Conflict is inevitable in any society. Unfortunately, there have been religious dimensions to conflict otherwise referred to as religious conflict. This kind of conflict is incessant in Nigeria. Some strategies have been explored to tackle these conflicts. This paper examines these strategies. It is discovered that while some of these strategies are working, some are not as effective as they supposed to be. A major aspect of the paper is a reflection and suggestions on other possible strategies that can be used to resolve religious conflicts in Nigeria.

1. ACADEMIA Letters
Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious
Conflict In Nigeria
Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi
Abstract
Conflict is inevitable in any society. Unfortunately, there have been religious dimensions
to conflict otherwise referred to as religious conflict. This kind of conflict is incessant in
Nigeria. Some strategies have been explored to tackle these conflicts. This paper examines
these strategies. It is discovered that while some of these strategies are working, some are not
as effective as they supposed to be. A major aspect of the paper is a reflection and suggestions
on other possible strategies that can be used to resolve religious conflicts in Nigeria.
Key words: religious conflicts, conflict resolution strategies, Nigeria, dialogue, syncretism,
compromise
Introduction
Conflict is as old as human race. There is no way any society can circumvent conflict. The
reason is that conflict is inevitable inasmuch as there is more than one person in a given society.
Conflict has to be resolved, and peaceful coexistence must be the aim of any sane society. It is
disheartened, however, to note that religion that ought to promote peaceful co-existence in a
society is breeding many conflicts especially in many communities in Nigeria. Many conflict
resolution strategies have been employed to resolve these conflicts. Some of these strategies
work while many of them do not work. The aim of this paper is to explore these workable and
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
1
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

2. not or less workable strategies and give some suggestions on other possible strategies that can
be used to resolve religious conflicts in Nigeria.
Theoretical Framework: Dual Concern Model
This article is based on Dual Concern Model. This model or theory of conflict resolution is
decided on how to give prominence to meeting one’s goals without overlooking the concerns
other people and maintaining healthy relationships in the conflict. Each orientation has to
do with independent and different combinations of how “to high or low degree of self or
others.”1 These are termed as: “forcing, avoiding, obliging, compromising, and problem
solving.”2 These are explained in term of styles thus: one, the avoiding style that stands for
a low level of concern for both self and other; two, the dominating (or competing) style that
stands for a high level of concern for self and a low level of concern for other; three, the
obliging (or accommodating) style that stands for a low level of concern for self and a high
level of concern for other; four, the integrating (or collaborating or problem-solving) style
that stands for a high level of concern for both self and other; and five, the compromising
style, which represents a moderate level of concern for self and other.3 This is visualized
in Figure 1 below. From the figure, competing style and avoiding style are uncooperative,
collaborating style and accommodating style are cooperative, while compromising style is
in-between them. Similarly, competing style and collaborating style are assertive, avoiding
style and accommodating style are unassertive, while cooperative, while compromising style
is in-between them in this regard.
1
Nermin Koruklu (2018), “A Study on Developing the Revised Version of the �
’Conflict Resolution Behavior
Determination�
’ Scale (CRBDS)”. International Journal of Psycho-Educational Sciences. Vol. 7, Issue (1), April
2018.
2
Ibid.
3
Laurie S. Coltri (2010). Conflict Diagnosis and Alternative Dispute Resolution (2nd edition) (Boston, MA:
PEARSON EDUCATION), 217-218.
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
2
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

3. Figure 1: Dual Concern Theory: Organizational Conflict4
Some Conflict Resolution Strategies
Dialogue has been a major strategy of conflict resolution, not only in religious realms, but
also generally. It is a conversation between two or more people where participants deliber-
ately commit themselves to listen, reflect and question with a curious approach in order to
seek a shared understanding. Christians (in particular), through its umbrella body in Nigeria,
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), have engaged in many dialogues with conflicting
parties in Nigeria in order to resolve conflicts in many parts of the country. Christian Associ-
ation of Nigeria, as the largest faith-based organization in Nigeria and a major stakeholder in
inter-faith relations and conflict resolution in Nigeria, has chosen dialogue as the main form
of resolution to disturbances and religious conflicts in the country. This has worked on some
occasions while it has not worked on other occasions.5
Apart from dialogue that is a curative measure, many other preventive measures have
been explored to promote peaceful co-existence and religious harmony in the Nigerian soci-
ety. However, most of these measures are not workable or less workable conflict resolution
strategies as explained below.
4
”Organizational Conflict.” https://conflictresolutionsolution.weebly.com/dual-concern-theory.html(accessed
November 23, 2020)
5
See Paul Ilo (2014). “Faith-Based Organisations and Conflict Resolution in Nigeria: The Case of the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN).” Journal of Global Initiatives. Vol. 9, No. 2, 2014, 99-108.
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
3
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

4. One of such approaches is syncretism. Syncretism is an act of blending one’s religious
belief with the beliefs of other religions. This is common in many parts of Nigeria. Some
people even do it unconsciously. However, no religion likes to be adulterated as every religion
holds its beliefs and practices dearly. Inasmuch as it is good to accommodate other people’s
beliefs and religious practices, mingling these beliefs and practices has done more havoc than
good to the peaceful co-existence of people in Nigeria. In fact, syncretism in any form has
fueled many religious conflicts in the country.6
Compromise is another conflict resolution strategy that is not giving desirable result in
resolving religious conflicts in Nigeria.7 Compromise has been described as an art of making
a deal between different parties where each party gives up part of its demand. In conflicts or
misunderstandings, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication
or through a mutual acceptance of terms that is often involving adaptations from an original
goal or desires. Since each of the major religions in Nigeria has the absolute opinion about
itself as the only true religion, it is difficult, if not impossible, for each of the religions to yield
some of its religious beliefs and accept some of the beliefs of other religions. Doing this may
lead to the compromise of one’s faith that is forbidden by most of the religions. Therefore,
there is no amount of compromise that will resolve religious conflicts in the country.
Suggestions
Although, dialogue is important in resolving conflicts and peacebuilding because it is an in-
clusive process that entails learning, not just talking, recognizing one another’s humanity, and
stressing a long-term perspective, yet, it can become unsustainable when it becomes boring
or unrealistic to a substantial number of participants in the dialogue, and this can make the
participants to either leave or reduce their level of involvement, or choose not to participate
again in the process. This has been the case in many dialogues with stakeholders in many
religious conflicts in Nigeria. It is, therefore, suggested that there should be a modification
to dialogue as a conflict resolution strategy. This modification should find ways not to make
dialogue boring, rhetoric or mere exercise in futility, but make dialogue to lead to conflict
transformation and peaceful co-existence of the people regardless of their ethnic or religious
backgrounds.
6
Chukwuma O. Okeke, Christopher N. Ibenwa, and Gloria Tochukwu Okeke (2017). “Conflicts Between
African Traditional Religion and Christianity in Eastern Nigeria: The Igbo Example.” SAGE Open. April 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017709322.
7
F. I. Ogbuehi (2016). Critical appraisal of dialogue as a strategy for religious conflict resolution in Nigeria.
Journal of religion and human relations, 8 (2), 167-168.
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
4
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

5. There are many common or similar beliefs such as existence of a supreme Being (called
God or Allah), reality of a spiritual world (heaven or Al-janna), Satan (or the devil), angels,
Jinn or spirits (both good and evil), honesty and godliness, final judgment and the hereafter.
These common and similar beliefs should be strengthened among the people and they should
be rally points to encourage people to live peacefully with one another. Less emphasis should
be laid on other beliefs that are not common or similar among the various religious adherents.
In spite of the fact that compromise has not helped situation in resolving religious conflicts in
Nigeria, knowing and accepting these common and similar will work better.
Constant advocacy for peaceful co-existence in spite of different religious beliefs should
be intensified. Religious leaders should continue to advocate for this among their followers.
Despite some of the different religious beliefs and worldviews of people, they should be en-
couraged to tolerate the contrary opinions of other people and allow peace to have a place in
the society.
Self-centredness on the part of every stakeholder should be discouraged. There is no
conflict resolution strategy that can work in any situation where every parting in a conflict is
insisting to have his/her way. Consideration of other people’s opinions and wellness should
be paramount as any conflict resolution strategy is employed to resolve religious conflicts and
promote peaceful co-existence.
The governments (local, state and federal) should be sincere and non-partisan in taking
part in resolving religious conflicts in the country. These sincerity and impartiality should be
evident to all parties involved in the conflicts. No matter the involvement of the government
in any conflict resolution strategy, if the government is not neutral, its efforts will not yield
the desired result of lasting peaceful co-existence of the citizens.
Conclusion
It has been established that conflicts are bound to occur where two or more people co-exist.
Religious conflicts are inevitable, especially in a multi-religious society. Therefore, people
should be ready to tolerate one another and be ready to resolve any conflict that may arise ami-
cably. This determination will aid any other conflict resolution strategy that may be employed
to resolve any religious conflict in any part of the country.
Bibliography
“Organizational Conflict.” https://conflictresolutionsolution.weebly.com/dual-concern-theory.html
(accessed November 23, 2020).
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
5
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

6. “Sustainable Dialogue as a Necessary Template for Sustainable Global Community.” Ac-
cessed July 30, 2020 https://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs/dialog.php.
Ashton, Carolyne (2013). “Preventing Inter-Religious Violence in Plateau State Nigeria: Fi-
nal Evaluation. Search for Common Ground, Nigeria.” Accessed July 30, 2020 https://
www.sfcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/NGR_EV_-Preventing-Violence-in-Plateau-State-
Evaluation_FINAL-2013_names-removed.pdf.
Coltri, Laurie S. (2010). Conflict Diagnosis and Alternative Dispute Resolution (2nd edition).
Boston, MA: PEARSON EDUCATION.
Davies, Emmanuel Opuene and Sam Aleruchi Egbuchu (2019). DIALOGUE AS AN EF-
FECTIVE MECHANISM FOR RESOLVING RELIGIOUS CONFLICT IN NIGERIA.
Advance Journal of Education and Social Sciences. Volume: 4; Issue: 04. 63-74.
Ilo, Paul (2014). Faith-Based Organisations and Conflict Resolution in Nigeria: The Case of
the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Journal of Global Initiatives. Vol. 9, No. 2,
2014, 99-108.
Jayaram, V. (n.d.). “Religious Violence, Causes and Solutions.” https://www.hinduwebsite.com/ask/why-
are-religions-destructive.asp
Koruklu, Nermin (2018). A Study on Developing the Revised Version of the �
’Conflict
Resolution Behavior Determination�
’ Scale (CRBDS). International Journal of Psycho-
Educational Sciences. Vol. 7, Issue (1), April 2018. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/
EJ1253051.pdf (accessed November 23, 2020).
LeMoyne, Roger (2009). “Why Dialogue Matters For Conflict Prevention And Peacebuild-
ing.” Accessed July 30, 2020 https://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/crisis%20prevention/
dialogue_conflict.pdf.
Muggah, Robert and Ali Velshi (2019). “Religious violence is on the rise. What can faith-
based communities do about it?” Accessed July 28, 2020 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/
2019/02/how-should-faith-communities-halt-the-rise-in-religious-violence/.
Ogbuehi, F. I. (2016). Critical appraisal of dialogue as a strategy for religious conflict reso-
lution in Nigeria. Journal of religion and human relations, 8 (2), 158-174.
Okeke, Chukwuma O., Christopher N. Ibenwa, and Gloria Tochukwu Okeke (2017). Con-
flicts Between African Traditional Religion and Christianity in Eastern Nigeria: The Igbo
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
6
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

7. Example. SAGE Open. April 2017. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017709322.
Omotosho, Mashood (2014). “Managing Religious Conflicts in Nigeria: The Inter-Religious
Mediation Peace Strategy”. Africa Development, Vol. XXXIX, No. 2, 2014, 133-151.
Sampson, Isaac Terwase (2012). “Religious violence in Nigeria: Causal diagnoses and strate-
gic recommendations to the state and religious communities”. Accessed July 27, 2020
https://www.accord.org.za/ajcr-issues/religious-violence-in-nigeria/.
Ugorji, Basil (2017). “Ethno-Religious Conflict in Nigeria: Analysis and Resolution”. Jour-
nal of Living Together (2017) Volume 4-5, Issue 1, 164-192.
Academia Letters, May 2021
Corresponding Author: Adebayo Ola Afolaranmi, spiritualdigest@hotmail.com
Citation: Afolaranmi, A.O. (2021). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Resolving Religious Conflict In Nigeria.
Academia Letters, Article 874. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL874.
7
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0