ABSTRACT Rumour is generally viewed as suspect evidence because, it is supposedly, communication constructed on unverified information. However, rumour, has seemingly transcended this generalized negative connotation and has acquired some air of importance with news value placed on it. This paper attempts an examination of rumour as a political manipulation tool, its social relevance and […]
Money Politics, Political Culture of Godfatherism and the Future of Democracy in Nigeria—Lessons from the 2007 Gubernatorial Election in Edo State
ABSTRACT Nigeria is one of the African countries that is responding to Western pressures to make its states acquire a liberal and democratic culture. Over the years, Nigeria has practiced what can be described as fraudulent democracy. This democracy has been characterized by obnoxious acts such as indiscriminately using money and by very powerful and […]
Patron-Client Politics: Democracy and Governance in Nigeria, 1999-2007
ABSTRACT: This paper will examine patron-client politics in the context of democracy and governance in Nigeria with special focus on the first phase of the Fourth Republic, 1999-2007. This paper, which is essentially based on study of secondary source data, reveals that the politics is neither historically new nor peculiar to Nigeria. Its evidence abounds […]
Elections in Nigeria Since the End of Military Rule
ABSTRACT: Since the end of military rule in May 1999, the nationwide elections have been trailed with issues and incidents that generate a lot of anxiety, fear and trepidation. For the record, since the exit of the military from political power, there have been general elections in 2003 and 2007. The conduct and outcome of […]
Social Justice, Democracy and Cultural Renewal in Nigeria
Globally, democracy is at the heart of social justice. This is because it represents a vehicle for the actualization of the principles of fairness, equality of opportunity, liberty, and social rights and the absence of social and class barriers. In the Third World, social justice is largely constrained by the failed attempts to deepen and […]
The Poverty of Critical Thinking in Post- colonial Zimbabwean Journalism
The purpose of this research is to show that until and unless there is a paradigm shift from the method of training journalists to a deeper educational paradigm, the Zimbabwean journalist will continue to lag behind in so far as the global requirements for critical thinking and objectivity in journalism is concerned. The paper argues […]
The Niger Delta of Nigeria: A World Class Oil Region in Africa, 2000-2006
Nigeria is the largest crude oil producing country in Africa, the sixth petroleum giant in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the eleventh in the world (Okodudu 2007:10). But it gained world class fame only in the year 2000 through oil production in its Niger Delta region. The scholarship of this essay is […]
Pan-Africanism and the State of Politico- Economic Integration in Southern Africa
Socio-politico-cultural, economic and strategic realities of the southern African sub-region of Africa brought about the need for the coming together of its member states, though amorphous in the formation, to address their common overarching economic problem in South Africa. The geographic, economic and colonial factors in the sub-region prior to the 20th century, formed a […]
Globalization, New Regionalism and the Challenge of Development in Africa
This paper is a contribution to the debate on Africaʹs regional integration and the challenge of development in the context of globalization. It situates Africaʹs development paradox, as manifestly shown by its ʹpoverty of plentyʹ within the framework of globalization. It also examines Africaʹs new regionalism, epitomized by the transition from the OAU to AU, […]
An African Success Story: Civil Society and the ‘Mozambican Miracle’
Mozambique, described by Former President Bill Clinton in 2000 as the “world’s fastest growing economy,” (Smith, 2000) has come a long way since the end of its fifteen‐year civil war. During the war, Mozambique earned its reputation as the country with the second‐highest infant mortality rate in the world (United Nations, 1995). What is most […]
