Leadership and Peace Building in Nigerian Perspectives
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Date
2020
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Department of Religious Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye Ogun State
Abstract
Peace building has always been considered as a restorative measure put in place between groups of people or nations after an initial experience of conflict. This makes peace building to come after a breakdown of exiting peace and mutual togetherness between organisations or groups. Peace building does not happen by chance or come easily; it takes critical and tactical analysis of issues by those who because of their positions in the society are respected by the populace. Three categories of leaders are known and respected in African communities generally and in Nigeria especially. These are Traditional rulers, political and religious leaders. In this paper, therefore, the roles of the leadership of these three tiers of leaders to peace building in Nigeria are discussed. Using historical and contextual analysis, this work examines what personal qualities and skills that are essential for leaders taking up the task of building to possess and the technicalities involved in the task The writers emphasise that peace building is not out to completely remove a conflict and bring about perfection of peace, but to manage the situation between/among the conflicting parties so as not to lead to afresh conflict. It was recommended that in peace building leaders need to be security conscious as they perform the task of peace building because peace terminators are usually out to frustrate their good intentions and are always ready to inflict injuries and cause destruction when their power and personal interests are threatened