Dauda Abubakar

The Legal and Constitutional Framework of the 2011 Elections in Nigeria

Journal of African elections, 2012

The electoral topography of the Nigerian postcolonial state reveals that contests for the control... more The electoral topography of the Nigerian postcolonial state reveals that contests for the control of power degenerate more often than not into elitedriven violence that undermines the nation-building and democratic projects. In interrogating the legal and constitutional context and the outcome of the 2011 election in Nigeria this paper draws on Foucault's notion of governmentality, along with the concept of garrison politics, to unpack the central role that techniques, practices and strategies of governmental power play in the domination of the social, economic and political space, to the detriment of the citizenry. I argue that although the 2011 election was regarded as relatively 'free and fair' its aftermath, nevertheless, reveals the way centralisation of power is recurrently deployed through neopatrimonial networks to entrench elite pillage, which undermines the ethos of participatory democracy and constitutionalism. I contend that in order to avert corrosive decline and civic disengagement it is imperative to rethink and urgently reconstitute the institutional logic of the Nigerian state in such a manner that it will enhance the empowerment of the citizenry and the enthronement of a transparent, inclusive, developmentalist and responsive system of governance.

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Libya

The Routledge Handbook of Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency in Africa, 2021

Africa in World Politics and the Political Economy of Postcoloniality

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Boko Haram and Islamic Extremists

Security in Nigeria, 2020

The article investigates effects of adverse environmental factors under experimental conditions o... more The article investigates effects of adverse environmental factors under experimental conditions on different units of male reproductive system. White male rats weighing 210 g were exposed to microwave radiation of low intensity and natural gas containing hydrogen sulfide. The level of malonic dialdehyde (MDA) and kinetic indexes of lipoperoxidation were determined in homogenates of mediobasal hypothalamus and testes. Testosterone and lutein-izing hormone levels were determined in the blood serum by the enzyme immunoassay meth-od. Both microwave radiation and natural gas leads to a surge in the MDA level in testicular tissue and hypothalamus. The exposure to natural gas triggered the suppression of testicular steroidogenesis. The long-term exposure to natural gas caused profound biochemical changes in testicular tissue and epididymis by the level of protein. In general, the exposure to natural gas caused more serious changes in morphofunctional state of rat testes. K E Y w O R D S -malonic dialdehyde (MDA), luteinizing hormone, testosterone, oxidative stress, lipoperoxidation, Leydig's cells, testicular tissue.

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Libya: The Proliferation of Small Arms Post-Ghaddafi

From Sectarianism to Terrorism in Northern Nigeria: A Closer Look at Boko Haram

Violent Non-State Actors in Africa, 2017

This chapter examines the emergence of Boko Haram within the broader historical, social and polit... more This chapter examines the emergence of Boko Haram within the broader historical, social and political context of Islamic reform movements in Northern Nigeria. It argues that the rise of Boko Haram as a radical Salafi-jihadist movement pertains not only to the legacies of Usman dan Fodio’s nineteenth-century jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate that serves as a spiritual inspiration and model for the insurgency, but also to the fragmentation of sacred authority in Northern Nigeria. The author argues that Boko Haram emerged as a formidable security threat to the corrupt Nigerian state as a result of local grievances, the failure of the northern Muslim elites to implement Shari’a, internal sectarian divisions within the Muslim Ummah, as well as predatory elite politics of clientelism that pervades Nigeria’s political landscape.

Ethnic Identity, Democratization, and the Future of the African State: Lessons from Nigeria

African Issues, 2001

The issues of ethnicity and democratization and the prospects for development in postcolonial Afr... more The issues of ethnicity and democratization and the prospects for development in postcolonial Africa have long preoccupied scholars. When most African countries gained independence from the colonialists in the 1960s, the ruling elites who inherited state power insisted that Africa could not afford the luxury of democracy because of its potential for exacerbating ethnic pluralism and political conflict, which would be detrimental to the more pertinent projects of development and integration/nation building. The ideology of development and national integration in postcolonial Africa thus became the justification for one-party rule, autocracy, and military dictatorship.

Democratic Diffusion and the Perils of Violence: Lessons from Nigeria

Although there was euphoria in the 1990s about the return to democratic rule in many African coun... more Although there was euphoria in the 1990s about the return to democratic rule in many African countries, the realities on the ground, after over two decades of transition to civil rule suggests increasing local frustrations and anxiety about the prospects for consolidation, human security and inclusive development. Several countries that transited from either military autocracy or one party rule have witnessed the erosion of not only civil and political rights; but even more disturbing, the outbreak of violent conflicts. Countries such as Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Kenya, DR-Congo and Zimbabwe have all witnessed violent conflicts that have led to "ethnic cleansing", war crimes and displacement of the citizenry. What are the causes and implications of these developments to the trajectory of democratization in Africa? This paper interrogates the root causes of political violence in post-colonial Africa by arguing that: while the return to democratic rule may have opened the political space, it has paradoxically unleashed identity driven violence that threaten to undermine the nation-building project in the continent. I draw empirical data through the case study of Nigeria to substantiate the theoretical claims in the paper.

Boko Haram and Islamic Extremists

Violent Non-State Actors in Africa

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more

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Globalization, Neoliberal Governmentality and Agrarian Transformation in Africa

Within the last three decades, several African postcolonial states have embarked on Neoliberal po... more Within the last three decades, several African postcolonial states have embarked on Neoliberal political and economic reforms based on IMF/World Bank prescriptions. One such reforms involves the opening up of Africa's lands for foreign investment by hedge funds, corporations and financial institutions from the global south. Drawing on Foucault's notion of Neoliberal Governmentality, I argue that the agrarian transformation currently underway in several African states will only increase the pauperization of the peasantry and the disruption of Africa's agricultural systems through dependency on external inputs. Neoliberal globalization, the paper concludes, undermines Africa's autonomy and capacity to engage in people centered development.

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Africa in World Politics and the Political Economy of Postcoloniality

Scholarly analyses on the historicity of Africa and its contributions in global affairs have, ove... more Scholarly analyses on the historicity of Africa and its contributions in global affairs have, over the centuries, generated a lot of debate. Two dominant canonical paradigms in this continuing discourse on the African imaginary can be delineated as follows. The first strand inscribed in the works of Eurocentrists such as Hegel, insist that Africa is fundamentally a place that "…has remained cut off from all contacts with the rest of the world; it is the land of gold, forever pressing in upon itself, and the land of childhood, removed from the light of self-conscious history and wrapped in the dark mantle of night" (Hegel 1830). The metaphors of "childhood" and pervasive "darkness" enunciated by Hegel in the early 19 th century would subsequently metamorphous into the imperial project of the "Whiteman's burden" and "civilizing mission" into the "heart of darkness." It is within this fragment of western philosophical teleology of progress, that we can grasp the horrendous violence that was unleashed against non-western societies, like Africa, in the form of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and related forms of denial of humanity and subjection. That Hegel himself recognized that Africa "is the land of gold" is pertinent, as the entanglement of the continent into the circuits of global coloniality has revolved around the pillage of its human and material resources. The second related canonical representation of the African subject asserts that the continent and its postcolonial states constitute domains of marginality, institutional failure, criminality, rising anarchy, piracy, and brutalization of the human body that threaten not only the continent and its people, but also "civil order" and the international community (Reno

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The Legal and Constitutional Framework of the 2011 Elections in Nigeria

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HUMANITARIANISM REFRAMED? THE NEW LANDSCAPE OF INTERVENTION IN AFRICA NOTE: DO NOT QOUTE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION Humanitarianism Reframed? The New Landscape of Intervention in African Conflicts

Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, there has been a resurgence of intrastate confl... more Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, there has been a resurgence of intrastate conflicts in Africa with catastrophic consequences, especially for innocent civilian population exterminated through ethnic cleansing, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; or dislocated as Internally Displaced Persons. Humanitarian intervention has equally increased in the African landscape for the purpose of human protection. A central humanitarian intervention doctrine that emerged within the last decade is the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) which is premised on the assumption that while it is the primary responsibility of each state to protect its citizens, the international community has an obligation to intervene in a sovereign country where the state fails, or is unwilling, to perform its primary responsibility to protect the citizenry. This paper argues that although the norm of R2P is premised on the cosmopolitan principle of universal human protection; the seeming paradox and contradictory approaches to its implementation, ranging from the case of Darfur-Sudan to Cote d'Ivoire and Libya, has increased skepticism among African states towards this new norm of humanitarianism. I argue that humanitarian intervention in complex African conflicts should not only take the proposals of regional and sub-regional organizations seriously in the search for inclusive negotiated political settlement; but, even more fundamentally, that the use of coercive military intervention should only be implemented as a last resort. I contend that while R2P doctrine certainly has a significant role for ameliorating humanitarian catastrophe in African crises, it should not be used as a post-Cold War smokescreen for regime change.

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HUMANITARIANISM REFRAMED? THE NEW LANDSCAPE OF INTERVENTION IN AFRICA NOTE: DO NOT QOUTE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION Humanitarianism Reframed? The New Landscape of Intervention in African Conflicts

Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, there has been a resurgence of intrastate confl... more Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, there has been a resurgence of intrastate conflicts in Africa with catastrophic consequences, especially for innocent civilian population exterminated through ethnic cleansing, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; or dislocated as Internally Displaced Persons. Humanitarian intervention has equally increased in the African landscape for the purpose of human protection. A central humanitarian intervention doctrine that emerged within the last decade is the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) which is premised on the assumption that while it is the primary responsibility of each state to protect its citizens, the international community has an obligation to intervene in a sovereign country where the state fails, or is unwilling, to perform its primary responsibility to protect the citizenry. This paper argues that although the norm of R2P is premised on the cosmopolitan principle of universal human protection; the seeming paradox and contradictory approaches to its implementation, ranging from the case of Darfur-Sudan to Cote d'Ivoire and Libya, has increased skepticism among African states towards this new norm of humanitarianism. I argue that humanitarian intervention in complex African conflicts should not only take the proposals of regional and sub-regional organizations seriously in the search for inclusive negotiated political settlement; but, even more fundamentally, that the use of coercive military intervention should only be implemented as a last resort. I contend that while R2P doctrine certainly has a significant role for ameliorating humanitarian catastrophe in African crises, it should not be used as a post-Cold War smokescreen for regime change.

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ABUBAKAR, D-ETHNIC IDENTITY DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE AFRICAN STATE

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