Non Governmental Organisations and Conflict Management in Plateau State, Nigeria
Paul CHIMA (Ph.D), Moses FIDELIS ALOKPA

Introduction
The paper investigates the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in conflict management with particular reference to Plateau state, Nigeria. The need for the study emerged from the fact that there has been prolonged incidence of unresolved conflict in the state. Though, both the Federal and State Governments have made concerted efforts in resolving the conflicts in Plateau state, the results have not been very positive or fruitful. With the recurring decimal of conflict, especially in Plateau state, the field of conflict has become a center of attraction for researchers. But of the many literatures on Plateau state conflict situations, very little attention is paid to the role of NGOs in managing them. Hence, the needs for this study at this point in time. The findings are part of the survey conducted between 1999 and 2007 on the role of Non-Governmental Organizations and conflict management in Plateau State, Nigeria. The research instruments used were Focused Group Discussion (FGD), in-depth face to face interview, questionnaire, observation and content analysis. Emerging findings from the study showed that NGOs have indeed played important role in the areas of conflict management. They have provided inter aliarelief assistance to victims of conflicts, provided peace education in the affected communities, formation of peace teams like Local Emergency Preparedness and Response Team (LEPRT) in 17 Local Governments Areas in the state. But on the other hand, the paper also found that the root causes of conflict especially issues bordering on identity, poverty, deprivation, among others, have not been fully addressed. Consequently, the paper recommends that government should eliminate the concept of indigeneship as it causes serious discrimination among citizens of the same nationality. There is also the need for coordination and collaboration among the existing NGOs in order to check duplication of efforts.

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