Nigeria National Assembly and Presidential Elections, 9 and 16 April 2011


Book Description

The Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group for the Nigerian Parliamentary and Presidential elections. The Group was led by Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana, and comprised thirteen eminent persons in total.




From Twitter to Tahrir Square


Book Description

This timely guide examines the influence of social media in private, public, and professional settings, particularly the ethical implications of the cultural changes and trends created by their use. In the quest for quick dissemination of information, web users and content providers find both opportunity and liability in digital broadcasts. Examples abound: Twitter members tap into news reports well in advance of traditional print media, but stories are prone to inaccuracies and misinformation; Facebook shares useful data mined from member profiles, but this sharing often compromises privacy. It is no surprise that use of social media gives rise to a host of moral dilemmas never before encountered. This book sheds light on the effects of this new medium on the individual and society. Through two volumes chock full of topics found in news headlines everyday, the authors look at evolving trends in social media and their impact on privacy, politics, and journalism. The first volume explores the role of this technology on national and international security. Volume 2 focuses on the individual as both a producer and consumer of internet content, showing how the media itself is changing notions of self-identity, relationships, and popular culture. The book's content covers such topics as individual and community psychology, citizen journalism, and corporate technology.




Social Media and Politics in Africa


Book Description

The smartphone and social media have transformed Africa, allowing people across the continent to share ideas, organise, and participate in politics like never before. While both activists and governments alike have turned to social media as a new form of political mobilization, some African states have increasingly sought to clamp down on the technology, introducing restrictive laws or shutting down networks altogether. Drawing on over a dozen new empirical case studies – from Kenya to Somalia, South Africa to Tanzania – this collection explores how rapidly growing social media use is reshaping political engagement in Africa. But while social media has often been hailed as a liberating tool, the book demonstrates how it has often served to reinforce existing power dynamics, rather than challenge them. Featuring experts from a range of disciplines from across the continent, this collection is the first comprehensive overview of social media and politics in Africa. By examining the historical, political, and social context in which these media platforms are used, the book reveals the profound effects of cyber-activism, cyber-crime, state policing and surveillance on political participation.




Democratic Governance and Political Participation in Nigeria 1999 - 2014


Book Description

The year 1999 was a watershed in the history of Nigeria as it witnessed the peaceful transfer of power from the military to the political class. Given Nigerias tumultuous history of successive military interventions, this development was the first genuine transition that saw the military elite transferring political power to civilians without itching to stage a comeback. This edited volume, composed of 22 chapters discusses the form, trajectory and substance of democratic governance in post-military Nigeria between 1999 and 2014. It is a compilation of well researched essays and narratives on Nigerian government and politics. The book is a multi-disciplinary assessment of Nigerias democratic strides, including contributions from scholars in a broad range of disciplines such as history, sociology and anthropology, political science, economics, international relations, among others. The book examines the factors responsible for the resilience of the current democratic governance structures, in spite of centripetal and centrifugal forces frustrating democratic consolidation in the country. It equally interrogates these factors and makes appropriate recommendations for overcoming them. Key themes covered in the book in the Boko Haram insurgency, governance and corruption, militancy, sharia law, Islamic banking amongst others. It sheds light on contending issues affecting, afflicting and retarding the countrys progress. Issues like ethnicity, electoral corruption, human rights abuses, privatization of national assets, kidnapping and armed robbery, overbearing leadership personality and many more are critically discussed. Local government autonomy and the challenges of grassroots development and civil service administration are also thoroughly analysed. Democratic Governance and Political Participation in Nigeria 1999-2014 is a detailed, exhaustive, deep, stimulating and captivating narrative of the Nigerian situation. It is enthusiastically recommended for those who wish to know more about contemporary Nigerian history. As a collection of contemporary issues on the Nigerian government and politics, the book is recommended for courses in politics and governance in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. It is an invaluable companion for both graduate and undergraduate students as well as scholars of African politics.




Africa's International Relations in a Globalising World


Book Description

Since its emergence in 1960 as an independent state, Nigeria has stood out as the most populous Black country in the world. In Africa’s International Relations in a Globalising World: Perspectives on Nigerian Foreign Policy at Sixty and Beyond, edited by Usman A. Tar and Sharkdam Wapmuk, contributors examine Nigeria’s role within Africa, as well as internationally. This book shows how Nigeria has used the platforms of international organisations to advance its interests while fulfilling its regional and global obligations. The contributors address areas such as Nigeria’s economic development and policies, Nigeria’s relationship with other countries, and the urgent challenge of countering terrorism in the context of ensuring sustainable development. The COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the need for strong global relations and reminded humanity of the importance of multilateral solutions to global problems such as health. The editors and contributors address essential questions such as how well has Nigerian foreign policy and its practice of diplomacy served national interest, and what more needs to be done to assure of better results now and into the future.




The Statesman's Yearbook 2014


Book Description

Now in its 150th edition, The Statesman's Yearbook continues to be the reference work of choice for accurate and reliable information on every country in the world. Covering political, economic, social and cultural aspects, the Yearbook is also available online for subscribing institutions: www.statesmansyearbook.com.




The Statesman's Yearbook 2013


Book Description

Now in its 149th edition, The Statesman's Yearbook continues to be the reference work of choice for accurate and reliable information on every country in the world. Covering political, economic, social and cultural aspects, the Yearbook is also available online for subscribing institutions: www.statesmansyearbook.com .




Technology Integration and Transformation of Elections in Africa


Book Description

Technology Integration and Transformation of Elections in Africa serves as a standard textbook and a reference guide to students in both undergraduate and graduate programs in tertiary institutions where elaborate discourse on the impact of technology to political elections and advancements across the continental Africa have continued to gain weight. The rationale in publishing this textbook far more outweighs its timeliness but speaks highly of its significance because it deals with technology integration and transformation of elections in Africa, a region whose elections has been continuously marred by corruption and incessant fraudulent activities perpetrated by both the citizens, various political parties and the umpires whose responsibilities were to present a credible election. Elections in Africa draws international attention and the news is seldom good. For instance, the elections in Kenya, fueled violence that left 1,500 dead and 300,000 displaced, while elections in Zimbabwe suffered from massive fraud and brutal suppression. In Nigeria in 1999, and 2011, the result of the elections were in shambles and some of the parties that lost the election took to the street resulting in the death of significant percentage of innocent people.







Digital Technologies and the Evolving African Newsroom


Book Description

African newsrooms are experiencing the disruptive impact of new digital technologies on the way they generate and disseminate news. Indeed, newsrooms are being forced to adapt in various ways and there are clear dimensions of localized creativity and adaptations by journalists to the digital revolution. In the same way, the influences of digitization, Internet, and social media are changing the informational needs of readers, including how they engage with news. These developments nonetheless remain on the margins of ‘mainstream’ journalism research – very few researchers have sought to qualitatively capture the implications of developments in digital technologies on the routine practices of African journalists, especially in their ‘natural habitat’, the newsroom. In this light, this edited volume interrogates the changing ecology of newsmaking in Africa in the context of rapid technological changes in newsrooms as well as in the wider social context of news production. It brings together six contributions drawn from five countries: Egypt, Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, to explore practices, challenges and professional normative dilemmas emerging with the adoption and appropriation of new technologies. While the studies point to dimensions of localised new technology appropriations as defined by the complex socio-political structures in which African journalists operate, they are not rigidly confined to Africa. They are expressly in dialogue with theoretical observations largely emerging from Western scholarship. In this sense, the book goes beyond simply mainstreaming African perspectives, it engages directly with dominant theoretical observations and offers a point of departure for developing what could loosely be branded as an African digital journalism epistemology. This book was originally published as a special issue of Digital Journalism.