ABSTRACT

This study investigated extent traditional institutions apply conflict resolution strategies in South East, Nigeria. Five (5) specific objectives were raised thus; roles traditional institutions play to manage community conflict; extent traditional institutions apply avoidance, compromise and collaboration strategies and challenges militating against community conflict management. Based on the objectives, five (5) research questions and five (5) hypotheses were raised and formulated respectively. Related literature was reviewed for the study on conceptual, theoretical and empirical studies. The descriptive survey method was adopted for the study and the study was carried out in communities in south-east states, Nigeria. In the study, a researcher made questionnaire rating scale was used to elicit responses. The rating scale was titled “Assessment of Extent Traditional Institutions Apply Conflict Resolution Strategies Questionnaire” (ETIACRSQ). It was divided into 5 clusters with a total number of 45 items. The instrument was patterned as thus; Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) for research questions 1 and 5 and Very Large Extent (VLE), Large Extent (LE), Low Extent (LE) and Very Low Extent (VLE) for research questions 2, 3 and 4. The instrument was validated by experts from College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. A reliability testing using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient computation produced r = 0.74 which was high and therefore used for the study. The study deployed a multi stage system by using census sampling technique, stratified random sampling technique, proportionate stratified sampling technique and simple random sampling technique to select a sample size of 541 members of traditional institutions from rural communities and 329 from urban communities totaling 870 from a population of 8705. The questionnaire was directly administered by the researcher with the help from 10 research assistants. The research questions were answered with mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were calculated using t test at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that members of traditional institutions to a great extent apply avoidance, compromise and collaborating strategies to resolve conflicts in their communities. Respondents also answered that they strongly agree on the challenges encountered in conflict resolution in their communities. The corresponding hypotheses also revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses between rural and urban areas on roles played traditional institutions in resolving conflict. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the powers and authorities of traditional rulers should emanate from the constitution so as to give them legal backing; state actors should avoid interference in appointment, election and installation of members of traditional institutions. The study concluded that there is need for interaction with relevant authorities to develop workable strategies for resolving conflicts in communities.