A farewell to innocence? African youth and violence in the twenty-first century

This is a broad examination of the issue of youth violence in twenty-first-century Africa, looking at the context within which a youth culture of violence has evolved and attempting to understand the underlining discourses of hegemony and power that drive it. The article focuses specifically on youth violence as a political response to the dynamics of (dis)empowerment, exclusion, and economic crisis and uses (post)conflict states like Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria to explain not just the overall challenge of youth violence but also the nature of responses that it has elicited from established structures of authority. Youth violence is in many ways an expression of youth agency in the context of a social and economic system that provides little opportunity

South-South and Regional Cooperation for Peace building in West Africa

The paper appraises the existing framework for peace building in West Africa under the auspices of ECOWAS as the multilateral platform for south-south cooperation, with specific focus on Liberia and Sierra-Leone. The critical question for interrogation in the paper is the extent to which south-south cooperation framework (both multilateral and bilateral) has been successfully utilized in post-conflict reconstruction and development in West Africa. The paper argues that unlike in other climes, post-conflict reconstruction in West Africa usually involves multiple complex emergencies arising from the collapse of central administration (failed state phenomenon) and its attendant consequences. Under these circumstances, relative success has been recorded in multilateral regional cooperation in peace building and post-conflict reconstruction. The capacity for sustained post-conflict reconstruction through regional framework, is however weak due to political and economic constraints. A significant factor in the success story recorded in West Africa peace building project is the immense contribution of Nigeria, in strengthening ECOWAS multilateral peace-building initiatives in West Africa. The paper concludes that the West African experience has demonstrated the necessity of South-South and Triangular Cooperation as a more viable approach to peace building and post-conflict reconstruction.

Nigerian London: re-mapping space and ethnicity in superdiverse cities

This paper explores the idea of ‘superdiversity’ at the city level through two churches with different approaches to architectural visibility: the hypervisible Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the invisible Igbo Catholic Church, both in North London, guide our exploration of invisible Nigerian London. Although Nigerians have lived in London for over 200 years, they live beneath the radar of policy and public recognition rather than as a vital and visible element of superdiversity. This paper argues that we can trace the journeys composing Nigerian London in the deep textures of the city thus making it visible, but this involves re-mapping space and ethnicity. It argues that visibility is vital in generating more open forms of urban encounter and, ultimately, citizenship

Youths, Violence and the Collapse of Public Order in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

No Abstract Available Africa Development Vol.XXVI, Nos 1&2, 2001: 337-36

Oiling Regional Insecurity ? The implications of the Niger Delta Crisis for Security and Stability in the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa

Since ‘Oil Policy in the Gulf of Guinea: Security and Conflict, Economic Growth and Social Development’ (Traub-Merz and Yates, 2004), the regional complexities and implications of the deepening crisis in Nigeria’s volatile Niger Delta region has drawn lesser attention in scholarship. This paper argues that the dangerous twist of events in Nigeria’s delta- notably the June 2008 surprise attack on Shell- operated Bonga offshore oil platform located deep into the Atlantic Ocean- has turned the Gulf of Guinea straddled between West and Central Africa into a putative security quandary. To grasp the diverse regional ramifications of insurgency activities in the Niger Delta, the paper interrogates the following questions: In what different ways, is the delta insurgency driving the militarisation and securitisation of the Niger Delta, Gulf of Guinea and West Africa? What would the ongoing attempts toward greater integration of West Africa into a transnational and globalised security arrangement by key western countries portend for national and regional security? As the epicentre of world oil production shift to weak and unstable developing countries in the region, and elsewhere across Africa, how might this shift affect the security needs and concerns of countries in the Gulf of Guinea? In the specific case of the oil producing countries within the Gulf of Guinea that are currently experiencing varying degrees of governance failures and regimes instability, how is the Niger Delta crisis compound their domestic security problems? How might they, individually and collectively, pursue their security needs with/out excessive external manipulations and considerations? What role, if any, should ECOWAS (and other pan-Africa organisations) play in addressing the far-reaching security concerns arising from growing insurgency in the Niger Delta

From Aba to Ugborodo: gender identity and alternative discourse of social protest among women in the oil delta of Nigeria

From the outset of the 1990s, the Niger Delta became a hotbed of communal rivalries and violent protests by deprived oil communities against the alliance of the Nigerian State and multinational oil companies. Community grievances mostly revolved around issues such as ecological degradation, unemployment and dearth of basic social amenities. In 2002 a wave of protests by women from different ethnic groups led to the occupation of major oil platforms. This paper contextualizes the separate protests against the background of crude oil-induced violent conflicts in the Niger Delta. It explores the various dimensions of the revolts, drawing on historical antecedents of gender-specific social actions in Nigeria. Finally, it examines how the protests and occupation of oil platforms by women challenge orthodox wisdom about the autonomous agency of women in stimulating alternative social and political discourses and actions.

Post-War Regimes and State Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone

The shocks of the unexpected outbreak of violent internal armed conflicts in post Cold War West Africa continue to linger in policy and academic circles. While considerable attention is devoted to explaining the civil wars, there is little understanding of the delicate and unpredictable processes of reconstruction. Post-war reconstruction programmes in Africa have become, by and large, externally driven processes; and while externalisation may not be negative per se, it is important to interrogate how such intervention recognises and interacts with local dynamics, and how it manipulates and conditions the outcomes of post-conflict reconstruction agenda. Investigating the interface between power elite, the nature of post-war regimes and the pattern which post-war reconstruction takes is important both for theory and practice. This original study, by some of West Africa's leading scholars, interrogates post-war reconstruction processes in the twin West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, focusing on the effects of regime types on the nature, scope, success or failure of their post-war reconstruction efforts. Political scientists, diplomats, the international community, donor and humanitarian agencies, advocacy groups, the United Nations and its agencies, would find it an important resource in dealing with countries emerging from protracted violence and civil war

State Taxation of the Motorcycle Transport Business and Internally Generated Revenue in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, 2015 to 2021

In classical literatures, the informal sector is regarded as all those economic activities that are neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government. However, with the downturn of economic activities in Nigeria due to the dwindling oil revenue which forms the major revenue generation and export earnings of Nigeria, the informal sector, specifically the motorcycle transport business popularly known in Nigeria as Okada has come under some form of government taxation and monitoring in some states in the country. This was to shore up their revenue base which has dwindled over the years. Extant literatures have not been able to examine the contribution of informal sector, specifically, the motorcycle transport business to internally generated revenue of the sub-units, especially Ebonyi State within the period under study. Thus, we pose the question: has the taxation of the motorcycle transport business operation improved on the internally generated revenue of Ebonyi State between 2015 and 2021? We anchored our analysis on Public Choice Theory of politics and economics. Data for the study were collected through both primary and secondary sources. The study found that despite the intensive taxation of the informal sector in Ebonyi State, specifically, the motorcycle transport business; the internally generated revenue of the state seems to be decreasing rather than increasing, given the number of taxable objects that has been brought under its internally generated revenue sources. The study recommended that the government should do more in the area of its internally generated revenue to ensure efficiency in collectability and remittances