The Role of Mediation in Security Management in Nigeria

The paper is on security management in the Nigerian state. Drawing extensively from secondary sources of data on security management, including the internet and journal articles, and with the use of conflict transformation theory as the theoretical framework of the study. The paper examined the management of some selected security challenges in Nigeria including the Niger-Delta crisis, and the agitations for the creation of a Republic of Biafra out of the Nigerian state. It submitted that the preferred security management option in Nigeria is coercion and that this option has become ineffectual in managing security issues. However, this study showed that mediation is the most preferred way of managing violent conflict including militancy, for the desired peace and the conflict transformations of the crises into a sustainable peace. Furthermore, the study identified one of the major causes for the choice of a military approach to addressing violent conflict as; the sanctity of human life is not so valued by government and her agencies. The use of mediation will restore relationship and also give skill for identifying incoming violent conflict and avert the potential violent conflict. Therefore, the study thus recommended that mediation should be fully adopted as the preferred strategy for security management in Nigeria.