Nehemiah's Leadership Model and the Discourse on Ethnic Conflicts in Post-Civil War Nigeria

This paper contextualizes Nehemiah's nonviolent and non-reprisal leadership styles to analyze ethnic contestations in a post-war context. Extant literature on Nehemiah's post-war discourse notes that post-war countries are characterized by an absence of social cohesion and a lack of good governance, especially in situations of war of ethnic attritions. Additionally, the study examines the externalization of Nigeria's developmental trajectories in line with Nehemiah's opposition to men who married foreign wives. Drawing upon Holmes' theory of nonviolence, the study reviews Nehemiah's non-retaliatory leadership style and how it is associated with the post-war environment in Nigeria. Textual analysis and documentary research methods were used to collect and analyze data for this study. The paper concludes that Nehemiah's non-reprisal motif is imperative for resolving the leadership question and ethnic crises in post-war situations.