Abstracts

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): An Analysis 

 By Carrie Crawford* 

 This paper examines the tragedy resulting from the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and raises the question as to why the International Community has not responded throughout the many years the conflict has been going on. Using the UN doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P, the paper shows the inconsistency in the application of the doctrine by the UN, when it comes to the conflict in the DRC. This inconsistency the paper argues is due to the fact that the major powers do not see the DRC as sufficiently being in their national interest as say Libya whose leader was ousted with the help of a UN mandate applying the R2P doctrine. 1 

Carrie Crawford is an Attorney in Laurel, Maryland, Co-Founder of Friends of the Congo and Chair of its Board of Directors 

Political Corruption, Critical Governance Problem Facing the Nigerian State: Comparative Assessment of Various Regimes 

 By Dr. Brian-Vincent Ikejiaku

 This paper examines political-corruption as the most critical problem of Governance besieging Nigeria, by looking at, assessing and comparing the various administrations, both the civil and the military. The state of poverty, peace and development in each government were used as assessment indicators. The focus is from 1979 when democracy was introduced in Nigeria to 2007 when President Obasanjo left the corridor of power. Whereas this paper uses few direct citations and evidence from other works/reports to support its case, it however argues that political corruption impacted negatively on the poverty, peace and development of the Nigerian state. The paper finds that the military regimes were more corrupt than the civilian regimes; however it concludes that on governance, Nigeria has not been fortunate with most of its leaders because they succumb to corruption at different levels and were unable to address the nation’s problems.2 

Dr. Brian-Vincent Ikejiaku is with the British Institute of Technology and ECommerce London, UK and also visits as a Senior Lecturer in VERITAS University Nigeria. This output is part of research funded by the Dandelion Trust 2 Awards UK, through the office of Research and Enterprise Keele University, United Kingdom

Uganda Intervention 

 By Saba Jallow 

Uganda, described as the Pearl of Africa has undergone some major political and economic transformations from the rule of President Milton Obote, the dictatorship of Idi Amin Dada to the current uncertain policies of President Yoweri Museveni.  He has become a key United States ally to hunt down Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army, which was driven out of Uganda in 2006. This paper addresses the role of the United States government in helping the Ugandan government to capture Joseph Kony and ‘decapitate’ the leadership of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Why has US policy intensified in a region of the world where other conflicts have been ongoing for decades? Is the LRA that powerful to undermine the regimes in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, and South Sudan.? Can this shift in deploying 100 troops to Uganda and other central African countries to contain the LRA and the purported support of Omar Bashir’s government in Sudan to the LRA succeed?3 

Saba Jallow, is a professor at Georgia Southern University

Women and Politics in Nigeria: A Typology and an Assessment

By Emma Chukwuemeka, Ph.D

 The study was carried out to investigate the extent women participate in politics in Nigeria. Abia and Imo states were closely studied. Two hypotheses were formulated. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion. A total of 354 copies of questionnaire were distributed, out of this number, 349 copies were completed and returned by the respondents. Z-test statistical tool was used to analyze the data, Based on the analysis, the major findings revealed that violence against women deter women from getting actively involved in politics in Nigeria. Also, culture and traditional ethos prevent the advancement of women in politics also. Based on these findings, the following recommendations among others were proffered: Political mobilization should be carried into the villages to sensitize the women on the need to get involved in politics. More so new laws should be enacted on political thuggery and violence. They should be pursued vigorously to curb the high level of violence meted out to women by their male political counterparts in Nigeria.4 

Emma Chukwuemeka, Ph.D, is Senior Lecturer, Public  Administration and Coordinator, Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Management Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria