It was in quest of political legitimacy as well as religious purity that former governor of Zamfara state, Senator Sani Ahmed Yerima, started a crusade in 1999 to re-establish Shariah. That initiative immediately found spacious reverberation with many Muslims. For the clerics, it was an opportunity to restore a religious and moral heritage that had been suppressed after colonial conquest. Many people saw Shariah as an instrument for achieving a just, safe, compassionate and less corrupt society. Thus, the Zamfara governments actions were soon taken up by other states, whose governors followed with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The federal government, however, declared Shariah to be incompatible with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. The northern governors responded by highlighting that the same constitution vested in states concurrent powers to establish their own court systems. The writers develop this narrative and look into the constitutional provisions that guarantee freedom of religion and international and national judicial decisions where the right of religion has been vindicated.
Th e New Partnership for Africa's Development is the latest in a long line of initiatives or framework intended by African leaders to place African continent on a path of growth and sustainable development. Th e development challenges that face Africa are enormous and varied. Th e crisis of political instability, bad governance, lack of peace and security, poverty and diseases like HIV/AIDs. NEPAD recognized peace and security as condition for good governance and sustainable development. Th erefore, in absence of peace and security, democracy and good governance cannot strive and where there is no good governance, we cannot witness sustainable development. Th is paper argues that peace and security has been elusive in much of Africa. Th e failure of the Organisation of African Unity to ensure peace and security in Africa and to address Africa's post-cold war legion of challenges, the successor organisation, the African Union and its attendant development programme, the NEPAD were established. Th e fi rst issue which is critical to NEPAD is, solving armed confl ict and civil unrest on the continent. Currently, twenty percent of the people of Africa are living in condition of confl ict. Th ese conditions cause terrible suff ering and hold back economic development in the aff ected countries. Th e extent of confl ict is so great that the whole continent is aff ected and this creates a major barrier to inward investment. On the resolution, NEPAD is in a position to make considerable progress. It was learnt in Sierra Lone that with concentrated international eff ort, confl ict can be successfully ended and institutions of a properly functioning state can begin to be rebuilt. Th e paper therefore examines the origin of the NEPAD, NEPAD and challenges of peace and security in Africa and involvement of AU/NEPAD in Darfur and Cote D'Ivoire crises. It further discusses the AU/NEPAD confl ict mechanisms for confl ict prevention, management and resolution and draw conclusion.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.