COMMUNICATION EFFECT AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA’S JOS METROPOLIS: A STUDY IN IDENTITY POLITICS

This paper is on the relationship between communication effect and ethno-religious conflicts in Jos metropolis, the epicenter of Nigeria’s Middlebelt geo-political region. While using Jos metropolis, as a case study, the paper relies largely on the general analytic and case study research techniques to explore and interrogate the place of verbal and non-verbal communication on ethno-religious conflicts in the city. In doing this, the paper hypothesizes that ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria’s Jos metropolis are affected by a matrix of communications of the complex social reality. A major finding of the paper is that though all concerned do not have to agree before violent intergroup conflict can ensue; access to common resources as well as ethnic and religious are factors that cannot be ignored in the quest for fair and sustainable peace in the city of Jos. Accordingly, the paper recommends, among others, a people-oriented all-inclusive democratic institutions and processes that are equipped and sustained by broad spectrum of participation profile.