ABSTRACT
This study investigated Nigeria’s roles (diplomatic, political, cultural, socioeconomic, conflict management and peace resolution) in the West Africa region, from 1990 to 2005. This time frame is particularly important, because in the 1990s, the West African region experienced an outbreak of inter/intra state conflicts. These conflicts have been studied extensively by social scientists, political analysts and other scholars. In many of these studies, the analysts have focused mostly on the intervening roles of groups and organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). What this study found missing, however, is an in-depth analysis of the role(s) of individual member states, such as Nigeria. The inter-agency framework for conflict analysis in transition and the contemporary history approaches were utilized to further understand the dynamics of conflict management and peace resolution in West Africa. The conclusion drawn from the findings suggest that Nigeria plays pivotal conflict resolution roles in the West African region. These roles though necessitated by the limited role of the international community in Africa since the end of the Cold War, and by the need for regional political stability and security, have placed added burden on Nigeria as evidenced by the case history of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean crises of the 1990s.





CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The interest in conflict management and peace resolution has been the subject of several studies and continues to dominate the minds of many on the international scene. Fundamentally, peace and conflict resolution relates to the preservation of peace, especially the supervision by international forces of a truce between hostile nations. It has been a subject of vast academic and professional inquiry, primarily because of its importance as a strategy for maintaining and preserving peace, stability, and order in conflict-ridden parts of the world. Worldwide, old and new conflicts, emanating largely from people’s quest for political, economic, territorial, and even cultural independence and power, provide justification for peace and conflict resolution initiatives and efforts at the international and regional levels.
Enormous resources and efforts are invested continuously in peace and conflict resolution by international organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), by world powers, such as the United States, and by regional powers, such as Nigeria in the case of West Africa. As strategically important as conflict resolution is to peace and order worldwide, there is much to learn about the political, economic and tactical dimensions and dynamics of conflict resolution as an activity.
Nigeria acts in her capacity as an individual state and as a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Nigeria’s roles in conflict management and peace resolution can be traced as far back as 1960 and even before then. The motivation for this inquiry stems from a need to understand the dynamics of regional peace and conflict resolution particularly in relation to West African peacekeeping missions. Part of this study is also an attempt to further understand the reasons behind, and the extent of, Nigeria’s conflict resolution roles, because they differ from the traditional United Nations’ (UN) peacekeeping missions.
In this research, the interest in peace and conflict resolution as a subject is from the point of view of political scholarship or analysis. Essentially, this interest is pursued by delving into the politics of peacekeeping in West Africa, zeroing in specifically on Nigeria’s roles.
The motivation for Nigeria’s roles will be investigated, along with the various channels through which the roles are played. For the latter, an assessment of ECOWAS and its monitoring group, Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), will be made. To further enhance the depth of this analysis, an evaluation of Nigeria’s roles in ECOWAS/ECOMOG will also be carried out.
The scope of analysis of Nigeria’s peace and conflict resolution roles in West Africa will cover diplomatic, peacekeeping, peace enforcement, political, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions. Outside the roles of the UN and world powers such as Britain, France, and the United States of America, little is known about the roles of individual member states in regional alliances in peace and conflict resolution. This information gap is particularly serious in regions in the developing world, and especially in Africa. In West Africa, the geo political region of focus in this study, there is a significant body of literature on ECOMOG’s participation in different peace and conflict resolution events in West Africa, but none shows, for example, an in-depth analysis of the peacekeeping roles played significantly by a country like Nigeria, a role that is unparalleled by any other country in the region.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
During the Cold War era, the West African region was relatively politically stable but in the 1990s, the region became home to some of the world’s deadliest conflicts.
These conflicts have been studied extensively by social scientists, political analysts and other scholars. In many of these studies, the analyses have focused mostly on the intervening roles of groups and organizations, such as the UN, ECOMOG, and others.
What this research finds missing, however, is an in-depth analysis of the role of individual member states, such as Nigeria, which plays pivotal peacekeeping and conflict resolution roles in the West African sub region. Considering two West African countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, will afford substantial insights into Nigeria’s roles in West Africa.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study has both conceptual and empirical significance. Conceptually, the study will contribute to the existing literature on conflict management and peace resolution in West Africa, and help bring additional academic focus to the dynamics of peace and conflict resolution in the region. The study is also significant from an empirical perspective, since the findings will be relevant to other future individual/sub-regional (African or global), peacekeeping framework analysis.
More importantly, the study hopes that subsequent discussions on the subject of inquiry, will yield focused attention by scholars of African politics, and stimulate further debate among social science scholars and other political observers alike, about, not only Nigeria’s peace and conflict resolution roles, but Nigeria’s commitments and contributions in the region and indeed, in the continent of Africa.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
With the above stated background, in analyzing Nigeria’s conflict management and peace resolution roles in West Africa, this study will address the following specific questions:
RQ1: What are the specific results and challenges of Nigeria’s peace and conflict resolution roles in West Africa?
RQ2: What are the views and responses of Nigeria’s neighbors to her peace and conflict resolution roles in the West African region?


1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is Nigeria’s role in conflict management and peace resolution within West Africa sub regions. Other objectives include;
1. To establish the scope and extent of Nigeria’s roles in conflict resolution in West Africa.
2. To study the relationship between Nigeria and her neighbors as well as the perception of Nigeria by her neighbors in West Africa

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In any inquiry of this nature, certain issues will always present some level of difficulty and problems, this study is no exception. Through the course of this endeavor, difficulties encountered were: the non-exhaustible barrage of information, conflicting statements from various newspaper reports, and conflicting statements of the research area of concentration. Nigeria’s peace and conflict resolution roles in the West African region, is an on going affair, and participation in ECOWAS/ECOMOG continues to evolve. While the scope of Nigeria’s peace roles continues to develop, to include: peacemaking, peace enforcement as well as economic assistance, and many other forms of aid.
While this study uses the case history approach which is suitable for learning more about little known and poorly understood phenomenon, it is by nature limited in that the findings cannot be generalized to include other situations. The interview procedure (informal and unstructured) provides an opportunity for some control over the conditions under which the interviewee responses are made. However, there seems to be limitations inherent in self-report. The persons interviewed may be limited by concern for socio politically acceptable answers.
Furthermore, while the study focuses on the political, economic and technical dimensions of conflict resolution as an activity, there are numerous other factors related to resolution processes that are not touched by this study. Given the above stated limitations, and some financial constraints with respect to accessibility of needed data, this study will limit its scope of inquiry to the stated time frame 1990 to 2005.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Africa-Center-Piece: Nigerian policy for African affairs, especially policy for the West African region. It simply means African affairs are the cornerstone of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL): Liberia Armed Forces that supported the initially elected government of Charles Taylor.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS): Established in 1975, is an organization of fifteen West African nations that have agreed to share common market, technical ideas, cultural and social exchanges, with an eventual economic integration in the West African region. Since January 2007 ECOWAS has a commissioner format administration led by a president. Its secretariat is located in Abuja, Nigeria and has the following commissioners: agriculture, environment and water resources; human and gender development; Infrastructure and micro-economic policy; political affairs, peace and security and trade and customs for free movement of its citizens.
Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG):
This body was formed in 1990 and is made up of military troops from some ECOWAS member-states, to help gain cease-fire and restore peace to the crisis in Liberia and has since remained as a security arm of ECOWAS. Since its creation. ECOMOG has been involved in several peacekeeping missions (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’lvoier and Sudan) in Africa.
Inter-agency Framework for Conflict Analysis (IAFCA) framework for the analysis of peacekeeping.
Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA): This is a working group in transition issues, and social council assigned to address action point of the Secretary General’s report on “strengthening of the United Nations Agenda for further changes.” The ECHA working group is partially responsible for the development of IAFCA.
Extra-African-Countries: European countries, particularly Britain and France that colonized most of West Africa. These countries tend to have influence on their ex colonies as well as extensive bilateral relationship.
Liberia National Transitional Government-I (LNTG-I)/LNTG-II: Due to a considerable political unrest and violence that precluded any stable leadership in power from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. A power-sharing agreement in 2003 largely ended the fighting and created a National Transitional Government (NTG). The NTG, supported by United Nations peacekeeping troops, replaced the government under the 1986 constitution and ruled until a democratically elected administration was installed in 2006.

National Interest: As it relates to this study, is a term used by Nigeria, to articulate reasons or the need for her foreign policy objectives. It is based on the national interest policy that Nigeria formulates her foreign policy agendas, particularly as it relates to West African affairs.
Organization of African Union (OAU), now African Union (AU): Is an organization of all nations within the African continent, established to address African issues. The OAU also supported ECOWAS decision to send ECOMOG into Liberia. Nigeria has been a member of OAU since its inception in 1963.
Ring-Countries: The West African countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger Republic and the Republic of Benin), that surround Nigeria at four coordinates. These countries are also considered Nigeria’s immediate neighbors and have on occasion, had border disputes with Nigeria, particularly Cameroon. Currently, based on mutual agreement by both Nigeria and Cameroon, they have worked out an amicable settlement as laid out by the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission.
Standing Mediation Committee (SMC): A committee set up by ECOWAS members to figure out how to initiate the peace process at the onset of the Liberian crisis in 1990, and is made of five ECOWAS members. Based on the recommendation of this committee, ECOWAS then created a peacekeeping peace enforcement unit, ECOMOG, to help with the cease-fire initiative in the crisis in Liberia.
Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs): Economic programs that restructure an economy so that it allows proper pricing of goods and services while allowing private sector the latitude to operate within adequate market values and structure. In the 1 980s SAPs was one of the conditions imposed on many developing nations including Nigeria, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Technical Aid Corps (TAC): Nigeria’s initiative, which seeks to promote socio economic development in friendly developing countries. This Nigerian initiative was established in 1987 and has since sent various professionals including nurses, doctors, engineers, and architects, as technical aid assistants to several countries in Africa and beyond.
Transition: Refers to the period of a crisis when external assistance is most crucial in supporting and underpinning still fragile cease fires, or peace processes, by helping to create the conditions for political stability, security, justice and social equity.
Transnational Cooperation (TNC), some times called Multinational Enterprise (MNE):
A large corporation that manages products, productions and delivery of services to many countries. TNCs tend to be involved in several economic situations that are linked to unequal trade arrangements and other stringent financial programs that many West African countries, have been subjected to.