3 research outputs found
Impact of religion on interreligious peace: evidence from zones of peace in Abuja, Nigeria
Get PDFThis thesis argues that religion impacts peace between members of
different religious groups, but it is at times not in the manner that some religious
leaders and some of those who favourably comment on religious
peacebuilding hold. It makes this argument based on primary data collected in
Abuja, north-central Nigeria and evidence collected from the academic
literature on religion, peace and conflict in northern Nigeria and other areas.
Rather than take the common path of evaluating the role of religious
peacebuilding in conflict or post-conflict settings, the research explores
lessons that could be derived from “zones of peace.” This term is used in the
study to refer to religiously mixed communities where violent interreligious
conflicts have not occurred. While conflict-affected parts of northern Nigeria
have been studied by several researchers, relatively peaceful areas in the
region have received less empirical attention. One such area is Abuja, which
has a unique identity as the capital of a heterogeneous Nigeria. Hence, this
research aimed to explore the impact of three interrelated religious factors on
the relative peace existing in the territory and draw on academic literature to
interpret the findings and contribute to the fields of religious peacebuilding,
interreligious relations, and Christian-Muslim relations in northern Nigeria. The
factors are religious leaders, religious peace norms, and religious peace
activism.
Guided by an interpretive paradigm and adopting a case study design,
the author conducted fieldwork in Abuja from January to August 2019. The
study discovered that religion matters to lay Christians and Muslims in Abuja
in a variety of ways, for example, as a source of strength amidst life’s
challenges and as a marker of identity that helps to define oneself and the
other. Within this context of religiosity, various forms of religious peacebuilding,
which are supposedly motivated primarily by religious peace norms, take
place. This suggests that religious leaders, religious peace norms and religious
peace activism have helped to sustain the relative peace in Abuja. However,
while various kinds of religious peacebuilding take place in the area, and while
there is a common perception among religious leaders that religion is a crucial
source of the relative peace in the territory, interviews with lay Christians and
Muslims there show that these religious factors (leaders, norms and activism)
are rarely at the centre of their choice or decision to have peaceful attitudes
towards religious others, despite the interreligious divides existing in the
territory. Instead, it was self-protection, concern for family, a desire for survival
and progress, and the prevention of the harmful consequences of physical
violence. These practical issues often matter strongly to believers, sometimes
more than religious differences or the religious peacebuilding that responds to
them. The study also discovered that interreligious dialogue between top-level
Christian and Muslim religious leaders in Abuja, which is one of the methods
of religious peacebuilding being carried out in the territory, seems to have a
limited impact on the peace that exists on the ground. Furthermore, the
research showed how the interreligious peace in the area partially depends on
factors that are primarily nonreligious, even though they are often interwoven
with religion. These include Abuja’s demographics, governance, and policing.
These findings serve as the major basis of the above-stated argument of the
thesis. While showing the relevance of religion in the dynamics of interreligious
peace, the study highlights the importance of believers’ practical interests in
these dynamics
How Oil Companies Spark Disputes in Nigeria: The Case of Energia and Ozegbe of Ogume
Get PDFThe role that oil companies have come to play in their host families in the process of tapping oil has come up for close scrutiny in this study. So much of the social instability and disequilibrium that have been experienced in the host families is traceable to the methodologies that the oil companies have used in governing their operations within the host communities. This study which adopts the doctrinal method surveys and interrogates the circumstances in which one of the fiercest land disputes in Ogbole Ogume in Ndokwa West Local Government Area, Delta State was sparked by the appearance of Energia Nig. Ltd in the Ogume-Emu space. The dispute brought into collision course, the Ossai Ogboso Onah and Umu-Ozegbe families and in the process, dragged in Ogbole, Okololi, Obodougwa and Emu communities into one of the most pernicious native wars upon the Ukwuani space. This study is circumscribed within the facts that arose in NWACC/46/2012 Moses Asuai Onowu & 2Ors v. Onyekachi Ossai & 3Ors which was filed before the Ndokwa West Area Customary Court holden at Utagba-Ogbe, kwale. It went on appeal before the Delta State Customary Court of Appeal, Cable Point, Asaba as Appeal No: DCCA/28A/2016 Moses Asuai Onowu & 2Ors v. Onyekachi Ossai & 3Ors and eventual ended up presently at the Court of Appeal, Asaba as Appeal No: CA/AS/265/2016 Onyekachi Ossai v. Moses Asuai Onowu & 2Ors before Justices Ignatius Igwe Aguba, Abimbola Osargue Obaseki-Adejumo and Misitura Bolaji-Yusuff (JJCA) delivering the lead judgment. The parties mentioned in this study are not fictitious as such attempt shall be made to focus more on the facts than the personages. The reasons that gave rise to the dispute shall be highlighted more than the natural persons and communities involved. It is noted that even though Energia Nig. Ltd was not made a party in the dispute, its role was palpable and the influence it wielded against the rightful owners of the land in dispute was also touchable. The subterranean influence it had over the decision making process at the various stages of the dispute was dominant even though it was not openly acknowledged by the Judges and the parties. The study finds that oil companies are indictable for sparking off disputes in Nigeria. They seem to regale in it. They seem to set one brother against the other and while the litigation runs through the tortuous layers of courts in Nigeria up to the Supreme Court, they gain firm control over the subject matter (res) of the litigation and tap the resources to their hearts’ content and neutralize the parties in dispute. They use ‘divide and rule’ and sometimes plot the elimination of whole communities in order for mindless exploitation of mineral resources to take place
The joint moderating effect of location and culture on small firm performance
Get PDFDue to the inconsistent findings on the influence of entrepreneurial factors on the firm performance, the author therefore proposed a contingency model in which the effect of individual determinants, external factor and firm characteristics are to be moderated by location and culture.As a result of this, a cross - sectional study of questionnaire survey approach was conducted and data was generated from 182 entrepreneurs/owner-managers of small
firms in both manufacturing and service industries in Lagos through self-administered questionnaire procedure. The findings indicate that location and culture is insignificant in jointly moderating the relationship between individual determinants, external factors and firm characteristics, and firm performance
