By Tajudeen Babamale
A Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ilorin, Abosede Omowumi Babatunde, has said that credible traditional leadership is critical in promoting localised peace-building and managing resource-related conflicts in Nigeria.
Prof. Babatunde stated this penultimate Saturday (September 27, 2025) while delivering a keynote address, titled “Reenvisioning the Local Turn in Peacebuilding: Traditional Leadership, Community Resilience and the Management of Resource Conflicts in Nigeria”, at the Inaugural National Seminar of the African University Seminar Series Nigeria (AUSS-N), Department of History, University of Abuja.
She explained that the resilience of traditional institutions is rooted in cultural values, norms, and customs, saying, such institutions can play significant roles in strengthening community governance and fostering sustainable peace.
The renowned scholar said that findings from several studies revealed that traditional leadership practices in some communities have equally contributed to conflict escalation.
She said that local authorities, while positioned as peace-builders, often perpetuate exclusionary systems, privileging relatives and associates in the distribution of oil benefits, contracts, compensations, scholarships, and land allocations, saying, these practices, particularly in oil-producing and agrarian communities, frequently generate tensions and grievances.
While lamenting how security vacuums undermine the capacity of traditional leaders, the peace scholar stated that in many cases, local chiefs and elders rely on coercive measures, instigation of youth to intimidate opponents, silencing of aggrieved members, or attack on neighboring communities.
Prof. Babatunde noted that some traditional authorities are also implicated in divisive practices, including identity politics, ethno-religious conflicts, and cattle theft cartels while others remain passive in addressing pastoralist-farmer clashes, partly due to protection from security agents.
Drawing from case studies in the Niger Delta and North-Central Nigeria, Prof. Babatunde noted that localised peace-building efforts are shaped by socio-cultural realities and political dynamics. While they hold potential for positive transformation, such initiatives often replicate the exclusionary and hierarchical structures of liberal peace models.
She, however, added that successful peace-building requires strengthening of the credibility, accountability, and inclusiveness of local institutions, saying, without these, localised efforts risk reproducing inequalities and undermining long-term peace, justice, and social transformation in communities affected by resource conflicts.
