Towards Decolonising Peace and Conflict Issues in the Nigerian Sociology Curriculum

Over the years, there have been a flurry of discourses and studies on the need (and actual efforts) towards decolonising the curricula of various disciplines, including sociology. It has been sufficiently established (by scholars, researchers, and reviewers alike) that a significant portion of the content that constitutes the subject matter, scope, and fields of study of our disciplines is heavily, nay disproportionately, laced with colonial influences. This reality of Sociology being trapped in the labyrinth of colonial intellectual trajectory is, however, not surprising or even unexpected: as a discipline, Sociology was born at the height of European imperialist hegemony and expansionist colonial incursions into foreign lands in the 18th Century. The acclaimed "social physics" is yet to shake off its colonial ways of thinking, erudition, and pedagogy. However this paper is restricted to interrogating peace and conflict issues within the Sociology Curriculum at the University of Abuja, which to a substantial extent reflects the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standard, or BMAS, set by the National Universities Commission, the apex regulatory body of university education in the country. Primarily, the paper examined and evaluated peace and conflict issues as contained in the undergraduate Sociology curriculum in terms of their colonial content, context, and influences. There are several sub-fields, courses, subject, and research areas in Nigerian Sociology that dwell on Conflict and Peace. By means of a desk review of relevant documents and content analysis, the paper assesses a sample of them in terms of how they are being framed, conceptualised, and studied (including theories, approaches, and research areas). The major finding of the paper is that there is ample evidence of a heavy presence, if not dominance, of Euro-American stuff (ideas, concepts, framing, perspectives, bent, etc.) in the Nigerian Sociology curriculum; thus, the paper makes a case for a total and comprehensive overhaul of aspects of the curriculum (including infusion with and introduction of fresh ideas, insights, perspectives, and issues that should constitute a new, fairly liberal, and more robust curriculum for Conflict and Peace issues in Nigerian Sociology).