Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Ben Nwoye, has advocated mediation and councilation as a means of reducing political violence and election-related litigation across the country.

 

He urged political parties to embrace mediation and conciliation as a core strategy for resolving internal disputes, stressing that many political crises stem from the absence of trained party managers capable of resolving disagreements before they escalate.

 

Nwoye spoke in Enugu on Wednesday at the Annual Lecture of the Enugu Branch of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC), where he also received an Award of Excellence on Conflict resolution from the organisation

 

He noted that political office holders often emerge at ward, local government, state and national levels without receiving any formal training in conflict resolution.

 

According to him, “If we train these local actors, those at ward level, local government level and state level, you will see that the incidence of political hostility will reduce. People will know how to engage and deal with political crises and manage them without resorting to violence.”

 

Nwoye added that effective mediation would also discourage politicians from rushing to the courts over internal party disagreements.

 

He said: “These are simple internal dispute management issues. If they had the basic training and understanding of the importance of mediation and conciliation within the party system, this whole notion of going to court will reduce, if not disappear, because most of those matters are supposed to be resolved internally.”

 

The APC chieftain cited disputes over candidate nominations in some political parties as examples of conflicts that could have been resolved through dialogue rather than prolonged litigation.

 

He called on the ICMC to partner both the ruling and opposition parties to build the capacity of political leaders in alternative dispute resolution.

 

Nwoye also attributed the peaceful conduct of the APC primaries in Enugu State to deliberate peace-building efforts undertaken before the exercises.

 

He said, “We did primaries in Enugu State and they were seamless. We didn’t have a lot of discrepancies or infighting. Some form of mediation occurred before the primaries. People gave up some of their rights when they understood it was in the overall interest of society.”

 

He said with the peace building effort, the party recorded only one court case from its House of Representatives primaries, while there were no legal disputes arising from its local government, House of Assembly, Senate and governorship primaries.

 

Receiving an Award of Excellence from the institute, Nwoye described the recognition as particularly meaningful.

 

He said: “Usually, politicians are not seen as peace builders. People say politicians are troublemakers, but the little things we do to stabilise society are not always visible. If you recognise me for that, I am most grateful.”

 

Earlier, the national President of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, Godwin Omoaka (SAN), said Nigeria must move beyond voting to institutionalising mediation as an essential component of the electoral process.

 

Describing the lecture theme, “Beyond the Ballot: Institutionalising Peace, Legal and Policy Framework for Electoral Mediation,” as timely, Omoaka, represented by Fr. Uche Anioke, said democracy should not end on election day but should include mechanisms for peacefully managing post-election tensions.

 

He said, “Violence is not inevitable. Disagreement can be mediated,” adding that the institute had over 5,000 certified mediators nationwide and was ready to partner with INEC, political parties, the judiciary and governments to embed electoral mediation into governance and electoral policy frameworks.

 

Omoaka also commended the Enugu State Ministry of Justice for its reform initiatives and expressed confidence that stronger collaboration among stakeholders would promote peaceful elections and democratic stability in Nigeria.