African Journal of International Affairs and Development

The Global Recession and its Impact on the Democratisation Process in Nigeria

J Jacob — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The paper examines the impact of the global financial crisis which started in the United States, spreading to Europe, then Asia and now in Africa and its impact on the democratization process in Nigeria. Nigeria in 2009 was ranked the 15th most failed state in the world by the foreign policy online annual index. How will the global financial crisis affect the country’s process of democratization that is already low by international standards? The paper argues that the financial crisis will have a negative effect on the democratization process. The reduced incomes to the government, the private sector of the economy and the citizens will put economic pressure on civil society. This will increase demands by citizens from a government with reduced financial capacity translating into disaffection of the citizenry; which will in turn affect the quality of civil society input into the political process. It is the position of this paper that the global financial crisis will impact negatively on Nigeria’s democratization process, but the paper concludes that the Nigerian state can transcend the global financial crisis and push forward in its democratic process if it adheres to the recommendations.

Information, Intelligence and Security: Overview of the Current Security Situation in Nigeria.

O Oche — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

No Abstract

The Illusion of a Euro-American Partnership in Development with Africa

CN Nwoke — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

No Abstract

The Role of Transparency and Accountability in the Guest for Development in Nigeria

IA Danjuma — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The need for transparency and accountability in the running of public institutions has gained worldwide attention in recent years. This is because the ratings of the performance of governments are based on the manner in which programmes and policies are executed. Of particular interests are the governments in some developing countries who have recently established democratic form of government. Public office holders in these countries are expected to expend public resources in an open and transparent ways. Central to the achievement of an atmosphere of transparency in governance processes the need for constant interactions between the rulers and the ruled. Therefore, the argument is, transparency and accountability in governance enhances public confidence in the policies of government. In addition, transparency helps to eliminate corruption and mismanagement of public funds meant for development by officials. The recourse to transparency in governance process would result to development both in the short and long terms. It is for this reason that this paper seeks to analyse the role of transparency in promoting development in Niger

International Implications of Conflict Management in Nigerian Universities

AO Oredein, TG Durojaye — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Conflict, also known as challenges, issues, or crisis, is an inevitable situation which individual, ethnics, organizations or institutions, countries, regions and sub-regions are involved in, and at different levels. Conflict permeates every part of existence. Most of the times, issues which have the capacity to stimulate conflicts are ignored or trivialised, and all focus will now be on generated problems. Conflict management is a catalyst for creativity, innovation, change and productivity in any system. This conceptual paper aims at identifying some challenges facing educational institutions and explaining the management measures. Different levels of education presents itself as an immense accumulation of Institution. There are a number of challenges that have been prevalent in such institutions which have been given little or no attention. Issues like academic freedom, erosion of university autonomy, imbalance between demand and available resources, irrelevance of the curricula to the global needs due to advancement and growth in technology, reducing the scope of mentoring junior researchers by seasoned and senior researchers, constant strikes by both students and academic staff, brain drain syndrome, political interference, and discrimination between the tertiary institutions among others. Also, the study explains the international implications if conflicts are not well managed. Moreover, it stresses the need to manage conflict through a number of measures by introducing the conflict management model. Among others, recommendations were made to education technocrats on the formulation of policy related to conflict management.

Foreign Policy and Public Opinion: An Assessment of Ijebu Involvement in the Kiriji War

O Idowu, O Britto — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Much has been said on the nexus between public opinion and foreign policy. There are those who believe that public opinion is the primary, if not the sole, molder of foreign policy. On the other hand, there are those who hold that the elite, rather than the general public, determine foreign policy. There are also others who contend that government is the sole determinant of foreign policy. Where pre-colonial Africa is concerned, it is taken for granted that the king was the only factor, foreign policy wise. This paper contends that contrary to widely held belief, public opinion played a critical role in the formulation of foreign policy in pre-colonial Yoruba-land. Relying on critical reinterpretation of existing literature in addition to some oral and archival data, this paper examines how changes in the public opinion influenced the posture of the Ijebu state in the Kiriji War of late 19th Century in Yorubaland.

State and the Politics of Poverty: A Theoretical Analysis of Agricultural Policy in Nigeria.

AS Adebowole — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The colonial and post-colonial Nigerian State inherited agricultural policy antithetical to its development and the realization of domestic objectives. This paper establishes a theoretical nexus between a neo-colonial state, poverty, agricultural practices and policies. It examines the agricultural policies of the Nigerian state , the character of the neocolonial politics in Nigeria and concludes that decline in food production, increased hunger and the retrogressing agricultural practices in Nigeria, have been enabled by bad public policy and a lame state that has been incapable of negotiating alternative development agenda. This work articulates these problems within the political economy context.

Output-based Aid and its Emerging Opportunities in Southern Africa

TT Gwatiwa — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This article discusses the prospects of a form of output-put based aid known as Cash on Delivery Aid in the changing economic landscape in Southern Africa. It starts by contextualizing the failure of foreign aid in Africa to isolate areas where aid remains wasteful. Thereafter, it extracts opportunities for output-based aid, from the captured changes. It maintains a bias towards those opportunities that are tied to the larger goal of economic development and international trade.

Foreign Policy and Public-Private Partnership for Economic Development in Nigeria

IE Iwara — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines foreign policy and public-private partnership for economic development in Nigeria. It proceeds from the assumption that foreign policy goes beyond spontaneous reaction to international issues and events, but an extrapolative and empirical attempt at achieving a state’s short and long term goals vigorously pursued through publicprivate partnership coalition. The paper argues that in view of the failure of the market mechanism in the promotion of economic development and also the failure of the Keynesian Macro-economic model which assumed that public control of development policy would inevitably lead to public service expansion, a combination of both sectors (public and private) in the development of a “think tank” for the promotion of strategic foreign policy for economic development in Nigeria, is a fundamental necessity. The paper accentuates the point that the control of the national economic structure is a “sine qua non” for the necessary domestic consensus which is the precursor for national autonomy in decision making. Finally, the paper articulates the point that the shift from the prevailing focus on foreign for political celebrations to economic development is fundamental and a strategic thing to do in order to arrest Nigeria’s foreign policy failures.

Some Current Challenges to Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Projections: The Way Forward.

T Kolapo — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the background to Nigeria’s current foreign policy direction as enshrined in its foreign policy principles in the 1979 & 1999 constitutions, and Nigeria’s role in world affairs, consequent to these principles since independence. It raises and analyses some of the challenges confronting Nigeria’s foreign policy projection, and examines the possible options that are available to guide Nigeria’s foreign policy direction in future, in an attempt to overcome these challenges, bearing in mind Nigeria’s goal and aspirations to continue to play a global foreign policy leadership role in world affairs as a continental power.

The Ethnic Primordialist-Constructivist/Instrumentalist Debate, and the Politics of Disjunction in Nigeria: Exploring Trust as a Moral Resource for the Process of National Integration

RO Badru, OGF Nwaorgu — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This study claims that the traditionally different understandings of ethnicity by the primordialists and the constructivists/instrumentalists foster the politics of disjunction, the divisionist bent that undermines the common cultivation of the ethos of national integration in Nigeria. The primordialists take the so-called ethnic groups in Nigeria as ontologically divided, leading invariably to the idea of irresolvable differences in their political aspirations and objectives. Conversely, the constructivists/instrumentalists take ethnicity as a social construct, with only an instrumental value. Thus, they argue that the so-called peoples of ethnic divide are not ontologically different and, therefore, should have the same political aspirations and objectives. However, this thinking usually foregrounds claims of marginalization of the minority by the majority, when the latter foists itself on the former under the guise of forging a common political identity. Usually, the result is inter-ethnic conflicts. However, the study finally submits that the cultivation of the moral resource of trust in inter-ethnic relations in Nigeria largely addresses the problem. Trust ontologically closes the social gap between the X group and the Y group in a plural society, and if the environment is made more conducive for the common and conscientious cultivation of moral trust, social cooperation is maximally enhanced, and national integration is promoted in Nigeria. The methods of conceptual clarification, critical analysis, and reflective argumentation have been adopted to achieve the goal of the research.

Book Review: Critical Perspective’s on Nigeria’s International Economic Relations

W Adeyemi — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Critical Perspective’s on Nigeria’s International Economic Relations
Author: Chibuzo .N. Nwoke
Publisher: College Press and Publishers Ltd, Ibadan, 2010
Pages: 229 pages