been taken seriously in Nigeria as it is ought to be. All the levels of government are expected to be aware that youth needed to be taken seriously, especially in the areas of engaging them. This is necessary considering the consistent and persistent increase in the rate of youth unemployment. The failure of the government to engage and cater to the needs of her youth populations repeatedly threaten the nation’s security as youth are readily available for recruitment into armed and insurgent groups. This could spell doom for peacebuilding and sustainable peace in Nigeria.

The effects of conflict could be so devastating in the lives of youth, for instance, in the event of ravaging wars or conflicts, youth are the most affected, as they are faced with injuries, having their academic activities affected, and being displaced forcefully from their homes. Besides, youth are enlisted into armed groups, prone to sexual abuse, and become orphans and even lose their lives. Thus, the adoption of resolution 2250 by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on December 9, 2015, was purposive to ‘recognize the impact of conflicts on young people and how they can be included in the quest for sustainable peace’. Components of UNSCR 2250 are participation; protection; prevention; partnership and disengagement /reintegration.

Member States are urged to find ways of increasing the number of youth representation in decision-making at all levels of government and administration, be it in local, national, regional, or international. They are equally urged to establish institutions and mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of conflict and to use these institutions and mechanisms to counter violent extremism.

Parties to armed conflict are called upon to adhere strictly with the obligations applicable under international law, especially those that have to do with ‘the protection of civilians, including those who are youth, including the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977’.

Members States are urged ‘to facilitate an inclusive and enabling environment in which youth actors, including youth from different backgrounds, are recognized and provided with adequate support to implement violence prevention activities and support social cohesion’.

Disengagement and reintegration are another effort toward peacebuilding such that all those involved in the planning for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration should consider the needs of youth affected by armed conflict. The needs for the youth include – involving youth in labour policies; youth employment opportunities, etc.

In Nigeria however, the resolution of UNSCR has not been followed as expected. For instance, President Muhammadu Buhari recently inaugurated a committee charged with the responsibility of finding a way of dealing with the incessant Fulani herdsmen and farmers’ conflict, which usually claim the lives of people each time the conflict occurs. It was a surprise to discover that, no youth, irrespective of gender was in the committee. Similarly, regarding youth protection, the Nigerian government has always been found wanting, the recruitment of youth into different insurgent groups across the nation bore testimony to the Nigerian government’s deviation from UNSCR 2250 adoption. Not only that youth are being recruited into insurgent groups, the abduction of more than two hundred girls from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State, and the inability of the government to secure their release on time is disturbing and worrisome. It shows the incapability of the government to guarantee the safety of its youth.

Peace is the greatest asset of man, and Nigeria as a nation has continued to have its fair share of challenges to peace, as the nation continues to encounter serious and various shattering conflict situations, spawned by incongruous fusion of multi-ethnic groups into one entity known as Nigeria. While Nigeria needs peace for national cohesion and integration; socio-economic as well as political development, ethnicity, struggle to control the nation’s resources, creation of Local Government Areas, land ownership issue, religious intolerance, and youth unemployment/ restiveness has been continued to militate against peacebuilding.

The study concluded, that since peace and peacebuilding are essential ingredients for national cohesion and integration, socio-economic, as well as political development, ‘peace education and culture of peace’ must be maintained. All stakeholders of peacebuilding must stand-up to the task of curtailing all issues that can lead to a reoccurrence of conflict, while youth must be effectively engaged, allowed to participate in policy decision making of government, and involved actively in peacebuilding.

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1 Department of Public Administration, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria, Address: Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria, Corresponding author: adeleke.adegbami@oouagoiwoye.edu.ng.

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