Nigerian Politics

Muhammadu Buhari has had two distinct regime types in Nigeria, military and civilian, which have had their implications for the country’s development trajectory. During his military regime, Buhari implemented austere economic policies and fought corruption, but his government was criticized for human rights abuses, which negatively impacted Nigeria’s development trajectory. However, his focus on tackling corruption laid the foundation for better governance in subsequent years. In his civilian regime, Buhari has prioritized infrastructure development, social welfare programs, and diversifying Nigeria’s economy beyond oil. Nonetheless, his record on security issues has been criticized particularly after the outbreak of insurgency in the Northeast region of the country. Overall, the implications of Buhari’s policies and governance approach have been mixed, and this study highlights the challenges and opportunities of his tenure for Nigeria’s development aspirations, particularly in the areas of growth, governance, and human rights.

Since the rising to notoriety of the present ‘genre’ of malicious content peddled as ‘fake news’ (mostly over social media) in 2016 during the United States’ presidential election, barely three years until Nigeria’s 2019 general elections, fake news has made dangerously damaging impacts on the Nigerian society socially, politically and economically. Notably, the escalating herder-farmer communal clashes in the northern parts of the country, ethno-religious crises in Taraba, Plateau and Benue states and the furiously burning fire of the thug-of-war between the ruling party (All Progressives Congress, APC) and the opposition, particularly the main opposition party (People’s Democratic Party, PDP) have all been attributed to fake news, untruth and political propaganda. This paper aims to provide further understanding about the evolving issues regarding fake news and its demonic impact on the Nigerian polity. To make that contribution toward building the literature, extant literature an...

This paper focuses on aspects of Nigerian corrupt practices and how perceptions of public service and leadership responsibilities are framed linguistically, or discursively, around predatory elitist interests. It is based on two premises. The first pertains to the ways in which the national wealth is metaphorically called the national cake, and how it is viewed as an object that elicits consumption. Textual data is generated from 19 national newspapers and blogs that show 85 occurrences of the term the national cake. The surrounding contexts of the term indicate that national wealth is eatable, shareable and is spatially located. The second premise relates to how the Nigerian elite use metonymic associations to make themselves serve as the aggregate of, or shorthand to, the geographical, partisan and religious interests of the country. This stand-for relationship plays a prominent role in establishing contiguous representations which aid (conceptual) proximity to the national cake. This study uses critical metaphor analysis, corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to demystify the facts about Nigeria’s national life otherwise overlaid by ideology.

Keywords: corpus linguistics; critical discourse analysis; critical metaphor analysis; idealized cognitive model; national cake; prebendalism

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/text-2020-0130/html

Nigeria is essentially an artificial creation, which, like most other African states, is a product of colonialism. It is a country of extremes and contrasts located in West Africa and it is also potentially Africa’s wealthiest country, however the potential could be said to be yet to be realised. It is more or less the most populous country in Africa as well as being one of the most powerful countries on the continent; it is even referred to as the ‘Giant of Africa’. Nigeria, irrespective of its reputation of crime and corruption, boasts one of the richest and most complex cultures in Africa as a result of its population. This makes it a wonderful haven for Britain to colonise because, through colonisation, came the acquirement of political influence and power; because they were competing with fellow European nations.

Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo was born at the Herwagana area in Gombe City (in the present-day Gombe State of Nigeria) on 4 April 1962.
Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (FCA, FCIB, FCIT, FNIM, OON, Talban Gombe) attended Central Primary School Gombe (from 1969 to 1976) and Government Secondary School Billiri (from 1976 to 1981) all in Gombe State where he had his First School Leaving Certificate and Secondary School Certificate respectively.
After his secondary education, the young Hassan gained admission into Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (in 198) from where, in 1985, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting (with Second Class— upper Division).
The second best graduating person in the then Bauchi State, this man of destiny enrolled for Masters of Science Degree in Economics at the University of Lagos— graduating in 1992. And after obtaining his Masters Degree from that prestigious university, Dankwambo was interested in being computer-literate, a reason for him to enroll for a Post-graduate Diploma in Computer Science at the Delta State University Abraka (in Delta State)— from 1997 to 1998.
Done with ‘Abraka’, Ibrahim was at Igbenideon University in Okada where he capped his academic pursuit with a Doctor of Philosophy (Phd) in Accounting. As a way of adding further feathers to his ‘academic cap’, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo was, in 2012, conferred with an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the Imo State University.

In this paper I look at the similarities and differences between the Japanese and Nigerian Patron-Client System. This paper also examines why the use of the same political system has led to such drastic differences in the way each government operates with its citizens.

Whereas the role of the military in African politics continues to receive wide attention, the internal leadership process of the armed forces has practically become an analytic black hole. This paper seeks to fill this lacuna by using the Nigerian Army (NA) as a case study of “context specific leadership events” as a framework to understand the conditions under which leadership is produced, and how those conditions shape their leadership paths. The most important context-specific event in the Fourth Republic (1999-present) has been the series of efforts to “transform,” re-professionalize, and “re-invent the military as a political actor” for democratic stability after 29 years of military dictatorship. These efforts culminated in the adoption and implementation of a “Nigerian Army Transformation Agenda” from October 2010 until 14 January 2014 that sought “To transform the Nigerian Army into a force better able to meet contemporary challenges.” The “transformation” agenda, however, coincided with and was truncated by the emergence of the Boko Haram Islamist terrorists whose battlefield successes have cast serious doubt on the organizational effectiveness and combat readiness of Nigeria’s armed forces in a changed asymmetric war environment or “Fourth Generation wars.” Extant studies of civil-military relations and security sector reforms assume that civilian leaders will prioritize control over the military or even actively participate in, or structure, the military’s concept of transformation. In Nigeria, those attempts were largely cosmetic and lacked civilian control and guidance to the military to truly eradicate old habits of human rights abuses, corruption, nepotism, deterioration of professionalism, and the privileging of organizational and individual material interests. In this vacuum, the NA designed and implemented a narrowly defined “Nigerian army transformation agenda” (NATA) from 2010 until 14 January 2014. Although it led to laudable changes within the NA, the “transformation” merely addressed the symptoms rather than the real problems and sources of institutional decay, and thus failed to prepare the NA to respond to the biggest security threat Nigeria has faced since the end of the civil war in 1970. The resultant inability to defeat the insurgency by a once revered army exemplifies the limits of contemporary leadership in Africa’s conventional armed forces. Several factors — the cascading effects of failed or incomplete transformation; the impediments created by entrenched military organizational interests; the politicization of the military and insertion of its leadership into the crossfire of Nigeria’s ever-widening fault lines in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections; the ambivalence of African rulers and their foreign partners about enhancing the capacity of African armies; inter-service rivalry and institutionalized corruption; and the increasing realization that Fourth Generation wars are becoming un-winnable — all help explain the paradox of a transformative leadership and the failure or ineffectiveness of institutional response to threats to stability and national security.

This paper briefly examines the origin, growth and development of nigeria political parties. NIgeria politicaly came into being after the amalgamation in 1914. it operates a multy-party system in its political formation. As a federation, its allows proper and adequate representation. the origin and growth of political parties is of kin interest to us and that we shall discuss briefly.

It is cogent to say that the foundation of Nigeria’s foreign policy was laid at the point of her independence. The administration of her foreign policy was conceived prior to her independence in 1957, during which the training of those who paved the way for an independent Nigeria took place. It is pertinent to note here that at this point, Nigeria was only involved in external relations from time to time with the United Kingdom and a few other countries, hence, this paper seeks to examine the role that Nigeria played during this period in the leadership of Africa, all through to the fourth republic, till date. This paper will also make use of conceptual clarifications of the term foreign policy as well as identify the issues Nigeria has faced and is facing in the leadership of Africa from 1960-date and will also attempt a discuss on the issues facing Nigeria in her quest to maintain her leadership position in the African continent.

A students' union government is a student organization present in many tertiary institutions which protects and defends the right of students on campus. Depending on the country: the purpose, assembly, method and implementation of the group might vary. Universally the purpose of students' union or student government is to represent fellow students in some fashion. In some cases students' unions are run by students, independent of the educational facility. The purpose of these organizations is to represent students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. Students' unions are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students. Depending on the organization's makeup students can get involved in the union by becoming active in a committee, by attending councils and general meetings, or by becoming an elected officer. Some students' unions are politicized bodies, and often serve as a training ground for aspiring politicians. The combination of the youthful enthusiasm of the various members, a general lack of serious consequences for decisions, and a student media(if any) that is itself often partisan, inexperienced, and under no financial pressure to slant coverage to please a broad readership encourages very vigorous campaigning, debate, and political gamesmanship. Students' unions generally have similar aims irrespective of the extent of politicization, usually focusing on providing students with facilities, support, and services.This reviews how the students union governments (SUG) can be deployed as a training ground for youths an upcoming politicians in  order to entrench true democratic values lacking in our society today.

Competing discourses are involved in a meta-conflict over the meaning of the Boko Haram uprising in northern Nigeria in July 2009. These discourses are characterised by different conceptions of the state. This study analyses the struggle over the meaning of the uprising, using the theoretical framework of ‘meta-conflict’ set out by Horowitz and Brass, and a discourse analysis methodology based on the work of Foucault, and Lakoff and Johnson. An analysis of media reports in the five weeks following the uprising reveals that embedded within reports on Boko Haram there are four competing conceptions of the state. The Socio-Economic discourse argues for the state as the provider of development, whereas the Political Agency discourse posits the state as the provider of order. The Religious Structural discourse emphasises the state’s secular role in containing expansionist Islam, and the Religious Agency discourse calls on the state to help mainstream Islam maintain control over deviant sects.

Nation-building is about building the tangible and intangible threads that hold a political entity together and gives it a sense of purpose. It was the belief of Nigerian nationalists that federalism will foster nation building in Nigeria, but fifty-eight years down the line as an independent nation, Nigeria is still grappling with challenges of nation building. Acknowledging this as a threat to the nation continued existence this paper discusses the implication of the continued practice of skewed federalism "Nigeria Model" and it effect on the country quest to become a strong and united nation. Adopting the descriptive method of enquiry as well as Integration paradigm as analytical guide, the paper argues that though federalism is the most suitable principle for ensuring nation building in a heterogeneous country like Nigeria, the "Nigeria Model" of federalism where so much fiscal resources and responsibilities is being concentrated in the center to the detriment of the states breeds confrontation between the central government and component units, thus hamper nation building. For empirical analysis, this study makes a survey of 1500 government officials and citizens out of which 1346 questionnaires were returned. The data obtained was analyzed using Pearson Correlation which showed a significant relationship between nation building and three key variables (federal structure, citizen perception of the political structure, and interaction of the tiers of government). The paper recommends, among other things, a review of the 1999 constitution to reduce the power and responsibilities of the federal government to common services like Foreign Affairs, Currency, Immigration and Defence and granting of more responsibilities to states as well as a reintroduction of the Derivation Principle which allow states generate it revenue from the resources available in it domain and give a percentage to the central government. This will bring out ingenuity inherent in the various states and lead to healthy competition in terms of development. This proposed new federal arrangement will not only give confidence to but enhance nation building in the country.

This paper discusses the politics of religious affiliation and inter-tariqa conflict in northern Nigeria from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, in the light of the competing agendas of the Sultan of Sokoto Abubakar III (d. 1988); of the Sardauna and Premier of Northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello (d. 1966); and of the Senegalese Sufi leader Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975). While the political agendas of the first two had immediate ramifications on the religious sphere, the agenda of religious revival of the third, conversely, also had political undertones. The combined effects of the three, played out in the volatile arena of late colonial and early postcolonial Nigeria, created shifting configurations of religious and political alliances. Studies on the history of religious networks, the paper argues, need to take both religion and politics seriously.

Since the rising to notoriety of the present "genre" of malicious content peddled as "fake news" (mostly over social media) in 2016 during the United States" presidential election, barely three years until Nigeria"s 2019 general elections, fake news has made dangerously damaging impacts on the Nigerian society socially, politically and economically. Notably, the escalating herder-farmer communal clashes in the northern parts of the country, ethno-religious crises in Taraba, Plateau and Benue states and the furiously burning fire of the thug-of-war between the ruling party (All Progressives Congress, APC) and the opposition, particularly the main opposition party (People"s Democratic Party, PDP) have all been attributed to fake news, untruth and political propaganda. This paper aims to provide further understanding about the evolving issues regarding fake news and its demonic impact on the Nigerian polity. To make that contribution toward building the literature, extant literature and verifiable online news content on fake news and its attributes were critically reviewed. This paper concludes that fake news and its associated notion of post-truth may continue to pose threat to the Nigerian polity unless strong measures are taken. For the effects of fake news and post-truth phenomena to be suppressed substantially, a tripartite participation involving these key stakeholders-the government, legislators and the public should be modelled and implemented to the letter.

The  model  of  democracy  that  is  popular  in  this  age  of  globalization  is  liberal democracy  (Ikpe  2011),  democracy  is  a  descriptive  term  that  is  synonymous  with majority  rule,  it  associated  with  democratic  consolidation  and  good  governance. However,  in  Nigeria,  effort  to  attained  the  high  level  of  democratic  consolidation  and good  governance  have  been  made  but  not  yet  to  be  crowned  with  much  success.  (Ajayi 2015b). Democratic  consolidation  as  a  political  regime  in  which  democracy  as  a  complex system  of  institutions,  rule  and  patterned  incentives  and  disincentive  has  become  the  only game  in  town.

Nigerian Civil War literature has become a veritable medium for stocktaking and appraisals. Numerous novels in this subgenre have been examined in terms of the causes of the civil war and their implications for different facets of Nigeria. This study aims to project the major lessons and the correctives demonstrated in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. We argue that 50 years after the civil war, the factors that necessitated the war, namely, a corrupt elite, tribal sentiments, political patronage, the loss of social and moral values, a faulty political structure/lopsided federalism, internecine conflicts, the reign of terror and lawlessness, interethnic tensions, the posturing for power by the three major ethnic groups, the struggle for survival and self-assertion by the minorities, etc., are still visible and pervasive in the country. These socio-political factors are depicted through Adichie's use of symbols and metaphors. However, Half of a Yellow Sun demonstrates how the metaphorical broken bridges of Nigeria may be rebuilt to reconnect the various indigenous peoples across the country. The novelist does this by undermining tribal/ethnic stereotypes and foregrounding the relevance of preserving and instilling a good sense of history in postwar generations. Thus, she uses her story to humanise her audience.

The nature of Nigeria’s secularism and its contradictions have generated a plethora of scholarly debates with three dominant trajectories of arguments – Nigeria is secular; it is secular but influenced by religion; and it is a state of religions.  The character of the Nigerian state, therefore, is ambiguous to define and demands a concept that could disambiguate its complexities and deflate the cycles of debates on the nature of its secularism.  This paper builds on our earlier proposed idea of  “theocratic diarchy”  as a more befitting and pragmatic concept to qualify and situate the ambivalent character of the Nigerian state in its relationship with its dominant religions.  The paper does not seek to generate another controversial dichotomy or dimension to existing debates but seek to unify the two succeeding lines of the aforementioned arguments highlighted above by building the concept of theocratic diarchy and using it to demonstrate how Nigeria could solve its secularism ambivalence.

HAVE CHRISTIANS IMPACTED POSITIVELY ON THE NIGERIAN SOCIETY AS REGARDS THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION?
7.0 Trace the genesis and evolution of corruption in the Nigerian society.

      “Nigeria is a country orchestrated to administrate and not to produce.” Chris Oyakilome {PhD}.
Pre-Independence and the First Republic
Corruption, though prevalent, was kept at manageable levels during the First Republic. However, the cases of corruption during the period were sometimes clouded by political infighting.

This study examines the use of impoliteness strategy for critiquing societal ills in satirical songs. It explores how Folarin Falana (popularly known as Falz), a Nigerian musician, deplores certain impoliteness superstrategies in satirizing and critiquing salient socio-political, economic and religious ills bedevilling Nigeria in his recent and controversial song entitled This is Nigeria. The study seeks to establish that Falz’ song is a subtle protest art that speaks on behalf of the people by pointing out the injustices and malpractices that take place in the contemporary Nigerian society. Using Jonathan Culpeper’s politeness theory, the findings reveal Falz uses four out of the five impoliteness supertrategies namely bald on record impoliteness, positive impoliteness, negative impoliteness and sarcasm or mock impoliteness to attack the face of Nigerian government, police, church pastors and selected Nigerian youth. The study finds that the song goes beyond simply reflecting and describing a typical Nigerian situation to becoming an avenue through which discursive spaces on the corrupt state of the nation are satirically criticised. It also shows that Falz’s song provides alternative platforms for the articulation of matters generally considered “no-go” areas within the Nigerian socio-political space. It therefore concludes that protest music assists in the interrogation of a society’s moral compass and in turn questions some convictions through pragmatic language use.

This study examines factors that shape news production in the Nigeria press to investigate its effect on media content and democracy, particularly since the return to civil rule in 1999 after 29 years of intermittent but dictatorial military rule. Using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, the study found that the Nigerian press not only operates in a volatile ethnic and challenging economic environment but also encounters enormous political pressure which complicates, and often compromises the media's ability to fulfill its constitutional role. The study recommends implementing the Freedom of Information Act and sets out a procedure for providing the media with more generous operating space in Nigeria.

It is a common phenomenon in matured and burgeoning democracies across the world that candidates vying for political positions emerge victorious not with pettiness but intelligence; not in desperado but good manifesto; not with profligacy but economic sagacity; not with mediocrity but meritocracy; not just by incumbency but competency and most importantly, not by "federal might", but candidates' capabilities. The aforementioned negations have dominated the political space and lexicon of Nigerian political discourses. This work attempts a conceptualization of the term "federal might" as it applies to Nigeria. To do this, we have conceptually eviscerated the term "federal might", and have thematically, with qualitative cases, highlighted its etymology, its beneficiaries, the strength of the might, the nature of threat the might is utilized against, the means it is exercised and the time or period in which the might is exercised. We have also juxtaposed the term with its twin term of "incumbency factor" and its anathema, "political security". To drive home our point, we have examined the federal power play in the Ekiti 2018 gubernatorial elections and have implicitly and explicitly demonstrated the effect of "federal might" on the political security of Nigerians. The work argues that federal might is not just deleterious to citizen's political security but insidious to our infant democracy. It is therefore our recommendation that apposite measures be taken to fortify the nation's institutions against individual or group manipulations.

Abstracts of International Conference “Elections in Africa”. First joint Conference of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Centre of African Studies of the Porto University in the “Internal Changes and Foreign Policy of African Countries” Conference Series. Moscow, Russia. November 1–2, 2018.

An inaugural speech, which expresses the agenda of an elected candidate's reaffirmation of the electioneering campaign promises and the goals, is made on the occasion of official inauguration or swearing-in of the candidate. Speeches of presidents and heads of states have always been subjected to linguistic and non-linguistic analyses. However, President Muhammadu Buhari's Inaugural Speech has not enjoyed much documented analysis because it was recently delivered. This paper, therefore, investigates the use of words by the president from a pragmatic perspective in order to identify the pragmatic acts involved and the goals of the acts. Applying aspects of Jacob Mey's (2001) pragmatic acts theory for descriptive analysis, and statistical details for quantitative analysis, nineteen practs were identified from the total of ninety-nine (overlapping) acts found in the speech, and were meant to achieve four goals. While proposing, promising, stating and assuring achieved the goal of revealing intention; acknowledging, thanking, remarking, saluting achieved the goal of admitting and appreciating; appealing, reminding, instructing/calling, advising, hoping, charging, informing, extending achieved the goal of direction/directives; and identifying, describing and defining achieved the goal of giving details on issues. In addition, the pragmatic acts were marked with some pragmatic tools, including shared situation knowledge, relevance, reference, inference. This paper adds to the understanding of rhetoric and the political agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In January 2006, insurgents in Nigeria’s Niger-Delta kidnapped four foreign oil workers working for Shell Petroleum. Since then, over 250 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped in the region. A proliferation of insurgent groups, led by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) and the Niger-Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), have continued to claim responsibility. These groups frame their act as woven within the fabric of politics to protest the exploitation of the region by multinational oil corporations (MNOCs) and the Nigerian government. Mainstream literature on the region has largely focused on the nature of violence while a few of the literature on kidnapping are descriptive and have not properly situated the act within the realm of domestic and international politics. I develop a conceptual framework for understanding kidnapping as a political act in the Niger-Delta drawing on empirical evidence. I operationalize this framework by focusing on a triad of actors: insurgents, MNOCs, and the Nigerian government. Findings show that kidnapping in the region is intractable because, in a bid to nip the act in the bud, the Nigerian government has focused on symptoms rather than the causes of the act. More so, insurgents have become a useful tool to unleash mayhem on opposition parties during elections. Kidnapping in the region will only become history if fundamental economic, social, and political questions are addressed by the Nigerian government and MNOCs.

This study represents the idea of constituency projects and examines the role of the legislature in that regards in Nigeria. The central argument is that doubt has been raised regarding the execution of constituency projects and its constitutional status in the country, moreover, its implementation is marred by misconception and mismanagement. The paper used interview method to generate required information and interpretive approach in its analysis. The paper contends that ordinarily, the idea of constituency projects should not arise in presidential democracy, however, since the electorates desire projects from their lawmakers the idea could be used to bring developmental projects to the constituencies. Furthermore, the study reveals that funding and implementation of these projects is the responsibility of the executive, the legislature only design and selects its locations. It recommended that since constituency projects are expedient it should have a constitutional basis.

In this study, we show how, in the bid of fostering harmony and cohesion in the ideal city presented in his Republic, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato invented the so-called myth of the Noble Lie. It aims at convincing people of their common origin in order to ignite in them the desire to love and defend their common city but also to make them accept the division of society into classes. We then compare Plato's vision of the political community to Augustine's ideal of a Statesman to expose what the Bishop of Hippo consider as the criteria for ruling the earthly city with the heart fixed on the eternal promises. In a last step, we took a critical look at the situation of the politics in Nigeria after 60 years of independence, to indicate that most politicians do not even use the Noble Lie, but rather go for the "Ignoble" one to satisfy their greed, to the detriment of the people they are meant to serve.

Two decades after the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action it is still necessary to assess the Nigerian political landscape in terms of women’s political participation, that is: their participation in governance, measured through women’s representation, decision making, empowerment, and the achievement of equitable conditions for women. Women’s accomplishments in political representation and participation, and their influence in public policy and governance should be highlighted by exploring factors that enable women’s political empowerment and gender equity in Nigeria. These factors include Nigeria’s constitutional provisions and national policies. The Nigerian constitution affords women full de jure rights as citizens; discrimination against women is unlawful, and women have full access to the political sphere. However, de jure rights are not always matched by de facto conditions of women’s lives. Thus the creation and implementation of national policies specific to women and their advancement in governance remain important objectives

In recent years, the cartoons genre has gained considerable research interest across disciplines; for example, communication, media studies and health sciences. More so, cartoons serve as potent source of data used to study social phenomena. This paper aims at illustrating how political cartoons are used as a vehicle of setting social agenda in Nigerian newspapers to reorient and shape the public opinion through recurrent depictions mirroring current socio-political issues at a given period. The cartoons texts were excerpted from two major Nigerian newspapers, Daily Trust and Vanguard during the period 2007-2010. One-hundred cartoons were selected using purposive sampling technique. Fifty cartoons were taken from each newspaper magazine. Specifically, content analysis was used to identify the themes contained in the cartoons depictions. Qualitative method was used to analyze the cartoons through semiotic analysis. The analysis is mainly concerned with the interpretation of the sign system based on the connotation and denotation elements in the cartoons. The results indicated that 80% of the themes focused on substantive issues through which social agenda is set to reflect social practices in the Nigerian social political contexts. Also, the results showed that Nigerian political cartoons set social agenda by mainly encapsulating current and sensitive issues that people are much concerned about. Finally, the study has identified the lack of supportive and clearly defined theoretical background in analyzing political cartoons as a major problem in previous cartoons research. Thus, this paper contributes to the cartoon research by offering theoretical insight to the cartoon genre through agenda setting theory of media effect.

On Friday 25th January 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari, purportedly acting on an order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal suspended the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen. The sudden suspension of the CJN raised concerns all over the country as well as on the international scene with many citing the timing and manner as unconstitutional and also as an attempt to secure victory in the February 2019 General Elections. Justice Onnoghen’s suspension is indeed an interesting one for many reasons such as the unavailability of such a process in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) (CFRN).

There was something almost mystical about the Biafran endeavor; its fusion of hope and fear, the evolution of its national, cultural and religious consciousness across one thousand days, hovering anxiously between the dread of genocide and a near millenarian belief in the virtues of 'the Biafran Revolution' and the advent of a new Israel, half heaven half earth, among the hills and towns of Igboland.-Adrian Hastings I was born after the Civil War in Nigeria. I did not see the war. My memory of the war is a collective memory passed on through those who saw war. Everything which I have learned about the Civil War in Nigeria was mediated through stories from my parents, teachers, and from history books and commentaries. I also learned about the war through the devastation I saw growing up in the brokenness that was postwar Eastern Nigeria. I also remember the failed experiment on secession every time I visit home and see the wretched condition of the Biafran war veterans who beg along the high way in Oji River close to my ancestral home, Achi. But what does Biafra represent to me and my generation? How do I see the agitation of Nnamdi Kanu and those who are marching in his name and in the name of our ethnic group? Biafra represents four things for me. First, it is the open sore of a failed experiment by Easterners led by the majority ethnic group, the Igbo, to break away from Nigeria. The main reasons for secession being the violence, prejudice, and genocidal threats posed to her people following the massacre of more than 30,000 Easterners in Northern Nigeria between August and September, 1966. Second, Biafra reminds me of a failed experiment at nation-building in Nigeria because of deep seated prejudice and ethnocentricism and the exploitation of ordinary Nigerians by the ruling class and political and religious leaders across political, ethnic and religious divides. Third, Biafra reminds me that the memories of that unfortunate war have not been healed and that the factors which led to the war have not been addressed by the Nigerian nation. Fourth, Biafra is a pointer to the ongoing contradictions of African history through the destruction of this beautiful continent by fratricidal warfare and violence. It is so painful to see that we Africans have remained slaves to the curse of nation-state and the international order imposed on us by the West. This curse is also worsened by the negative aspects of the two foreign religions in the continent, Western Christianity and Islam with their different versions of holy war (Islam) or just war (Christianity) and the victory of God for those who are on the side of God. The myths of the warrior gods of the Old Testament and of the Koran were translated into the narratives of faith and life today in these two religions in different versions of hope and triumph in Africa which are often proposed as possible through the defeat of our enemies and adversaries aided by God.

The Nigerian political milieu has, for more than five decades since independence, been bedevilled by adventurist civilian and military leaders, coups d' état, and a seemingly 'docile' citizenry (who receive the 'fallout' of bad governance). This political landscape saw a handful of democratic governments (two overthrown by putsch). These leadership swaps have resulted in no major changes in the socio-political and economic lives of the led. In his poem collection Songs of Odamolugbe, Ademola Dasylva explores imagery, realistic symbolism, and revolutionary poetry to paint, recall, and relive various past and present debilitating national issues engendered by groups and personalities. This essay draws on Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theory of the unconscious. Freud distinguishes between psychoanalysis as i) a method for investigating unconscious mental processes and ii) a method for treating neurotic disorders. There is the subtle examination of the mental workings of the leadership and the led in and towards governance. This essay seeks to explore how Dasylva exposes leaders' mental flaws, egoistic behaviour, and wrongly placed 'patriotism' and seeks redeeming positives in his poetry of social protest and resistance. The poetry rejects the cerebral, laissez-faire 'sit-down-look' attitude of the people, encouraging instead a different type of analytical and active 'patriotism' imbued with the fresh spirit of 'Naija'. The essay affirms that there should be full and positive participation in the polity and development of the country by both the leaders and the led.

The modern state rests on a collective delusion. It requires that most of its residents agree that the arbitrarily drawn borders of the state are logical and permanent, and that the population living within those borders forms a single political community. Yet, one of the most persistent features of the past 200 years of history has been the resistance to this political fiction. The homogenizing idea of the nation-state continues to be challenged by multinational reality. ` This course investigates central aspects of this tension. It starts with exploring the link between nationhood and legitimacy of modern statehood, and examines the issue of ethnic and national diversity as they relate to political legitimacy. It then shifts to the explanations for successful and unsuccessful homogenization of national identities within states. The second half of the course examines the various aspects of the politics of multinational statehood, from the management of difference through federalism and consociationalism, to mobilization for secession and secessionist outcomes. We will explore both successful and unsuccessful secessions, including those pursued through violent and non-violent means (civil wars and referenda). The course also addresses domestic and international, as well as political and legal aspects of the practice of creation of new states. Course materials combine theoretical and conceptual readings with case studies from around the world.

Captivity and freedom are seen as opposites. To be captive is to be
imprisoned, detained, confined. To be free is to have liberty, autonomy, free will. It seems logical to associate captivity with trauma, and freedom with an end to trauma. However, enduring elements of trauma challenge the notion of freedom, especially when considering possible psychological effects of long-term captivity. The assumption that the cessation of captivity and experience of freedom constitutes a peaceful, joyful, and self-determining existence may be highly problematic, as may be the social implications of freedom and the impact of responses by others to a person once in captivity but now “free.” This article conceives of the route traversed from captivity to freedom by the victims of Boko Haram (including the young female students abducted from a school in Chibok) as akin to walking a tightrope—a tense, tenuous, perilous, unstable process. It is not impossible to get to freedom, but successfully traversing the tightrope may require unbelievable, extraordinary luck. The surest way to get through is to have the requisite training. Experience also helps. The experience necessary for surmounting the odds need not be experience of abduction and its horrors, but experience with strategies on how to cope with trauma. Such strategies can be provided
through culturally appropriate psychosocial support.