Eghosa E Osaghae
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 208706 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Eghosa E Osaghae |
| NOMBRES | Eghosa E |
| APELLIDO | Osaghae |
| FIRMA | OSAGHAE E E |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Ibadan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2634-2506 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 51 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 238 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 51 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1986 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2022 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Dictatorship and Democracy in Nigeria, 1966–1999
This chapter analyses the alternation and contestations of dictatorship and democracy in Nigeria in the period 1966–1999. The period was dominated by military dictatorial rule that was vigorously challenged by civil society. The major plank for this was the abiding norm of military subordination to civil authority that made military rule an aberration, even when it could be justified. The main points of the struggles to restore democracy in the p…
Thandika Mkandawire
Resource curse or resource blessing
This paper explores the developmental outcome of resource abundance when the analytical focus shifts from the macro (national) to the micro (subnational) level, especially to areas where resource abundance is expected to have its greatest impact. It focuses on the Niger Delta, Nigeria's ‘oil republic’ whose resource curse has involved environmental devastation, relative deprivation, resource distribution injustices, political marginalisation and …
Rethinking Democratic Governance and Accountability in Africa
This paper critically engages the democratic governance and accountability discourses in relation to Africa. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of extant perspectives and approaches from the point of view of how to deepen and sustain reforms that emphasize effective citizen participation. This provides the backdrop to the articulation of a new research agenda that places citizen rights and engagement at the core of democratic governance. Th…
The limits of charismatic authority and the challenges of leadership in Nigeria
Charismatic legitimation theory emerged in the 1960s as a framework for analysing the rise of personal leadership in developing countries. The theory fitted in quite well with the roles that post-independence leaders who had built large followership in the struggles for independence were expected to play in nation building and economic development. The failure to meet these expectations and, in particular, the development of charismatic legitimat…
Social Movements and Rights Claims
This article examines how the various claims to, and demands for, rights have enabled and shaped the various equity and justice seeking social movements that have emerged in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, the key point being that claims to rights are fundamental of the logic and coherence of social movements. The article is divided into three sections. The first sets the conceptual and analytical frame by elaborating on the rights–social movements n…
Constructions of Belonging
The Private University Sector in Nigeria
The purpose of this article is to place the rise of private universities in Nigeria in proper perspective as an expedient response to the collapse of the public sector, and analyse their growth and potentials and how the challenges posed by them may be addressed. The article also addresses the roles that various stakeholders including donors and the international community at large can play in strengthening and consolidating the private universit…
Fragile states
Since the 1990s, states that lack the capacity to discharge their normal functions and drive forward development have been referred to as ‘fragile states’. This article focuses on Africa, which not only has the largest concentration of prototypical fragile states, but has been the focus of attention for scholars, international development agencies, and practitioners. The author reviews competing analyses of the post-colonial African state and con…
Ethnic Mobilisation and the Reconstruction of the Public Sphere in West Africa
Protracted conflicts, wars and state-challenging mobilisations in several countries, notably Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana, have made West Africa one of the most volatile and unstable regions of the world. This article searches for the precipitants of the volatile situation in the transformation and reconstruction of the public sphere that have led to an intensification of identity politics and its associated problems in…
Colonialism and Civil Society in Africa
Although it has gained wide currency in the analysis of African politics, civil society remains a “mysterious” concept in need of proper grounding and understanding as an integral part of African social formation. This paper argues that one of the widely acclaimed canonical works in African studies, Peter Ekeh’s theory of colonialism and the two publics in Africa provides one of the most original perspectives for locating and understanding the ch…
State, Constitutionalism, and the Management of Ethnicity in Africa
The state of Africa's second liberation
Based on the powerful analytical insights provided by the second liberation school, which is arguably the most original contribution by African scholars to the democratization literature, this paper analyses the antecedents, dynamics and contradictions of the development process in Africa and why democratization, which is generally believed to be a facilitator of development, has so far failed to produce such positive outcome in the continent. It…
Explaining the changing patterns of ethnic politics in Nigeria
Ethnic political mobilization has become more pervasive in Nigeria since the 1990s. Against the backdrop of a conceptual framework that locates ethnicity as historically cumulative and ethnic interests as essentially contested, and with a focus on the recent form and character of ethnicity, this article analyses the changing patterns of ethnic politics in the country in terms of the arenas or levels of mobilization, the objectives of ethnic movem…
The State and Ethnic Autonomy in Nigeria
This article examines the utility of the principle of autonomy in the management of deeply divided polities, from the perspective of the Nigerian case. It traces the origins of the principle to the attempts by the colonial authorities and subsequent regimes to accommodate the country's ethnic diversity, but argues that this essentially state-centred approach reduces the effectiveness of the principle. This is because autonomy is not simply a matt…
Regulating Conflicts in Nigeria
What Democratisation Does to Minorities Displaced from Power
One of the greatest obstacles to change in South Africa was the fear of what would happen to the former white masters, especially the Afrikaners, who had ruled since 1948, in the event of the independence of the country and the inevitable take-over of state power by the black majority. This article examines the nature of these fears and the attempts that were made to allay and address them in the context of the democratisation process that took p…
From accommodation to self‐determination
Nigeria has a long history of struggle by minority groups to redress the structural disadvantages and disempowerment suffered as a result of big group hegemony and domination. This article examines how and why the tempo of minority nationalism moved from simply demanding separate states (accommodation) to demanding greater political autonomy, control over economic resources, and a greater share of political power and revenue at the centre (self‐d…
The Crippled Giant
Africa Works
Democratization in sub‐saharan Africa
(1999). Democratization in sub‐saharan Africa: Faltering prospects, new hopes. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 5-28
Crippled Giant
Historical and analytical overview the first republic, 1960-1966 the first phase of military rule, 1966-1979 the second republic, 1979-1983 the return of the military - the Buhari regime, 1983-1985 the Babangida years and after, 1985-1993 the Abacha regime, 1993-1996
Democracy and National Cohesion in Multiethnic African States
This article advances the argument that national cohesion cannot meaningfully be pursued in multiethnic African states in the absence of democracy. But in order for democracy to facilitate cohesion, it must have the capacity to address issues of unequal power relations among the competing groups and regulate the conflicts which ensue therefrom. The article discusses four dimensions of pluralist democracy which address this capacity: democratisati…
The Criminalization of the State in Africa
Ethnicity and its management in Africa
Crippled Giant
Historical and analytical overview the first republic, 1960-1966 the first phase of military rule, 1966-1979 the second republic, 1979-1983 the return of the military - the Buhari regime, 1983-1985 the Babangida years and after, 1985-1993 the Abacha regime, 1993-1996
Colonialism and Civil Society in Africa
Although it has gained wide currency in the analysis of African politics, civil society remains a “mysterious” concept in need of proper grounding and understanding as an integral part of African social formation. This paper argues that one of the widely acclaimed canonical works in African studies, Peter Ekeh’s theory of colonialism and the two publics in Africa provides one of the most original perspectives for locating and understanding the ch…
The Ogoni Uprising
THE BABANGIDA REGIME failed to produce the promised civilian government for Nigeria but the convoluted democratization programme offered opportunities to various interest groups to once again raise fundamental but previously suppressed issues related to the 'national question'.1 For the oil producing ethnic minorities of the Niger Delta and especially the Ogonis of Rivers state, it was time to confront the federal state on fundamental issues of t…
Managing multiple minority problems in a divided society
The management of ethnic problems has tended to be complicated by the complex ethnic situations which give rise to them. It is known for example that ethnicity rarely exists in a pure form, being usually combined with other conflict-generating cleavages, such as religion, race, class and regionalism, in mutually reinforcing ways. Ethnicity is also situational, fluid and intermittent, while ethnic boundaries are constantly changing. In addition, l…
Ethnic Minorities and Federalism in Nigeria
Journal Article ETHNIC MINORITIES AND FEDERALISM IN NIGERIA Get access EGHOSA E. OSAGHAE EGHOSA E. OSAGHAE Dr. Osaghae teathes Political Science at Ibadan University, Nigeria, and is currently visiting professor at the Babangida School, University of Liberia. He is co-editor of Federal Character and Federalism in Nigeria (Heinemann, 1989), and author of The Federal Solution in Nigeria (forthcoming) Search for other works by this author on: Oxford…
Explaining the changing patterns of ethnic politics in Nigeria
Ethnic political mobilization has become more pervasive in Nigeria since the 1990s. Against the backdrop of a conceptual framework that locates ethnicity as historically cumulative and ethnic interests as essentially contested, and with a focus on the recent form and character of ethnicity, this article analyses the changing patterns of ethnic politics in the country in terms of the arenas or levels of mobilization, the objectives of ethnic movem…
From accommodation to self‐determination
Nigeria has a long history of struggle by minority groups to redress the structural disadvantages and disempowerment suffered as a result of big group hegemony and domination. This article examines how and why the tempo of minority nationalism moved from simply demanding separate states (accommodation) to demanding greater political autonomy, control over economic resources, and a greater share of political power and revenue at the centre (self‐d…
Crippled Giant
Fragile states
Since the 1990s, states that lack the capacity to discharge their normal functions and drive forward development have been referred to as ‘fragile states’. This article focuses on Africa, which not only has the largest concentration of prototypical fragile states, but has been the focus of attention for scholars, international development agencies, and practitioners. The author reviews competing analyses of the post-colonial African state and con…
Crippled Giant
The study of political transitions in Africa
This article examines some of the inadequacies of dominant Western perspectives, especially those originating from the US for studying political transitions in Africa, by focusing on the current democratic transitions. It attributes the major flaws to the hegemonic and ideological interests which these transitions are designed to serve and which underlie approaches made popular by Western scholars, to a ‘periodic’ conceptualisation of the process…
The state of Africa's second liberation
Based on the powerful analytical insights provided by the second liberation school, which is arguably the most original contribution by African scholars to the democratization literature, this paper analyses the antecedents, dynamics and contradictions of the development process in Africa and why democratization, which is generally believed to be a facilitator of development, has so far failed to produce such positive outcome in the continent. It…
Democracy and National Cohesion in Multiethnic African States
This article advances the argument that national cohesion cannot meaningfully be pursued in multiethnic African states in the absence of democracy. But in order for democracy to facilitate cohesion, it must have the capacity to address issues of unequal power relations among the competing groups and regulate the conflicts which ensue therefrom. The article discusses four dimensions of pluralist democracy which address this capacity: democratisati…
Democratization in sub‐saharan Africa
(1999). Democratization in sub‐saharan Africa: Faltering prospects, new hopes. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 5-28
A Reassessment of Federalism as a Degree of Decentralization
The central argument in this article is that it is wrong to conceive of federalism as simply a degree of decentralization. Decentralization can only be applied meaningfully to federalism in matters that belong to the central government. Even then, unlike unitary decentralization, which is entirely at the discretion of the central government, federal decentralization is both mandatory and guaranteed. Much more than this, however, the key to distin…
Federalism, local politics and ethnicity in Nigeria
(1986). Federalism, local politics and ethnicity in Nigeria. The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 151-168
Social Movements and Rights Claims
This article examines how the various claims to, and demands for, rights have enabled and shaped the various equity and justice seeking social movements that have emerged in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, the key point being that claims to rights are fundamental of the logic and coherence of social movements. The article is divided into three sections. The first sets the conceptual and analytical frame by elaborating on the rights–social movements n…
Between State and Civil Society in Africa
Resource curse or resource blessing
This paper explores the developmental outcome of resource abundance when the analytical focus shifts from the macro (national) to the micro (subnational) level, especially to areas where resource abundance is expected to have its greatest impact. It focuses on the Niger Delta, Nigeria's ‘oil republic’ whose resource curse has involved environmental devastation, relative deprivation, resource distribution injustices, political marginalisation and …
The limits of charismatic authority and the challenges of leadership in Nigeria
Charismatic legitimation theory emerged in the 1960s as a framework for analysing the rise of personal leadership in developing countries. The theory fitted in quite well with the roles that post-independence leaders who had built large followership in the struggles for independence were expected to play in nation building and economic development. The failure to meet these expectations and, in particular, the development of charismatic legitimat…
The State and Ethnic Autonomy in Nigeria
This article examines the utility of the principle of autonomy in the management of deeply divided polities, from the perspective of the Nigerian case. It traces the origins of the principle to the attempts by the colonial authorities and subsequent regimes to accommodate the country's ethnic diversity, but argues that this essentially state-centred approach reduces the effectiveness of the principle. This is because autonomy is not simply a matt…
Human Rights and Ethnic Conflict Management
Against the background of the debate among scholars of human rights over whether group rights exist, and if they do, whether they are compatible with individual rights, this article tries to show that in divided multi-ethnic societies there is a need to balance the two kinds of rights. It approaches human rights from a conflict-management perspective and argues that there are interests and demands of a group nature which individual rights cannot …
The Status of State Governments in Nigeria's Federalism
Nigerian states have almost completely lost their autonomy. The Babangida years and, in particular, 1991–1992, have witnessed unprecedented reductions in states' powers. The entrenchment of local government autonomy and the loss of some state powers to local authorities, the reduction of states' financial powers and their share of the Federation Account, as well as the decree of a highly centralized two-party system, all have, within the framewor…
Rethinking Democratic Governance and Accountability in Africa
This paper critically engages the democratic governance and accountability discourses in relation to Africa. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of extant perspectives and approaches from the point of view of how to deepen and sustain reforms that emphasize effective citizen participation. This provides the backdrop to the articulation of a new research agenda that places citizen rights and engagement at the core of democratic governance. Th…
Constructions of Belonging
Federalism, local politics and ethnicity in Nigeria
(1986). Federalism, local politics and ethnicity in Nigeria. The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 151-168
The strengthening of local governments and the operation of federalism in Nigeria
(1989). The strengthening of local governments and the operation of federalism in Nigeria. The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics: Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 347-364
A Reassessment of Federalism as a Degree of Decentralization
The central argument in this article is that it is wrong to conceive of federalism as simply a degree of decentralization. Decentralization can only be applied meaningfully to federalism in matters that belong to the central government. Even then, unlike unitary decentralization, which is entirely at the discretion of the central government, federal decentralization is both mandatory and guaranteed. Much more than this, however, the key to distin…
Politics and Society in Contemporary Africa
Colonialism and African Political Thought
No abstract
Ethnic Minorities and Federalism in Nigeria
Journal Article ETHNIC MINORITIES AND FEDERALISM IN NIGERIA Get access EGHOSA E. OSAGHAE EGHOSA E. OSAGHAE Dr. Osaghae teathes Political Science at Ibadan University, Nigeria, and is currently visiting professor at the Babangida School, University of Liberia. He is co-editor of Federal Character and Federalism in Nigeria (Heinemann, 1989), and author of The Federal Solution in Nigeria (forthcoming) Search for other works by this author on: Oxford…
The Status of State Governments in Nigeria's Federalism
Nigerian states have almost completely lost their autonomy. The Babangida years and, in particular, 1991–1992, have witnessed unprecedented reductions in states' powers. The entrenchment of local government autonomy and the loss of some state powers to local authorities, the reduction of states' financial powers and their share of the Federation Account, as well as the decree of a highly centralized two-party system, all have, within the framewor…
Appendices
APPENDIX I. IGBO COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, SUPPLEMENTARY CONSTITUTION, SELECTION AND CODE OF CONDUCT OF EZE IGBO IN KANO (as amended) 1. This shall be cited as Selection and Code of Conduct of Eze Igbo Kano Instrument and shall be a part of the Constitution of the Igbo Community Association Kano. 2. EZESHIP (1) There shall be a member of the Association to be called and recognized as Eze Igbo Kano, the traditional Head of Igbos, Kano. (2) The office…
Trends of Migrant Political Organization in Nigeria
After a long period of neglect and apparent abandonment by many scholars, the study of ethnicity in Nigeria and other parts of Africa has been revived, and with as much vigor as that which attended its ascendancy in African studies in the 1960s. The reasons for the reawakening are not surprising: economic depression and consequent migration have forced people back to interest-begotten weapons like ethnicity, in the desperate struggle to survive; …
Interstate Relations in Nigeria
Interstate relations in Nigeria have tended to be more competitive and conflictual than cooperative. There are several reasons for this, but the emergence of the federal government as the master government, which has virtually reduced interstate relations to how states compete to maximize their shares of the country's resources, provides the key to any meaningful analysis of these relations. By focusing on a number of specific issues, this articl…
The persistence of conflict in Africa
In tracing the history of the development of the African nation‐states from the dismantling of the British colonial empire in 1960 onwards, this paper sets out to identify the underlying reasons for the almost perpetually conflict‐ridden state of the continent. The findings are then considered in the light of the extensive literature in the field of conflict management and resolution
The Fire Behind the Smoke
Eghosa E. Osaghae, ‘The Fire Behind the Smoke: External Sources of Ethnic Conflicts in Africa’, Forum for Development Studies, 1995:1, pp. 5–27. This article makes a strong case for examining the interventions and meddling of foreign powers and interests as an underlying factor in explaining ethnic conflicts in Africa. It argues and demonstrates that these external sources of conflicts are deeply historically and structurally entrenched, dating b…
The study of political transitions in Africa
This article examines some of the inadequacies of dominant Western perspectives, especially those originating from the US for studying political transitions in Africa, by focusing on the current democratic transitions. It attributes the major flaws to the hegemonic and ideological interests which these transitions are designed to serve and which underlie approaches made popular by Western scholars, to a ‘periodic’ conceptualisation of the process…
Between State and Civil Society in Africa
The Ogoni Uprising
THE BABANGIDA REGIME failed to produce the promised civilian government for Nigeria but the convoluted democratization programme offered opportunities to various interest groups to once again raise fundamental but previously suppressed issues related to the 'national question'.1 For the oil producing ethnic minorities of the Niger Delta and especially the Ogonis of Rivers state, it was time to confront the federal state on fundamental issues of t…
Structural Adjustment and Ethnicity in Nigeria
It is generally agreed that the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and the deep economic crisis which prefaced and continued to attend their adaptation in several African countries have had serious economic, social and political consequences. Against this background, this study examines the effect of SAP on ethnicity in Nigeria
The global and regional contexts of South Africa's democratic transition
This paper analyses the global and regional (i.e. African and Southern African) contexts of South Africa's democratic transition. It argues and demonstrates that by the nature of the country — its multi‐racial, international population, strategic importance to the West, continued practice of the worst form of colonial oppression and exploitation long after colonialism had become an anachronism, and the power of the apartheid state which was diffi…
Human Rights and Ethnic Conflict Management
Against the background of the debate among scholars of human rights over whether group rights exist, and if they do, whether they are compatible with individual rights, this article tries to show that in divided multi-ethnic societies there is a need to balance the two kinds of rights. It approaches human rights from a conflict-management perspective and argues that there are interests and demands of a group nature which individual rights cannot …
Transition Without End
The authors examine the rise and fall of democratic transition and structural adjustment in Nigeria during the eight-year regime of General Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993), chronicling the country's descent from the promise of reform and renewal to an unprecedented political and economic depression
The Crippled Giant
Surveys Nigerian history and politics since 1960s
Managing multiple minority problems in a divided society
The management of ethnic problems has tended to be complicated by the complex ethnic situations which give rise to them. It is known for example that ethnicity rarely exists in a pure form, being usually combined with other conflict-generating cleavages, such as religion, race, class and regionalism, in mutually reinforcing ways. Ethnicity is also situational, fluid and intermittent, while ethnic boundaries are constantly changing. In addition, l…
Government and Politics in Africa
Ethnicity, Class and the Struggle for Power in Liberia
Nigeria
Democratization in sub‐saharan Africa
(1999). Democratization in sub‐saharan Africa: Faltering prospects, new hopes. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 5-28
Political science (45 obras) · Law (35 obras) · Politics (29 obras) · Sociology (28 obras) · Law (23 obras) · Economics (21 obras) · Political economy (17 obras) · Development economics (15 obras) · Ethnic group (12 obras) · Democracy (11 obras)