By Babatunde OGALA, SAN
INTRODUCTION
Conflicts can either be minor or serious and it is not restricted only to connected people but it also exists among those who are unconnected
Conflict subsists within an individual, between persons and groups, nationally and internationally
A conflict arises when individuals have varied interests, opinions and thought processes and are just not willing to compromise with each other
Conflict often involves personal values that have been violated in some way
Conflict is however unavoidable in our social and political affairs because of our diversity
Politics is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as distribution of resources and status
• WHAT IS CONFLICT?
• A. P. Schmid defines conflict as “a social factual situation in which at least two parties are involved, and who strive for goals which are incompatible to begin with or strive for the same goal, which, can only be reached by one party; and/or want to employ incompatible means to achieve a certain goal.”
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TYPES OF CONFLICT
• Intra-personal Conflict: this is a kind of conflict which occurs within a person
• Inter-personal Conflict: It is presumably, the most identified and common conflict. It arises between two or more individuals.
• Intra-group Conflict: It happens when a person in a group works to achieve a different goal than the other group in the party.
• Intergroup Conflict: This refers to the kind of disagreement or feud that takes places between two or more sectarian or religious groups, ethnic groups, communities, or caucuses.
• Organizational Level Conflicts: this can occur within an organization or between two or more organizations
• CAUSES OF CONFLICT
Major factors which may contribute to the development of conflict within a political party includes the following;
1. STRUCTURE
• 2. LIMITED RESOURCES
• Scarce resources like money, time and equipment may bring about unhealthy rivalry within a group as each members strive to compete for those resources
• Scarcity, wants, needs, or the fear of scarcity is often a driving force for political power, contention for resource control, and so forth
• Conflict is thus not far-fetched in the course of such palpable fear or threat of scarcity
• 4. INCOMPATIBLE GOALS
• In some cases, conflict arises when two parties think that their goals are mutually exclusive
• In a political party, party members may have differing interests which they seek to promote
• As efforts are directed towards achieving these goals, a state of conflict is brought about
• 5. PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES
• Groups are made up of persons with different background, beliefs, opinions, interests as well as different ideologies
• It then becomes so challenging for these individuals to work together
• For instance, a party member may try to impose his values on others or claim exclusive right to a set of values which leads to disputes among them
• 6. COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS
• Sometimes conflict arises simply out of small, unintentional communication problem, where communication is ineffective
• CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
WHAT IS CONFLICT MANAGEMENT?
• According to Bodtker and Jameson, Conflict management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects of conflict
• Effective conflict management encourages enthusiasm, boosts morale, and stimulate individuals in a group while ineffective conflict management produces more conflict and destructive effects to a group
• Conflict management minimizes the negative outcomes of conflict and promotes the positive outcomes of conflict with the goal of improving learning in among group members
• CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
• 1. Competing
• The competing conflict management strategy is seen when individuals follow their own needs and goals to the exclusion of others
• Individuals who use a competing strategy try to increase authority or influence by the use of open hostility
• Competitive tactics are a “win-lose” situation, where one individual tries to pressure the other to change
• 2. Collaborating
• Collaborating involves finding a solution to the conflicting situation that satisfies both parties
• Innovative ideas often emerge when people use the collaborative approach to conflict management
• When parties must continue to work together after a conflict has occurred, a collaborative conflict management strategy must be used to continue to work together in agreement
• 3. Compromising
• A compromising conflict management strategy involves trying to find a “common ground” that partly satisfies both parties
• With this strategy, individuals realize that every party cannot always be entirely satisfied in every conflict situation
• The parties accept that there are times when one must be ready to set apart individual wants and needs in preference for others in order to find a “common ground.”
• 4. Accommodating
• An accommodating style of conflict management involves neglecting one’s own concerns in order to satisfy the concerns of others
• This strategy is regarded as the acceptance that the preservation of pleasant interpersonal affairs is more significant than forming disagreements among colleagues
• The accommodating individual is more apt to take a “middle of the road” attitude when an inescapable conflict emerges
• 5. CONFLICT RESOLUTION
• Conflict resolution involves the process of reducing, eliminating, or terminating all forms and types of conflict
• Wallenstein defines conflict resolution as a situation where the conflicting parties enter into an agreement that solves their central incompatibilities, accept each other’s continued existence as parties and cease all violent acts against each other
• Conflict resolution tends to emphasize intervention by skilled but powerless third parties working unofficially with parties to foster new thinking and new relationships
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THE FIVE BASIC STEPS TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION
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Step 1: Define the source of the conflict
• Getting more information about the cause of the problem helps to resolve it effortlessly
• Both parties should be given the chance to share their side of the story
• It will give a better understanding of the situation, as well as demonstrate impartiality
• Step 2: Look beyond the incident
• Most times, it is not the situation but the point of view of the situation that causes anger to aggravate which eventually leads to a commotion or other visible and disruptive results
• The source of the conflict might be a minor issue that occurred long ago, but the level of stress has grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each other personally instead of addressing the real problem
• The parties can be made to look beyond the triggering incident to see the real cause
• Step 3: Request solutions
• After getting each party’s viewpoint, the next step is to get them to identify how the situation could be changed
• The leadership of the Party, in this case, has to be an active listener, aware of every verbal tone, as well as being a good reader of body language
• To get the disputants to stop fighting and start cooperating, entails steering the discussion away from accusations and toward ways of resolving the conflict
• Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support
• The leadership of the Party, in resolving disputes among factions has to listen well in order to arrive at the most acceptable course of action
• The merits of various ideas should be pointed out, not only from the perspective of each party, but in terms of the benefits to the group as a whole
• For instance, the need for greater cooperation and collaboration may be suggested to successfully deal with issues among party members
• Step 5: Agreement
• Article 11 (a) (ii) of the APC Constitution provides for the National Advisory Council as one of the organs of the party and under Article 13(2) (a), its function is stated thus: “The National Advisory Council shall: i. Be the conscience and soul of the Party, and shall represent and demonstrate the highest standard of morality in the Party.”
• However, APC does not have a Board of Trustees/Advisory Council which should be the conscience of the party six years after clinching power. As a result, crisis within the party festers.
• RECOMMENDATION
• As a result of the failure to manage conflict the appropriate way, loss of lives, hate speeches, governance disruption, uncertainty, displacements and destruction of property, unnecessary and avoidable litigation have been occasioned
• Initially, the parties can employ an internal dispute resolution mechanism but where this method lacks the capacity to resolve the conflict, the Alternative Dispute Resolution method can be resorted to by the parties
• As stated by Obi, Ndifon Neji, Alternative Dispute Resolution is a conflict management toolbox of some sort that offers practitioners different tools for the management of conflict
• Basically, the ADR framework is proposed based on the evidence that political parties’ disputes are products of multiplicity of factors that can oftentimes be resolved in-house
• CONCLUSION
• Nigeria’s political parties, unlike what entails in other jurisdictions, have not really institutionalized efficient frameworks for dealing with conflicts among their rank and file.
• As demonstrated by the All Progressive Congress , intra-party conflicts are not only threats to democratic consolidation but also to social harmony and stability of the party.
• Intra-party conflicts are rooted in a genre of political practice which makes entrance into public office a surety for easy access to public resources and an avenue to private accumulation of wealth.
Babatunde Ogala, SAN, former National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC) delivered this paper at a Retreat for Party Exco members and LGA Chairmen of APC organised by the Lagos State chapter of the APC
