As the Niger-Delta areas are under fire emanating from inter-ethnic conflicts, there is indeed no greater challenge facing the Nigerian Government than finding ways and means to resolve them. Conflict resolution refers to a society's capacity to mediate the conflicting (though not necessarily violent) interests of different social groups. Conflicts in the Niger-Delta region have in recent years attracted both national and international attention. The article attempts to analyse the causes, consequences and efforts made by the past and present governments and oil companies to resolve the conflicts. Setting up of large and bureaucratic institutions, such as the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), would not solve the problems that have given rise to these communal conflicts. In addition, the article recommends putting in place the decentralised institutional structures that will provide opportunities to people to participate actively in making and executing development policies. The communities in the Niger-Delta region should be encouraged to get involved in self-help projects, rather than depending solely on the Federal Government and oil companies to solve all their development problems. The issue of political stability is of vital importance to socio-economic and political development. Political stability has been employed to mean the absence of violent conflicts and instability. On the positive side, political stability has been used to characterise internal peace and harmony.

An eclectic approach shall be employed in this article. The approach is based on certain aspects of the systems model. Our main focus is David Easton's systems analysis which is primarily based on the conception of political phenomena as a "system of interrelated and reciprocally regulated patterns of action and orientation patterns that cluster together in equilibrium and that have certain needs for maintenance and survival." The emphasis of the systems model is simply on the interaction between the component units of the system and their environment.

Proponents of the systems theory maintain that what keeps the system alive are inputs, outputs and the feedback mechanism. Inputs refer to demands and support from the environment; outputs refer to authoritative policy decisions and feedback by way of results of the decisions or policies. A system consists of variables and properties which are not only interrelated, but also interdependent. Since these variables and properties are interdependent, a change in any of the elements or parts will definitely produce a change in the others. In other words, a change in one of the elements will stimulate a chain reaction in the entire system.

In the systems model, the concept of input/output analysis is the explanation of the adaptive and interactive process in the whole system. The demands of various individuals, groups and associations that exert some kind of influence on the system constitute the inputs. Through the conversion process of the political system, these inputs come out as outputs in the form of the authoritative allocation of public goods by the government.

Governance And Public Policy Journal, Inter-Ethnic Conflicts, Niger-Delta Development Commission, Political Development, Socio-Economic Development, Conflict Resolution Techniques, Decision Makers, Conflict Management Technique, Ethnic Communities, Gross Domestic Product, GDP, Political Empowerment.