The recent migration wave to Europe from the Arab world thrusts to the fore for serious discourse... more The recent migration wave to Europe from the Arab world thrusts to the fore for serious discourse, an issue the world has hitherto shied away from: the gradual Islamization of the world beginning with the West. The issue is not the Islamic faith itself. Certain elements of the faithful are imbued with hegemonic-domination tendencies marked by the excessive obsession to obliterate others’ cultures. This paper views the Euro/West-ward movement of the Muslim Arab refugees/migrants as a grand strategy for the Islamization agenda; the smuggled Islamist militias are its foot-soldiers. It also throws up existential threats which were not contemplated by the framers of extant Western human rights regimes. The West needs, therefore, to interrogate its overextended human rights regimes with a view to attuning them to emerging realities of our contemporary world.
This article does not justify or sanction ascension to political power through coup d’état. Neith... more This article does not justify or sanction ascension to political power through coup d’état. Neither does it rationalize the March 22, 2012 action of the coup-makers in Mali. It subscribes to the popular notion that military regimes are an aberration and an anachronistic system of government. It argues, however, that beyond the unpopularity of military regimes, the coup in Mali should be looked at holistically, taking into cognizance the chain of events that ultimately culminated in the action by the Captain Amadou Sanogo–led Committee for the Re-establishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State. It submits that looking at the problem merely from the point of view of the doctrine of military subordination to civil political authorities will obstruct an opportunity to address the salient and underlying factors that caused the crisis in Mali as well as other countries of the subregion grappling with similar problems. It notes the reality of political Islam in the Maghreb and Sahel regions and its insidious growth into the West Africa subregion and contends that the event in Mali exposes the vulnerability of the West Africa subregion to Islamic fundamentalism—and signals a major threat not only to the stability of the countries of the subregion but also its democratization process as it poses great danger not only for democracy in the subregion but its consolidation.
The escalation of the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria that peaked in 2010 has led to the emergence o... more The escalation of the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria that peaked in 2010 has led to the emergence of many theories to explain its causes. These theories focus on the socio-economic/ human needs, vengeance, the Islamic theocratic state, and political dimensions. Beside the socioeconomic perspective, which harps on the pervasive poverty in the North, the theocratic state analysis seems compelling not only because it fits into the sect's mission to Islamize Northern Nigeria and carve it out as a distinct political entity, but it also resonates with political Islam, the driving ideology behind such Jihadi groups as Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) with which the sect has been linked. While this paper identifies with the political causes perspective in offering more cogent explanation of the crisis, it goes beyond theory to underline empirical facts that have shaped the group's violence. It argues that in its current dimension, the Boko Ha...
The reality of the impact of the media on violent conflict has become a global phenomenon. In Nig... more The reality of the impact of the media on violent conflict has become a global phenomenon. In Nigeria, this reality is obviously driving the growing desiratum for the instituting of peace journalism. Owing to its complex make-up, however, but essentially as a result of a lack of a national resolve to forge a truly united nation, Nigeria has remained a country where ethnicity, regionalism and religion are objective factors of daily life. General perception tends, therefore, to cast the country’s media as influenced by these primordial pulls, especially in times of crisis. This paper, however, argues that rather than primordial considerations, the Nigerian media is fundamentally driven by an ideology of conflict into which it was born; within which it was nurtured and which it has internalized from the colonial through immediate post-independence political era to the authoritarian military period. Thus the Nigerian media tends to operate with a siege mentality and as a media in captiv...
The current challenge posed by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is not only about the viciousness o... more The current challenge posed by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is not only about the viciousness of its terror campaigns, nor the sect’s avowed mission to impose Islamic law on the country, it is also about confusion regarding the exact cause(s) of the violence. Several theories have emerged to explain the problem, broadly revolving around socio-economic, political, and religious themes, all of which are treated in detail in this study. This paper argues that while none of the perspectives may exclusively explain the problem, analyses that consider the political context deserve particular attention, especially in relation to President Jonathan’s contestation of the 2011 presidential election and the coming election in 2015.
Much attention has been paid to the economic and sometimes political factors, responsible for the... more Much attention has been paid to the economic and sometimes political factors, responsible for the pervasive incidents of military coup d'etats in West Africa. While the analyses stress power struggles among competing elites, they oftentimes overlook the colonial aspect of the problem. This paper argues that at the root of the problem is the colonial architecture which lumped otherwise disparate pre-colonial social groups together. While this forced social intercourse has resulted in political and economic marginalization of some groups within, attempts by marginalized groups to throw off age-long hegemonic yoke sometimes result to military coup d'etats. Hence beneath these coups is the undercurrent of identity crisis, even when they do not overtly espouse separatist agenda. The paper posits that the inability of ECOWAS to deter and prevent these coups despite its zero-tolerance policy to unconstitutional accession to or maintenance of power is a direct consequence of its amb...
This paper focuses on economics of the Boko Haram violence on Africa's most populous black na... more This paper focuses on economics of the Boko Haram violence on Africa's most populous black nation, Nigeria. While it adds to the corpus of the literature on the insurgency, its point of departure is that it looks beyond the analyses that view the crisis essentially in a non-materialistic religious terms to perspectives that focus on the underlying economic factors driving the insurgency. In this context, the paper does not necessarily dwell on the socio-economic factors that provide the army of socially-disadvantaged northern youths from which Boko Haram recruits its foot soldiers. The paper focuses on the economics of the area in which the violence occurs and argues that beyond the facade of Boko Haram's religious posturing, a robust underground economy and profiteering, including the prospect of an oil economy around the Lake Chad Basin area, have sustained the violence and have the potential to prolong the crisis.
This paper focuses on the hegemonic politics between the Eggon and Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups in ... more This paper focuses on the hegemonic politics between the Eggon and Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups in Nasarawa, North-Central Nigeria, which eventually erupted into the Ombatse crisis of May 2013a precursor to the 2015 general elections. It addresses four research questions seeking to unravel whether or not: (1a) the crisis truly reflects a spiritual revivalist agenda as projected by the Ombatse promoters or merely espouses Eggon rejection of MuslimHausa/Fulani ethnic hegemonymirroring broadly the identity, hegemonic and exclusionary politics in the area cum the larger Nigerian society;(b) the Eggon-Hausa-Fulani feud has the potential to exacerbate the sectarian strife in Nigeria’s northern region and therefore deepen the polarization among Nigeria’s disparate social groups-thereby threaten the consolidation of Nigeria’s young democracy; (2) there are any institutional safeguards in place to forestall the promotion of discriminatory tendencies in the politics of the state;(3) there is th...
Africa has recently been witnessing rising incidents of rebel and militia activities. For a conti... more Africa has recently been witnessing rising incidents of rebel and militia activities. For a continent whose disparate groups and peoples in many instances were lumped together in single political economy by imperialistic forces, the development undoubtedly poses serious challenge to the political leadership, especially where the continent reeks of acute leadership deficit. Although not exactly a new phenomena while most of the actors are driven by sheer inordinate quest for power, some of the movements have their roots in the politics of exclusion prevalent in many parts of Africa. In the Cold War era, marginalized groups have sought to throw off the yoke of hegemony through coup plot. Anathematization of military regimes in the post-Cold War period appears to have left such groups with no options. The African Union (AU) should support its intolerance of unconstitutional change of power with encouraging politics of inclusiveness among members. It should however devise formulae that ...
The recent migration wave to Europe from the Arab world thrusts to the fore for serious discourse... more The recent migration wave to Europe from the Arab world thrusts to the fore for serious discourse, an issue the world has hitherto shied away from: the gradual Islamization of the world beginning with the West. The issue is not the Islamic faith itself. Certain elements of the faithful are imbued with hegemonic-domination tendencies marked by the excessive obsession to obliterate others’ cultures. This paper views the Euro/West-ward movement of the Muslim Arab refugees/migrants as a grand strategy for the Islamization agenda; the smuggled Islamist militias are its foot-soldiers. It also throws up existential threats which were not contemplated by the framers of extant Western human rights regimes. The West needs, therefore, to interrogate its overextended human rights regimes with a view to attuning them to emerging realities of our contemporary world.
This article does not justify or sanction ascension to political power through coup d’état. Neith... more This article does not justify or sanction ascension to political power through coup d’état. Neither does it rationalize the March 22, 2012 action of the coup-makers in Mali. It subscribes to the popular notion that military regimes are an aberration and an anachronistic system of government. It argues, however, that beyond the unpopularity of military regimes, the coup in Mali should be looked at holistically, taking into cognizance the chain of events that ultimately culminated in the action by the Captain Amadou Sanogo–led Committee for the Re-establishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State. It submits that looking at the problem merely from the point of view of the doctrine of military subordination to civil political authorities will obstruct an opportunity to address the salient and underlying factors that caused the crisis in Mali as well as other countries of the subregion grappling with similar problems. It notes the reality of political Islam in the Maghreb and Sahel regions and its insidious growth into the West Africa subregion and contends that the event in Mali exposes the vulnerability of the West Africa subregion to Islamic fundamentalism—and signals a major threat not only to the stability of the countries of the subregion but also its democratization process as it poses great danger not only for democracy in the subregion but its consolidation.
The escalation of the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria that peaked in 2010 has led to the emergence o... more The escalation of the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria that peaked in 2010 has led to the emergence of many theories to explain its causes. These theories focus on the socio-economic/ human needs, vengeance, the Islamic theocratic state, and political dimensions. Beside the socioeconomic perspective, which harps on the pervasive poverty in the North, the theocratic state analysis seems compelling not only because it fits into the sect's mission to Islamize Northern Nigeria and carve it out as a distinct political entity, but it also resonates with political Islam, the driving ideology behind such Jihadi groups as Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) with which the sect has been linked. While this paper identifies with the political causes perspective in offering more cogent explanation of the crisis, it goes beyond theory to underline empirical facts that have shaped the group's violence. It argues that in its current dimension, the Boko Ha...
The reality of the impact of the media on violent conflict has become a global phenomenon. In Nig... more The reality of the impact of the media on violent conflict has become a global phenomenon. In Nigeria, this reality is obviously driving the growing desiratum for the instituting of peace journalism. Owing to its complex make-up, however, but essentially as a result of a lack of a national resolve to forge a truly united nation, Nigeria has remained a country where ethnicity, regionalism and religion are objective factors of daily life. General perception tends, therefore, to cast the country’s media as influenced by these primordial pulls, especially in times of crisis. This paper, however, argues that rather than primordial considerations, the Nigerian media is fundamentally driven by an ideology of conflict into which it was born; within which it was nurtured and which it has internalized from the colonial through immediate post-independence political era to the authoritarian military period. Thus the Nigerian media tends to operate with a siege mentality and as a media in captiv...
The current challenge posed by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is not only about the viciousness o... more The current challenge posed by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is not only about the viciousness of its terror campaigns, nor the sect’s avowed mission to impose Islamic law on the country, it is also about confusion regarding the exact cause(s) of the violence. Several theories have emerged to explain the problem, broadly revolving around socio-economic, political, and religious themes, all of which are treated in detail in this study. This paper argues that while none of the perspectives may exclusively explain the problem, analyses that consider the political context deserve particular attention, especially in relation to President Jonathan’s contestation of the 2011 presidential election and the coming election in 2015.
Much attention has been paid to the economic and sometimes political factors, responsible for the... more Much attention has been paid to the economic and sometimes political factors, responsible for the pervasive incidents of military coup d'etats in West Africa. While the analyses stress power struggles among competing elites, they oftentimes overlook the colonial aspect of the problem. This paper argues that at the root of the problem is the colonial architecture which lumped otherwise disparate pre-colonial social groups together. While this forced social intercourse has resulted in political and economic marginalization of some groups within, attempts by marginalized groups to throw off age-long hegemonic yoke sometimes result to military coup d'etats. Hence beneath these coups is the undercurrent of identity crisis, even when they do not overtly espouse separatist agenda. The paper posits that the inability of ECOWAS to deter and prevent these coups despite its zero-tolerance policy to unconstitutional accession to or maintenance of power is a direct consequence of its amb...
This paper focuses on economics of the Boko Haram violence on Africa's most populous black na... more This paper focuses on economics of the Boko Haram violence on Africa's most populous black nation, Nigeria. While it adds to the corpus of the literature on the insurgency, its point of departure is that it looks beyond the analyses that view the crisis essentially in a non-materialistic religious terms to perspectives that focus on the underlying economic factors driving the insurgency. In this context, the paper does not necessarily dwell on the socio-economic factors that provide the army of socially-disadvantaged northern youths from which Boko Haram recruits its foot soldiers. The paper focuses on the economics of the area in which the violence occurs and argues that beyond the facade of Boko Haram's religious posturing, a robust underground economy and profiteering, including the prospect of an oil economy around the Lake Chad Basin area, have sustained the violence and have the potential to prolong the crisis.
This paper focuses on the hegemonic politics between the Eggon and Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups in ... more This paper focuses on the hegemonic politics between the Eggon and Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups in Nasarawa, North-Central Nigeria, which eventually erupted into the Ombatse crisis of May 2013a precursor to the 2015 general elections. It addresses four research questions seeking to unravel whether or not: (1a) the crisis truly reflects a spiritual revivalist agenda as projected by the Ombatse promoters or merely espouses Eggon rejection of MuslimHausa/Fulani ethnic hegemonymirroring broadly the identity, hegemonic and exclusionary politics in the area cum the larger Nigerian society;(b) the Eggon-Hausa-Fulani feud has the potential to exacerbate the sectarian strife in Nigeria’s northern region and therefore deepen the polarization among Nigeria’s disparate social groups-thereby threaten the consolidation of Nigeria’s young democracy; (2) there are any institutional safeguards in place to forestall the promotion of discriminatory tendencies in the politics of the state;(3) there is th...
Africa has recently been witnessing rising incidents of rebel and militia activities. For a conti... more Africa has recently been witnessing rising incidents of rebel and militia activities. For a continent whose disparate groups and peoples in many instances were lumped together in single political economy by imperialistic forces, the development undoubtedly poses serious challenge to the political leadership, especially where the continent reeks of acute leadership deficit. Although not exactly a new phenomena while most of the actors are driven by sheer inordinate quest for power, some of the movements have their roots in the politics of exclusion prevalent in many parts of Africa. In the Cold War era, marginalized groups have sought to throw off the yoke of hegemony through coup plot. Anathematization of military regimes in the post-Cold War period appears to have left such groups with no options. The African Union (AU) should support its intolerance of unconstitutional change of power with encouraging politics of inclusiveness among members. It should however devise formulae that ...
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