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Nigeria has a complex ethno-religious profile. Thanks to the British colonial administration, a myriad of individual groups professing various faiths and belonging to different ethnicities have found themselves in a tense, un settled and competitive political system. Unsurprisingly, there have been several attempts to undermine the profile of the state. In spite of these consistent challenges, what is striking, however, is that the Nigerian state has not disintegrated. What explains the persistence of the Nigerian state on the face of these assaults? Traditionally, critics have suggested that the federal structure in Nigeria is responsible for deflating some of the attacks against the state. I, however, propose that the success of the Nigerian state is not only due to the prevalence of a federal structure of governance but also due to the inclusive identity provided by religion. In particular, I explore the role of Islam in an ethnically charged context such as northern Nigeria. While making a cross-regional study of conflict behaviour spanning over the past 60 years in northern Nigeria, I underscore that while primordial identities are key factors responsible for violent upsurge, in those areas where people are bound together by Islam the conflict is less likely to occur. Furthermore, this study showcases that Islam in northern Nigeria acts as a double edged sword as it unites and divides in equal measures. From this particular standpoint, this thesis explains and evaluates the symbiotic relationship between Islam and conflict-prevention. This study argues that the variant of Islam in northern Nigeria is unique as it has become a source for communal unity rather than a source for conflict amongst Muslims in northern Nigeria. In particular, it analyses the conflict behaviour of Muslims and their pursuance of the concept of religious nationalism within a deeply divided and (dis-)united society. This thesis attempts to explore the position of Islam in the conflict dynamics in northern Nigeria. The backbone of this thesis is derived mainly from primary sources through extensive field work, sample questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, focus group discussions (FGDs) and interaction with the actual actors in the research arena.

This thesis questions the view that the contemporary role of traditional African rulers is pre-dominantly in mediating and resolving social conflicts within States. The thesis argues that while Chiefs and Emirs in Nigeria play a significant role in resolving conflicts within their ethnic communities, their role is less significant when communal conflicts escalate in intensity and scope. By analysing the interaction between (a) the actions and strategies of traditional rulers, and (b) the escalation, de-escalation and re-escalation of conflicts involving or affecting their ethnic communities, this thesis finds that the cultural role of traditional rulers contributes to re-escalating past conflicts, thereby making communal conflicts protracted. Edward Azar's Protracted Social Conflict (PSC) theory serves as a foundation on which this thesis develops an analytical framework for mapping the Ife-Modakeke conflict and the Jos-Plateau conflict in Nigeria. Both conflicts have a history of sporadic violence that spans three political eras; pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial. The fact that some of the traditional rulers that govern the affected communities also existed from pre-colonial times, presents an opportunity to analyse their past and present actions/strategies in relation to the conflicts' protracted cycle, as well as the political and contextual dynamics that shaped these actions. Although PSC theory serves the purpose of explaining the role of historical and contextual factors in shaping the genesis of PSCs, it focuses more on the role of the State as the sole intervening actor that influences the process dynamics of PSCs. However, the role of traditional actors cannot be neglected when analysing protracted communal conflicts involving identity groups such as Ife and Modakeke, because of their centrality in the governance of ethnic communities in Nigeria. As such, this thesis modifies Azar's PSC theory to include traditional rulers as secondary intervening actors in protracted communal and social conflicts.

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