Backstory: Can you program peace?

So, the first task of the day: Each person has written answers to questions like, "Why am I here?" But there are only 50 minutes left in the session - not enough time for all to share their answers. "How are we going to solve this problem?" Scheid asks, clearly recognizing a teachable moment. A long, tortured process of nominating solutions and voting on them ensues - a democratic approach not common in a country so often ruled by chiefs and dictators. Scheid exults in it. "If I were a dictator and just picked 10 people to share their answers...."

"Suspicious," one member yells, clearly enjoying the democratic process.

In fact, this is the day's first conflict-resolution lesson: "Everyone has the right to participate," Scheid explains, "and all parties must have safe space to voice their opinion."

Fast forward to the day's main activity: Create a mural to be painted on the facility's front wall to represent the members' aspirations for the project - and for Nigeria. They brainstorm ideas from a "uni-tree" to patterns of interlocking handprints. Tasked with picking one mural, the group bursts into a fit of inclusiveness - and decides to paint seven.

During lunch, I chat with Ike Umeadi, a thoughtful 20-something scriptwriter. He's just spent six months living in a house with other writers, developing scripts.

The fruit of their labors will start airing weekly early next year. A half-hour drama called "The Station" is about a fictional TV-news show dealing with Nigeria's biggest issues. Nestlé Nigeria Plc is the commercial sponsor of the four-year $4.7 million project - and additional funding is being provided by British, Canadian, and Swedish government aid agencie. The show will be followed by half-hour programs from other Common Ground projects in troubled countries like Macedonia.

The two core societal issues dealt with, Mr. Umeadi explains, are at the root of so many Nigerian problems: "powerlessness and unity/identity."

One episode has reporters covering a student protest over school funding that turns violent - and derails the students' aims. It shows the futility of violence. Another tackles young people's involvement in Nigeria's most infamous export: e-mail scams. Umeadi is clearly proud of how the episode ends. Playing on the great Nigerian respect for children, it has a reporter ask a young e-mail scammer, "When you have kids, will you advise them to do this for a living?"

OK, but can the show really change this country's brawl-prone culture? Umeadi is defiantly optimistic: "We can't change Nigeria overnight - nobody can. But we want to take a first step. If people take away a few simple ways to change their lives, it'll have a ripple effect."

Being a part of Common Ground has already changed some people. Amina Aminu is a Muslim from the conservative north. According to stereotype, she should be reserved, aloof, and wearing a veil. But this assistant director is high-energy and head-scarf-less. In fact, all afternoon she has the label from a water bottle taped playfully across her nose. "People always say, 'You don't act like northerners,' " she beams. "I never thought I could get along with people who aren't from my culture and ethnic group."

There's also a tall, hunky cast member (whose name can't be revealed because of a coming plot twist). He tells of riding to work a couple of days ago on an overcrowded taxi-bus. As he got off, a passenger was screaming at the conductor, whose head was bleeding. It was another Nigerian brawl. At first, the cast member passed right by.

"But then I thought, 'Wait, isn't this what I'm all about?'" So he turned around and began talking to the men, who were arguing over money. "You're just delaying yourself," he pleaded with the passenger. And he told the conductor, "All the other passengers are waiting for you." Eventually the two cooled off.

"I came to work with blood on my shirt," the actor laughs. "But at least I had done something."

So, teaching conflict resolution in Nigeria? Well, after a day spent with Scheid & Co., it seems a lot more plausible.

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