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June 12 Saga and the Re-Visitation of Igbo-Yoruba Cold War in Nigeria
Chris Ojukwu & Oni Ebenezer Oluwole11
In Nigeria’s political diary, the June 12 is synonymous with the presidential election of 1993 which was to usher in the much anticipated third republic after ten years of military reign having ‘sacked’ the democratic government of Shehu Shagari on 31 December, 1983. However, underlining the electoral symbol of the date was politics of ethnic consolidation as exemplified by the Northern military oligarchy in the annulment of the June 12 1993 election and ethnic rivalry between the Southwest Yoruba and the Southeast Igbo. This, therefore, brings to focus the thrust of the paper, ‘Ndigbo and the June 12, 1993 election Saga’. The paper seeks to critically examine the role played by Igbo elites in the June 12 question. It further argues that the June 12 crisis culminated in deepening the cold war that long existed between the Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups in Nigeria. The study adopts the archival search method in data gathering. This includes critical review of journal articles, official documents and reports, newspapers and magazines, electronically downloaded materials and monographs.
Boko Haram has been a major security challenge to the Nigerian state, especially in the northeastern part of the country since the sect’s radicalization in 2010. The sect evolved from being a ragtag terrorist group that focused on soft targets via suicide bombing into a sophisticated group that was able to overrun the military and police for weapons and engage the Nigerian army in conventional battles. By January 2015 the sect had succeeded in establishing a mini Islamic state that controlled about 20,000 square miles of territory – an area the size of Belgium.
Though the Buhari government claim to have degraded the ability of the sect to take territories, there is no doubt that the group still poses a threat with some even challenging the government’s claims that it has recaptured all the towns previously held by the group.
This article re-evaluates the conspiracy and ‘scientific’ theories used to explain the emergence and radicalization of Boko Haram in the light of its continued resilience under the Buhari government. It also examines other lessons to be learned from the sect’s continued resilience and poses the question of whether Boko Haram has actually been defeated as claimed by the government or whether the relative lull in its activities is because it has done a tactical retreat in order to regroup as it did in at least three previous occasions.
This paper analyses the politics pursued by the African National Congress (ANC) within South Africa’s fragile parliamentary democracy under the banner of majoritarianism vis-à-vis the proper functioning of democratic institutions and democracy itself. Certain key policy programmes of the government including the ruling party’s chief policy doctrine, the national democratic revolution, the strategic defence procurement packages, the dissolution of the Directorate of Special Operations and the ANC’s conception of citizenship, ‘the people’ and nation-building in South Africa are examined. South Africa’s constitution, which is classical of liberal democracy, lends itself to deliberative democracy and the institutions of the South African parliamentary system, in terms of their structure and constitutional purpose, promote deliberative democracy and co-operative governance but the norms of reasonable argumentation, equality and fairness undergirding the deliberative conception of democracy which are, in this way, institutionally guaranteed in the South African political process, are yet to be fully realised in South Africa’s political culture.
This paper analyses the politics pursued by the African National Congress (ANC) within South Africa’s fragile parliamentary democracy under the banner of majoritarianism vis-à-vis the proper functioning of democratic institutions and democracy itself. Certain key policy programmes of the government including the ruling party’s chief policy doctrine, the national democratic revolution, the strategic defence procurement packages, the dissolution of the Directorate of Special Operations and the ANC’s conception of citizenship, ‘the people’ and nation-building in South Africa are examined. South Africa’s constitution, which is classical of liberal democracy, lends itself to deliberative democracy and the institutions of the South African parliamentary system, in terms of their structure and constitutional purpose, promote deliberative democracy and co-operative governance but the norms of reasonable argumentation, equality and fairness undergirding the deliberative conception of democracy which are, in this way, institutionally guaranteed in the South African political process, are yet to be fully realised in South Africa’s political culture.
There are ample literature and research pointing accusing fingers to men as perpetrators of gender-based violence, and if, men truly are perpetrators of gender-based violence what kind of impact does it have on their psycho-social adjustment to life. In this regard, this paper wishes to explore the different discourses that have been used to position men as perpetrators of gender-based violence, particularly the discourse of patriarchy and masculinity. Accordingly, this paper wishes to portray how these discourses embedded in the processes of socialization have not been favorable to men, thereby invoking men’s (including the society at large) consciousness to the danger of using the negative premises of these discourses to position themselves as superiors. The implication of such socialization process is that men as boys learn early to dominate others, leading to varying instances of gender-based violence, which has traumatic impact on them as perpetrators or victims. Based on de facto observation such positioning has in the long run dehumanized men, making them to appear as abusers of others, particularly women and children. Consequently, this paper calls for advocacy counseling intervention paradigm in which evolution of consciousness should be re-engaged as strategy towards promoting the discourse and practice of complementarity. Through evolution of consciousness men will become proactive in deconstructing the superior discourse of masculinity to take up collegiality approach in their day-to-day relationship with others, resulting to shared mutual respect. In this way, our universe and particularly Africans will reenact the valuable cultural practice of communal interdependence in which ‘I am’ because ‘we are’.
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