A Grounded Theory of Indigenous Conflict Resolution Mechanisms and Their Application to Contemporary Industrial Dispute Management in Northern Nigeria

This doctoral study develops a grounded theory of indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms in Northern Nigerian cultural traditions and their systematic application to contemporary industrial dispute management, generating original theory at the intersection of traditional governance scholarship, peace studies, and employment relations. Northern Nigerian societies, across Hausa-Fulani, Kanuri, Tiv, and other ethnic traditions, possess sophisticated pre-colonial and community-based conflict mediation systems that have been largely ignored in the formulation of Nigeria's labour dispute resolution architecture, which instead adopted colonial-inherited adversarial models. Employing constructivist grounded theory methodology, this study draws on 95 in-depth interviews with traditional conflict mediators, Emirate council officials, industrial relations practitioners, labour judges, and workers across Kano, Borno, and Plateau States. Iterative theoretical sampling and constant comparative analysis were applied across 24 months of data collection. The original theoretical output is the Integrative North Nigerian Dispute Mediation Model, a grounded theory framework that identifies core categories of traditional dispute resolution including communal honour preservation, elder-mediated interest reconciliation, symbolic reparation rituals, and relationship restoration obligations, and maps their potential adaptation points within contemporary collective bargaining, grievance arbitration, and workplace mediation systems. The model is tested through process-tracing analysis of three historical industrial disputes in which traditional leaders played documented mediation roles. Recommendations include formal recognition of hybrid dispute resolution systems combining NICN processes with community mediation traditions, training programs for traditional leaders in contemporary labour law basics, and legislative space for customary labour dispute settlement in the Trade Disputes Act. Keywords: grounded theory, indigenous conflict resolution, industrial dispute, Northern Nigeria, cultural mediation