Future Directions for USAID Support to Conflict Mitigation in Nigeria

Nigeria, like many other countries, confronts a number of internal conflicts. Since independence in 1960 it has survived a civil war. It has also survived a series of military regimes that have exacerbated many conflicts by treating them as illegitimate dissent. Rather than working with people and groups to transform the structures, issues, and relationships that underlie those conflicts, most Nigerian military leaders sought instead to suppress the symptoms, particularly when conflicts turned violent.