Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this article was to analyse available evidence on ethnic diversity being a major predictor of violent conflict, with a special focus on Nigeria as it is a multi-ethnic nation. It was envisioned to make contribution to cohesion hypothesis that suggested a link between inequalities along ethnic lines and group cohesion with grievances that might lead to violent conflict. It also aimed at discussing the implication of violent conflict for economic development, and how it could be managed or prevented.

Methods: A literature survey of papers available from 2003 to 2018 was carried out through ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and Scopus to identify and comparatively analyse a corpus of literature on violent conflict and ethnic diversity.

Results: The study indicated a contraction in body of literature that critically examined the impact of ethnic diversity on violent conflict as only seven articles were identified for comparative analysis. Meanwhile, the analysis yields two viewpoints: those having evidence in support of economic variables as predictors of violent conflict or civil war and those in support of ethnic diversity.

Conclusions: The findings of this review are good for developing countries like Nigeria where ethnic and religious diversity might be an excuse for the persistent violent conflict. Now policy makers can be aware that there is more to conflict than ethnic and religious diversity. The policy implication might be the need for competent governance system and policies that address grievances; with a lot of effort to reduce poverty among citizens.

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