Capacity Building in the Art and Science of Negotiation: A Panacea to Building Sustainable Peace and Development in Nigeria

Knowledge, as well as skill acquisition in the art and science of negotiation is paramount to the attainment of peace which is conducive to the development of the economy of a nation, particularly such societies that are not properly integrated, diverse in culture and fractionalised. It is also significant that peace and a corrupt free institution are also essential for development. Be that as it may, this paper argued that Nigeria‟s problem today stems from unprofessionalism and lack of proper skills in the art and science of negotiation among the personnel in her institutions. It is evident from the way and manner as well as attitude and absence of pa triotisms on the part of public servants and negotiators alike in strategic areas including, the economic, social and cultural sectors of our society. The paper which adopted the descriptive approach was anchored on Zartman‟s theory of „the weak confront the strong‟ and relied on secondary sources of information for data collection, while content analysis was adopted for data analysis. The paper concluded that until and when public officials are educated and have acquired the relevant skills, gathered the experience, ready and developed the self-will, development and sustainable peace will continue to elude the Nigerian nation and corruption will continue to reign. Finally the paper recommended rigorous education in training and development of skills in the art and science of negotiations in various schools abroad and also for the institutions of government to be able to build in its citizens the culture of patriotism at every level of government