International Journal of Management, Social Sciences, Peace and Conflict Studies (IJMSSPCS), Vol.1 No.1 December, 2018; p.g. 36 – 45 36 INFLAMMANTORY LANGUAGE: A MASSIVE INDUCEMENT TO ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICT IN NIGERIA GEORGE C. ASADU (Ph.D) Humanities Unit, School of General Studies University of Nigeria, Nsukka +2348104732441 george.asadu@unn.edu.ng Abstract Religion is a functional, uniting factor in places where there is a state religion but it is dysfunctional in secular states where there are multiple religious sects. Therefore, in a multi-ethnic society like Nigeria with marked plurality of religious views among the citizens, there is the inevitability of clash. Of course, the country has been ravaged by ethno-religious conflicts. One major cause of ethno-religious violence whose effects have not been satisfactorily examined is inflammatory language. Unfortunately, the use of inflammatory language has become prevalent in Nigeria. The situation provokes concern and interest in public discourse and intellectual circle. This research is an attempt to examine critically the effect of inflammatory speech on ethno-religious violence in Nigeria. The methodology employed in this work is historical approach functioned by the use of secondary sources. The findings made clear the fact that the ethno-religious conflicts which divide Nigeria are mainly induced by unguided utterances. It is therefore, recommended that the use of such languages as derogatory, anger and hate speeches be avoided completely in order to curtail the incessant religious related conflicts in the country. Keywords: Inflammatory language, Ethnicity, Religious Violence, Inducement, Nigeria. Introduction Right from the first time the two foreign religions (Christianity and Islam) encountered their host African Traditional Religion (ATR), the religious terrain has become enmeshed in a tangle of enmity and conflict. Hence, the function of religion which among other things is the overall development of man was caught by heavy galloping inflection, occasioned by the use of inflammatory languages otherwise known as hate speeches. In an apparent display of religious prejudice, the expatriate missionaries used words like heathenism, paganism and primitivism to describe African Traditional Religion, and their God they referred to as Idol. The Muslim Imams on the other hand used the words such as Arna and Kafri for the adherents of ATR. It was appalling the way these foreign religious propagandists treated the adherents of ATR. They “have casted aspersions and poured sarcasms on the nature of African Traditional Religion” (Ugwu and Ugwueye 2004: 12). The foreign religions had the same measure of desperation as the foreign invaders to occupy Nigerian space. Hence, they worked in collusion with imperial government to deal with the Traditional Religion (Asadu 2018:6). While Christian missionaries occupied the South, the Islamic Ulammas inhabited the North, from where they began to spread to other parts of the country. In the south where Christianity is the dominant religion there is relatively peace but in the north where Islam is the dominant religion there has been frequency of religious conflicts. The use of inflammatory language is not limited to any one group rather it is used consciously or unconsciously by individuals or groups particularly when such persons or groups want to be distinguished. Thus, different ethnic groups in Nigeria also use inflammatory language against themselves. Explaining further on this, Ezeibe (2018) averred: Observably, hate speech has eaten deep into the bone marrows of Nigerians and it has continued unabated. The hatred between the ethnic groups that make up Nigeria has intensified as the use of hate speech continues unregulated. This hatred manifests mostly