ALC Opinions
By ‘Femi Balogun
July 28, 2020
Congratulations to ALC Alumnus ‘Femi Balogun, who has had his first journal article on “Police reform in Nigeria” featuring Oladiran ‘Ola’ Bello PhD, recently published by the Journal of Good Governance.
‘Femi Balogun is a researcher, evaluation consultant and policy analyst. He currently leads research, evaluation and learning efforts at Jobberman Nigeria - supporting job creation initiatives and evidence generation around soft skills development for youth and the future of work.
Abstract:
Since President Buhari assumed office in 2015, there has been a marked deterioration in Nigeria's security situation. Amid the deterioration, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) is widely adjudged as under-resourced and ill-equipped for effective policing. Although Buhari inherited the Boko Haram (BH) conflict in the northeast and the unrest in the Niger Delta region, his tenure has also seen other sources of insecurity grow in profile. These include the spike in inter-communal conflicts, herder farmer clashes, kidnappings for ransom, Shia confrontations with the police/army, and other threats.
Demands from Nigerians for broad-based policing reform have thus become more strident. This analysis posits that attention should be given to reshaping Nigeria's policing architecture. A successful devolution of federal policing responsibilities to regions will impact broadly to alleviate insecurity drivers. This paper therefore advances a groundbreaking proposal based on regional policing, as opposed to state-controlled police forces. Besides bolstering the weak federal police, regional forces will help address the political controversies that have dogged past attempts to devolve policing powers. The recommendations advanced here, if well implemented, will ensure depoliticisation, in-built inclusiveness and greater democratic control over new regional police formations to be controlled collectively by the governors in each of Nigeria's six geopolitical zones.
Read More: Ethnically diverse police forces recruited by each geopolitical zone is needed
Authored by - Oladiran ‘Ola’ Bello PhD & ‘Femi Balogun
Image:myjoyonline.com
By Clement Sefa Nyarko
July 28, 2020
Many congratulations to ALC Alumnus Clement Sefa Nyarko, who has had a recent publication article "Ethnicity in Electoral Politics in Ghana: Colonial Legacies and the Constitution as Determinants", published by Critical Sociology
Abstract:
This paper assesses political allegiances in Ghana, positioning its ethno-political divide into the historical contexts of institutional design and colonialism in Africa. It argues that whilst the colonial policy of Indirect Rule solidified ethnicity in Africa, post-colonial governments used it differently, with varying effects on institutional design and state-building. In concert with other constitutional provisions, Ghana’s Article 55 of 1992 Constitution has curtailed extreme ethnic politics through the limit it places on ethnicity in party politics. Whilst outlawing ethnicity in politics, the constitution provides other depoliticised outlets for expressing diversity, especially through decentralisation and legitimisation of chieftaincy institutions. Despite these safeguarding provisions, the Asantes and Ewes have consistently taken entrenched political positions since 1992, and this article explicates some of the drivers using longitudinal election results. It draws on institutional design complexities in multi-ethnic societies in Africa to propose lessons and convey implications for Ghana’s Fourth Republic Constitution.
Clement is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidate with two previous Master of Arts degrees, obtained from the United Kingdom and Ghana, on the broad areas of history, population studies, security and development; and over five years of experience in critical social assessments of vulnerable groups and society in general.
African Leadership Centre honours Peter da Costa’s legacy
By Desmond Davis
Published Online:25th August 2020
Republished from: Africa Briefing
THE African Leadership Centre, an initiative of King’s College London and the University of Nairobi, aims to train 10 doctoral and 10 post-doctoral Fellows over the next five years in honour of Dr Peter da Costa, Deputy Chair of the ALC’s Board of Trustees, who died on August 18, 2019, aged 57.
The programme would ‘produce a body of interdisciplinary work on peace, security and African development, which relate to the central ideas that Peter sought to impart at the ALC.’
The ALC said in a statement to mark the first anniversary of his death: ‘The…Fellowships named after Peter Da Costa [would] honour his contribution to the development of the very idea of projecting excellent African knowledge and communicating research findings for policy influence and uptake.
Read more: African Leadership Centre honours Peter da Costa’s legacy
By Hubert Kinkoh and Ibrahim Sakawa Magara
Published online: 1 June 2020
Republished from: The Zambakari Advisory
Summary
There is an increasing scholarship on the security cooperation between China and Africa, including Chinese military positioning in strategic locations such as the Horn of Africa. This essay by Hubert Kinkoh and Ibrahim Magara argues that China’s strategic military positioning in the Horn of Africa will not only shape regional security outcomes but also potentially disrupt international polarity.
Hubert Kinkoh
Research associate, African Leadership Centre, Nairobi/London
Ibrahim Sakawa Magara
Post-graduate researcher, politics and international studies, Loughborough University, London;
founding director, Amani Africa Media and Research Services
This article was first published by The Zambakari Advisory in the United States on June 1st, 2020 and accessible from http://www.zambakari.org/special-issue-summer-2020.html . It is republished with permission from The Zambakari Advisory.
Download the PDF version of the article here
The mistreatment of Africans living in China has tested the quality of African leadership. The responses of African leaders to this crisis were predictably technical, tactful, and softly worded. This has generally been registered by the wider African public as a failure by the political elite to provide a voice and accountability to African citizens.
By Hubert Kinkoh and Wadeisor Rukato
Published online: 6 June 2020
Republished from: The Elephant
Back in early April, countless images, video footage and media reports emerged of the racial profiling and accompanying discrimination against Africans living in Guangzhou, the capital of China’s southern province of Guangdong and home to China’s largest African community. Amid public fear of the second wave of COVID-19 in China, people of African descent had become primary suspects as potential sources of the virus. They were rounded up and harassed by the Chinese police, forcibly evicted from their residences and hotels, and explicitly denied access to restaurants, shopping malls and even hospitals. Some had their passports confiscated and were targeted for forced testing and quarantine, regardless of their travel history, whether or not they tested negative for coronavirus, or had been in contact with known COVID-19 patients.
Read more: Making Sense of the Lukewarm Response of African Leaders to the ‘Guangzhou Crisis’
