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MARTIN OGUNBANJO

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Martin Abimbola Ogunbanjo teaches in the Department of Government, Lagos State University, School of Basic and Advanced Studies, Lagos, Nigeria. He is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations, ESTAM University, Cotonou, Republic of Benin. He received B.A. degree (Upper Division) from University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, majoring in Philosophy and Political Science, M.Sc. degree in Political Science from same University of Ibadan, majoring in International Relations, and presently on the verge of earning a Ph.D. in International Relations (Viva Stage) from Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. Ogunbanjo is a highly resourceful and result-oriented Political Scientist with an aptitude and enthusiasm for teaching and conducting complex research subjects, and a commitment to mentoring and guiding students to become knowledgeable, competent, and well-rounded graduates who reflect critically, serve ethically, and lead intentionally in a diverse world. He has proven track record of delivering engaging, informative and educative lectures, and facilitating dynamic discussions. His teaching and research expertise is in International Relations, Comparative Political Institutions, African Politics, Political Theory, and Human Rights. Ogunbanjo has authored and co-authored over eighty multiple engaging and intellectual papers and reviews in his areas of expertise. He has attended and presented scholarly papers at conferences both in and outside of Nigeria. He is a dedicated educator with great intellectual provenance, outstanding interpersonal and communication skills, and collaborative approach to teaching and learning. He strives to make an institution’s campus a respectful, engaged community that embraces difference, with all the complexity and individuality each person brings. Ogunbanjo is a change agent with relentless determination to create stable, timeless entity that outlives personalities and withstands operational and environmental variables. His prime aim is surely focused on offering teaching and scholarship that are aligned with and will advance institutional culture of diversity and belonging.
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Address: 4, Ebun Olojede Street c/o Mrs. A. S. Odusote Mazamaza, Old Ojo Road, 4, Ebun Olojede Street, Kuje – Amuwo, Mazamaza, Old Ojo Road, La

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Papers by MARTIN OGUNBANJO

GLOBALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Terrorism and Counterterrorism in a Changing World

This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

The Nigerian State and Resource Question in an Era of Socio-Political and Economic Turbulence

Trend and Patterns of Insurgency in the Nigerian State: Issues and Possible Solutions

This paper explores the trend and patterns of insurgency in the Nigerian state. It identifies the... more This paper explores the trend and patterns of insurgency in the Nigerian state. It identifies the various issues and proffers solutions to submerge the insurgency threats. No doubt, insurgencies usually occur in different forms and there is an urgent need to curtail the menace with timely, adequate and accurate intelligence. This paper critically examines the modus operandi adopted by the insurgent groups in perpetrating their nefarious activities on innocent Nigerians, property and government installations. As it explores the basic and contemporary threats, it brings into the fore how the insurgents took advantage to attack the populace consequent upon the weak nature and character of the Nigerian state. This paper is anchored on desktop study; secondary data collection method, and its theoretical thrust is anchored on State fragility theory. This theory is utilised to explain the present situation regarding insecurity, socioeconomic issues inter alia. This paper reveals how the government of the Nigerian state has lost her grip in terms of security, socioeconomic , and stability of the nation. It shows that these pitfalls have given the insurgents the impetus to perpetrate their nefarious acts on both Nigeria and Nigerians without being apprehended and prosecuted. Findings have shown that both the government and security agencies lack synergy, rather they are working in silos as the root cause(s) of threats were not tackled, and intelligence sharing were not well documented, coordinated and utilised. The paper concludes with recommendations that the Intelligence Community (IC) should be strengthened and harmonised, joint database and intelligence sharing should be adopted amongst the security agencies and IC, provision of technical gadgets and training of personnel to counteract insurgency should be intensified, and that enactment of laws against insurgency and its sponsors must be strictly enforced.

The Politics and Discourse of Human Righ

This paper begins with a brief overview of the role of power before moving to examine the politic... more This paper begins with a brief overview of the role of power before moving to examine the politics of the current human rights regime within the institutions of the United Nations Organization. The argument presented here is that the birth of the human rights regime cannot be understood solely as a response to the horrors of Nazism, as is often claimed. This paper stresses that while the shock of the concentration camps and the revelations of the Holocaust certainly played a part, a further insight is gained by looking at the postwar regime as a response to international and domestic economic interests. It opines that following the collapse of the Cold War, and the decline in influence of the socialist states, an understanding of universal human rights that serve particular interests has achieved even greater legitimacy than in the past. In short, economic and social rights that could have empowered the poor in their fight against exploitation and exclusion, now take second place to civil and political rights, or those rights that support freedom in the private sphere of economic interests. This paper then looks in detail at the tripartite structure of human rights discourse. It argues that the dominant conception of human rights reflects the central principles upon which the current global order is built, including ideas of economic growth and development, individualism, and free market economics. This paper emphasizes that, as in other eras, hegemonic power does not rely upon force and the threat of force alone, but also seeks to maintain order by providing a normative framework that justifies the activities of particular interests. It shows that in the current period, the responses to violations have centred largely upon the formal machinery developed for protecting human rights, which assumes that the individual is responsible for his or her actions. This largely ignores the possibility that the causes of violations may be found within the social, economic and political structures that define the current order.

War and Peace have been one of the key institutions of the practice of international relations, a... more War and Peace have been one of the key institutions of the practice of international relations, and have always been central to the study of international relations. This paper begins by examining how the concepts of war and peace have been defined. It outlines three different philosophies of war. It scrutinizes not only the nature of war, but also the quintessential approaches to war and peace. This paper emphasizes that for some countries, such as the United States, the use of advanced technology to achieve dramatic victories against conventional armies has led to suggestions that a revolution in military affairs is under way. It provides a detailed and up-to-date analysis of the nature, character and logic of post-modern war. This paper explores the major trends in armed conflicts since 1945 and asks who is doing the fighting and the dying in the world's contemporary war zones. It points out that although the threat of major war between the great powers has receded with the end of the Cold War, many parts of the world are still suffering from ongoing armed conflicts or trying to overcome the legacies of old ones. Particularly in parts of the developing world, war remains a considerable source of insecurity. This paper discusses whether the nature of warfare is changing by analyzing recent debates about the idea of total war; the extent to which globalization has produced a novel form of armed conflict commonly referred to as 'new wars'; and the characteristics influencing how Western states have used military force in the contemporary period. The final section of this paper focuses on the possibilities for peace.

Religion and Globalization

Since about 1980, globalization has rapidly become one of the most employed and debated concepts ... more Since about 1980, globalization has rapidly become one of the most employed and debated concepts of our time. But it has also acquired buzzword status, invoked in a broad range of contexts and for a large number of purposes. Globalization has many dimensions in the twenty-first century. The challenges of global politics include the practice of governance and democracy in a world of diverse economic and social realities. As cultures meet, religions act and interact within core areas, along adjoining borders, and in far-flung diasporas. The encounter between religion and globalization is a crucial feature of our world. In this paper, the phases of globalization and their characteristics as well as religion as a source of opposition to globalization will be examined. There will be a definition of globalization, an examination of the models of the phases of globalization and then a proposal for a personal model. Having established the phases of globalization and their characteristics, effort is turned to describing religion in each phase. This paper will also provide a few brief comments on five dimensions of globalization, and then examine religious complaints against globalization from two diametrically opposed perspectives: Islamism, which has been successful in rallying opposition to globalization, and liberal Christianity, which has not. As different as these two complaints are in style and substance, they are structurally similar. Religious opposition to globalization is based on demands for justice and a defense of tradition.

Privatization and Nigeria's Quest for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in the Twenty-First Century

This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

Neo-Realism and Neo-Liberalism in Global Politics: Towards Assessing the Intellectual Siblings

In international relations (IR) there are many perspectives or ways of looking at a phenomenon. R... more In international relations (IR) there are many perspectives or ways of looking at a phenomenon. Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, Behaviouralism are some of the major perspectives in international relations (IR). And in this perspective it also has derivatives that can be said to perfect previous perspectives. This is because the phenomenon of international relations (IR) is increasingly diverse and needs new perspectives that are able to provide choices for scholars to view the phenomenon. Perspectives that experience these derivatives are neo-realism which is a derivative of realism and neo-liberalism derived from liberalism. This paper reviews the core assumptions of neorealism and neo-liberalism and explores the debate between these intellectual siblings that have dominated mainstream academic scholarship in international relations (IR). It emphasizes that in light of the demise of the Soviet Union and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet forces from Central Europe, the debate between neo-realism and neo-liberal institutionalism has taken on a new relevance. Realism and neo-realism, and to some extent neoliberalism, have also had a profound impact on US foreign policy. Neo-realists dominate the world of security studies and neo-liberals focus on political economy and more recently on issues like human rights and the environment. These theories do not offer starkly contrasting images of the world. Neorealists state that they are concerned with issues of survival. They claim that neo-liberals are too optimistic about the possibilities for cooperation among states. Neo-liberals counter with claims that all states have mutual interests and can gain from cooperation. Both are normative theories of a sort, biased towards the state, the capitalist market, and the status quo. The processes of globalization have forced neo-realists and neo-liberals to consider similar issues and address new challenges to

Voting Behaviour and Political Institutions in the Twenty-First Century

Political Parties and Federalism In Nigeria: Understanding the Evolution of the Dialectical Relationship

Critical Role of Inter-Governmental Organizations in Global and Regional Environmental Cooperation

Global environmental cooperation does not occur in a vacuum. It is initiated, encouraged, coordin... more Global environmental cooperation does not occur in a vacuum. It is initiated, encouraged, coordinated, strengthened and monitored by a series of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), with exclusive or partial environmental mandates. The environment as an issue for global governance organizations appeared on the international agenda in the late 1960s. Despite its relatively recent entry, the intersection between environment and development has gone on to become a central focus of global governance ever since, and IGOs have played a critical role in this process. This paper reviews the functions and operation of existing global and regional IGOs as they pertain to global environmental governance. It examines some of the more interesting lines of inquiry into their role in the international political system, both individually and as a collective whole, and how they have been applied in research on environmental IGOs to further our understanding of this set of actors. These include the extent to which IGOs are autonomous actors, how to assess their performance and impacts, how to manage links and overlap between them, and the emergence of regional IGOs, adding a new dimension to this field. Finally, this paper outlines possible future trajectories and reforms for this complex institutional terrain.

HUMAN SECURITY IN A GLOBAL AGE

Human Security has been part of academic and policy discourses since it was first promoted by the... more Human Security has been part of academic and policy discourses since it was first promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 1994 Human Development Report. It means protecting fundamental freedoms. It means protecting people from critical (severe) and pervasive (widespread) threats and situations. It means using processes that build on people's strengths and aspirations. It means creating political, social, environmental, economic, military, and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival. This paper examines the origins of the concept of human security, debates surrounding its definition and scope, some of the threats to human security in the world today, and international efforts to promote human security. It proceeds in five parts. The section, 'What is human security?', traces the origin and evolution of the concept, examines competing definitions offered by scholars and policy-makers, draws attention to the three distinct conceptions of human security that shape current debates, and takes a look at the usefulness of the concept of human security. The section that follows offers a brief overview of some contributions to the human security literature. The next section reviews debates and controversies about human security, especially over the analytic and policy relevance of the notion, and the broad and narrow meaning of the concept ('freedom from fear' versus 'freedom from want'). The fourth section examines some of the threats to human security today. While the concept of human security encompasses a wide range of threats, due to lack of space, this section will focus on the trends in armed conflicts as well as the interrelationship between conflict and other violence threats to human security, such as poverty, disease, and environmental degradation. The final section analyzes the international community's efforts to promote human security and concludes by identifying the major challenges to promoting the notion of human security today.

Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and Sustainable Development in Turbulent Times 'Bimbo OGUNBANJO, PhD Department of Government Lagos State University School of Basic and Advanced Studies Lagos, Nigeria

This paper stresses that sustainable development has become part of the historical process linked... more This paper stresses that sustainable development has become part of the historical process linked to economics and political structures, transformed both existentially and by economic growth, but inextricably linked with the expansion and contraction of the world economic system. It reviews the contribution of indigenous peoples to the transformation of the sustainable development concept and its practices. This paper points out that indigenous peoples have fought hard to make it obligatory under national and international laws that biodiversity conservation and sustainable development projects in their territories should only be attempted when these initiatives unequivocally endorse the complete implementation of their human rights as individuals and as peoples. By discussing how indigenous peoples have dealt with the challenges posed by the sustainable development paradigm, this paper also contributes to the ongoing discussion that links management of sustainable development to implementation of human rights.

TIMBOU-AFRICA ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

TIMBOU-AFRICA ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

A Critical Review of Democracy and the Aftermath of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria

There is no denying that Nigeria has democratized significantly since the end of military dictato... more There is no denying that Nigeria has democratized significantly since the end of military dictatorship in 1999. The paper examines democracy and Nigeria's 2023 general elections while accounting for various factors that affected the course of events and the outcome. The Nigerian state has experienced a surge of democratic advancements throughout the last several decades. A democracy is a system of governance where voters elect representatives to office via free and fair elections. The standard of democracy is a free and fair election. Put another way, democracy suggests that the people have the power to choose their leaders. A democratic system is distinguished from any other by the political right of the people to choose their leaders through a free and fair election process. The general election of 2023 is the seventh in a series of elections held since Nigeria's return to civil rule in 1999. Despite this, Nigeria's democracy has proven difficult to navigate because of the country's diverse ethnic and religious population, the frequency of military takeovers, and its underdeveloped economy. The introduction of new technology by the Independent National Electoral Commission, such as the Bi-modal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), to enhance poll administration in 2023 ultimately made the general elections that year in Nigeria a significant test of the country's democratic progress. The Electoral Act 2022, which brought changes intended to better organize pre-election procedures in a timely manner and to increase transparency in the collation and reporting of results, provided support for this confidence. The general elections of 2023 took place in a very controversial and contested environment, similar to other elections in Nigeria. This included significant insecurity and unclear government policies implemented prior to the poll. Utilizing a qualitative methodology that incorporated data from secondary sources and historical analysis, the study discovered that the election did not meet the legitimate and reasonable expectations of the Nigerian people. Several accredited election observation groups reported that the election's credibility was severely damaged by several procedural errors, including ineffective management of the distribution of permanent voters cards (PVCs), a breakdown in operational and logistical planning, malfunctioning election technology, instances of vote manipulation, political violence, a lack of transparency in the process of collating and declaring results, and inadequate crisis communication. Taking into account the urgent problems that Nigeria is currently facing, such as pervasive poverty, rampant corruption, and insecurity, in addition to a deficient electoral system that has impeded voter turnout in previous elections. Thus, the study suggested, among other things, bolstering the electoral body's independence, putting policies in place to guarantee that there is no fraud or manipulation of the election, and making sure that the election represents the will of the people. Future Nigerian general elections will be more successful in fostering better democracy and a more stable post-election environment if these strategies are put into practice.

International Political Theory and Globa

As environmental problems transcend national boundaries, they come to be a feature of internation... more As environmental problems transcend national boundaries, they come to be a feature of international politics. This paper seeks to draw a distinction between two ways of thinking about the relationship between international political theory and the global environment. It scrutinizes five sets of arguments which suggest that the traditionalist account of the scope of international political theory provides an inadequate basis for apprehending, comprehending and rationalizing the problems of global environmental change, and which, in disparate ways and to a varied extent, do indeed open up the possibility of a 'fundamental discontinuity in the system of states'. This paper points out that detailed consideration of these arguments is imperative both to understand and illuminate the still very important state-centred agenda of 'traditional' international political theory and to understand the ways in which environmental problems and politics may be altering dominant frames of reference and suggesting a broader, if murkier, scope for international political theory. This paper also indicates that environmental issues have become increasingly prominent on the international agenda over the last sixty years assisted by the effects of globalization. It shows how this has prompted attempts to arrange cooperation between states and surveys the form and function of such activity with reference to some of the main international environmental regimes. Because climate change has become a problem of such enormous significance, a separate section is devoted to the efforts to create an international climate regime. This is followed by a brief consideration of how some of the theoretical parts of international relations (IR) relate to international environmental politics.

International Dimensions and Dynamics of Policy-Making

The days when policy researchers could count upon domestic politics and society to contribute suf... more The days when policy researchers could count upon domestic politics and society to contribute sufficient data for a satisfactory analysis are now a memory. Whether policy researchers are prepared to enter another analytical universe or not, the accelerating flow of ideas, information, goods and money across national borders has affected the nature of policy problems, reshaped the attempts to engage these problems and thus reoriented the way in which explanations of policy-making can be productively pursued. The big questions that animate policy studies may not have changed, but the available data and the concepts needed to analyze them have been shifting. This paper will seek to connect these emerging global dynamics to long recognized drivers of policy-making and present a conceptual framework that can help in understanding the resulting interactions. Enhancing the linkage between theoretical frameworks that have informed international relations and public policy concepts promises a better understanding of policy-making in a volatile universe. This paper will consider the value of applying a network perspective on understanding global influences through four stages of consideration. Initially it will examine the concept of globalization and briefly assess the implications that it raises for studying policy-making. Next, the paper will turn to the literature on policy communities and policy networks to highlight tools that can be used in assessing global influences on policy subsystems. Then, it will consider the concept of policy paradigms and contemplate the role that ideational influences play in modulating global impacts on policy. Finally, a fourfold typology of internationalized policy environments will be presented, in order to illuminate how particular configurations of policy communities and networks can refract the global influences on governance. In conclusion, the dynamic role of policy community mediators in trying to steer subsystem responses to global forces will briefly be considered.

GLOBALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Terrorism and Counterterrorism in a Changing World

This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

The Nigerian State and Resource Question in an Era of Socio-Political and Economic Turbulence

Trend and Patterns of Insurgency in the Nigerian State: Issues and Possible Solutions

This paper explores the trend and patterns of insurgency in the Nigerian state. It identifies the... more This paper explores the trend and patterns of insurgency in the Nigerian state. It identifies the various issues and proffers solutions to submerge the insurgency threats. No doubt, insurgencies usually occur in different forms and there is an urgent need to curtail the menace with timely, adequate and accurate intelligence. This paper critically examines the modus operandi adopted by the insurgent groups in perpetrating their nefarious activities on innocent Nigerians, property and government installations. As it explores the basic and contemporary threats, it brings into the fore how the insurgents took advantage to attack the populace consequent upon the weak nature and character of the Nigerian state. This paper is anchored on desktop study; secondary data collection method, and its theoretical thrust is anchored on State fragility theory. This theory is utilised to explain the present situation regarding insecurity, socioeconomic issues inter alia. This paper reveals how the government of the Nigerian state has lost her grip in terms of security, socioeconomic , and stability of the nation. It shows that these pitfalls have given the insurgents the impetus to perpetrate their nefarious acts on both Nigeria and Nigerians without being apprehended and prosecuted. Findings have shown that both the government and security agencies lack synergy, rather they are working in silos as the root cause(s) of threats were not tackled, and intelligence sharing were not well documented, coordinated and utilised. The paper concludes with recommendations that the Intelligence Community (IC) should be strengthened and harmonised, joint database and intelligence sharing should be adopted amongst the security agencies and IC, provision of technical gadgets and training of personnel to counteract insurgency should be intensified, and that enactment of laws against insurgency and its sponsors must be strictly enforced.

The Politics and Discourse of Human Righ

This paper begins with a brief overview of the role of power before moving to examine the politic... more This paper begins with a brief overview of the role of power before moving to examine the politics of the current human rights regime within the institutions of the United Nations Organization. The argument presented here is that the birth of the human rights regime cannot be understood solely as a response to the horrors of Nazism, as is often claimed. This paper stresses that while the shock of the concentration camps and the revelations of the Holocaust certainly played a part, a further insight is gained by looking at the postwar regime as a response to international and domestic economic interests. It opines that following the collapse of the Cold War, and the decline in influence of the socialist states, an understanding of universal human rights that serve particular interests has achieved even greater legitimacy than in the past. In short, economic and social rights that could have empowered the poor in their fight against exploitation and exclusion, now take second place to civil and political rights, or those rights that support freedom in the private sphere of economic interests. This paper then looks in detail at the tripartite structure of human rights discourse. It argues that the dominant conception of human rights reflects the central principles upon which the current global order is built, including ideas of economic growth and development, individualism, and free market economics. This paper emphasizes that, as in other eras, hegemonic power does not rely upon force and the threat of force alone, but also seeks to maintain order by providing a normative framework that justifies the activities of particular interests. It shows that in the current period, the responses to violations have centred largely upon the formal machinery developed for protecting human rights, which assumes that the individual is responsible for his or her actions. This largely ignores the possibility that the causes of violations may be found within the social, economic and political structures that define the current order.

War and Peace have been one of the key institutions of the practice of international relations, a... more War and Peace have been one of the key institutions of the practice of international relations, and have always been central to the study of international relations. This paper begins by examining how the concepts of war and peace have been defined. It outlines three different philosophies of war. It scrutinizes not only the nature of war, but also the quintessential approaches to war and peace. This paper emphasizes that for some countries, such as the United States, the use of advanced technology to achieve dramatic victories against conventional armies has led to suggestions that a revolution in military affairs is under way. It provides a detailed and up-to-date analysis of the nature, character and logic of post-modern war. This paper explores the major trends in armed conflicts since 1945 and asks who is doing the fighting and the dying in the world's contemporary war zones. It points out that although the threat of major war between the great powers has receded with the end of the Cold War, many parts of the world are still suffering from ongoing armed conflicts or trying to overcome the legacies of old ones. Particularly in parts of the developing world, war remains a considerable source of insecurity. This paper discusses whether the nature of warfare is changing by analyzing recent debates about the idea of total war; the extent to which globalization has produced a novel form of armed conflict commonly referred to as 'new wars'; and the characteristics influencing how Western states have used military force in the contemporary period. The final section of this paper focuses on the possibilities for peace.

Religion and Globalization

Since about 1980, globalization has rapidly become one of the most employed and debated concepts ... more Since about 1980, globalization has rapidly become one of the most employed and debated concepts of our time. But it has also acquired buzzword status, invoked in a broad range of contexts and for a large number of purposes. Globalization has many dimensions in the twenty-first century. The challenges of global politics include the practice of governance and democracy in a world of diverse economic and social realities. As cultures meet, religions act and interact within core areas, along adjoining borders, and in far-flung diasporas. The encounter between religion and globalization is a crucial feature of our world. In this paper, the phases of globalization and their characteristics as well as religion as a source of opposition to globalization will be examined. There will be a definition of globalization, an examination of the models of the phases of globalization and then a proposal for a personal model. Having established the phases of globalization and their characteristics, effort is turned to describing religion in each phase. This paper will also provide a few brief comments on five dimensions of globalization, and then examine religious complaints against globalization from two diametrically opposed perspectives: Islamism, which has been successful in rallying opposition to globalization, and liberal Christianity, which has not. As different as these two complaints are in style and substance, they are structurally similar. Religious opposition to globalization is based on demands for justice and a defense of tradition.

Privatization and Nigeria's Quest for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in the Twenty-First Century

This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

Neo-Realism and Neo-Liberalism in Global Politics: Towards Assessing the Intellectual Siblings

In international relations (IR) there are many perspectives or ways of looking at a phenomenon. R... more In international relations (IR) there are many perspectives or ways of looking at a phenomenon. Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, Behaviouralism are some of the major perspectives in international relations (IR). And in this perspective it also has derivatives that can be said to perfect previous perspectives. This is because the phenomenon of international relations (IR) is increasingly diverse and needs new perspectives that are able to provide choices for scholars to view the phenomenon. Perspectives that experience these derivatives are neo-realism which is a derivative of realism and neo-liberalism derived from liberalism. This paper reviews the core assumptions of neorealism and neo-liberalism and explores the debate between these intellectual siblings that have dominated mainstream academic scholarship in international relations (IR). It emphasizes that in light of the demise of the Soviet Union and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet forces from Central Europe, the debate between neo-realism and neo-liberal institutionalism has taken on a new relevance. Realism and neo-realism, and to some extent neoliberalism, have also had a profound impact on US foreign policy. Neo-realists dominate the world of security studies and neo-liberals focus on political economy and more recently on issues like human rights and the environment. These theories do not offer starkly contrasting images of the world. Neorealists state that they are concerned with issues of survival. They claim that neo-liberals are too optimistic about the possibilities for cooperation among states. Neo-liberals counter with claims that all states have mutual interests and can gain from cooperation. Both are normative theories of a sort, biased towards the state, the capitalist market, and the status quo. The processes of globalization have forced neo-realists and neo-liberals to consider similar issues and address new challenges to

Voting Behaviour and Political Institutions in the Twenty-First Century

Political Parties and Federalism In Nigeria: Understanding the Evolution of the Dialectical Relationship

Critical Role of Inter-Governmental Organizations in Global and Regional Environmental Cooperation

Global environmental cooperation does not occur in a vacuum. It is initiated, encouraged, coordin... more Global environmental cooperation does not occur in a vacuum. It is initiated, encouraged, coordinated, strengthened and monitored by a series of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), with exclusive or partial environmental mandates. The environment as an issue for global governance organizations appeared on the international agenda in the late 1960s. Despite its relatively recent entry, the intersection between environment and development has gone on to become a central focus of global governance ever since, and IGOs have played a critical role in this process. This paper reviews the functions and operation of existing global and regional IGOs as they pertain to global environmental governance. It examines some of the more interesting lines of inquiry into their role in the international political system, both individually and as a collective whole, and how they have been applied in research on environmental IGOs to further our understanding of this set of actors. These include the extent to which IGOs are autonomous actors, how to assess their performance and impacts, how to manage links and overlap between them, and the emergence of regional IGOs, adding a new dimension to this field. Finally, this paper outlines possible future trajectories and reforms for this complex institutional terrain.

HUMAN SECURITY IN A GLOBAL AGE

Human Security has been part of academic and policy discourses since it was first promoted by the... more Human Security has been part of academic and policy discourses since it was first promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 1994 Human Development Report. It means protecting fundamental freedoms. It means protecting people from critical (severe) and pervasive (widespread) threats and situations. It means using processes that build on people's strengths and aspirations. It means creating political, social, environmental, economic, military, and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival. This paper examines the origins of the concept of human security, debates surrounding its definition and scope, some of the threats to human security in the world today, and international efforts to promote human security. It proceeds in five parts. The section, 'What is human security?', traces the origin and evolution of the concept, examines competing definitions offered by scholars and policy-makers, draws attention to the three distinct conceptions of human security that shape current debates, and takes a look at the usefulness of the concept of human security. The section that follows offers a brief overview of some contributions to the human security literature. The next section reviews debates and controversies about human security, especially over the analytic and policy relevance of the notion, and the broad and narrow meaning of the concept ('freedom from fear' versus 'freedom from want'). The fourth section examines some of the threats to human security today. While the concept of human security encompasses a wide range of threats, due to lack of space, this section will focus on the trends in armed conflicts as well as the interrelationship between conflict and other violence threats to human security, such as poverty, disease, and environmental degradation. The final section analyzes the international community's efforts to promote human security and concludes by identifying the major challenges to promoting the notion of human security today.

Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and Sustainable Development in Turbulent Times 'Bimbo OGUNBANJO, PhD Department of Government Lagos State University School of Basic and Advanced Studies Lagos, Nigeria

This paper stresses that sustainable development has become part of the historical process linked... more This paper stresses that sustainable development has become part of the historical process linked to economics and political structures, transformed both existentially and by economic growth, but inextricably linked with the expansion and contraction of the world economic system. It reviews the contribution of indigenous peoples to the transformation of the sustainable development concept and its practices. This paper points out that indigenous peoples have fought hard to make it obligatory under national and international laws that biodiversity conservation and sustainable development projects in their territories should only be attempted when these initiatives unequivocally endorse the complete implementation of their human rights as individuals and as peoples. By discussing how indigenous peoples have dealt with the challenges posed by the sustainable development paradigm, this paper also contributes to the ongoing discussion that links management of sustainable development to implementation of human rights.

TIMBOU-AFRICA ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

TIMBOU-AFRICA ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

A Critical Review of Democracy and the Aftermath of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria

There is no denying that Nigeria has democratized significantly since the end of military dictato... more There is no denying that Nigeria has democratized significantly since the end of military dictatorship in 1999. The paper examines democracy and Nigeria's 2023 general elections while accounting for various factors that affected the course of events and the outcome. The Nigerian state has experienced a surge of democratic advancements throughout the last several decades. A democracy is a system of governance where voters elect representatives to office via free and fair elections. The standard of democracy is a free and fair election. Put another way, democracy suggests that the people have the power to choose their leaders. A democratic system is distinguished from any other by the political right of the people to choose their leaders through a free and fair election process. The general election of 2023 is the seventh in a series of elections held since Nigeria's return to civil rule in 1999. Despite this, Nigeria's democracy has proven difficult to navigate because of the country's diverse ethnic and religious population, the frequency of military takeovers, and its underdeveloped economy. The introduction of new technology by the Independent National Electoral Commission, such as the Bi-modal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), to enhance poll administration in 2023 ultimately made the general elections that year in Nigeria a significant test of the country's democratic progress. The Electoral Act 2022, which brought changes intended to better organize pre-election procedures in a timely manner and to increase transparency in the collation and reporting of results, provided support for this confidence. The general elections of 2023 took place in a very controversial and contested environment, similar to other elections in Nigeria. This included significant insecurity and unclear government policies implemented prior to the poll. Utilizing a qualitative methodology that incorporated data from secondary sources and historical analysis, the study discovered that the election did not meet the legitimate and reasonable expectations of the Nigerian people. Several accredited election observation groups reported that the election's credibility was severely damaged by several procedural errors, including ineffective management of the distribution of permanent voters cards (PVCs), a breakdown in operational and logistical planning, malfunctioning election technology, instances of vote manipulation, political violence, a lack of transparency in the process of collating and declaring results, and inadequate crisis communication. Taking into account the urgent problems that Nigeria is currently facing, such as pervasive poverty, rampant corruption, and insecurity, in addition to a deficient electoral system that has impeded voter turnout in previous elections. Thus, the study suggested, among other things, bolstering the electoral body's independence, putting policies in place to guarantee that there is no fraud or manipulation of the election, and making sure that the election represents the will of the people. Future Nigerian general elections will be more successful in fostering better democracy and a more stable post-election environment if these strategies are put into practice.

International Political Theory and Globa

As environmental problems transcend national boundaries, they come to be a feature of internation... more As environmental problems transcend national boundaries, they come to be a feature of international politics. This paper seeks to draw a distinction between two ways of thinking about the relationship between international political theory and the global environment. It scrutinizes five sets of arguments which suggest that the traditionalist account of the scope of international political theory provides an inadequate basis for apprehending, comprehending and rationalizing the problems of global environmental change, and which, in disparate ways and to a varied extent, do indeed open up the possibility of a 'fundamental discontinuity in the system of states'. This paper points out that detailed consideration of these arguments is imperative both to understand and illuminate the still very important state-centred agenda of 'traditional' international political theory and to understand the ways in which environmental problems and politics may be altering dominant frames of reference and suggesting a broader, if murkier, scope for international political theory. This paper also indicates that environmental issues have become increasingly prominent on the international agenda over the last sixty years assisted by the effects of globalization. It shows how this has prompted attempts to arrange cooperation between states and surveys the form and function of such activity with reference to some of the main international environmental regimes. Because climate change has become a problem of such enormous significance, a separate section is devoted to the efforts to create an international climate regime. This is followed by a brief consideration of how some of the theoretical parts of international relations (IR) relate to international environmental politics.

International Dimensions and Dynamics of Policy-Making

The days when policy researchers could count upon domestic politics and society to contribute suf... more The days when policy researchers could count upon domestic politics and society to contribute sufficient data for a satisfactory analysis are now a memory. Whether policy researchers are prepared to enter another analytical universe or not, the accelerating flow of ideas, information, goods and money across national borders has affected the nature of policy problems, reshaped the attempts to engage these problems and thus reoriented the way in which explanations of policy-making can be productively pursued. The big questions that animate policy studies may not have changed, but the available data and the concepts needed to analyze them have been shifting. This paper will seek to connect these emerging global dynamics to long recognized drivers of policy-making and present a conceptual framework that can help in understanding the resulting interactions. Enhancing the linkage between theoretical frameworks that have informed international relations and public policy concepts promises a better understanding of policy-making in a volatile universe. This paper will consider the value of applying a network perspective on understanding global influences through four stages of consideration. Initially it will examine the concept of globalization and briefly assess the implications that it raises for studying policy-making. Next, the paper will turn to the literature on policy communities and policy networks to highlight tools that can be used in assessing global influences on policy subsystems. Then, it will consider the concept of policy paradigms and contemplate the role that ideational influences play in modulating global impacts on policy. Finally, a fourfold typology of internationalized policy environments will be presented, in order to illuminate how particular configurations of policy communities and networks can refract the global influences on governance. In conclusion, the dynamic role of policy community mediators in trying to steer subsystem responses to global forces will briefly be considered.