The Role of Gender Equality and Good Governance in Peacestudies: The Nigerian Experience (Published)
Peace could be seen as an individual’s state of mind with ideal society that operates in understanding, security and unity. The content of peace education programme must be problem solving and related to the economic, political, cultural, or social conditions that constitute the conflicting issues. Conflict resolution is a set of principles applied to encourage warring parties to seek peace. This means that the conflict is resolved when the basic needs of the parties have been met or satisfied. Conflict management refers to effort made to change the perceptions and attitudes of the people involved (Odoh 2006) Gender Equality is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision making and the state of valuing different behaviour, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender. Good governance is measured by 8 characteristics of participation rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus oriented, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency and accountability. Using descriptive and analytical approach with anecdotal evidence gleaned from qualitative and historical literature on peace. Gender discrimination, equality and governance from traditional delegate system to modern system of governance from textbooks, library materials, oral interview, participant observation and internet materials, key informant etc. The study revealed that gender gap reduces productivity and diminishes contribution and does not only affect women’s well-being and that of their families but also imposes high cost on the economy through productive losses. Development of a community or society is a collaborative effort of all citizens which can only be possible when there is peace in that community or society. It is an indisputable fact that development is about people and development is only sustainable to the extent to which human resources are developed. Gender gap reduces productivity and diminishes contribution and does not only affect women’s well-being and that of their families but also imposes high cost on the economy through productive losses. Strict adherence to the principles of good governance will ensure that peace reigns in Nigeria. Based on the finding, the study recommended amongst others that themes on good governance and peace studies should be part of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions curricular in Nigeria. Topics such as electoral rights and processes, and gender equality should be taught. This will help in raising individuals that are gender sensitive, individuals who see people in their own rights as human beings not males being superior to females.
Keywords: Governance, Justice, Peace, Rule Of Law, equality
Psychology of Politics and Politicians in Nigeria: The Human and Social Governance Consequences (Published)
The research examined political psychology in Nigeria, characterized by political interest, godfatherism, rigging, thuggery, occultism, election litigation, and zoning politics. Participants were politicians and electorates. Information was gathered through direct observations, interviews and print sources, with analytical and descriptive designs. Findings were psychology of politics manifested as: Elitism, machination, group opportunity, business perception, godfatherism politics, socio-cultural consciousness, politics as criminal enterprise, life-time socioeconomic opportunity, including emasculating the Judiciary and Legislature. Psychology of politicians manifested as: Desperation, superiority status, extravagant lifestyle, betrayal of citizens, narcissistic personality, high selfishness/greed, deception/lying as skills/smartness, and pride/euphoria in associating with Federal Government’s might. The human/social governance consequences were: Social polarization, disappointed governance, loss of confidence in electoral system, corruption, poor societal development, misguided rule of law, exponential unemployment, poor standard of living, misguided life virtue, and embarrassing Judiciary. Proffered recommendations were improved political value system, proactive Judiciary, accountable politics/politicians, and stopping irresponsible political extravagant lifestyle.
Keywords: Governance, Nigeria, Politicians, Politics, human-social, political-psychology
Cyber Security, Sovereignty and Democratic Governance in Africa, Challenges (Published)
Much of Africa is presently firmly committed to advancing the standards of democracy and human rights that has become topical over the past two decades. Priority reforms to forge a non formidable democratic rule that will secure and maintain the sovereignty of the African nation include the need to improve on both the information society and knowledge economy. This shades light on one of the key phenomenon in the digital age which is our strong dependence on information systems in our life styles, living conditions and our security. Cyber security is a phenomenon which is closely tied to the rapid expansion of information and communication technologies. It has taken a global proportion and occurs across Africa as well as the world in general such that no individual society can disregard it. But Africa has a huge challenge on the face of high rate of cyber crime, cyber terrorism, cyber fraud, cyber attacks and cyber warfare. These cyber threats do not only constitute challenges to humanity and its governance mechanism but they also show us beyond doubt that our policies, institutions, infrastructure and our defense and security systems are not only unprotected but are fragile in nature. The cyber criminals used these threats to continue their malicious pursuit for spying, destabilizing people, organizations and governance perpetrating sabotage or destroying information systems thereby provoking fear psychosis. This highlights the shortcomings and weaknesses of security, governance systems and sovereignty in general. In this environment of growing insecurity, the digital divide is widening to Africa’s detriment and getting trivialized in the same way as poverty that ravages Africa. The continent is still not enjoying all the dividend of digital technology and yet it suffers all the disadvantages more than any other. This work is set to anticipate and analyse governance trend in the face of Africa’s cyber security and sovereignty issues and challenges. To do so we shall identify the barriers to digital sovereignty by securing the digital and technological sovereignty of states in Africa by proposing ways and means of achieving this digital sovereignty. Again, we shall suggest ways of promoting democracy by preserving fundamental rights and civil liberties especially by protecting personal data and to propose the areas where Africa needs to refine its cyber legislation so as to deepen trust in the information society. This is what this work is set to achieve.
Keywords: Africa, Democratic, Governance, Sovereignty., cyber security
Rule of Law and Good Governance in Bangladesh: Does Judicial Control Matter? (Review Completed - Accepted)
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of judicial activism as an instrument of judicial control in establishing rule of law and its impact on good governance in Bangladesh. Judicial activism is one of the effective and proactive mechanisms in protecting various aspects of human rights such as- fundamental rights, equal rights of human being, life, liberty and properties, equal opportunity of employment, rights of sound environment and overall protection of public or national interest. All those are the basis of rule of law and good governance of a country. The major findings of the paper are: rule of law is one of the most crucial elements of good governance and judiciary is a very vital institution of government to establish rule of law in a country. Judicial activism is such an approach, where, there is no need to file a writ by the affected person directly. Any legally conscious person or organization has the right to writ on behalf of affected rights or public interest. It has also found that the role of NGOs or human rights defender organizations is crucial for adjudicating public interest litigation to promote and protect individual rights as well as to uphold the spirit of rule of law. In Bangladesh, most of the PIL cases are filled by human rights defenders organizations (e.g.: BELA, BLAST and ASK) and some other NGOs. Apart from this, delay and log jam of cases is another crucial problem of Bangladesh judiciary which appears in few cases of this paper. This is one of the major impediments of fair and speedy justice delivery, which ultimately creates room for more corruption and violation of human rights in Bangladesh
Keywords: Bangladesh, Governance, Human Rights, Judicial Activism, NGOs and Accountability of Government, Public Interest Litigation, Rule Of Law