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Political Science

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Browsing Political Science by Author "Akinola, Adeoye Ologuntoye."

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    An assessment of Nigeria’s counter-terrorism policies against Boko Haram.
    (2017) Faluyi, Olumuyiwa Temitope.; Khan, Sultan.; Akinola, Adeoye Ologuntoye.
    Boko Haram has perpetrated its terrorist acts within Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin since 2009. This has drawn local and international attention. The modus operandi of the sect has taken the forms of shootings, kidnappings and use of Improvised Explosive Devices. The Nigerian government has responded to the Boko Haram quagmire. However, despite government’s response, the sect has continued to unleash its terror. This study seeks to assess government’s counter-terrorism policies against Boko Haram. This culminated into the generation of salient questions like what the policies are, factors that informed government’s rationale for adopting these policies, how effective the policies have been and how government can have pro active strategies to address the Boko Haram crisis. Systems and state fragility theories were used as the theoretical lens that guided the study. The systems theory was used to explain factors that informed the adoption of government’s counter-terrorism polices and why feedback is necessary. The feedback is necessary in order to discover flaws in a policy so that such flaws can be addressed and better polices can be made and implemented. This is the thrust of this study. The state fragility theory was used to explain how the weakness of the Nigerian state aided the emergence of Boko Haram and has also affected Nigeria’s counter-terrorism policies in mitigating the excesses of Boko Haram. The weakness of the Nigerian state is hinged on weak state institutions which has manifested through economic inequality, poverty, porosity of border, brutality of the security apparatus and political instability. The study adopted qualitative data analysis method. This was actualised through the review and assessment of journals, books, reports, newspapers and media reports. The study assessed National Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the Legislative Acts directed towards counter-terrorism in order to have a robust assessment. The policies are deemed weak due to poor implementation caused by weak state institutions. The manifestations of a fragile state were seen as factors responsible for the non optimal performance of these policies in the course of implementation. The need to strengthen state institutions was given as suggestion on how to make the policies work effectively.
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    Evaluating the African Union's Military Interventionist role towards conflict management in Africa.
    (2014) Ani, Ndubuisi Christian.; Akinola, Adeoye Ologuntoye.
    The prevalence of intra-state conflicts and state failures in Africa since the end of the Cold War has made Africa the epicentre of threats to human, national and international security. The inability of African states to combat the insecurities in their respective countries reinforces the discourse on the role of the African Union (AU) in enhancing peace and security across the continent. Since its establishment in 2002, the AU has responded to some security challenges in Africa. In situations of armed conflicts, especially where diplomatic and mediatory efforts fail, the AU has adopted military interventionist mechanisms to protect civilians and to restore peace and security in accord with Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act. Drawing from the cases of Somalia, Sudan and Libya, this research evaluates the capacity of the AU to operationalize the idea of ‘African Solutions to African Problems’ and enforce peace and security especially through its military interventionist mechanisms. Limitations in terms of resources, expertise and funds as well as the poor commitment of member states constitute setbacks to the AU’s effort at conflict management. For the AU to perform effectively in conflict situations, it is imperative for the regional body to develop the required supranational capacity to compel obedience from member states as well as warring parties.
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    Globalization, sustainable democracy and deregulation in Nigeria : a case study of the downstream oil sector.
    (2015) Akinola, Adeoye Ologuntoye.; Francis, Suzanne.
    The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s signified an end to organized impediments to the spread of globalization and this invariably led to the triumph of liberal democracy as the promoter of good governance. Globalization actually provides an impetus for socio-economic and political development. Successive Nigerian governments have found it challenging to institutionalize democratic principles and embark upon sound socio-economic policy initiatives in the country. This has led to questions being raised about the convergence between globalization, sustainable democracy and the implementation of deregulation policy in the Nigerian oil sector. Therefore, the study engages in the crux of Nigeria’s development dilemma under the weight of globalization. It explores the “pseudo-deregulation” in the oil industry, examines the capacity of Nigeria’s state to embark on policy transformation. Furthermore, the study relates the roles of local and international actors involved in the deregulation to economic development and quality of democracy in the country. In achieving this, the dependency, dependent development and new public management theories are utilized as frameworks of analysis. Although the government maintains that the deregulation of the distribution and marketing sector of the oil industry is germane for fiscal balance and socio-economic development. However, based on the influence of global actors, the character of the Nigerian state and its primordial political elites, there is compelling evidence to attribute the deregulation policy to mismanagement and corruption that characterizes the oil industry. This explains the continued resistance to the policy by the majority of Nigerians. I found, in this study, that fraudulent data was generated by the government to justify subsidy-cuts and the announcement of deregulation. The timing and implementation of the policy has left much to be desired. Hence there is a need for a phased deregulation process that provides ‘safety nets’ for the masses and satisfies other criteria for deregulation. State incapacity, structural problems and the underlining political economy of Nigeria remain a challenge to effective reform in the oil sector. I conclude the dissertation by reinforcing the argument that deregulation in the sector is a systematic mechanism by the government to expand the orbit of corruption in the downstream oil sector. Therefore, complete deregulation and subsidy removal, under the prevailing socio-economic realities, would be politically costly and this would endanger political stability in Nigeria.