Although in Africa it has become quite fashionable to talk about human rights, including women's rights as human rights, and there has been considerable progress in changing norms and breaking taboos in respect of some issues, when it comes to the right of women to equal political representation with men, however, there remains considerable resistance, even hostility. Also, whereas it has become the vogue in Africa to highlight the importance of good governance, and there has been a significant increase in the number of countries operating multiparty democracy, when it comes to the issue of inclusive government and access by women to equitable distribution of state resources, little progress has been made in many countries. 1 The political and governance spaces in many African countries are dominated by men, especially the politically powerful and socially influential men. These men, better expressed as "big men," shape the contours of decision making and policy implementation in their countries, and make the instruments and legal frameworks of governance reflect their own narrow interests. These underlie the nature and character of citizenship in Africa. This chapter thus focuses on the concept and practice of citizenship in Africa using Nigeria and Tanzania as case studies. It hypothesizes that citizenship is central to the survival of contemporary states. This is because most issues of human rights revolve, at both individual and group levels, around the notion of citizenship. However, the practice of citizenship in many countries, especially in many African countries, is problematic. Specifically, the asymmetric power relations between men and women, on the one hand, and between sexual minorities and a dominantly heterosexual society, on the other hand, as well as between ethnic majorities and ethnic minorities, underlie some of the key problems of citizenship in many African countries.
Group/collective rights and individual rights are part and parcel of human rights. While both are contained in a number of national and international human rights instruments, individual rights are given more recognition, as some or all of the rights are justiciable in every society. Efforts to promote group rights have however been on a steady increase, as a number of international organisations, including the European Union and the African Union have formulated the rights and obligated their members to recognise and protect them. This article therefore interrogates group rights in Nigeria, a signatory to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, a binding legal instrument for member states of the African Union signatory to it, focusing on the extent to which they are recognised in the country, and the extent to which they are accessible to the people and protected by the State. It observes that while significant progress has been made in the area of recognition, access to and protection of group rights in Nigeria is problematic. This, the article argues, contributes to the vulnerability of social minorities such as women, children and LGBT, and to violence in the Niger Delta region.
Abstract This article interrogates the issue of the role of the legislature in social emergencies such as the covid -19 pandemic by examining the impact of the covid -19 pandemic on the legislature and the response of the legislature, using the Nigerian federal legislative institution (the National Assembly) as a case study. The aim is to distil some of the key legislative issues that have emerged since the spread of the virus to Nigeria, the challenges the legislature has faced, which have shaped its efforts to respond to the covid -19 problem, and the efforts of the legislature to address the problem. The article notes that Nigeria’s federal legislature, and indeed all legislatures, have to innovate with new ideas, technology and procedural flexibility in the performance of their traditional functions in order to ensure political accountability and remain relevant in times of emergency.
This article examines the use of private security companies in conflict management, focusing particularly on their use by states during armed conflicts and by states and multilateral institutions during international peace support operations in Africa. It observes that while armed conflicts and international peace support operations in Africa have burgeoned, the use of private security companies has increasingly been problematic. It argues however that the use of private security companies has come to stay and what should be done is to regulate and manage their operations for maximum performance.
This article interrogates reconstruction, peace building and elections in postwar Sierra Leone. It observes that while significant progress has been made, Sierra Leone's long-term stability remains questionable due to a number of issues, including poor socioeconomic growth, the increasing political exclusion of women, corruption in government, and the growing regionalisation of political power.
Purpose Banditry is a major social problem in Nigeria that has over time defied series of intervention measures introduced by the federal and state governments to address it. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the counter-banditry strategies of the affected communities in Oyo State, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The research was exploratory and cross-sectional in design. Situational criminal prevention theory was used as conceptual guide. Data were elicited from community leaders, community members and local security guards using in-depth interview, key-informant interview and focus group discussion methods. Findings The results showed that communities affected by banditry problem were adopting different internal and external interventions to combat the criminal act. Although the counter-banditry strategies of the affected communities have brought about a reduction in the occurrence of the criminal act, the problem is yet to be totally eliminated as people still get victimised. Originality/value This research expanded the frontiers of knowledge by focusing on the counter-banditry strategies of the communities affected by the problem of banditry and also suggested relevant practical steps that can be taken to further strengthen the existing security architectures in such locations.
This chapter reflects on the process of increasing the articulation of the author's position as a 'research' and 'social' subject in researching children and violence in evolving socio-political contexts. It analyses political violence both directly and retrospectively, through an analysis of the continuing relevance of the genocide legacy for the lives of those who were children at the time of violence. The chapter develops two themes: the place of research in changing socio-political environments, and the visibility and invisibility of children's experiences of violence. The first section of the chapter describes how the author's first research projects fitted and contributed to the national narrative of genocide and nation-building. The second section identifies the challenges of attempting to research those stories which did not fit with the dominant narrative. The third section offers an account of how the socio-political context influenced the author's work as a researcher and as an individual. Keywords:children; socio-political contexts; violence
The HIV and AIDS crisis is now largely construed as a (human) security issue. HIV virulence has already reached crisis proportions in many developing regions of the world, and it constitutes a threat to peace, security and development in most of Africa. Africa, more than any other region, bears the major mortality, morbidity and human security burdens of HIV and AIDS. Consecutive global AIDS epidemic updates by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) state that sub-Saharan Africa is the worst hit in comparison with other regions of the world. Every aspect of the continent’s life is directly affected by the crisis, in particular the economic, social, political, cultural and, more recently, the military and related security sectors. The impact is most visible in the rising numbers of the workforce – including the military – either dying of AIDS or unable to find a job because of society-induced stigmatization of HIV.
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