Legislative Duties and Responsibilities in a Democracy Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere, OON Text of Lecture Delivered at the Workshop for Local Government Councilors in Edo State, Benin City, Nigeria, June 19, 2008. Protocol Allow me to begin this discussion by congratulating you all on your election as councilors and chairmen in your respective local governments. […]
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It is difficult to ascertain when legislatures came into being. I suppose that the difficulty lies in defining what is meant by legislature. In ancient Greece, the people of Athens gathered at the Acropolis, discussed matters affecting Athens and voted on them. Was such behavior legislative? In Igbo land, the entire male citizens above age
Governance, Economics, and Interdependence: Constraints and Possibilities in Sub-Saharan Africa Paper presented at the Summer Institute on “Governance, Equity, and the Global Poor: A Curriculum Development Institute,” Sponsored by Spelman College and Interfaith Hunger Appeal, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, June 9-12, 1994. The breathtaking pace of political change in Africa has surpassed any predictions or
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Paper presented at the conference on “Consolidating Democracy in Nigeria: Promoting Stable Civil-Military Relations” organized by the Yakubu Gowon Center, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria July 4-7, 2000. … while the military may appear for the moment to be in political decline, the problem of the military has not gone away. On the contrary, it is
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Between Policy and Politics: Strategies for Moving Nigeria Forward. Text of Convocation Lecture Delivered at the 13th and 14th Convocation Ceremony of The Federal University of Technology, Akure, October 30, 2002. *Professor Ihonvbere is also Project Director, Constitutionalism in Post-Conflict Societies” Project with the International League for Human Rights in New York; Visiting Professor of
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Background paper presented at a conference on “Federalism and the State” by the Program on Ethnic and Federal Studies, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, November 25-27, 2002. Under a true federal constitution, each group, however small, is entitled to the same treatment as any other group, however large. Opportunity must be afforded to each
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Dismantling the Leviathan: Constitutionalism, Civil Society and the New Politics in Africa. Being Text of Lecture at the New Hampshire International Seminar Series, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, April 3, 2002. The views expressed in this lecture are strictly those of the author. Let me state from the outset that the most critical
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There is a growing consensus that despite the emerging sites of hope on the African political landscape, the region still faces daunting obstacles to growth, development and peace. Contemporary discourses on Africa, even where optimistic, reveal a certain doubt as to the continent’s future. Statistical indicators of progress are hardly reflective of the conditions of
Survival in contemporary Africa Read More »
