Taming an Intermittent Volcano: The Nexus Between Peace Committee and Communal Support in Ife-Modakeke Conflict in Nigeria

Peace-building processes have faced significant setbacks in conflict management in the Ife-Modakeke communities of Nigeria. Although there has been little empirical evaluation of successful peace-building processes, the researcher used mixed methods and transformative analysis to establish two models: Peace Committee Recommendations (PCRs) and Communal Intervention on Intervening Issues (CIIIs). In PCRs, several recommendations were identified as useful for conflict resolution, including the establishment of a separate administrative unit, special police squads, blitzing media campaigns, joint community training sessions on forgiveness, state-led transformative reconciliation, and the promotion of young community leadership. To address CIIIs, the Joint Elders Council was established and was charged with the responsibilities to grant media interviews, sign as a witness to the sale of land agreements, and elevate lesser chiefs into higher decision-making bodies in subordinate communities. Also, the joint youth guards, age-grade groups, religious evangelization efforts, cooperative societies, and cultural masquerades were formed to strengthen the cordial relationship and provide policing in situations requiring urgent intervention. Both models aiming to stabilize existing peaceful resolutions, re-engineering the weak social structures for an increasing peaceful interpersonal relationship and peaceful co-existence through both state and non-state actors is necessary.