Managing Ethno-Religious Conflicts in Plateau State: Lessons for Policy Practice

This study examines the practical management of ethno-religious conflicts in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria, drawing lessons relevant to policy design and professional conflict management practice. Plateau State has experienced decades of cyclical ethno-religious violence, and the accumulated lessons from various intervention attempts, including state-managed curfews, military deployments, and civil peace initiatives, offer valuable insights for practitioners and policymakers engaged in conflict management. The study adopts a policy analysis and practice-oriented research design, reviewing 12 government white papers, 8 inter-agency situation reports, and conducting in-depth professional interviews with 20 government officials, civil society leaders, and security practitioners who managed various Plateau State conflict phases between 2020 and 2024. The theoretical framework draws from conflict management practice theory and the nested systems model. Findings indicate that interventions focused exclusively on security containment without addressing underlying grievances related to land use, political representation, and economic exclusion have consistently failed to produce sustainable outcomes. Professional conflict managers working in Plateau report that community-driven reconciliation programmes, when adequately resourced and sustained beyond the initial crisis phase, produce the most durable peace dividends. Recommendations for policy practice include investing in sustained community conflict management funding, training district-level peace officers, and establishing a Plateau State conflict management professional corps with defined mandates and accountability structures. Keywords: ethno-religious conflict, policy practice, Plateau State, conflict management, peacebuilding.