Editorial

Economic Opportunity and Global Safet

The internationalisation of a domestic crisis : A case study of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, 1993-2003

The thesis focuses on the protracted tripartite conflict within and between local oilbearing communities of the Niger Delta on the one hand, and between them, the state and foreign oil multinationals in the region, on the other hand. The focus also centers around how this has attracted international attention and the impact of internationalization on the conflict itself. The series of crises have been underpinned by tortuous issues on the ground for over four decades. There was a new dimension to the struggle in the early 1990s, which redefined the focus of the crises, when organized pressure groups protested against the inhuman and environmental hazards in the region. The thesis therefore examines the interest(s) of the main actors involved in the crisis in the period between 1993 and 2003 in order to establish the issues that accounted for the involvement of the international civil societies. The thesis makes three significant arguments: one, that the differences in interests among the actors in relation to the issue of oil production and its impact on the local people laid the basis for the persistent struggle between the social movements/militant youths on one side and the state and oil multinationals operating in the region on the other. The second argument the thesis advances is that the age-long crisis in the region became an agenda for the international community in the 1990s because of the trend and impact of globalization This invariably allowed international Non-Governmental Organizations to intervene in exerting pressures on oil companies and the state to re-examine their policies in the region. Finally, the recent internationalization of the crisis has not impacted enough to significantly address the demands of the people with the locally based pressure and, later, INGOs. This approach is intended to establish a pattern of alliances in the Niger Delta crisis. It might be healthy to state, ab initio, that there was a convergence of interests between the state and MNOCs on the one hand and between the social movements, local NGOs and INGOs on the other hand. The thesis employed a multivariate form of data collection from primary sources like Multinational Oil Companies in the area especially, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), interviews with local people, NGOs and some government officials, with extensive use of secondary data on the Niger Delta. The study’s findings suggest that the internationalization of the crisis has engendered new approaches and attitudes on the part of the key actors in the Niger Delta. For its part, the state has adopted the agency approach in dealing with the issues confronting the region. Shell has increased its direct intervention efforts in addressing the demands of the local communities. However, these new approaches and attitudes have yielded minimal results in view of the militarization of the Niger Delta through the continuous deployment of troops by the state and the oil multinationals under the guise of security imperatives in response to the people’s agitations, which are poverty driven

The Dynamics of Oil and Social Movements in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

The discovery of oil in Nigeria since 1956 has inflicted a heavy burden on the local people of the Niger River Delta who have had to contend with the consequences of oil production. The grievances of these local people have persisted for more than three decades without concrete efforts on the part of the government or oil multinationals to address them. The global triumph of capitalism and the fall of communism gave the local people an opportunity to organize social movements with similar interests to international civil society to challenge the policies of successive governments and the activities of oil multinationals in the Niger Delta. This paper addresses the factors that led to a sudden upsurge in the number of social movements in the Niger Delta and how foreign NGOs have played an important role in addressing the plight of the local people of the region

EDITORIAL: Disability and Social Inclusiveness: A Coronavirus Pandemic Aftermath in the African Environment

EDITORIAL: Disability and Social Inclusiveness: A Coronavirus Pandemic Aftermath in the African Environmen

Disability and Children as Begging Guides: For how Long Shall Children be Used as Begging Guides by Visually Impaired Persons in Africa?

This study examines the effect of using children as begging guides by people with sensory disabilities in Africa. It argues that in some African countries, visually impaired persons, especially parents and relatives, have devised the strategy of abusing their children or someone very close to them as begging guides for financial gain. While this strategy has remained a recurrent problem with severe social, economic, political, and legal implications, scientific research on addressing these implications is scarce. Given this, the article examines the rationale for using children as begging guides, its effects on the children and visually impaired parents, and mitigation strategies against abuse of children as begging guides in Africa. The qualitative research design based on key informant interviews (KIIs) complemented social exclusion and childhood theoretical underpinnings of the study. Results from (KIIs) showed that poverty, religion, cultural beliefs, financial profiteering, poor governance, breakdown in policy implementation against begging are among the rationale why children are abused and used as begging guides. The results also showed that these children experience low academic performance in school, harassment, psychological trauma, health complications from laborious trekking. At the same time, their visually impaired parents suffer from regrets and guilt of not being able to provide good parental care to their children. It concludes that good rehabilitation, vocational programmes, and prompt government supports for people with sensory disabilities would lessen the abuse and use of children as begging guides in Africa

Threat to Nigeria Since 1960: A Retrospection

The post-independence Nigerian state was faced with the intractable task of governing a multifaceted nation, comprised of 36 regional states which were divided along ethno-religious lines, up to 300 ethnic groups and a plethora of linguistic dialects, in addition to three (3) distinct religious groupings. The challenge of the post-colonial Nigerian state was the efficient administration and governance of a broad-based society with a multiplicity of interests, values, traditions and cultural inclinations. The culmination of an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and dissatisfaction from different regions of Nigeria came with the advent of the Biafra secessionist battle of 1967. Following the end of the Biafra conflict, the Nigerian society became characterised with struggles and resistance against the state system in various forms, with the gripes and disquiets of various groups coming to the fore in various, often violent ways. Making use of library research and content analysis methologies, the authors trace the sequence of crises faced by the Nigerian state since independence, with a keen focus on the Biafra War of 1967, the Niger Delta crisis (particularly, the botched Amnesty Programme of 2009), as well as the current threat of Boko Haram terrorism which has taken hold of the Nigerian society since 2009. The paper concluded that, for the high ideals of Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress to be attained in Nigeria, the State must deal with corruption, ethnicity, religious fundamentalism and security related crimes, while doing more to restructure the polity and enthrone free and fair elections

Covid-19, Human Displacement, and Expanding Crises of Insecurity in Africa: The case of Almajiri Children in Nigeria

Governance failures, inadequate policy efforts, poverty, unemployment, insurgency, climate change, socio-economic downturns, religious fanatics or bandits, and other related factors have all been blamed for insecurity in Africa. This has left some holes in assessing Africa's present catastrophic insecurity situation via the prism of Covid-19 and human displacement. The research fills the gaps by presenting a fresh understanding of how Covid-19 and the illogical displacement of Almajiri children play a role in Nigeria's recent rise in instability. It makes considerable use of secondary sources and reviews empirical works on the issue. The results demonstrated that the Covid-19 shutdown sparked more banditry. Almajiri children were exposed to rebels and bandits who used them to carry out dangerous attacks on the Nigerian state. The breakout of Covid-19, according to results, partly contributed to the increase in insecurity in Nigeria

State and Hegemony in Nigeria: Implications for Environmental Politics

This paper analyses the implication of state and hegemony on environmental politics in Nigeria. It argues that Nigeria as a British colonial creation is essentially a capitalist system that was invertedly created because unlike Western systems, it is a capitalist system that is run by non-capitalists. This implies that in Nigeria, there is a palpable absence of the state which is a creation of capitalists to coordinate other superstructures. This then explains why the political class in Nigeria comprises of fractious groups that are too preoccupied with politics and material survival and as such do not have hegemony. The import of absence of the state and dearth of hegemony in Nigeria is that environmental politics is uncoordinated with cases of Niger Delta and farmers-herdsmen crises demonstrating this reality. The paper concludes hegemony-induced environmental governance can ensure nationalistic values which would treat environmental and related issues with the urgency they deserve