GOVERNANCE AND VIOLENT CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA: A THREAT TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The survival of a democratic government requires a stable political, economic and socio-cultural environment in addition to an amiable peaceful co-existence among the component units within the polity. The return to a civilian government in Nigeria in May 1999 was followed by a series of heightened conflicts that pose a great threat to corporate existence of a nation. Among the avalanche of conflicts in the country are the Warri-Delta conflict between Ijaw and Itsekiri; the Niger Delta; Bayelsa conflicts in Odi; Anambra (Aguleri-Umuleri) and the recent Boko haram saga, which have been considered the greatest challenge of our time, especially when the palliatives measures taken by the government have not yielded positive results. Thus, conflict is an inevitable phenomenon in every society. Since the closing decades of the 20th century, the phenomenon of governance has become a dominant subject in the analysis of a spectrum of issues such as development crisis, policy failure and recurrent conflicts in African states such as Nigeria. This paper, based on a study of secondary data, seeks to interrogate the implications of bad governance for violent conflicts in Nigeria. It intends to argue that bad governance, which manifests in chronic poverty, massive unemployment, pervasive corruption, policy failure, gross abuse of human rights and infrastructural decay, fuels violent conflicts and general insecurity in the country. Thus, it seeks to contend that good governance based on the promotion of the welfare of the majority of the citizenry, accountability and popular participation is required to frontally address the recurring challenges of violent conflicts and general insecurity in Nigeria, which automatically leads to national development.