CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study Conflict is a situation in which people, groups or countries are involved in serious disagreement or argument. Conflict is a necessary process of life. Within the individual, there is always conflict of thoughts, choice and interest, to mention but a few. This is known as intra-personal conflict. This does not only make decision taking difficult, but also has been identified as one of the major sources of stress. On the other hand, the inter-personal conflict occurs between individuals, states, groups and organizations or members of an organization, groups and states. Conflicts can also be either constructive or destructive (Peters, 2016). He further states that whenever disagreement arises, we say there is a conflict. While conflict is universal and 10 occurs naturally, crisis is almost always the key by-product of conflicts. If conflict is properly resolved, there will be peace. If on the other hand, resolution and reconciliation fail, the conflict will degenerate to chaos, crisis or war. According to Peters (2016), causes of conflict all over the world are midwifed by inordinate desires for political and economic advantages, greed, ego related problems and plain mischief. Injustice and inequitable distribution of resources invariably give rise to conflict situations. Lutz (2009) states that a towns can be compared to a four wheeled cart, where each of the wheels is free-wheeling. As long as all four wheels face front, the cart rolls along nice and smoothly. But if one of the wheels turns itself crossways to the other three, there will be problem. There will be a town conflict. That town is in need of some basic town conflict resolution skills. The first thing to do is to identify the problem, then make a plan and set goals on how the members of the family can jointly resolve the problem. Conflict resolution is central to the survival and sustenance of a stable towns system in our society. This is because conflict is a natural phenomenon in all human or organizational relationship (Agboeze, 2014). Various studies have been conducted on family conflict as one of the social problems in the society. Early researchers and observers of the problem are of the opinion that the rate at which family conflict occurs in the society is increasingly alarming. Dudley (2012) states that “within our diversity as humans, there are differences in perceptions, needs, values, power, desires, goals, opinions, these differences often lead to conflict.†Cornelius and Faire (2015) hold that when people cannot tolerate others‟ moral, cultural, religious and political differences, conflict is inevitable and often costly. Aja (2017) holds the view that conflict is a permanent feature of human politics and it is man-made, that conflict resolutions is often misguided and misrepresented. He believes that conflict can never be absolute, rather conflict resolution comprises an agenda setting to assist parties in conflict or dispute to establish a common ground given certain guiding principles or conditions for peaceful co-existence. Conflict resolution should be seen as a set of peace and security guidelines or diplomatic and legal procedure for achieving relative order and stability. Egbo, (2009) holds that studies on family conflict had predominantly focused on modern societies. It was in the early 40s that an initial attention was paid to families in Africa. In Nigeria, for instance research studies have been conducted and articles written in newspapers and magazines on family and marital conflicts. In recent times, many couples have abandoned their partners and their children to the risk of defective and improper socialization. The wide spread of social problems like prostitution, juvenile delinquency, crime, alcoholism and truancy proves that the family is not fulfilling its basic function of primary socialization of children. Such a situation, however, if not effectively addressed can undermine the objectives of, or become destructive to the family system in our society. Generally, peace does not mean the total absence of conflict but the capacity to put conflict indications on conflict situations under control without destabilizing the system.