ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the existential reality for conflict management and peacebuilding efforts in the face of ever-increasing conflicts, fragility, and violence; the need for structural and operational prevention mechanisms is paramount. The rising level of cattle rustling, armed banditry, insurgency, “non-violent extremism,” and the flight of human and social capital are indicators of complex emergences that the Nigerian state confronts. These security challenges are further compounded by weak institutional responses that make the search for sustainable peacebuilding and security unattainable. The chapter projects the formal and informal settings through which fragility as it affects peacebuilding and other development interventions could be addressed. The chapter argues further that the growing trends of insecurity across the country should be accorded critical attention, against the backdrop of the reality that they create a trajectory for the escalation of conflicts that are complex and subsequently result in “absolute state fragility” – a scenario best understood as the total collapse of state structures. The chapter also acknowledges that state fragility represents one of the greatest challenges of development and peacebuilding in the country, requiring systemic and comprehensive assessments of the factors that drive fragility and the interplay between various conflict dynamics, which also offer important perspectives for developing responses and actions.
