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Table of Contents :
Editorial Note
Ufo Uzodike and Saheed Ahmad Rufai7
Since independence, many African countries have suffered and continue to suffer from extremely high levels of bureaucratic and political corruption. Many have linked the problem to colonial rule while others have argued that the causes are internally generated. This paper argues that the problem of judicial corruption in contemporary Nigeria is a problem that is caused by the combined forces of colonialism and military intervention in Nigerian politics. The paper sustains this argument by citing instances of executive recklessness that impaired the independence of the judiciary in post-colonial Nigeria. The paper rests its discourse largely on Peter Ekeh’s two publics which explains the role of colonialism, colonial ideologies and the African post-colonial ideologies in the legitimation of corruption in post-colonial public service. The paper concludes that a reform of the judiciary must take into consideration many of the outcomes that the contradictions of colonialism and military rule have caused to the judicial system in Nigeria
Conflicts and conflicts resolution are part and parcel of man’s existential nature. Since many of the policy prescriptions for solving social conflicts and the establishment of good governance are really performing the reverse, there is bound to be crises and violence. However, the issues of communication and language consideration in the facilitation of conflict resolution operations and programmes have not attracted much attention from peace facilitator and scholars compared with other similar issues. Thus, the role of communication, especially in conflict ridden environment cannot be over emphasized. Language, which is primarily human mode of communication, stands out as an effective tool for conflict resolution. This paper takes a cursory look at issues surrounding the issue of communication, language, conflict resolution and governance. In addition, communication and language issue has become significant in ensuring a tremendous improvement in conflict resolution operation and training for all parties. This probably explains why there has not been a definite, precise and concise formulation of communication and language policy to guide the practice of conflict resolution.
In any democracy, the media often plays a critical role in creating, moulding, shaping and reflecting public opinion, which is why it is often called the Fourth Estate of the Realm. But what role do the media play in the nation-building process in a ‘low-trust’ and ‘fragile’ state like Nigeria?
The article discusses the various ways in which Nigeria’s societal structure influences the way the media operates in the country and how this in turn impacts on the nation-building process. It argues that though the media seems to undermine the nation-building process through such practices as the promotion of group think and hate-speech, other variables such as the existence of media watchdogs, the party loyalty of the media owners as well as the commercial and competition imperatives that influence the way the media function in Nigeria often constrain the media’s ability be tools for undermining the nation-building process.
There is an expanding body of sophisticated scholarship on religious terrorism in the Nigerian context. This is evident in the multiplicity of scholarly entries that could be accessed on the subject, especially its dimension of Jama’at ahl-as-Sunnah li al-Da’wah wa al-Jihad (J.A.S.D.J) popularly known as Boko Haram, through any internet search engine. The accessibility of such rich and relevant sources has made attractive and highly interesting to scholars in various fields the conduct of studies on the subject of religious extremism especially its Boko Haramist variant, in Nigeria, from various perspectives. Although most studies articulate their conceptual and theoretical frameworks and, at times, provide separate sections of one or two paragraphs thereupon, there has not been a commensurate level of attention to the analysis of core concepts and salient theories that are central to research on religious extremism. The expectation is that where there is a proliferation of scholarly publications on a subject, there certainly would have been some detailed and comprehensive studies on the dominant frameworks for research in the area. This however is, albeit arguably, not the case in the Nigerian context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of extremism in the context of religion, the nature of Islamic religious extremism, as well as theories with potential to facilitate a good understanding of the rationale for Islamic religious extremism in Nigeria and aid a systematic conduct of research on the subject. The study which is exploratory in nature employs the analytical method in addressing its questions. The significance of such a study lies in its potential to pave way for the emergence of what may be tagged as research frameworks for Islamic religious extremism especially with reference to the Boko Haram Movement.
The youth have been the prime agents of change and are usually the most affected by change in the socio-political context of Nigeria. The huge population of youth in Nigeria signifies a great asset for a socio-political transformation within a democratic space. Specifically, this paper examines the history of youth involvement in political change and the challenges youths are facing within Nigerian socio-political space. The paper identifies atri-level of political change: micro, meso and macro. Historically, the Nigerian youths have played important roles in the country’s political space, especially in the struggle for independence from colonialists and immediate post-independence political formulations. But from the 1980s, Nigerian youths face enormous challenges due to the weakness of the Nigeria state. This may have accounted for the dissipation of the youths’ voice in the political sphere and their over-burden with socio-economic problems. Although economic emancipation is necessary, the paper submits that the prospective political agenda of Nigerian youth should be on socio-political transformation through democratic channels.
Nigerian universities have come to represent a place where Western and traditional fashion frequently interact. Though the manifestations of this “interaction” are multiple (in terms of competition, acculturation, collaborations and even conflict), factors such as globalization, government, university authorities, the media, individuals, and religious groups have increasingly, served as drivers. Acting as drivers, not only do these factors influence and sometimes determine what is fashionable in support of one of the two, but there is a growing trend where some of these factors have forcefully determined what is acceptable or unacceptable in the university. This paper locates the contestations between Western and traditional fashion in terms of re-traditionalisation, competition and/or aided warfare among female students of two public Nigerian Universities: University of Lagos and University of Ibadan, and two private universities, Babcock and Covenant. Also, based on an examination of these emerging trends among female students at the selected universities, the paper engages two interrelated questions: What are the representations of these factors (drivers) in Nigerian universities? And second, to what extent is the contestation between Western and local fashion on university campuses in Nigeria determined or influenced by these drivers? To engage these questions, a number of In-depth Interviews (IDIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) on fashion on four Nigerian University Campuses were undertaken to get responses from relevant stakeholders.
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