Journal articles on the topic 'Politics in Nigeria'

Vigilantism has become an endemic feature of the Nigerian social and political landscape. The emergence of night guards and vigilante groups as popular responses to theft and armed robbery has a long and varied history in Nigeria. Since the return to democracy in 1999, however, Nigeria has witnessed a proliferation of vigilantism: vigilante groups have organized at a variety of levels from lineage to ethnic group, in a variety of locations from village ward to city street, and for a variety of reasons from crime fighting to political lobbying. Indeed, vigilantism has captured such a range of local, national and international dynamics that it provides a sharply focused lens for students of Nigeria's political economy and its most intractable issues – the politics of democracy, ethnicity and religion.Contemporary Nigerian vigilantism concerns a range of local and global dynamics beyond informal justice.

Without any form of prejudice, it is a fact that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic state with differences in its socio-political and economic development all of which have resulted in conflicts and counter conflicts. Ethnic politics in Nigeria’s political system have come to be a tragic and constant in Nigeria’s political system; where one must belong to the mainstream of ethnic politics for political relevance. It depicts attachments to the sub-national ethnic groups which threaten to undermine national integration and therefore divide the nation. Significantly, ethnicity in Nigeria was orchestrated by a long period of colonialism, a period which witnessed the ascendancy of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria to the socio-political domination of other ethnic groups. It was a period when the three major ethnic groups were used by the colonialist as a pedestal for the distribution of socio-political and economic goods. Using a mixed method, this work argues that Nigeria’s political problem hinges on the negative consequences of ethnic politics. The paper concludes that if Nigeria’s political system must progress, it must be anchored on the need for the review of the constitutional and political structure of Nigeria to restore healthy political competition as opposed to the existing outdated political mechanism imposed on Nigeria by the military under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The phenomenon of religious politics in Nigerian is an obvious one. In political aspects such as style of governance, policy formulations and the electoral process in Nigeria, religion has been a strong determining factor. However, the influence of religion on politics in Nigeria could be both positive and negative. In other words, as religion enhances national development, so also it could be counterproductive. This paper critically discusses the influence of religion on Nigerian politics especially in the post-independence Nigeria, with emphasis on the implications for national development. This study recommends ways of ensuring the sustenance of the positive influence, as well as tackling the challenges of the negative influences. In practising politics in Nigeria, adherence to religious moral values and observance of Nigerian constitution which makes provision for freedom of religion are necessary for achieving national development. The paper concludes that if the recommendations are practically observed, religion will cease to be an agent of disunity and backwardness in Nigerian nation

The history of Nigerian politics is replete with money-bag politics. Although, there is hardly any country in the world where instances of bribery or political corruption are not present in their national politics, researches on Africa’s postcolonial history, have however shown that, in Africa, corruption is an institutionalized and a systemic practice affecting not only the postcolonial state itself, but also the majority of the citizenry. Using Nigeria, as a case study, this paper argues that since the 1964/1965 Western Region elections to the 2007 general elections, there has hardly been any election conducted in Nigeria without associated cases of corrupt practices such as vote buying, ballot snatching, election rigging, election violence, political and legislative lobbying etc. The aftermath of this or its cumulative effective, is better seen when the number of years spent by Nigeria under the military is weighed against the number of years it spent under civilian administration. Using the peripheral political economy approach, this paper opines that the problem of flawed elections in Nigeria should be traced more to the nature and character of the Nigerian colonial state, prebendal politics among Nigerian politicians, imperial capitalism, primitive accumulation of capital as well as the nature and character of class contestations among various interest groups in contemporary Nigeria . The paper adds that the fierce struggle for state powers and the accompanying prosecution of elections with illicit money, is an indication of the peripheral nature of Nigerian politics.

Democracy in Nigeria is characterised by corruption, irregularities and injustice. The level of political hostility in the country has resulted in loss of lives and properties and as a result, there have been hindrances to peace and national development to prevail in Nigeria. Hence, the ugly political developments have generated a lot of concerns and questions such as what are the causes of the political unrest in Nigeria? Is democracy really paying off as a political system in Nigeria? What has been the result of democracy in Nigeria? Can there be a better political system in Nigeria? If so, can Islamic political system fulfil the longing of Nigerians? Answers to these questions shall form the body of this research. The research discovers the absence of fairness in the electoral process and bad governance in Nigeria. This research reveals the flaws in effectiveness of democracy as a system of government in Nigeria. It proposes adopting an alternative model of governance. Lastly, this research contemplates the Islamic political model for a better Nigeria.

Religious and ethnic identity clashes laid the structure of the Nigerian state in 1914, which transmogrified into and characterized the struggle for control of power and distribution of national resources. This paper explores the nature and manifestation of these conflicts since 1999. It seeks to find out if ethno-religious struggles led to the emergence of major conflicts in Nigeria since 1999, their impact on human insecurity, and the influence of politics on the conflicts. This inquiry is designed in line with a one-shot case study, while literature survey and ex post facto methods were adopted as methods of data collection. Trend analysis is adopted for data analysis. Analysis reveals that ethno-religious struggles were the primary progenitor of conflicts in Nigeria since 1999, and have debilitating consequences while politics exacerbated ethno-religious conflicts. Upholding Nigeria's circular state and implementing the National Political Reforms Conference Report is the panacea for ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria.

<p>Throughout the political history of Islam, women played significant political roles in the affairs of muslim states. This, however, has not been the situation in Nigeria where muslim women are skeptical about their involvement in politics, seeing it as an exclusively male domain. This has been so probably because of the voice of ulama against women’s participation in politics or the general belief that politics is a dirty game which is not meant for women. The big question then is why do Nigerian ulama resist women’s involvement in politics? Further, would muslims not stand the risk of losing their political potentiality should they remain indifferent to political participation by women? And, how do female muslim elites who have a flair for politics feel about their lack of political voice: would this not affect their spiritual or religious interests in the long run? This paper explores Islamic political history for the purpose of discovering the extent of muslim women’s involvement in politics, and the reasons for the non-involvement of muslim women in the nation’s politics from the viewpoint of the traditional ulama in the country. <br />[Sepanjang sejarah Islam, wanita memainkan peran penting dalam politik di banyak negara muslim. Namun, hal ini tidak terjadi di Nigeria, karena wanitanya ragu terhadap peran mereka di kancah politik yang memang didominasi oleh para lelaki. Ini terjadi karena ulama menentang keterlibatan wanita di politik serta pandangan bahwa politik itu kotor dan tidak sesuai untuk wanita. Pertanyaannya kenapa para ulama menentang wanita berpolitik? Lalu, apakah mereka tidak rugi secara politis jika tidak peduli dengan partisipasi wanita? Bagaimana juga para wanita muslim itu tidak merasa kurang bersuara dalam politik: apakah ini tidak mempengaruhi spiritualitas dan kepentingan jangka panjang? Paper ini meneliti sejarah politik Islam terkait dengan peran wanita di politik, juga alasan kenapa mereka tidak terlibat menurut kaum ulama tradisional di Nigeria.]</p>

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of political corruption on the Nigerian society. It examines the future of the political status of Nigeria given the present experiences in the polity. The paper employs the analytic and critical method of philosophy, with a view to showing the influence of Machiavelli’s political philosophy on the Nigerian political elites. The central argument of this paper is that the interpretation of politics in the Machiavellian way, its adoption and practice by Nigerian political elites stand as the root cause of political corruption in the country.

In this issue, Jeremiah Arowosegbe makes a number of valid and important observations about the challenges facing the humanities and social sciences in Nigeria. But while he recognizes the importance of the political sphere by discussing the unequal and asymmetric landscape of global knowledge production, he locates most problems of knowledge production in Nigeria within the academy. Focusing on individual and generational responsibility and morality, Arowosegbe also suggests that recent generations of Nigerian academics have been ‘complacent and nonchalant’ in their engagement with global theoretical and methodological debates, and thus bear responsibility for the apparent decline of Nigerian academia.

Onomastics, medicine and politics in this study are a pragmatic way of depicting the psychosocial condition of Nigeria as an underdeveloped nation. The study explores Femi Osofisan’s The Engagement from a literary onomastic standpoint with the aim of exposing socio-political anomalies in Nigeria. Nigerian leaders commit flaws of egoistical and individualistic interests which often go against the consciences of the led. On this premise, the study explores the characters’ names in The Engagement with a view to gaining insight into Nigeria’s sociocultural and political contexts. Furthermore, Postcolonial Theory and Halliday’s Contextual Theory of Meaning serve as the study’s theoretical constructs. The study is predicated on the underdevelopment of Nigeria which is epitomised as a psychological behaviour of characters in a nation that is under the siege of political anarchy and different social vices.

ABSTRACTSince the acceptance of multi-party democracy as the most viable alternative to autocracy and military rule in Africa, democratic rule has become the vogue. Nigeria's attempt at democracy was (and is) accompanied by patronage politics, whereby certain personalities exact great influence on the political process. This study spotlights Chief Lamidi Adedibu and his patronage style in Nigerian politics, and shows that Adedibu gained political ‘patronic’ prominence during Nigeria's Third Republic in the 1990s, through the provision of the survival needs of the poor majority who are, mostly, used as thugs for protection against challenges from opponents and for political leverage. Since then, he has remained a ‘valuable tool’ of ‘any government in power’ and politicians ready to provide the necessary goods for onward transmission to clients.

The Nigerian military has been engaged in a program of transition to democratic rule since 1985. The country’s military rulers developed “transition politics” into a strategy of transitions without end, a ruse to prevent democratization. Hopefully, Nigeria is now at the crossroads. One of the most important issues posed in the transition has been the ethnoregional one: Would entrenched ethnoregional forces allow political power to shift from the North to the South? It is not a new question in Nigerian transition politics.Two broad issues surface when ethnoregional domination emerges as a political issue in Nigeria: control of political power and its instruments, such as the armed forces and the judiciary; and control of economic power and resources.

This study investigates the factors that limit women’s participation in Nigeria’s politics using case study period between 1999 and 2015, among these factors are socioeconomic development, the country’s cultural heritage, historical legacies and institutional designs. The study employs secondary source as a method ofdata collection. The study reveals that the patriarchal system and male domination of the society, which relegates women to subordinate role, has created women’s inferiority complex and alienated them from the mainstream politics in Nigeria. The Nigerian political culture of thuggery and gangsterism has made the political terrain too dangerous for most women to venture into mainstream politics. Besides, the stigmatization of women politicians by fellow women discourages the political participation of the former while religious beliefs and institutional arrangements that restrict women to family responsibilities in the country coupled with lack of genuine and decisive affirmative action to encourage women’s political participation, have created a legacy that limit women’s political participation in the country as a whole. Consequently, the study emphasizes the need to address those factors that entrench women subordination in Nigeria’s politics. These include, among others, the reformation of all religious, statutory and customary laws and practices that perpetuate women’s subordination in the country and the explicit specifications and modalities of affirmative actions on women’s political participation and clear guidelines for implementations in the Nigeria constitution.

In emerging democracies with weak public institutions, low literacy level, deep-seated ethnic rivalry, and history of centralized, authoritarian rule; to what extent does media agenda-setting influence the political process? The press/politics nexus in consolidating democracies is critical to understanding intricate yet overlapping connexion between politics and development in the Third World. This study examined if media-power shape elections and regime outcomes in Nigeria? Using semi-structured interviews (and incorporating News-Game research tool), findings indicate that Nigeria's two-decade-old democracy remains volatile, fragile, and vulnerable. This vulnerability is complicated by long-standing religious, ethno-regional political suspicions; and overburdened with shifting media ecology, particularly social media disinformation and propaganda. These complexities allow a politics of privilege, class, and power that not only ensures its preservation but also insulates the political elite from public outcry and media pressure. In conclusion, evidence indicates that media power exerts limited influence on elections and regime outcomes. The study recommends renewed effort to investigate power. Keywords: Nigerian politics, agenda-setting, mass media, democracy, underdevelopment

One of the challenging scenarios regarding political landscape in developing countries has to do with corruption and Nigeria is not an exception. Politicians often tow the paths of corrupt practices (while preparing for election and upon assumption of political offices) due to a number of social and economic factors. Attempts have been made by different administrations in this country to severe these twin brothers (corruption and politics) in order to ensure a lasting democracy in Nigeria. In spite of these efforts, the success story is nothing to write home about. The questions therefore are: is there any tie between corruption and culture? At what point did corruption become an identifiable feature of Nigerian politics? What are the steps taken so far to address this menace and what are the achievements over time? All these issues and others become critical as this paper examines the place of culture in corruption in Nigeria.

The advocacy for gayism and lesbianism in Nigeria is informed by transnational cultural processes, transculturalism, interculturalism, multiculturalism and globalisation. Although critical dimensions on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) are becoming recurrent subjects in Nigerian scholarship, scholarly works on LGBT, sexual identity and Nigerian cinema remain scarce. Perhaps, this is because of indigenous Nigerian cultural processes. While Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist cum socio-political activist, campaigns against marginalisation and subjugation of gays and lesbians and for their integration into the Nigerian cultural system, numerous African socio-cultural and political activists hold a view that is dialectical to Adichie’s. The position of the members of the anti-gay group was further strengthened with the institution of stringent laws against gay practice in Nigeria by the President Goodluck Jonathan led government in 2014. In recent times, the gay, bisexual, transgender and lesbian cultures have been a source of raw material for filmmakers. Some of the thematic preoccupations of films have bordered on questions such as: what does it mean to be gay? Why are gays marginalised? Are gays socially constructed? What is the future of the advocacy for gay and lesbian liberation in Nigeria? Although most Nigerian film narratives are destructive critiques of the gay culture, the purpose of this research is not to cast aspersion on the moral dimension of LGBT. Rather, I argue that films on LGBT create spaces and maps for a critical exploration of the gay question. While the paper investigates the politics of gay culture in Nigerian cinema, I also posit that gays and lesbians are socio-culturally rather than biologically constructed. This research adopts literary and content analysis methods to engage Moses Ebere’s Men in Love with reference to other home videos on the gay and lesbian motifs.

Politics, they said is a dirty game. One tends to disagree with this assertion because man is a political being and everything man does is all about politics. It depends on the intention, and how each plays his or her own. Ozo title is one of the political institutions in Igbo land. It will be worthy to mention that the Ozo title meant in this paper is the primordial or original Ozo title in Igbo land and not the adulterated Ozo title today. It is one of the institutions that helps in governance, controls different sectors of the Igbo man’s life and equally checkmates the excesses in the land. This work tries to look at the politics in the Nigerian setting and that of the Igbo land as being championed by Ozo title men. It x-rays their day-to-day activities and compares them. The work equally will be able to evaluate the two. During the evaluation, it was discovered that politics is not dirty, it was also discovered that since the Ozo title men play this politics and play it very well, it now boils down on the makeup of the individual and the intentions of the people in it. It however suggests that the Nigerian leaders or politicians should look at the Ozo title institution and what it is for the Igbo man and borrow a leaf from them. The paper uses socio-cultural approach in the work. The paper finally warns that the Ozo title as used in this study is the primodial one and not the adulterated one. Thus, if the politicians in Nigerian today borrow from the Ozo title men in Igbo land, politics in Nigeria will be a better and an interesting one. Key words: Ozo title, Igbo land, Leadership, Politics, Nigeria

This paper examined how political elites have excluded a number of people from partisan politics, and discussed the effect of the domineering role of political elites on good governance in Oyo state, Nigeria. The paper also examined the challenges that politics of exclusion pose on good governance in the study area. The study adopted primary and secondary data. For the primary data, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten purposively chosen respondents which comprised of former and serving lawmakers, party chairman, local government chairman, a labour leader, member of a social cultural group, and a serving commissioner. The secondary data was sourced from journal articles, books, newspapers and online publications. The primary and secondary data were content analyzed. The study found that political elites used the electorate to achieve their selfish political agenda; politics of exclusion is responsible for the poor participation of the people in partisan politics, undermining of democratic principles, and breeding of political violence in Oyo state, Nigeria. The study recommended that the Nigerian youths need to be more assertive to demand for accountability from political actors; while political elites should learn to do away with selfish interests. In addition, rule of law, freedom of the press and independence of the judiciary must be upheld in the country.

AbstractThis paper demonstrates that the persistent (mis)management of census is a key variable in the pattern of political instability and diminishing capacity that have defined the Nigerian State since it attained relative political independence in 1960. With roots in the highly exploitative and manipulative colonial enterprise, the crises of census in Nigeria continue to be sustained in contemporary times by the inherited contradictions that define the nation's political economy. Thus every past census in Nigeria has been a victim of intense elite contestation for power and resources, and therefore rather than enhance the planning and development process of the country, has further impaired it. The paper argues that any census, the scheduled 2005 edition inclusive, conducted in the context of extant hotly-disputed and largely illegitimate State structure, will not be able to accomplish its set objectives; with the decision by the Nigerian State to deny rather than come to terms with Nigerians' primary forms of identity, ethnic and religious, set to further erode rather than enhance the integrity of the exercise. It concludes that census will stop being inverted in its role in Nigeria only when the governance structure becomes wholly decentralized, the federating units become truly so, and census as an exercise becomes wholly de-politicized.

This article examines the dynamics of representation between cultural and economic forms of gender inequality on Nigerian female blogs. Through a thematic analysis of 253 comments retrieved from five female-authored blogs, I draw on prominent cases of gender inequality in Nigeria, such as ‘President Muhammadu Buhari’s position on his wife’ and the ‘rejection of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill’. The analysis showed that blog discussions among females in Nigeria suggest extensive intolerance to cultural change, especially in comparison to the more positive attitude towards redistribution. To tackle this complexity, I argue that gender equality advocacy in Nigeria should commence mainly from a redistributive standpoint. This needs to be accompanied by the ulterior aim of achieving recognition. Overall, the study contests the idea that identity politics is threatening to replace the issue of redistribution on the global political agenda by highlighting the primacy of redistributive politics in blog discourse. It enriches media studies and gender research by providing rare insight into the practical connections between cultural and economic politics of gender inequality in an online discursive context.

Politics cannot be effectively played or carried out without money. Even in those ancient days when politics started, some form of money was involved. At least, money or forms of it, was used in moving from one place to the other. In fact, people involved in moving from place to place playing politics, spent money to buy food in places outside their places of abode. Again, money breeds corruption. The result of corruption is always money or money’s worth. There is no corruption anywhere in the world without some benefit to someone. And this benefit can usually be quantified in monetary terms. Thus, money, politics and corruption can be said to be bed fellows. They are somehow interrelated. This relationship is quite apparent in Nigeria where corruption is said to have eaten deep into the fabric of the society. The questions that may be asked, are: Has Nigeria always been involved in corruption? What role does money play if any, in politics and corruption in Nigeria? How influential is corruption in Nigeria’s politics? Is it possible for politics to be played in Nigeria devoid of money and corruption? These and other questions are the things that this paper attempts to find answers to. It traces the origin of corruption in Nigeria’s political life. It concludes on the premise that politics can be played with less involvement of money and corruption.

Theophilus Owolabi Shobowale Benson, popularly known as TOS Benson, a prince from the Lasunwon Royal Family of Ikorodu, was one of the architects of modern Nigeria. A spirited nationalist, a pan–Nigerian nation builder, an inveterate antagonist of ethnic jingoism and a relentless crusader for the under–dog and the less privileged; TOS Benson made imperishable contributions to the growth and development of Nigerian politics and judiciary (law). This paper assesses the contribution of TOS Benson to the making of the Nigerian state right from September 1947 when he returned to the country from London where he had gone to read law. It points out that TOS Benson was a solid political bridgehead that held the ethnic groups in the country together and that, at the risk of incarceration and other forms of intimidation and harassment, he stood up against the colonial administration and certain policies and antics of the military junta following the incursion of the military into Nigerian politics. The paper concludes that the history of the making of modern Nigeria that does not give a prime of place to the contribution of TOS Benson will be riddled with noticeable gaps and embarrassing vacuum and that his sharing the February 13 death–date with General Murtala Ramat Mohammed – who, but for B.S. Dimka’s bullets, could have been Nigeria’s renaissance – is probably not a mere coincidence of history but a testimony of his imperishable contribution to the making of Nigeria.

The evolution of NIgerian State is shrouded in cultural complexities that are built on linquistc variations and ethno-religious discontents. Asa a product of the British imperialism, the 1914 amaglmation of the northern and southern protectorates saw the emergence of what became an independent NigerianState on October 1, 1960. Thus, the activities of these imperialists led to the birth of Nigeria's naionalism which was couched in ethnic nationalism rather than true pan Nigerianism. This ethnocentrism has advertently deepened Nigeria's problems and led to the evolution of several regime system that manifested into resource control, independent movement and ethnic militants. Scholars and policy-makers alike, have over the last two decades tried several workable political system without actually arriving at any possible solution thereby stoking the flame of ethnic based crises that fraught Nigerian sovereignty. Against this background, the proclamation of the Sovereign State of Biafra was celebrated with attended war that followed therein. Therefore, it is understood that the aftermath of the war still linger and gave birth to Indigenous People of Biafra. While it could be said that the bulk of Nigerian resources are committed to finding solution to the existing political structures, it is obvious that the weighter problems arising from corruption, prebendalism and lack of true federalism that resulted to the evolution of ethnic millitias are still neglected. Therefore, the study identifies corruption, favouritism and nepotism as the majorproblems of ethnic politics in Nigeria while applying thematic, and historical analytical method as a method of analysis

Jostling for power by Nigeria's myriad ethnic groups has, for better and for worse, driven the country's political development since before independence from Britain in 1960. What is new is a rhetoric of the impossible: the marginalization of everyone.

Knowledge about politics and government activities increases due to the socialization and enlightenment functions of the mass media. Youths and students are the largest bloc of voters in Nigeria but seemingly least political informed. This study examines the frequency of the forms of media accessed and level of political knowledge among Nigerian students. It also assessed the relationships between political knowledge and access to radio, television, newspaper, and social media. Moreover, it investigated the predictive influence of the frequency of media access on Nigerian students’ political knowledge. The study adopted Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT) to explain how media is used to the advantage of people. Using cross-sectional survey research design, a structured questionnaire was used to collect information on students’ demographic, frequency of media access and knowledge of Nigerian politics from 246 randomly selected students of the Polytechnic, Ibadan (Mean age is 25.07 years, SD = 6.23). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings identified social media as the most frequently use media, followed by radio, television and newspaper.31% of the respondents had very high political knowledge while 3% had no political knowledge. Access to radio is the only significant correlate (r = 0.42, p<0.05) and independent predictor (β= 0.43, t=-3.98, p<0.05) of political knowledge although access to radio, television, newspaper and social media are significant joint predictors of political knowledge (R2= .18, F (4, 241) = 4.32). Therefore, the study concludes that radio is the foremost source of political knowledge amongst undergraduate students in Ibadan, Nigeria. It recommends that various media institutions and political analysts should take advantage of the social media to make more audience politically knowledgeable. Keywords: Political knowledge; Mass media; Social media; Traditional media; Nigerian students.

Contemporary Nigerian vigilantism concerns a range of local and global dynamics beyond informal justice. It is a lens on the politics of post-colonial Africa, on the current political economy of Nigeria, and on its most intractable issues – the politics of democracy, ethnicity and religion. The legitimation of vigilante activity has extended beyond dissatisfaction with current levels of law and order and the failings of the Nigeria Police. To understand the local legitimacy of vigilantism in post-colonial Nigeria, indeed, it is also necessary to recognize its internal imperatives. Vigilantism in this context is embedded in narratives of contested rights, in familiar everyday practices, understandings of personhood and knowledge, and in alternative, older registers of governmentality. In addition to mapping temporal and spatial communities in which young men are vested with the right to exercise justice, this article assesses the legitimacy of Annang vigilantism within cultural frameworks of accountability linked to conceptions of agency, personhood and power, and the oppositions this produces between vigilantes and thieves.

Abstract The criminalization of homosexuality in Nigeria has partially been inspired and acclaimed by a number of religious schools of thought, including Christian opinion leaders. Such an influence of religion on politics has been seriously questioned. Using observations and literary sources, this paper underlines the unconstitutionality of Christian antigay proselytism at the political sphere of the Nigerian State, anchoring its claim on the constitutional provision stipulating the secular character of Nigeria. It however interprets such a move (the “influential” Christian anti-gay proselytism) as an inevitable expression of the religious character of Nigeria’s social and cultural spheres. Furthermore, the paper argues that the Nigerian Federation is “fully secular” only on paper and not in practice. Secularity is partially observed at the political sphere of the State. Religion and populism continue to shape major socio-political schemes (as seen in the criminalization of homosexuality in Nigeria). With such a socio-political influence of religion, legislative projects such as the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act and political strategies such as the Nigerian Government’s resistance against western gay-proselytism can only be massively celebrated. In line with this, (Christian) anti-gay proselytism at the Nigeria’s political sphere is logically viewed less as an anathema, and more as socio-political heroism.

The Year 2019 is very significant in the history of party politics in Nigeria. It marked a two decade of uninterrupted democratic regimes culminating in violent-free transition of political power from the defeated ruling political party, the People&rsquo;s Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition Party-All Progressive Congress (APC). The cut-throat rivalries among the political parties, as represented in the Executive and legislature, have been responsible for the political instability of the previous republics. What has been responsible for the relative calm in the political space of Nigeria? How has political elites responded to the issue of governance since the inception of Nigeria&rsquo;s Fourth Republic? How can the Nigerian state build and improve on the current political climate? These and other issues are what the paper has addressed. The work relied contextually on secondary data for appropriate information germane to the work. The findings and analyses will benefit from prognosis that would be of immense value only not to Nigeria, but further implications for other African countries faced with similar political scenario.

Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has grappled with the ominous challenge of building a sustainable bridge between its ever increasing populations divided not only along distinct multi-ethnic groups but also between two major diametrically opposed faiths [in content, structure, and tactics]- Christianity and Islam. The study was exploratory in nature, which adopted descriptive adequacy in articulating and examining the underlying alternatives factors that propel national politics and religious violence in Nigeria, thus producing a more comprehensive and total picture of the dynamics of the phenomena under investigation- the understanding of religious violence in Nigeria with minimum distortion. Furthermore, the study adopted a survey method based on the perception of Government officials and Religious leaders regarding religious violence, with a corresponding sample size of 100. The study found that the seeming overwhelming implications of persistent religious violence for Nigeria are three folds; they include; sustained threat to national peace, unity, and security, undermines national political/economic development, as well as socio-cultural and religious harmony and cooperation. In addition, the study found that the present state of religious violence in Nigeria exacerbates bitterness, hatred, and mistrust among the federating units of Nigeria resulting to violent reactions and heightened intra-ethnic and religious clashes, with a volcanic potential to explode into secession by aggrieved groups, internecine civil war, pogroms and/or jihads. Finally, the study recommended that the Nigerian civil society must step up organized and peaceful agitations for fundamental changes in the structure and character of the Nigeria state through a Sovereign National Conference or credible constitution review effort. Also, the Nigerian government and the international community must seize the opportunity of current fragile peace in Nigeria, to implement a number of credible measures aimed at preventing a recurrence of widespread religious conflicts threatening to spill over to a civil war.

Nowhere, in recent times, has the question of the Islamic Law of Shari’ah produced such a crescendo of concern, posed such a challenge to the prevailing justice system, as in Nigeria. In "modern" societies, the criminal justice system not only produces social solidarity by reaffirming the society's bond and its adherence to certain norms, but also serves to legitimize the political authority of the state. In the postcolonial pluralistic society of Nigeria, the criminal justice system has been fundamentally influenced by the ascendancy of Western penology. During the era of European colonization of Africa, existing systems of justice were suppressed; in Nigeria's case, by the British imperial power. Predictably, the British system of justice clashed with the indigenous systems. Nowhere is this historical conflict more manifest than in the ongoing challenge Shari’a has posed to the Nigerian state. Shari’ah was an incendiary issue during the colonial period (1900-60) in Nigeria, and has continued to challenge the classical view of the modern state ever since. This challenge has reshaped Nigeria's postcolonial criminal justice system. Here religion, politics, and society intersect, shedding light on the arrival, reactions, and crises of modernity, themes that run through the Shari’ah controversy like interwoven threads.

The importance of youth involvement in political and developmental processes of society can hardly be exaggerated. However, despite the large percentage of young people in Nigeria and the historical importance of intergenerational continuity with an emphasis on national identity, very little is really known about the degree of youth engagement in the country’s politics. Therefore, this study, in the form of a descriptive survey, analyzes gender and age differentials of youth participation in Nigerian politics. A random sampling technique was used in selecting 200 youths from 5 political wards (40 from each ward) in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State. Additionally, a self-structured questionnaire was designed and used for data collection, while a t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed to test the three hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed no significant gender difference ( t = 1.56, P > 0.05) or age difference ( t = 1.44, P > 0.05) among the young population of Nigeria actively engaged in politics in the country. Conclusively, the authors recommend that efforts should be geared towards fighting illiteracy and unemployment in the country, as these are known to be main reasons for vandalism, senseless violence, anarchism, racketeering, and cultism among the Nigerian youth, while realistic political organizations under control and leadership of the young population should be formed.

The global spread of Salafism, though it began in the 1960s and 1970s, only started to attract significant attention from scholars and analysts outside of Islamic studies as well as journalists, politicians, and the general public following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks perpetrated by Al-Qaeda Central. After the attacks, Salafism—or, as it was pejoratively labeled by its critics inside and outside of the Islamic tradition, “Wahhabism”—was accused of being the ideological basis of all expressions of Sunni militancy from North America and Europe to West and East Africa, the Arab world, and into Asia. According to this narrative, Usama bin Laden, Ayman al-Za- wahiri, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and other Sunni jihadis were merely putting into action the commands of medieval ‘ulama such as Ibn Taymiyya, the eighteenth century Najdi Hanbali Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, and modern revolutionary ideologues like Sayyid Qutb and ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam. To eradicate terrorism, you must eliminate or neuter Salafism, say its critics. The reality, of course, is far more complex than this simplistic nar- rative purports. Salafism, though its adherents share the same core set of creedal beliefs and methodological approaches toward the interpretation of the Qur’an and hadith and Sunni legal canon, comes in many forms, from the scholastic and hierarchical Salafism of the ‘ulama in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim majority countries to the decentralized, self-described Salafi groups in Europe and North America who cluster around a single char- ismatic preacher who often has limited formal religious education. What unifies these different expressions of Salafism is a core canon of religious and legal texts and set of scholars who are widely respected and referenced in Salafi circles. Thurston grounds his fieldwork and text-based analysis of Salafism in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and home to one of the world’s largest single Muslim national populations, through the lens of this canon, which he defines as a “communally negotiated set of texts that is governed by rules of interpretation and appropriation” (1). He argues fur- ther that in the history of Nigerian Salafism, one can trace the major stages that the global Salafi movement has navigated as it spread from the Arab Middle East to what are erroneously often seen as “peripheral” areas of the Islamic world, Africa and parts of Asia. The book is based on extensive fieldwork in Nigeria including interviews with key Nigerian Salafi scholars and other leading figures as well as a wide range of textual primary sourc- es including British and Nigerian archival documents, international and national news media reports, leaked US embassy cables, and a significant number of religious lectures and sermons and writings by Nigerian Salafis in Arabic and Hausa. In Chapter One, Thurston argues that the Salafi canon gives individ- ual and groups of Salafis a sense of identity and membership in a unique and, to them, superior religious community that is linked closely to their understanding and reading of sacred history and the revered figures of the Prophet Muhammad and the Ṣaḥāba. Salafism as an intellectual current, theology, and methodological approach is transmitted through this can- on which serves not only as a vehicle for proselytization but also a rule- book through which the boundaries of what is and is not “Salafism” are determined by its adherents and leading authorities. The book’s analytical framework and approach toward understanding Salafism, which rests on seeing it as a textual tradition, runs counter to the popular but problematic tendency in much of the existing discussion and even scholarly literature on Salafism that defines it as a literalist, one-dimensional, and puritani- cal creed with a singular focus on the Qur’an and hadith canon. Salafis, Thurston argues, do not simply derive religious and legal rulings in linear fashion from the Qur’an and Prophetic Sunna but rather engage in a co- herent and uniform process of aligning today’s Salafi community with a set of normative practices and beliefs laid out by key Salafi scholars from the recent past. Thurston divides the emergence of a distinct “Salafi” current within Sunnis into two phases. The first stretches from 1880 to 1950, as Sun- ni scholars from around the Muslim-majority world whose approaches shared a common hadith-centered methodology came into closer contact. The second is from the 1960s through the present, as key Salafi institutions (such as the Islamic University of Medina and other Saudi Salafi bodies) were founded and began attracting and (perhaps most importantly) fund- ing and sponsoring Sunni students from countries such as Nigeria to come study in Saudi Arabia, where they were deeply embedded in the Salafi tra- dition before returning to their home countries where, in turn, they spread Salafism among local Muslims. Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, as with other regions such as Yemen’s northern Sa‘ada governorate, proved to be a fertile ground for Salafism in large part because it enabled local Muslims from more humble social backgrounds to challenge the longtime domi- nance of hereditary ruling families and the established religious class. In northern Nigeria the latter was and continues to be dominated by Sufi or- ders and their shaykhs whose long-running claim to communal leadership faced new and substantive theological and resource challenges following the return of Nigerian seminary students from Saudi Arabia’s Salafi scho- lastic institutions in the 1990s and early 2000s. In Chapters Two and Three, Thurston traces the history of Nigerian and other African students in Saudi Arabia, which significantly expanded following the 1961 founding of the Islamic University of Medina (which remains the preeminent Salafi seminary and university in the world) and after active outreach across the Sunni Muslim world by the Saudi govern- ment and Salafi religious elite to attract students through lucrative funding and scholarship packages. The process of developing an African Salafism was not one-dimensional or imposed from the top-down by Saudi Salafi elites, but instead saw Nigerian and other African Salafi students partici- pate actively in shaping and theorizing Salafi da‘wa that took into account the specifics of each African country and Islamic religious and social envi- ronment. In Nigeria and other parts of West and East Africa, this included considering the historically dominant position of Sufi orders and popular practices such as devotion to saints and grave and shrine visitation. African and Saudi Salafis also forged relationships with local African partners, in- cluding powerful political figures such as Ahmadu Bello and his religious adviser Abubakar Gumi, by attracting them with the benefits of establishing ties with wealthy international Islamic organizations founded and backed by the Saudi state, including the Muslim World League. Nigerian Salafis returning from their studies in Saudi Arabia actively promoted their Salafi canon among local Muslims, waging an aggressive proselytization campaign that sought to chip away at the dominance of traditional political and religious elites, the Sufi shaykhs. This process is covered in Chapter Four. Drawing on key sets of legal and exegetical writ- ings by Ibn Taymiyya, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, and other Salafi scholars, Nigerian Salafis sought to introduce a framework—represented by the canon—through which their students and adherents approach re- ligious interpretation and practice. By mastering one’s understanding and ability to correctly interpret scripture and the hadith, Salafis believe, one will also live a more ethical life based on a core set of “Salafi” principles that govern not only religious but also political, social, and economic life. Salaf- ism, Thurston argues, drawing on the work of Terje Østebø on Ethiopian Salafism, becomes localized within a specific environment.As part of their da‘wa campaigns, Nigerian Salafis have utilized media and new technology to debate their rivals and critics as well as to broad- en their own influence over Nigerian Muslims and national society more broadly, actions analyzed in Chapter Five. Using the Internet, video and audio recorded sermons and religious lectures, books and pamphlets, and oral proselytization and preaching, Nigerian Salafis, like other Muslim ac- tivists and groups, see in media and technology an extension of the phys- ical infrastructure provided by institutions such as mosques and religious schools. This media/cyber infrastructure is as, if not increasingly more, valuable as the control of physical space because it allows for the rapid spread of ideas beyond what would have historically been possible for local religious preachers and missionaries. Instead of preaching political revo- lution, Nigerian Salafi activists sought to win greater access to the media including radio airtime because they believed this would ultimately lead to the triumph of their religious message despite the power of skeptical to downright hostile local audiences among the Sufi orders and non-Salafis dedicated to the Maliki juridical canon.In the realm of politics, the subject of Chapter Six, Nigeria’s Salafis base their political ideology on the core tenets of the Salafi creed and canon, tenets which cast Salafism as being not only the purest but the only true version of Islam, and require of Salafis to establish moral reform of a way- ward Muslim society. Salafi scholars seek to bring about social, political, and religious reform, which collectively represent a “return” to the Prophet Muhammad’s Islam, by speaking truth to power and advising and repri- manding, as necessary, Muslim political rulers. In navigating the multi-po- lar and complex realm of national and regional politics, Thurston argues, Nigerian Salafi scholars educated in Saudi Arabia unwittingly opened the door to cruder and more extreme, militant voices of figures lacking the same level of study of the Salafi canon or Sunni Islam generally. The most infamous of the latter is “Boko Haram,” the jihadi-insurgent group today based around Lake Chad in Nigeria, Chad, and Niger, which calls itself Jama‘at Ahl al-Sunna li-l-Da‘wa wa-l-Jihad and is led by the bombastic Abubakar Shekau. Boko Haram, under the leadership first of the revivalist preacher Mu- hammad Yusuf and then Shekau, is covered at length in the book’s third and final part, which is composed of two chapters. Yusuf, unlike mainstream Nigerian Salafis, sought to weaponize the Salafi canon against the state in- stead of using it as a tool to bring about desired reforms. Drawing on the writings of influential Arab jihadi ideologues including Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and the apocalyptic revolutionary Juhayman al-‘Utaybi, the lat- ter of whom participated in the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Yusuf cited key Salafi concepts such as al-walā’ min al-mu’minīn wa-l-bara’ ‘an al-kāfirīn (loyalty to the Believers and disavowal of the Disbelievers) and beliefs about absolute monotheism (tawḥīd) as the basis of his revival- ist preaching. Based on these principle, he claimed, Muslims must not only fulfill their ritual duties such as prayer and fasting during Ramadan but also actively fight “unbelief” (kufr) and “apostasy” (ridda) and bring about God’s rule on earth, following the correct path of the community of the Prophet Abraham (Millat Ibrāhīm) referenced in multiple Qur’anic verses and outlined as a theological project for action by al-Maqdisi in a lengthy book of that name that has had a profound influence on the formation of modern Sunni jihadism. Instead of seeing Boko Haram, particularly under Shekau’s leadership, as a “Salafi” or “jihadi-Salafi” group, Thurston argues it is a case study of how a group that at one point in its history adhered to Salafism can move away from and beyond it. In the case of Shekau and his “post-Salafism,” he writes, the group, like Islamic State, has shifted away from the Salafi canon and toward a jihadism that uses only stripped-down elements from the canon and does so solely to propagate a militaristic form of jihad. Even when referencing historical religious authorities such as Ibn Taymiyya, Thurston points out, Boko Haram and Islamic State leaders and members often do so through the lens of modern Sunni jihadi ideologues like Juhay- man al-‘Utaybi, al-Maqdisi, and Abu Mus‘ab al-Zarqawi, figures who have come to form a Sunni jihadi canon of texts, intellectuals, and ideologues. Shekau, in short, has given up canonical Salafism and moved toward a more bombastic and scholastically more heterodox and less-Salafi-than- jihadi creed of political violence. Thurston also pushes back against the often crude stereotyping of Af- rican Islamic traditions and movements that sees African Muslims as being defined by their “syncretic” mix of traditional African religious traditions and “orthodox” Islam, the latter usually a stand-in for “Arab” and “Middle Eastern” Islam. Islam and Islamic movements in Africa have developed in social and political environments that are not mirrors to the dominant models of the Arab world (in particular, Egypt). He convincingly points out that analysis of all forms of African Islamic social and political mobi- lization through a Middle East and Egypt-heavy lens obscures much more than it elucidates. The book includes useful glossaries of key individuals and Arabic terms referenced in the text as well as a translation of a sermon by the late, revered Salafi scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani that is part of the mainstream Salafi canon. Extensive in its coverage of the his- tory, evolution, and sociopolitical and religious development of Salafism in Nigeria as well as the key role played by Saudi Salafi universities and religious institutions and quasi-state NGOs, the book expands the schol- arly literature on Salafism, Islam in Africa, and political Islam and Islamic social movements. It also contributing to ongoing debates and discussions on approaches to the study of the role of texts and textual traditions in the formation of individual and communal religious identity. Christopher AnzaloneResearch Fellow, International Security ProgramBelfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University& PhD candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University

AbstractVoting is becoming of significance in Nigeria, as in many other countries in Africa. Although Nigerian electoral politics has attracted full attention from scholars, there is little research on the factors that determine voter turnout in the country at the local level, especially the South-East geopolitical zone (GPZ). This paper is a stepwise logistic regression analysis of the determinants of voting in Nsukka council in Enugu State, South-East GPZ of Nigeria. The results show that age (0.230), education (0.532), marital status (1.355), political trust (1.309) and partisanship (˗0.570) are significant predictors of voter turnout. The effect of age, education, marital status and political trust on voting is positive and statistically significant, but partisanship has a statistically significant negative relationship with voting (p<0.01). The paper highlights the importance of local level geographical differentials in the factors influencing voting in Nigeria.

AbstractThis article examines the impact that indigenization policies had on labor and on the cultures of work in postcolonial Nigeria. Scholars have studied indigenization in the context of nationalist politics, statecraft, and development in postcolonial Africa. However, we have little knowledge of how working classes experienced and interpreted indigenization schemes. Focusing on the indigenization of shipping, this article discusses both how Nigerian seamen anticipated the establishment of the Nigerian National Shipping Line and the actual impact of Nigerianization on their working lives. By taking a close look at changes in shipboard hierarchies, labor relations, and the culture of work on NNSL vessels, we can gain a deeper understanding of how broader political processes associated with decolonization and postindependence shaped working-class lives in postcolonial Nigeria.

AbstractThe primary duty of library and information professionals is to render information services to their patrons. Although the information provided often shapes public opinion and could help in making informed decisions, librarians and other information professionals often steer clear of politics and the processes that lead to emergence of leaders, even though their activities could be greatly affected by the nature of those who emerge as political leaders. It is against this background that this research sought to take a look at the issue of political restructuring, which has been a burning issue within the Nigerian political space, and what roles Nigerian librarians could play in the realization of the demands of restructuring in Nigeria. This article is of the view that besides being perceived as relevant in the scheme of things in Nigeria, librarians’ engagement could further positively impact on the condition of service of librarians and their public perception.

Nigeria is a nation that is morally and spiritually sick and her democracy is bedeviled with moral, social and political disorders. This article examines the role of Christian religious education in Nigerian secondary schools for the sustenance of democracy. There is a need to emphasize Christian religious education which upholds the principles of peace, non-violence and fair play in politics and elections into offices.

Since the 1990s, a number of socio-cultural agencies have played a significant role in the rise of Yoruba women in civil politics. Amongst these are the increasing value of monogamy and women’s greater access to Western education; the culture of first ladies in government; and female socio-economic empowerment through paid labour. Despite their increasing participation, women are still marginalised in elective politics. Using the ethnographic methods of key informant interviews, observation and focus group discussions and a theoretical analysis of patriarchy, this article examines gender relations in Yoruba politics and in the nationalist movement in south-western Nigeria. The rise of Yoruba women in politics in south-western Nigeria is discussed, along with the factors influencing women’s participation in civil politics. The study concludes that patriarchal politics still exists in the Yoruba political system. Factors inhibiting the total collapse of patriarchal politics in south-western Nigeria include the nature of Yoruba politics; women being pitted against women in politics; gender stereotypes and household labour. Thus, to make Yoruba politics friendlier to all, it would be desirable to create more political openings for women.

The 1996 cerebrospinal meningitis epidemic in Nigeria exemplified a medical situation that was linked with political concerns at the local, national, and international levels. It is argued that these political aspects must be understood, as they have implications for the treatment of future outbreaks. This article examines local attempts to stem the epidemic, on the basis of participant observation and epidemiological data collected from the north of Kaduna State. The epidemic is then considered in the national context: general deterioration of the health care system associated with economic decline, a national structural adjustment programme and crisis of political leadership. The local and national contexts of the 1996 epidemic are related to the view, held by many Nigerians, that reports of the epidemic's severity and the subsequent Saudi ban on Nigerians making the pilgrimage to Mecca reflected international politics, particularly the uneasy relations between the Nigerian, Saudi Arabian, and US governments, as well as health concerns. The article concludes with some recommendations for a national policy and for community health initiatives that take the politics and economics of cerebrospinal meningitis immunisation and treatment into account.

The impact of music on politics in Africa has seemingly remained dominant. But the overall sway of the African political processes has also become bewildering. The panacea to the disconcerting results of these political procedures in Africa is the adequate levels of social mobilization, while music ostensibly mobilizes massively. This chapter thus examines the linkages among politics, music and social mobilization in Nigeria (the most populous African country). Framed on the hypothesis that the relationship among politics, music and social mobilization in Nigeria (Africa) is now downbeat and using the elite theoretical and the political economy frameworks of analyses, the authors study the intervening factors responsible for the observed gloom in what had amounted to progressive relationships among politics, music and social mobilization in Nigeria and the wider continent. The research setting is qualitative. The chapter delves into its premises through the historical and descriptive research methodologies and logical argumentation.

Nigerian form and practice of democracy is very faulty, ranging from the foundation to the very level of the actual practice of democracy. Most political office holders in Nigeria arrive at the corridors of power through avenues devoid of generally accepted standard of democratic principle, it is in Nigeria that one gets to hear and see that power is actually taken and not given as is provided by the principles of democracy. John Locke in his political theory presented consent as the bedrock of democracy and went further to outline the aims of civil government. Consequently, any civil government that deviates from the provisions of the social contract theory, stands the risk of dissolution. From the foregoing, the reverse is the case in the Nigerian socio-political space. This work makes use of analytical method in philosophy to investigate the shortcomings in the characteristics of democracy being practiced in Nigeria, it would analyze John Locke’s concept of the state placing it in line with current trends in the Nigerian political scene. The researcher discovered that what is practiced in Nigeria falls short, far below standard of what is generally known and practiced worldwide as democracy which by implication is the “government of the people, by the people and for the people, viewing it through the lens and window of Lockean provision. Finally, this paper concludes that Nigeria politicians and office holders should eschew selfishness and pursue that which would contribute positively to the commonwealth. Democracy is people/masses oriented. Once a nation misses this target, the glory of that nation automatically starts corroding and subsequently fades away, and the result is seen in the gross suffering of the citizens. Keywords: Democracy, Politics, Nigeria, Power, Government.

AbstractThis article investigates the relationship between chieftaincy and the state in modern Nigeria. It focuses on politics and the mythical history of kings in the city of Abeokuta and argues that, particularly during the 1990s, the royal politics of the town drew heavily on different versions of mythical history. The reasons are twofold. They concern, first, the traditional political discourse of Yoruba kingship, in which a king's legitimacy can be discussed in terms of the attributes of the royalpersonahe embodies. In this context, legitimacy and status are often discussed as the first king's mythical origin. However, the continued political relevance and even volatility of this discourse in the 1990s related to the nature of the Nigerian state, in which traditional status is closely associated with political power.

Failure in project delivering can be attributed to many risk events in the Nigerian Construction Industry. This risk could be as a result of the dynamic, sensitivity, and complexity of the construction Industry towards its environment, socio-political, economic, technology, and cultural variables in Nigeria. Nevertheless, the low level of Risk Management in Nigeria construction Industry, and the little understanding and knowledge of the subject by Project Stakeholders prompt this study. A quantitative method of research was carried out, and among the sixty (60) questionnaires administered to clients, consultants, and contractors in the Nigerian construction industry, thirty-one (31) valid responses were obtained. The questionnaires were designed on the twenty (20) types of risks that were identified by construction professionals which were categorized into five namely; Government and Politics; Finance and Economical; Management and Technology; social and Cultural; Natural and Environmental Risks. And, findings made revealed that economic and financial risks surpass all other types in the Nigeria Construction Industry.

Tanure Ojaide and Niyi Òsundare are among the foremost politically committed Nigerian poets at present. The overriding concern in virtually all their literary works is commenting on the politics of the season. In Òsundare's words, poetry is “man meaning to man.” For Ojaide, a creative writer is not “an airplant” that is not situated in a place. Both writers envision literature should have political message. Thus, in Òsundare's collection (1986) and Tanure Ojaide's (1998) the major aesthetic focus is eco-poetry, which interrogates the politics behind oil exploration in Nigeria as well as its consequences on our environment. Both writers refract this with what Òsundare calls “semantics of terrestiality”: i.e. poetry for the earth. Eco-poetry deals with environmental politics and ecological implications of humankind's activities on the planet. Armed with this poetic commitment, both writers unearth commodification of socio-economic relations, environmental/ecological dissonance, leadership malaise and endangered Nigerian environment mediated through (global) capitalism. Both writers maintain that eco-poetry is a platform for upturning environmental justice; and for decrying man's unbridled materialist pursuits. Thus, the preoccupation of this paper is to explore how both poetry collections: and interrogate the despicable state of Nigeria's environment as a consequence of global capitalism.

The study investigates the extent women participate in politics in Nigeria. Abia and Imo states were closely studied. Two hypotheses were formulated. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion. A total of 354 copies of questionnaire were distributed, out of this number, 349 copies were completed and returned by the respondents. Z-test statistical tool was used to analyze the data, Based on the analysis, the major findings revealed that violence against women deter women from getting actively involved in politics in Nigeria. Also culture and traditional ethos prevent the advancement of women in politics also. Based on these findings, the following recommendations among others were proffered: Political mobilization should be carried into the villages to sensitize the women on the need to get involved in politics. More so new laws should be enacted on political thuggery and violence. They should be pursued vigorously to curb the high level of violence meted out to women by their male political counterparts in Nigeria.

Abstract Nigeria’s police forces are famously ineffective and unpopular. Police agencies carry the dual stigma of having colonial origins and close connections to the military dictatorships that ruled Nigeria in its first forty years of independence. Despite their poor reputation, there is little political will to reform policing and virtually none to abolish it. This piece traces how the police are embedded in Nigerian society and politics, in order to understand why widespread dislike of a police force does not necessarily lead to calls for its dissolution.

Objective: The main objectives of this paper are to explore the critical issues in the agitations/calls for restructuring Nigeria. A conceptual model is used and critical issues identified as influenced by many factors and interests with a special reflections on the background history, geography, heterogeneity and politics of the Nigerian state. Methodology: Secondary sources of data were used to and historical documentation method of data analysis was also used to analyse the data. Results: There are severally identified issues which are critical to and must be squarely addressed in order to arrive at a desired and mutually accepted stand on Nigeria’s geo-political, ethno-religious and socio-cultural composition, and a sustained unity and stability which are sought in the name of restructuring. Elites and political merchants’ prime interest in power and resources have however, shaped and dominated the restructuring agitations. Implications: The study is premised on the socio-economic, political and ethno-religious realities of the Nigerian state and society. Therefore, the study presented an outline and a roadmap for the Nigerian policy makers, politicians, citizens and other stakeholders in the Nigerian state. The study stated the most sensitive issues which are indispensable to any re-arrangement, negotiation, consensus and unity in the Nigerian state by the name of restructuring.