In this talk and related activities, I hope to inspire others to take up one of the greatest challenges of our era: narrowing the governance gap which is at the root of many of Africa’s development and security dilemmas. In view of the emergence of many fragile and failed states,...
On October 2nd, an online conversation was conducted by the Program of African Studies of Northwestern University between Professor Chris Abani and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.1 It was the resumption of a conversation between the two writers and scholars at the New York Public Library in November 2019. In response...
What sets this initiative apart is the commitment to deepening ties between African and non-African institutions and making them more seamless and routine. There is a need to make this case to US institutions - lobbying them to digitize/provide open access, creating relationships with African institutions, prioritizing partnerships and academic...
Plenary Address to the African Economic Conference of the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa Addis Ababa, December 4-6, 2017
This is the text of a public address at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs delivered soon after the inauguration of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It identified several priorities after fifteen and a half years of military government. The country’s eroded legislative, judicial, and other state institutions needed to be rebuilt...
This revised version of a paper presented at a conference at M.I.T. on State, Conflict, and Democracy in 1997 pulled together key dimensions of a Nigeria that had drifted far from constitutional and democratic governance. State and society had become increasingly criminalized; the educational system and other social sectors were...
In this article, a Nigerian military system of governance is explicated. It was the dominant mode of governance in Nigeria until civilian rule was restored in 1999, initially under a former military ruler. Starting from the first military coup in January 1966, Nigeria experienced over 33 years of this system,...
As many systems of military and autocratic rule came under challenge in Africa, Nigeria lost its leadership position in a democratizing era with the collapse of the Second Republic, 1979-1983. Four military heads-of-state followed. One of the most hopeful transitional experiments in Africa, conducted under General Ibrahim Babangida, 1985-1993, ended...
In this essay, key features of Nigerian governance since independence are reviewed. The military had ruled the county for thirteen years and civilian politicians, in two phases, had done so for ten. Military governments involved significant participation by civilians, so there was overlap between these successive systems. Moreover, the military...
The forcible ending of Nigeria’s second attempt at constitutional civilian rule since independence in 1960 is a mixed story. The 1983 general elections were tarnished by violence and fraud. They took place in a context of economic decline and policy disarray. However, the opposition still retained an important share of...
Contents:
Volume 1, Number 1;
Volume 1, Number 2;
Volume 1, Number 3;
Volume 1, Number 4;
Volume 1, Number 5;
Volume 2, Number 1;
Volume 2, Number 2;
Volume 2, Number 3;
Volume 3, Number 1;
Volume 3, Number 2;
Volume 3, Number 3;
Volume 3, Number 4;
Volume...