Youth, Political Parties, and Peace-Building Process in Nigeria (Published)
The Nigerian Youth cannot be ruled out in the study of active contribution to the Nigerian political system, national stability, cohesion, and development, due to their orientation, attitude, and reactions to national issues. Political parties are the avenue for electing representatives of the people and to this effect, the Nigerian Youth have been trying to take a meaningful hold of the Nigerian parties by trying to be major political gladiators. Premised on this background, this paper is set to discuss the conceptual meaning of youth, political parties, and peacebuilding. In the same vein, it will establish the connection and relationship between youth partisanship and peacebuilding in Nigeria. Moreover, the study seeks to examine the pivotal roles the Nigerian youth play in enhancing peacebuilding and national stability as members of political parties in Nigeria, whilst also attempting to determine to what extent the youth have been contributing to conflicts and peace-building in Nigeria. The data for this study were collected through primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected through the Interview with Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), Direct Observation (DO), and participant observation. In addition, youth organizations, amongst others, were interviewed. The secondary sources include books, journal articles, periodicals, magazines, and other publications relevant to the study. The data were analyzed using a qualitative approach. The peace-building theory was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The findings of the study revealed that the Nigerian Youth, in these contemporary times, have been actively involved in partisan politics and that a significant correlation between Youth participation in politics and the peacebuilding process in Nigeria is well established. Now that the youth have been brought into political parties for more participation in the civic roles that they have been excluded from in the time past, there is a need for initiating programs and policies to better understand the roles of youth in political parties and the peace-building process. The study recommends that the Nigerian youth be properly enlightened and adequately equipped in peace and peace-building processes.
Keywords: Community development, National Stability., Political Parties, Youth, peacebuilding
The Nature and Character of Civil-Military Relations and Peacebuilding in the South-West Nigeria: 2011-2018 (Published)
Civil-military relations (CMR) are the relationships that exist between the civilian authority (CAU) and non-governmental civilian groups (NGCG) versus the military. While peacebuilding is a method of capacity building and reconciliation that is aimed at preventing conflict or the restart of it. The study examines the nature and character of civil-military relations and peace building in South West Nigeria, 2011-2018. The research method adopted for this study is a documentary method, using content analysis to analyze the content of the work. Observation and documentary studies were an instrument of collecting data for the research work. The theory employed for this study is agency theory. Findings revealed that: there is a constitutional provision that provides for the subordination of the military to civilian authority, hence the military willingly accept their subordinate position to the civilian authority or his representatives; Further findings show that; there were conflicts between the non-governmental civilian groups and the military, hence negative peace existed between them; the conflicts between both parties are in the area of harassment and intimidation of the masses. The study recommended that: the National Assembly should enact a law that will make only retired military officers to be appointed as minister of Defence and Police respectively. Again, Independent Monitoring Operation on Military (IMOM) should be set up by the National Assembly from among the non-governmental civilian groups to monitor the movement of soldiers and their activities, with power to sanction and punish soldiers.
Keywords: Civil-Military Relations, civilian authority, non-governmental civilian group, peacebuilding, shirking, working