When leaders start talking of using force and aggression as the lead-in to cross-cultural conflict resolution then we are faced with catastrophic future should that conflict escalate beyond managable proportions.

To that end, these leaders need to be trained and developed with techniques that will strenghten their capabilities for negotiating and maximizing the outcome of disputes that involve people of different cultures.  

What is culture?  It is a lens or a window through which a community of people are able to showcase their values, customs and collective protocols of living and surviving.  In the interest of surviving, the objective is to project one's culture as an extension of identity and ego.

When the identity is challenged, the ego comes to its defense. The manner in which that defense occur is what gives rise to conflicts. It is a legitimate cause to defend the culture, in fact it is a noble cause! The problem we have is that our leaders are not empowered and so our cross-cultural differences end up becoming ignoble.  

Nigerian leaders need a new training and development for managing these conflicts. Below, I compose a sample curriculum that will give the needed skills and help steer them away from using war or force of aggression as a tenable threat to divide the country. Whether or not the country stay together, using war as a building block to the future is not progressive for the country or any of its component regions.

1. Empowerement
2. Individualist/Collectivist Paradigms
3. Coalition Building
4. Compromise
5. Understanding Power
6. Transformation
7. Sustaining