Interrogating Concession, Trust and Forgiveness in Saare/Tsaragi, Peace Building, Nigeria: Implication for Conflict Management in Africa

Abstract

Violent conflicts remain problematic globally. Saare/ Tsaragi communities, Kwara State, Nigeria cohabited peacefully from about 1808 till 2000 and by 2008 had witnessed three violent conflicts due to boundary issues. The study examined the relevance of forgiveness, concession and trust in peace building. A descriptive that adopted qualitative methods combining primary and secondary data sources while purposive sampling method was used to select 400 respondents from the two communities. It found that 77% suffered injury, 74.5 percent of the respondents were willing to forgive, 83.3 percent were ready for concession, while 32 percent agreed to trusting the opposing party. The study in addition found that government lacked the political will to transform the conflict and concluded that the issues of the conflicts were not beyond resolution but trust building constituted the greatest challenge. The study recommended depoliticization strategy combined with integrative negotiation by the two communities in areas of granting concession. In addition, the government must develop strong political will to monitor early warning signals, remain neutral and support the community initiatives through peace education, economic and social supports in order to enhance trusting relations. The implication for other conflicting societies is that attention by peace agents should equally be focused on social and structural peace building than concentration on political peace building.