Violent conflicts in emerging democracies or societies in transition threaten the stability of state governance institutions, which brings about insecurity of lives, property and deepens the vicious cycle of poverty and criminality in Africa. The first responsibility of any government is to provide security of lives and property. At no time since Nigeria's civil war has the country witnessed the resurgence of violence and insecurity that claims hundreds of lives weekly. It is a sectarian insurgence of multiple dimensions. This article makes the case that Boko Haram is not just a religious phenomenon but a reflection of a socio-political, economic and ethnic problem caused by bad governance. As a result, Boko Haram has witnessed a cross-border influence and impact which has expanded its frontiers beyond Nigeria to neighboring countries in the West African region. The theoretical framework employed in this article posits that Boko Haram has its roots fundamentally in poverty caused by bad governance in the Northern Moslem bend, in Nigeria and the West African Region where corruption, human rights violations, marginalization of cultural, political and religious groups have created the situation whereby weak state structures have abysmally failed to deliver on the development promises made during elections. So the emergence of Nigeria's Boko Haram violence, as a result of the street poverty and the rise of unemployed street beggars, popularly known as Almajiris, and their use for electoral and party violence, was encouraged by the neglect and abandonment of the masses by the governors and other elected leaders. The expansion and consolidation of the Boko Haram insurgence to other parts of the country and neighboring West African nations was made possible by the already existing failed state institutions, bad governance and corruption and the existing band of small criminal sectarian groups that depend upon their survival on aids from Al Quaeda, drug gangs and sea piracy. The religious dimension is a marginal factor fueled by fundamental socioeconomic and political variables which have been thrown up in the first place by bad governance and leadership in Nigeria.
In the 2011 general elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), the electoral management body (EMB) that organized the elections pulled what may pass as an electoral feat in achieving one of the most open, credible, peaceful and transparent elections within Nigeria's recent memory. Before the 2011 elections, Nigeria had the 1999, 2003 and the 2007 elections considered by both national and international election observers, the Common Wealth Election Monitoring groups and the civil society, to be the most disorganized and fraudulent election during which people's votes were blatantly stolen, rigged and the mandate of the people hijacked by political elites belonging variously to different political parties. Nigeria's democracy, no doubt, is still nascent, evolving and could be classified as a new democracy. This paper takes a critical look at a disturbing national and international question: why is there so much electoral fraud in new and emerging democracies like Nigeria. The article seeks to establish the reasons and causes of electoral manipulation, its dynamics and corrupt tendencies, especially those electoral outcomes that are disputed as a result of electoral misconduct known as "electoral fraud". The article will evaluate the concept of electoral fraud, explore the challenges of electoral fraud, its consequent crisis for new democracies and suggests ways of curtailing the phenomenon in its varied manifestations.
Pope John Paul II made a historic apology to several groups oppressed by the church since its inquisition started. The late pontiff's apology to women as a group was as a result of the obnoxious and oppressive denial of women's human right by the Church and the greater society because of the wrong interpretation of the "submission" clause in the Bible. The subsequent re-interpretation of the submission clause in the Letter to the Ephesians strongly confirmed and affirmed the equality of man and woman and established the theological and philosophical basis for questioning oppressive cultural ethos in Africa and demanding for a theological paradigm shift which will help Africa to address the centuries old inequities, inequalities and injustices suffered and still borne by women in the 21 st century. This article captures the religious role and position of the church and defines the basis for calling for a new gender approach within the Church that will achieve gender equality in Africa.
What should be the African social worker in the modern world. The African social worker has discovered that most clinical and other modern social work practices are Euro-centric. And only reflect only European values. He knows that African communal social work practices existed in an ethnocentric environment that encourages an African-centred world view. How this African centred world view wouyld help him to define a new social work values with a paradigmatic shift to his roles as a profession is a challenge to both social philosophy and its social work concentrates. Therefore this article raises serious concerns about the ethnocentric nature of existing paradigms within the social sciences that form the basis for social work theory and practice with implications for modern social work in Africa. In addition, it highlights the theoretical deficits within existing social work models that do not reflect the worldviews of diverse cultural communities in modern world. Can existing social work models continue to express ethnocentric value systems as the universal way to explain human behaviour in the light of growing demands for pluralism not only between groups but also between epistemologies and worldviews? The authors of the article, writing from the perspective of the new African social science, argues for an alternative paradigm that is grounded in the cultural and historical reality of the African communal experience.
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