RECONCILING THE TWO WEST AFRICAS: MANAGING ETHNIC AND LINGUAL DIVERSITY FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION

In international politics, language is core in inter-state trust and relationship, and the West African region (or sub-region), which is multi-ethnic, culturally plural and bi- or multilingual in imported languages, may never evolve an integrated region if the diversity is not converted from source of disconnections to source of connections. At best, West Africans have regarded themselves as precolonial kinsmen but post-colonial strangers as a result of the factor of language barriers created in the years of colonial rule. The Yoruba, Ewe, Ashante, Mende, Temne and many more had similarities of languages and cultures and led a regular life of communal conflict and cooperation until the arrival of the French, English, Portuguese and Germans, who established sharp misunderstandings and divisions along the lines of European lingua franca. From a participation- observation experience and perspective, and having consulted literature and government records on futile integration efforts, the study, adopting a functionalist model for analysis, submits that the differences have led to alienation among West Africans since independence, and ECOWAS, despite its spirited commitment to regional integration by the protocol on free movement across the borders, has faced brick-walls from human and social forces engendered by language barriers. This paper looks beyond the artificial linguistic barriers inherent in the bilingual or multilingual character of West Africa, by exploring the richness of the linguistic diversity to advance the cause of regional integration. The paper strongly advocates that local languages spoken across most of the West African states such as Hausa, Mandingo, Peul and Yoruba be taught in primary and secondary schools, while ECOWAS leaders should agree on making English, French and Portuguese compulsory in all secondary schools and higher institutions in their respective countries. These will help demystify and dismantle the artificial linguistic barriers created by the accident of colonialism and make the formal and informal instruments, including ECOWAS towards integration, more functional

Reparation or Recolonization: MNCs, Foreign Investors and the New Euro- African Partnership for Development

The contemporary relationship between Africa and Europe, is not just that between two sovereign and ostensibly equal partners, but also very enormous and significant for the survival of the two continents; quite unlike in the past when it was that of the master and labourer-the labourer providing for the master’s survival-from slavery to colonialism and neo-colonialism: developments that bred deep-seated resentment and racial contempt. This paper takes a critical look at the new intense economic relationship between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa and appraises this with the view of determining whether the developments are new measures to appease Africa for the centuries of plunder, and cement Euro-African relationship; or whether they are just another set of strategies to further create a stranglehold on the continent economically and make it perpetually dependent. Indeed, the paper accomplishes its task by x-raying the influx and intense activities, in Nigeria, of MNCs and foreign investors which, to many Third World scholars, are effective instruments of neo-colonization. The paper looks at the implications of the new relationships for national development and concludes that the European presence is for meaningful partnership, but at the same time exploitative. The relationship has however increased the Nigerian government’s confidence in European business in Africa. But has it done the same for an average Nigerian, has it erased the horrific memories of the African past

Nigeria’s New “Citizen-Centered Diplomacy”: Any Lessons from the United States?

Nigeria’s repositioning of its diplomacy from an Africa-centered to a citizen-centered one under the Yar’Adua administration, represents a monumental departure and paradigm shift from an old foreign policy tradition. However, a more careful rather than vacuous conception of what it should look like and how it can be practiced is required. This paper interrogates the new policy focus and explores the American citizen diplomacy variation to see what can be learnt by Nigeria in implementing the policy. The new policy thrust does not however, put a stop to Nigeria’s Africa-centerpiece policy; and viewed from a realist perspective, the citizen-centered foreign policy could be engineered and implemented to make Nigeria regain its enviable image and more properly achieve its regional and continental leadershi

Nigeria and Africa in the 21st Century

The study critically appraises the redeemer posture of Nigeria in Africa’s plethora of dire straits in the 21st century. Like the United States once regarded it a manifest destiny to protect and exercise influence over its “backyard” in the Western Hemisphere, so does Nigeria assume a role of salvaging Africa and repositioning it, which has manifested in its Afrocentric or Africa-centered policy. The continent’s problems include a debilitating economic strangulation, civil wars, religious conflict, poverty, bad government, HIV-AIDS, underdevelopment, which continually plague the continent. Hence, a supposed promise land encounters dashed hopes because it is lost in multifaceted crises. However, Nigeria’s competence to be the “Giant” redeemer of Africa that it claims to be, is drastically impaired or eroded by a number of forces within the internal context. The paper, considers the social, political, international, and historical forces in the coloring and shaping of Nigeria’s foreign policy that make it imperative to assume a forerunner in African situation; and also seeks reasons for the “Giant’s” wasted opportunities to redeem Africa, and finds answers to thes

Biodegradable Luminescent Silicon Quantum Dots for Two Photon Imaging Applications

Cadmium- and lead-based quantum dots are normally coated for biological applications, because their degradation may result in the release of toxic heavy metal ions. Here, we synthesize silicon quantum dots that are expected to biodegrade to non-toxic products. A chitosan coating is used to render the silicon quantum dots stable in storage conditions and biodegradable at physiological conditions. The applications of these particles are demonstrated in cellular imaging with single and two-photon excitation. These results open the door for a new generation of silicon quantum dots that may have a wide variety of applications derived from the flexibility of chitosan

The Politics of International Visibility and Relevance: An Overview of Nigeria's Role Conceptions in World Politics

National Role Conception (NRC) is a fresh perspective in foreign policy analysis in Nigeria. It is however, not as new in western scholarship. Beginning with Holsti in 1970, and further explored by Walker in 1978, Wish in 1980, and Krotz in 2001, NRC has become an attractive prism by which the foreign and defence policies of nations are examined. Nations are viewed to be driven in international politics by roles they have domestically identified, which they wish to perform with the view to securing and furthering their national interest. National Role Conceptions (NRCs), the art of articulation by policymakers of the national roles for the external context, however, constitute the incubation stage of external policymaking, which involve a lot of calculations, strategizing, and rigorous analysis of cost implications of external roles to undertake. This paper examines the role conceptions of Nigeria since independence, arguing that the basic ingredients for conceiving strategic roles towards the realization of core national interest seemed lacking. It adopts the National Role Theory, and interrogates the policymaking process to determine the clarity and strategic importance of national or international roles. While the paper scooped data from oral interviews from the relevant research population and secondary sources; it concludes that Nigeria’s roles in the continent and world are motivated more by visibility and relevance, and not so much of a strategy for national development, which is the basic goal of foreign policy