AN EVALUATION OF GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO PREVENT VIOLENCE AND BUILD PEACE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The paper investigates and evaluates the efforts of Government to prevent violence and build peace in Nigeria. It focuses on the approaches successive Governments in Nigeria have been deploying over the years to contain the menace of violence in the country. Despite the enormous resources successive Governments claim to have used in confronting violence over the years, pockets of violence still dot the nooks and crannies of the country. In attempts to contain the increasing level of violence in the country, state actors often emphasis the top-bottom approach involving the use of police and the military, which at best can only result in negative peace. The emphasis on the top-bottom approach makes positive peace elusive, the gap following the failure approach to arrest violence on a sustainable basis and entrench positive peace in the country, necessitates the need for non-state actors to step in, with a view to bridging the gap. This paper adopts a descriptive method in its study, as it concludes that greater attention has been paid to the use of security agents and top-bottom approach. It therefore, recommends a shift of emphasis to bottom-top approach which provides the grassroots and the Nigerian people the opportunity to own the process.