Lere Amusan

BOKO HARAM TERRORISM IN NIGERIA: A REFLECTION ON THE FAILURE OF DEMOCRATIC CONTAINMENT

Democracy is a system of government greatly supported by the vast majority of Nigerians and they are willing to sustain it. It is believed that the system guarantees security and promotes prosperity. It is considered a solution to most problems faced by the country. However, recent security challenges are reflections and continuation of political trends and the prospects of Democracy thriving in Nigeria. The focus of this article is to understand why democratic governments in Nigeria have failed in their effort to contain terrorism in the country as manifested by Boko Haram and other Islamist movements. Some elements of democracy as practised in Nigeria are observed in relations to the emergence of Boko Haram terrorism. It is submitted that, even when it does not equate to a counter-terrorism strategy, democracy still has some mechanisms that could be used to contain some factors that trigger or manifest terrorism.

Addressing Climate Change in Southern Africa: Any Role for South Africa in the Post-Paris Agreement?

Climate change is a global challenge. Its ramifying effects on both natural and human systems cut across different regions of the world. While Africa as a whole is being confirmed to be more affected by climate change due in part to a relatively low(er) mitigation and adaptive capacity, coupled with a situation where majority of its population depends mainly on natural resources, Southern Africa is singled out as a potentially vulnerable subregion for other additional factors. Representing a milestone in the trajectory of the global climate change process, the 21st session of the Conference of Parties (COP-21) resolved with a consensual climate change deal known as the Paris Agreement. The Agreement, through the instrumentality of a ratchet up mechanism, otherwise described as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), seeks significant cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions effectively from 2020. In essence, it calls for a novel though gradual shift from carbon-emission approach to low emission development strategy. This, no doubt, is indispensable to sustainable development at all levels. Beyond national commitments as obligatory for parties, there is a need for regional cooperative efforts which should bring about shared appropriate policy responses that promote green energy as well as seize opportunities inherent in it for national and deterritorialised gains. Adopting neoliberal and green theories, the institutional framework of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) where South Africa is expected to take a lead is examined in this article.

Imposed Socially Responsible Pricing on HIV/AIDS Drugs in Developing Areas

The issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of firms in their host community remains an unsettled academic debate. In developing states where multinational corporations (MNCs) are dominant actors, the issue is even more contested. Most importantly, MNCs’ profit motive, their support in their home country and the inability to hold them accountable to their host community/state’s aspirations present a direct clash with their innocent appearance and pretence of CSR. But why do MNCs need to be overloaded with the host community’s problems in the form of CSR when they are paying royalties, taxes, rents and other levies to their host states? Despite the fact that recent research in this field has shown how this correlates with the profit motive of these firms, contestation by state-corporations over public goods is not decided in favour of the bottom billion. This article observes attempts by the South African government to provide HIV/AIDS drugs at an affordable price based on recommendations by the World Trade Organization-Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (WTO-TRIPS) between 1997 and 2014. By January 2014, MPCs, in their bids to effectively control the production of ARV as against generic licensing accommodated in the TRIPS agreement, started a campaign of calumny against South African government. This was aimed indirectly to influence the Proposed Draft National IP Policy of September 2013 that will make ARV cheaper in the country. The campaign was described by the South African Department of Health as a genocide attempt against South Africans.

The Quest for Hegemony and the Future of African Solutions to African Development Problems: Lessons from Headways in the African Security Sector

The problems of African development and integration with the world of globalisation have continued to attract concern in the policymaking cycle and the academic world, within and beyond the shores of the continent. Ever since the issues of economic development became the continent’s priority, a series of propositions have been advanced and considered. Against a background of post-colonial nationalism, most African leaders have preferred African solutions to African (development and security) problems, despite the region’s continuous reliance on external investment and markets. At the moment, however, this strategy is low priority. In consideration of this, a revival and new dimension of the African Solution (AS) Strategy is observed in this paper. In this regard, global, regional and sub-regional struggles for competitiveness and the resultant hegemonic traits are seen to dominate the unveiling of AS Strategy.

Paris agreement (PA) on climate change and South Africa’s coal-energy complex: issues at stake

After two decades of unduly prolonged negotiations that characterized the Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, the international system only recently witnessed a substantive globally acceptable climate regime, the Paris Agreement (PA). The less legally binding and largely voluntary agreement establishes, amongst other things, a common framework for all Parties aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) to not more than 2°C and more significantly, 1.5°C above the pre-industrial levels. Although the agreement admits that an economy driven by clean energy is indispensable to sustainable development, its demand of a rapid end to fossil fuel places a burden on South Africa to replace its coal and gas with clean energy sources. Meeting such demand, when no credible alternatives are put in place, would only exacerbate poverty for the millions of South Africans whose livelihood and businesses are largely sustained by coal-powered electricity. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) assess the Paris climate agreement and its feasibility; (2) appraise South Africa’s coal-dependent economy; (3) suggest adjustment options aimed at dealing effectively with the situation, and also providing support for the aggregate welfare of South Africans. This article adopts the ‘complex interdependence’ and ‘green’ theories.

POLITICS OF BIOPIRACY: AN ADVENTURE INTO HOODIA/XHOBA PATENTING IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Background: Africa is being described as the wretched of the earth, despite this, the continent is endowed with natural resources, dynamic ecosystem, and different species of plants and animals, and species derivatives. This paper area of departure is to focus on Hoodia, a plant that is being a source of food, medicine and water for the San and Khoe indigenous peoples before the advent of Europeans into southern Africa. South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) dubiously patented Hoodia without observing the basic indices of geographical indications (GIs), indigenous knowledge (IK), novelty, access sharing benefit (ASB), prior informed consent (PIC) and sustainability of ecosystem before the rights was sold to Phytopharm pharmaceutical company. Materials and methods: This article adopts neoliberal thesis with emphasis on complex interdependence theory of organic linkages between developing and developed countries. Secondary sources of information taken into account of qualitative and critical discuss content analyses dominate this paper. Result: The paper recommends a linkage between developed and developing states based on endowment theory and comparative advantage with the notion of adhering to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which has three objectives: the conservation of biodiversity; the sustainable utilisation of indigenous biological resources (IBR); and fair and equitable benefit sharing. Conclusion: The paper recommends that there is a need to follow CBD and other relevant international regimes that promote equal exchange in exploitation of Africa resources as against the present skewed arrangement that is in favour of multinational corporations (MNCs).

Africa in the Global Trading System

No state is an island in the complex, interdependent international system. There is a need to relate to other actors, both state and non-state, for any country to successfully navigate the complexity of global international relations. Many theories drive this point home, from the realist/neo-realist and Marxist/neo-Marxist to liberal/neo-liberal schools. Neo-liberalism’s complex, interdependent, international economic system sees a need to promote trading for economic development and political stability. A question worth asking is to what extent one can claim that Africa benefits, to the fullest, from the trading system as crafted by the Euro-American arrangement handed to the rest of the world. A global trading system calls for ultra-laissez-fairism, but the developed North fails to abide by the tenets of neo-liberalism through confusing imposed globalisation, regionalisation, and regionalism capped with unsustainable international trade norms. This chapter contextualises North–South, South–South and regionalism concepts. Critical theory will be the theoretical starting point.

Nigeria’s Attitude Towards South Africa’s Perceived Xenophobia: Exploring a Shared Hegemonic Power for Africa’s Development

From Nigeria’s perspective, South Africa is considered as an ‘ungrateful’ state (due to the non-recognition of Nigeria’s efforts at abolishing Apartheid regime) from 1994 when electoral democracy was introduced, as if the country was not a legally, politically and internationally sovereign state. The nadir of perceived diplomatic row was experienced in 2015 due to the xenophobic/Afrophobic attacks on non-South Africans attributed to undiplomatic utterances of the king of the Zulu nation in South Africa. Before this time, incessant attacks were directed against African citizens from the Horn and Southern African states. Claims and counter-claims of foreigners being the agents of criminality and sources of unemployment for South Africans have triggered anti-immigration attitudes and acts in the country. The chapter introduces the politics of xenophobia into the hegemonic discourse. We attempt to demonstrate how Nigeria has used recurring incidences of xenophobia as a driving force to assert its power position in Africa as against a shared hegemonic power between the two African major powers.

An Assessment of Xenophobic/Afrophobic Attacks in South Africa (2008–2015): Whither Batho Pele and Ubuntu Principles?

ABSTRACT In 2008, more than 60 foreigners were killed during xenophobic attacks in South Africa. As if that was not enough, the same act was repeated in 2015 when seven people were killed (four foreigners from Africa and three South African nationals). These seemingly politically, socially and economically inspired attacks continue to generate arguments among students of development studies, Third World scholars and by extension, integrationists on the continent. As reasoned by some students of xenophobia, such attacks are couched from a need to maintain the existing status quo, fear of the unknown and an urge to preserve a certain culture and identity. Attempts to achieve these multiple objectives ignore the concepts of globalisation and regionalism as forcefully advanced in the 21st century. Many opine that every state needs immigrants for development, but the incessant attacks on non-nationals is a cause for concern. The intention of this article is to interrogate South Africa’s twin principles of Batho Pele (people first) and Ubuntu (humanity) in the context of these attacks. Integration strategy against hate speech and name callings in line with Chapter 2 Article 16(2) (b–c) of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa will be advanced.

Sovereign Wealth Fund and fiscal federalism in Nigeria (2011–14): An assessment of contending issues

ABSTRACT After more than half a century as a leading oil-producing nation in Africa, Nigeria followed the footsteps of most natural resources rich countries (particularly crude-oil) by establishing the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). SWF is a large pool of state-owned investment fund composed of diverse financial instruments, invested in whole or in part, outside home countries. Since 2004, ‘Special funds’, of which SWF is part, have become issues of serious contention between the Federal and state governments in Nigeria. On 22 May 2011, the 36 state Governors approached the Nigerian Supreme Court, requesting the Court to use its judicial powers to squash plans by the Federal Government of Nigeria to withdraw