CHAPTER ONE.1.1Background of the study. Peace is a situation when people are able toresolve their different conflicts without violence and can work together toimprove the quality of their lives. Peace doesn’t mean absence of war.
Peacereflects that there is security friendly system that frees individual andgroups of people from fears and danger of losing such inalienable human rightssuch as life, liberty and property (Osah, 2017). Peacekeeping refers to activities intended tocreate conditions that favor lasting peace and United Nations researchgenerally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths and reducesthe risk of a new war (United nation peacekeeping, 2014). Violent conflict can be said to be thereason why peacekeeping operations are done. Conflicts around the world can besaid to be a major concern of nations in the world and the reason why theyembark on peacekeeping operations, is because if these peacekeeping operationsare not done the sovereignty of all nations in the world is not guaranteed. Sothey engage in peacekeeping operations for the purpose of collective security. Peacekeepingoperations are done mostly in states that are in political unrest and this isbecause there is no security of citizen’s lives and property in this state.
The concept of peacekeeping can be traced toafter the world war 1, where the league of nations was founded on the 10thof January 1920 and this organization was founded mainly to resolveinternational disputes, implement international institutions (rules) andprevent a return war but this organization failed to prevent a returning warbecause it lacked an enforcement arm which was to check the growing axis powerand this led to the 2nd world war. (Ogu, 2017). Second World war fought from 1939 to 1945, thesecond world war is the deadliest conflict in history, with over 70 millionfatalities (khan, 2013). Involving all the great powers of the world, dividedinto allied and axis powers.
It is the only war to have used nuclear weaponstill date. During the 2nd world war, another organization wasestablished in 1944 and the name of this organization is the united nations,which was founded to maintain world peace, develop good relations betweencountries and promote cooperation in solving world problems (Ogu, 2017). The UNhad an enforcement arm which checked the axis power which has been able toprevent a return war. The united nations peacekeeping started in1948, its first mission was in the Middle East to observe and maintain thetruce during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the mission was officiallyauthorized on May 29th 1948. The united nations peacekeeping forcewas awarded a Nobel prize in 1988. The united nation’s peacekeeping operationsdramatically increased, authorizing more missions between 1991 and 1994. The UN continues to promote peace and hasactive peacekeeping operations around the world, in addition to peacekeeping,peacekeepers are increasingly charged with assisting in political processes,reintegrating former combatants, supporting the return of internally displacedpersons and refugees etc. (Roser and Nagdy, 2015).
The united nation has 193member states, with no standing army, but has peacekeepers and the goal of thispeacekeepers is to create condition for lasting peace. (Ogu, 2017). The UnitedNations peacekeepers are soldiers, police officers and military observers andthey are from UN member states and these nations volunteer the member of theirarmed forces. (Engber, 2006).
The United Nations Security Council has theprimary responsibility, under the United Nations charter for the maintenance ofinternational peace and security. (Boutros, 1992). And Nigeria been a former member of the SecurityCouncil adopted the policy of peacekeeping into the foreign policy of Nigeria. The assessment of Nigeria’s role in peacekeepingoperations within the west Africa sub-region has been since Nigeria gainedindependence in 1960. The country has played and continues to play a vital rolein peacekeeping, conflict resolution, war strategies and countries faced withpolitical instability such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia and other Africancountries.
(Hamman and Omojuwa, 2013).Peacekeeping is a termmainly used to describe actions sponsored by the united nations with primaryresponsibility of maintaining international peace and security. (Hamman andOmojuwa, 2013).
Nigeria’s peacekeeping mission global, regional andsub-regional has received recommendations from the United Nations. (Hamman,2013). Nigeria became a member of theunited nations immediately after independence on 7th of October 1960as the 99th member and became a non-permanent member of the UnitedNations security council in 1966. (News breakers publisher, 2015). Non-permanent members of the UN are rotated after every two years and the SecurityCouncil is the organ of the UN that is charged with peacekeepingoperations. Nigeria activelyparticipated in ECOWAS Monitoring Group, African union as well as unitednations peacekeeping operations.
(Hamman, Mustafa and Omojuwa, 2013) Nigeria is the 14th highestcountry providing peacekeepers to the united nations and following 2016, thedata shows that Nigeria contributed a total of 2170 peacekeeping personnel.(Venture Africa, 2017) with these cultivated behavior Nigeria began toparticipate more in peacekeeping operations in Africa especially west Africanand Nigeria is regarded as the “Giant of Africa and the Big Brother of Africa”.The principles and objectives of Nigerian foreign policy made it mandatory forthe country to be an active participant in African as well as globalpeacekeeping operations. (Musa, 2013) Since gaining independence in the 1960’s,Nigeria’s interest and commitment to world peace has put her in the forefrontof troop contributing countries in support of global, regional and sub-regionalpeace support operations (PSOs). Nigeria has participated in PSOs under theauthority and mandates of the UN, AU and ECOWAS. (Peaceops, 2013).
Nigeria as a non-aligned country during thecold war years, the country maintained a neutral position, which made her adependable mediator and trusted participant in the forces raised to restore andmaintain peace in conflict zones. (Hamman and Omojuwa, 2013). Nigerian armyparticipation in peacekeeping operation dates to over 50 years, General AguiyiIronsi led Nigerian army troops out for the first time in a peace supportmission to the war ravaged in Congo in the 1960s. (Azgaku, 2015). Nigeriadecision’s makers have continuously designed, shaped and maintained a foreignpolicy which has continued to have some impact on international peace. Nigeriais today one of the strategic members of the 113 troops contributing countriesof the united nation. (Panapress, 2007) In1960, Congo a former colony of Belgium, there was a conflict five days after Congogot its independence.
And Belgium deployed troops to Congo but the UN securitycouncil called on Belgium to withdraw their troops from Congo. The UN securitycouncil also authorized the UN secretary general to provide Congo withnecessary military assistance until the country’s security forces could meettheir task fully. The UN called onNigeria to help contribute troops for Congo and by the end of November 1,350Nigerian soldiers were deployed in Congo. With Nigeria’s participation in theUN’s peacekeeping operations in Congo there was peace and security brought backto Congo.
(Azgaku, 2015). In 1964, when Tanzania army revolted againstthe government, the government of Tanzania asked the Nigerian army to assist insuppressing the rebel, and Nigeria helped in protecting Tanzania against therevolting army. Similarly, in 1978, Nigeria’s armed force were deployed in chadto enforce peace during the Chadian civil war. Chad has been at war ever sinceshe obtained independence from France and this war started to give Nigeria afeeling of insecurity and this was because the situation of chad worsened andit could affect its neighboring countries. So Nigeria stepped into the situationin chad and enforced peace. (Azgaku, 2015) In 1978, southern Lebanon was invaded byIsrael forces in retaliation for the raiding of Israeli territory by thePalestinian commandos. There was bloodshed, deliberate destruction of propertyfor over three decades. After the invasion of the Israeli, the centralgovernment of Lebanese appealed to UN to help it re-establish its authority inthe southern Lebanese occupied by Israeli forces.
The UN security council metover the request of the Lebanese government and UN secretary general called onand got contributed troops from 10 member nations and Nigeria participated inthe operation. 673 officers and men left from Nigeria to Lebanese in May 1978and began its peacekeeping operation in Lebanese. (Azgaku, 2015) Nigeria’s participation in peacekeepingoperations at this infant stage of her independence could be attributed to itsbid to make her a force to be reckoned with in the region and internationally.The troops deployed by Nigeria to conflicting states brought Nigeria great honorand pride because of wonderful performance of the troops. (Chigozie and Ituma,2015).1.
1 Statementof the problem. Though Nigeria’s role in peacekeepingoperations globally and especially locally has received many commendations frominternational, regional and sub-regional organization. There are manychallenges that are faced by Nigeria as a state that affects the nation and thepeacekeeping operations. Despite Nigeria’s role in peace keeping, the countryitself is in a state of turmoil.
The conflict and corruption in Nigeria’sgovernment is alarming and it has hindered the development of Nigeria. Fromthis, it can be said that the Nigerian governmental participation inpeacekeeping operations is for the self-interest of the political leaders ofNigeria. There are various intra stateconflicts and insurgencies in the country like the Boko Haram insurgents, IPOBseparatist, Fulani herdsmen to the Niger delta militant of the south Nigeriaseems to be a constant battlefield with the idea of peace farfetched and stillthe Nigeria government is focused on participating in peacekeeping operationsinstead of looking for a solution for the conflicts in the country. Nigeria asan ambassador of peace and diplomacy seems to lack proper application of whatit preaches outside its borders. In thebit to achieve peace sub-regionally, Nigeria has deployed a good number of soldiersto aid its peacekeeping activities in west Africa however, Nigeria has issueswith the security of lives of its soldiers, many have died on the peacekeepingfront and many more will due to the high level of insecurity of lives. Andthere is a high rate of infection amongst the returning Nigerian peacekeepersregarding sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS virus and this is avery deadly issue because the Nigerian government does not provide sufficientmedical healthcare for the soldiers and this endangers their lives and that oftheir loved ones.
(Sule, 2013) Deployment of troops, provisions of arms andammunitions, man power and training of man power, engagement and battlemanagement of troops, security for soldiers, medical personnel and war aids isan economic strain on Nigeria. Nigeria on its own is at a beak of an economicmeltdown and still recovering from it. Nigeria doesn’t have adequate militaryfund and still Nigeria endangers the lives of their citizens in the name ofpeacekeeping operations and this leads to high mortality rate. And withoutadequate military funding, the military is not capable of securing the lives ofNigeria’s citizens talk more of another state, but instead of Nigeria to trainand fund the army adequately and increase the military capabilities of thecountry, Nigeria sends off untrained armed forces to war reducing the militarycapabilities of the state and also reducing the prestige of the country. (Adegbja,2017). Every country has a clear political ordiplomatic goal in peacekeeping missions, Nigeria however seems not to havebenefitted significantly from its role in peacekeeping considering the humanand material resources deployed. This forms the thesis that the study intendsto examine.1.
2 Objectivesof the study.The primary objective ofthis study would be to assess Nigeria’s role in peacekeeping in west Africa,and the other objectives include to:· examine the preponderance of war andconflict globally;· analyze the measures adopted globallyin curbing war and conflict;· determine the effects of the peacekeepingmissions in sierra Leone and Liberia on Nigeria’s image;· assess the role of Nigeria in peacekeepingoperations in sierra Leone and Liberia.1.3 ResearchQuestions.· Why is war and conflict prevalencein the globally?· What are the measures adoptedglobally in curbing war and conflict?· Why and what are the challenges faced byNigeria in peacekeeping operations in sierra Leone and Liberia?· How has the challenges faced by Nigeria inpeacekeeping in sierra Leone and Liberia affected its national development?1.5 Research Methodology.
The study will adopts a descriptive researchdesign to asses Nigeria’s peacekeeping roles in west Africa. The population isthe whole of west Africa. The method of sample selection is purposive and thesample will be sierra Leone and Liberia because of Nigeria’s involvement in thepeacekeeping operations of these countries. The study will combine unstructuredinterview with secondary data sources such as relevant books, internet sources,journals and official documents. The interview is expected to cover staffers of Economic community ofWest African states, minister of foreign affairs Nigeria and soldiers thatparticipated in the operation. 1.6 Significance of the study. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the bodyof knowledge on Nigeria’s role in peacekeeping operations in west Africa.
Thecontribution is expected to highlight the role of Nigeria’s peacekeepingoperations as well as focus on the problems and challenges that Nigeria faceswhen engaging in peacekeeping operations and what are the benefits or effectsthese peacekeeping operations has on Nigeria’s development. The empirical relevance of this study wouldbe to provide the government of Nigeria with a reasonable and practicalsolutions to the problems face the during peacekeeping operations. This paperhopes to provide a logical step to examine the effectiveness of Nigeria’s rolein peacekeeping operations.1.7 Scope of the study.The research will only befocused on the assessment of Nigeria’s role in peacekeeping operations in westAfrica downsizing it to its operations with Liberia and sierra Leone as thecase study.
The geography of this study is west Africa sub-region and the timeframe of this study will be 1960 to 2013 and this because this was whenNigeria’s peacekeeping operations in sierra Leone and Liberia was prominent.This study was chosen to examine the role of Nigeria’s peacekeeping operationsto figure the challenges and success.1.8 Chapterization. The study follows a rational structure whichwill be presented in (5) five related chapters.
Chapter one is an introductorychapter and explains the background of the study, identify the research problemas well as state the research objectives. The research questions, significanceof the study, scope of the study and the chapterization of this study. Chaptertwo deals with the review of related literatures on the subject matter and toexamine the preponderance of war and conflict globally also to analyze themeasures adopted globally in curbing war and conflicts.
While chapter three deals with assessingNigeria’s role in peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone and Liberia andresearch methodology. Chapter four deals with determining the effects of thepeacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone and Liberia on Nigeria’s image and datapresentation, analysis and interpretation of data collected. Finally, chapterfive presents a summary of key results, conclusion to the study with usefulrecommendations.
