National Security and Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria since 1999: Implication for the Vision 20:2020

Global terrorism constitutes a veritable threat to international peace and security. On the other hand, Nigeria has witnessed sustained attacks through militancy and other forms of insurgency orchestrated by different groups since the inception of the 4th Republic in 1999. The operations of these armed groups with varying and conflictual ideological, political and ethno-religious agenda have become ominous to Nigeria’s quest of joining the league of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020 as encapsulated in the Vision 20:2020 Economic Transformation Blueprint. This paper, therefore, examines the implication of militancy on the actualisation of the Vision 20:2020. Using the Radical Approach to National Security, the paper concludes that the answer to the national security question, sustainable economic development and the Vision 20:2020 is hinged on the welfare and security of the people. The paper recommends the formulation and effective implementation of populist policies and programmes capable of addressing the underlying causes of insurgency in Nigeria. These would invariably place Nigeria on the path of sustainable economic development thereby boosting its prospect of actualizing the Vision 20:2020. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n5p12

Implementation of the Yaounde Code of Conduct and Maritime Insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea

The transnational character of maritime insecurity has made trans-border cooperation a sine qua non in the mitigation of illicit maritime activities the world over. The resource-laden Gulf of Guinea region has remained largely under-utilized due to the high incidence of piracy, sea banditry and other associated crimes within the maritime domain. This study investigated the interface between the implementation of the Yaoundé Code of Conduct of June 2013 and maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea. Utilizing the Marxist Political Economy paradigm, the study found that the repressive measures adopted in the Code of Conduct were implicated in the rising spate of piracy and armed robbery at sea within the region. Consequently, it recommended that the key stakeholders, especially the Signatories to the Code of Conduct, members of the ECOWAS, ECCAS, GGC, among others should fashion and implement an all-inclusive security policy that would address the structural and economic disarticulation in these littoral states which accounted for the origin and sustainment of the illicit maritime activities. Keywords: Yaoundé, Code of Conduct, piracy, armed robbery, repressive measures, Marxist political econom

Contentious elections, political exclusion, and challenges of national integration in Nigeria

The roles of hate speech, ethnicity and region were very central to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. Essentially, the elections created “mobilisational gaps”, built around religion and ethnicity. These factors shaped the pre- and post-election periods and divisions between ethnic groups associated with the incumbent regime (in-group) and other ethnic groups (out-group). This triggered widespread inter-group mistrust and insecurity which have conduced into post-election appointments along primordial lines like religion, region and ethnicity. Consequently, political inclusion and national integration have become elusive. Despite the emphasis of Goal #10.2 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on political inclusion of everyone irrespective of race and ethnicity, post-election appointments have been divisive. Using qualitative research approach, this paper investigates the link between the outcome of the 2015 presidential election, political exclusion and national integration in Nigeria. It posits that democratisation of politics is the panacea for political tension in Nigeria

Elixir of electoral fraud: The impact of digital technology on the 2015 general elections in Nigeria

The democratisation of politics in most post-colonial formations like Nigeria has not been successful in terms of reducing the incidence of voter intimidation, ballot box snatching/stuffing, multiple voting, falsification of results and other associated electoral malfeasance. Thus, electoral democracy in the country is inseparable from monumental and brazen electoral manipulations. Besides the role of civil society organisations and other principal stakeholders in elections, the introduction of a biometric smart card reader for the authentication of voters’ cards seems to have made most of these electoral ills largely unworkable. Specifically, this essay investigated the role of the card reader in improving the credibility of the 2015 General Elections in Nigeria. The study is a qualitative research and it relied on the cybernetics model of communications theory. It found that the novel technology has rekindled the confidence of most Nigerian voters and international partners. Consequently, e-voting should be adopted as a tool for curbing electoral fraud in the country