Hakeem Onapajo

Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections: The Salience of Electoral Reforms

Abstract Nigeria’s 2015 general elections were followed by positive remarks by trusted local and international observers. The highpoint of the elections was the emergence of the opposition candidate as the winner of the 28 March presidential elections. Clearly, this is unprecedented in the electoral history of Nigeria considering the enormous influence that surrounds the office of the incumbent executive in the country. This article analyses the reforms that enhanced the integrity of the elections. The article illustrates the electoral reforms introduced by the electoral management body and their connection to the improvement of the integrity of the 2015 general elections.

A Failing Regional Power? Nigeria’s International Status in the Age of Boko Haram

ABSTRACT Given its population size, economic strength, military capability and foreign policy directions, in past years Nigeria has been considered a major regional power in Africa. Clearly, this makes the country relevant at international and global levels. However, its status as a regional power on the continent is increasingly being affected as a result of the notorious terrorist activities of Boko Haram. Once a major contributor to peacekeeping operations in Africa and the rest of the world, Nigeria found itself relying on the support of other African states, including smaller ones, to fight Boko Haram. Furthermore, a huge number of Nigerians are now refugees across West Africa, especially in Chad Republic, Niger Republic and Cameroon. In view of this development, this article analyses the implications of Boko Haram terrorism for Nigeria’s contemporary status in the international arena. The authors argue that the instability created by the terrorist group and the government’s failure to deal with it decisively and timeously dents Nigeria’s credibility and legitimacy to assert its influence at sub-regional and regional levels.

The Decline of a Dominant African Political Party: The Case and Future of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC)

This paper investigates increasing claims that the ANC as South Africa’s dominant party is losing its popularity and facing political decline. This is against the backdrop of growing disenchantment with the ruling party over a series of corruption cases, perceived poor service delivery and mal-governance characterizing the Jacob Zuma-led government. However, it is argued in this paper that there are no clear signs of the ANC losing the 2019 elections. Nevertheless, the party risks disintegration – as experience shows in other countries – if it does not effectively address issues relating to corruption, mal-governance and factionalism. The study is based on a careful reading of qualitative data from secondary sources including previous studies in journal articles and books, credible newspaper and magazine reports and institutional documents.

Perspectives on “New” Conflicts in Africa

When it comes to conflicts, in this instance, protracted sociopolitical conflicts, Africa is a constant case study. Some scholars such as Scott Straus, however, contend that African wars are ending, or at least changing in character, and declining in intensity. Indeed, the longstanding civil wars that ravaged several African countries in the Cold War and post–Cold War era seemed to have been resolved. The problems with this optimistic outlook on conflicts, however, include the fact that, as Mary Kaldor notes in her “new war” thesis, it is based on a limiting understanding of conflicts. For Kaldor, there are “new” wars: these are wars that need not necessarily involve states as primary parties, need not involve physical combat, and which can be both global as well as local, internal as well as external. Kaldor’s views, however, also pose a problem. Sinisa Malešević argues that Kaldor’s “new” wars thesis identifies globalization as the major source of “new” wars, while downplaying the important role of identity, which has been a recurring decimal in both “old” and “new” wars. Thus, while there may be some agreement regarding the emergence of “new” variables and factors in wars and conflicts, the actual characteristics and factors driving “new” wars are still subjects of debate. The following is our attempt to bring clarity to this debate in the African context.We argue that African conflicts—despite arguments that they are now less intense, peripheral, and less frequent—have also transformed, taking up new characteristics. We contend that “new” conflicts are emerging in Africa through a cross-pollination of local and global forces. FromMali in the West, to South Africa in the South, and from Libya in the North to South Sudan in the East, African conflicts are transforming in character in the twenty-first century. Additionally, African conflicts have simmered in intensity and focus withinAfrica’s changing sociopolitical andmultilayered social space. African conflicts now prominently bubble from the low everyday spheres of African societies.

Political Economy of Nigeria

This paper takes a historical foray into the prevailing conditions that form the bedrock of collective actions and organized violence against the Nigerian authority. The analysis here presented situates the problem with the Nigerian state since independence in reference to corruption and mismanagement of the country’s human and natural resources. Thus, in the quest to understand the economic predicates of Nigeria’s current security challenges, this paper provides a general description of Nigeria’s political economy and its tendency to fuel violence—including terrorism, as presently observed in the country and threatening its very existence. Presented differently, we conclude here that the historical trajectory to date of Nigeria’s political economy has fueled terrorism in its geopolitical space through its characteristic alienation and frustration of its citizens, due mainly to the general lack of accountability and systemic corruption.

The Phenomenon of Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria

This paper provides the background and context for understanding terrorism and that of Nigeria in particular. It introduces a philosophical approach towards the conceptualization of terrorism so as to show the philosophical debates around the phenomenon and the significance thereof for the ‘root causes’ explanation, with a fairly focused attention to Boko Haram in Nigeria. The paper provides a road map to descriptive underpinnings of the general political economy of Nigeria and its tendency to fuel terrorism, and other forms of political violence. The objective of this chapter is to problematize the phenomenon of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria.

Understanding the Changing Context for Terrorism

This chapter presents an analysis of the construct of terrorism as a phenomenon with historical roots with many contestations, explanations, and understandings. Since the advent of terrorism, the term’s use shifted from the regime de la terreurs during the French revolution, to anarchist and socio-revolutionary bombers in the nineteenth century, to the Red terror, to anti-colonial struggle, then to the Palestinian struggles in the 1960s, and finally to religious fundamentalism since the 1990s, to date. These episodes and differential motives for terror activities also beckon the question around its justification. Also, the evolution of the term has brought about problems in understanding its causality and conceptualization and by implication in articulating an approach to finding a panacea for wherever and whenever it is witnessed. This chapter argues that the prism through which terrorism can be understood is highly subjective and open to different interpretations for different times and eras.

Conclusion: Responses and Recommendations to End Boko Haram Terrorism

Since the emergence of the terror campaign by Boko Haram in Nigeria, it seems different approaches have been adopted but predominantly a military response to religious and ideological problems as seen by many. A misguided military-centred crises management strategy has largely been favoured. Considering the complexity of the sect’s mission and objective, the need for a root cause approach to the crises has become almost indispensable to the general quest for lasting peace and security in Nigeria. The root cause approach will help to correct and avoid future emergence of such a phenomenon in terror pursuits. This study has unravelled and supported a socio-economic perspective to the problem since Boko Haram terrorism seems to have been driven first from socio-economic deprivations. The recommendations in this chapter follow from the preceding analysis around an oil-centric characteristic of Nigeria political economy, endemic corruption, poverty, frustration, despair, and social exclusion and marginalization inherent in Nigeria. Key root cause recommendations are presented as solutions for present terror crises: Good governance and leadership; improving the education profile in the northern region; effective poverty alleviation programme and social welfare improvement; and creating employment opportunities.

Evolution, Ideological Foundation, and Strategy of Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria

Of all the militant groups in Nigeria, Boko Haram terrorism remains the most enigmatic in terms of raison d’etre, the most violent in terms of modus operandi and the most destructive. Thus, this paper finds it expedient to espouse the evolution, ideological foundation, modus operandi, organogram, strategy, and links to international networks of Boko Haram in Nigeria. We conclude in this work that any effort at ending the scourge of Boko Haram in Nigeria would continue to remain ineffective unless such strategy is adequately grounded on a clear understanding of what the sect is about. We also conclude that Boko Haram is first a domestic problem caused by domestic anomalies and therefore must be seen as such before any regional and international outlook as a microcosm of a larger macro-cosmic global terrorism.

RC of Boko Haram Terrorism: Socio-Economic Prism

For years, Boko Haram in Nigeria has engaged in public advocacy for the strict implementation of Islamic Sharia law. This has led many to view the sect as a strictly religious quagmire. This approach seems too narrow, because it is concealed in socio-economic and political facade. Indeed, it is a misunderstanding to reduce the impetus of Boko Haram to religion considering its mammoth support base in the teeming uneducated, jobless, and poor northern youths. We argue therefore that despite the seeming religious appearance of the mission of Boko Haram, the socio-economic drivers are imperative in understanding the root cause of the current terror campaign in Nigeria. Thus, we show that socio-economic indices such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, economic underdevelopment, low education, inter alia, underlie the emergence and persistence of Boko Haram terrorism. These factors, which appear higher in the northern region compared to the south, coupled with the predominance of Islamic religion, makes the region more susceptible to easy manipulation by fundamentalist movements such as the Boko Haram.