Traditional Institutions and Conflict Resolution in Nigeria: A Social Work Analysis

Abstract

Traditional institutions in African societies and elsewhere are known to hold sacred peacemaking processes from historical antecedence before the disruption by colonial administration that introduced adjudication and arbitration, but which is often deemed the converse of traditional methods of conflict resolution. Contemporary patterns of conflict resolution are rather flawed in dealing with the challenges posed by modern conflict in Nigeria. This paper therefore examines the role of traditional institutions in conflict resolution in Nigeria from a social work perspective. Data was generated from secondary sources only. The study was anchored in system theory of Ludwig Bertalanffy (1956). The study revealed that the traditional conflict resolution method as practiced in Nigeria is better than the modern adjudicative method of conflict resolution, because it is faster and non-adversarial. The study recommends among other things a reversal to traditional methods of conflict management and resolution, because it is friendlier, faster, cheaper and devoid of post conflict resolution animosity.