Making Peace for Money

Abstract

Bandits make money from banditry; kidnappers from kidnapping; jihadists from jihadism, and farmers/herders pay militias, yet these groups rule by violence,AK-47s, and other assault means. So why should peacemakers not make money for peace-making? We argue in this article that $2.4 trillion (£1.5tr), or 4.4% of the global economy “is dependent on violence,” according to the Global Peace Index, referring to “industries that create or manage violence”—or the defence industry. Shareholders and their employees gain money from this industry, and governments pay and fund the military to gain geopolitical supremacy. However, peacemakers and peace entrepreneurs deliver the peace that leads to economic prosperity and stability in states, yet they do not gain monetary remunerations. Therefore, citizens, governments, and investors need to pay financial benefits to peacemakers and peace entrepreneurs for delivering peace to states. This article employs a qualitative content analysis of peace entrepreneurs’ work. The sources are books, journals, newspaper articles, and internet databases. The article concludes that for peacemakers to make money making peace for example in Nigeria, the federal, state, and local governments, must raise peace budgets, employ the unemployed (cheap workers for violence), and pay them to make peace; they must create the ministry of peace in the country, at states and LGAs levels; and the peace centres of tertiary institutions in Nigeria must teach peace entrepreneurs business plans for making peace for money. We present an example of a business venture based on the work of some local women making peace in the Benue Valley of Nigeria. If making peace for money becomes lucrative, we doubt if people will still resort to banditry, kidnapping, and joining farmer/herder militias to make money.