Electoral Democracy and Political Entrepreneurship in Nigeria: Exploring the Social Media Option

The conduct of regular elections by authoritarian populist regimes has engendered the advent of elections without democracies and democracies without rights and peoples participation The unwillingness of the elites and the powerful who have taken hold of the political system to cede to the views of the people is increasingly making the government unresponsive The political system is fast turning into a playground for billionaires with very high propensity to exclude the people from the scheme of affairs Political parties are getting frozen by populist leaders who are using their positions to destroy free media undermine independent institutions and muzzle the opposition Individual and minority rights as well as popular will are no longer guaranteed Citizens are thus disillusioned with politics have grown restless angry disdainful and hostile to the resultant democrazy This paper therefore analyzed the collapsing party prowess in membership and candidate recruitments that have pushed politicians on self-worth electioneering political merchandising and entrepreneurship in their search for relevance It further examines the vertical linkages between political parties and electorates as complemented by horizontal connection between parties and private contributor

Decentralizing the Nigerian Police Force: A Plausible Approach to Hinterland Securities

The structure of the Nigerian police has overtime depicted a centralized composition that negate principles of power sharing in a federal system of government. The complexities and diverse nature of policing in Nigeria remains the bane to effective and virile administration and management of the organization. The office of the Commissioner of Police vis-à-vis those of State Governors spell contradictions in power configuration from both the Constitution and the Police Act. The enactment of vigilante services and neighbourhood watches by state governments are indicative of a failing security system especially at the component units of the Nigerian federation. The hinterlands of Nigeria are poorly policed with strangers enforcing rules that grant citizens easy escape routes. This paper attempts a polemical explanation of the failure of strangers in federal police uniform to effectively secure lives and properties at the hinterland. The study is based on secondary sources of data and documentary approach of data analysis. The paper surmised that the present structure of the police negates federalism and creates serial squabbles between state governors and commissioners of Police. It recommends the federalization of the police in a manner that would effectively handle maintenance of law and order in the Nigerian hinterland

Governance challenges and resurgence of Igbo nationalism in Nigeria: Dissecting Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)

Purpose: The remote and immediate causes of the Nigerian civil war are rather deepening in the psyche of Ndi-Igbo in contemporary Nigerian politics and administration. Amidst the introduction of the Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation (3Rs) policy over four (4) decades ago, the Ndi-Igbo are not just marginalized but alienated and separated from political power and its benefits in an ethnically and religiously deeply divided federation. More divesting wounds are flagrantly being inflicted upon the Igbo nation. The course pursued by secessionist Biafra between 1967-70 has continued to resonate in Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This paper thus seeks to dissect the activities of IPOB in relation to national security in Nigeria. It also attempts a polemical analysis of IPOB as a separatist movement and the implications for the integration of Ndi-Igbo into the mainstream of Nigerian power politics. Research methodology: The paper adopts a qualitative research approach using an in-depth review of extant literature for informed comprehension of the dynamics of secession and unification in a deeply divided federal state of Nigeria. Using a theory of Secession: The Case for Political Self-Determination, the paper submits that treatments being meted out to the people of Igbo nation are compelling to separation. Results: It surmised that Ndi-Igbo is systematically sidelined and alienated from major political positions and that the allocation of key values is skewed against the Igbo nation. It thus recommends significant devolution of powers to foster an all-inclusive and participatory governance model. Recommendations: It also recommends the adoption and implementation of a balanced federalist accommodative principle for national cohesion, integration, and development of the Nigeria state