Traditional Strategies for Election Conflict Management in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examines the structural factors impeding on the conduct of peaceful elections in Nigeria in light of the several transitional exercises that eventually culminated in the swearing of democratically elected government in 1999. The paper reviews the election violent conflict scenarios that characterised election exercises between 1999 and 2014, and examines the nature of existing election conflict management strategies. It analyses the inherent defects in these election conflict management mechanisms, and appraises the potentialities and possibilities for the adoption of traditional strategies of conflict management to electoral conflicts in Nigeria.