Managing Ethnic Conflict for Nation Building: A Comparative Study between Malaysia and Nigeria

In several post-colonial countries, nation building has been regarded as one of the most important tasks since World War II. Globally, all aim to achieve unity and harmony among ethnic groups. This effort is not an easy task because of the characteristics of a third world country itself is colored by ethnic diversity. In some countries, the government's efforts to unite the nation face failure due to ethnic and religious conflicts. This study tries to explore how Malaysia and Nigeria manage their ethnic conflicts in term of policy making and also in their respective constitution. Both countries are colonized by Britain and at the same time, hoping for unity for their citizens but the problem they are facing is on how to manage conflicts in order to achieve nation building. Therefore, constitution and policy making must be respected, adhered, and met their citizen needs. Data collection method used in this paper is based on secondary sources from both countries.