International Relations

The Nigerian State as Obstacle to Federalism

The Nigerian State as Obstacle to Federalism: Towards a New Constitutional Compact for Democratic Politics “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 to evolve its own peculiar political institution.  The present structure reinforces indigenous colonialism- […]

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Imperialism and the Democratization Process in Africa

Imperialism and the Encapsulation of the Democratization Process in Africa It is rather interesting to note the way in which debates on the current democratization projects in Africa have been domesticated, encapsulated, and redirected by Western scholarship, media, and institutions. It is no wonder that the initial enthusiasm which accompanied the so-called “opening up” processes

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Governance, Economics, and Interdependence in Africa

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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Between Policy and Politics

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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Dismantling the Leviathan

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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Survival in contemporary Africa

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

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The World Bank and the Somali Crisis

Paper prepared for the symposium on “Towards Conflict Resolution in the Horn of Africa,” organized by the African Studies Program, Central Connecticut State university, New Britain, Connecticut, November 19, 1994. The clan system that is embedded in Somali culture is not in itself responsible for the destruction of Somalia: the deliberate policy of exacerbating clan

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Challenges of constitutionalism in Africa

Text of keynote lecture delivered at the conference on constitutionalism in Southern Africa organized by the Southern Africa Research Institute for Policy Studies (SARIPS), Sheraton Hotel, Harare, Zimbabwe, July 24-27, 2000. It is indeed an honor to be asked to deliver this keynote lecture at this very important conference on constitution making and constitutionalism in

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