THE STATE AND CONFLICT CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND PROSPECTS, 1985- 2017
Abstract
Using the survey research design and the structural conflict theory of Karl Marx as theoretical framework, the study examines critically the state and conflict challenges in Nigeria, issues and prospects from 1985 – 2017. Though conflict is inevitable in human setting and literature proffers many solutions, yet, the spate of its occurrence in Nigeria has gone out of proportion. The study found that the government appears helpless in checkmating the excesses and inordinate ambitions of the political class or addressing the grievances of the perpetrators. The study concludes that the contemporary political conflict in Nigeria is an extension of entrenched inequality by the Nigerian state and suggested not only economic and political restructuring but step up the security of citizens and their property which is her primary responsibility.
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