Author: David Pratten Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 164
Book Description
This collection focuses on the rise of vigilantism and the privatization of armed security in Nigeria from a number of fresh perspectives that move beyond the 'collapsed state' thesis to grasp the more productive and dynamic dimensions of sociality and security both today and during the colonial period. Vigilantism has become an endemic feature of the Nigerian social and political landscape, especially so since the return to democratic rule in 1999. Vigilantes have assumed a status synonymous with the fractured and violence-ridden image of Africa's most populous nation. Beyond fighting crime, vigilante groups such as the O'odua People's Congress, the Bakassi Boys and the shari'a implementation committees represent divergent aspirations for Nigeria's future, and spearhead contemporary political contests over the country's most intractable issues - the politics of democracy, ethnicity and religion. Set against global trends in the privatization of policing, and emergent forms of armed insurgency across the African continent, this collection draws on anthropological and historical perspectives to situate vigilantism within historical trajectories, and within localized idioms of power, knowledge and accountability.
Author: Thomas G. Kirsch Publisher: Boydell & Brewer ISBN: 1847010288 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 194
Book Description
An unprecedented overview of anthropological and political science research on vigilantism in Africa which makes an important and innovative contribution to current discussions on the relationship between violent self-justice andstate and non-state agencies. Self-justice and legal self-help groups have been gaining importance throughout Africa. The question of who is entitled to formulate 'legal principles', enact 'justice', police 'morality' and sanction 'wrongdoings' has increasingly become a subject of controversy and conflict. These conflicts focus on the strained relationship between state sovereignty and citizens' self-determination. More particularly, they concern the conditions, modes and means of thelegitimate execution of power, and in this volume are seen as a diagnostics as to how social actors in Africa debate and practise socio-political order. State agencies try to bring vigilante groups under control by channelling their activities, repressing them, or using them for their own interests. Vigilante groups usually must struggle for recognition and acceptance in local socio-political spheres. As several of the contributions in the volume show, legal self-help groups in Africa therefore 'domesticate' themselves by, among other things, seeking legitimation, engaging in publicly acceptable non-vigilante activities, or institutionalizing what often began as a rather unrestrained and 'disorderly' social movement. Thomas G. Kirsch is Professor & Chair of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Constance, Germany; Tilo Grätz is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hamburg, Germany & Associate Lecturer at the University of Halle-Wittenberg.
Author: Oshita O. Oshita Publisher: Springer ISBN: 9811382158 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 679
Book Description
This book explores the disturbing dimensions of the problem of insecurity in Nigeria, such as herdsmen violence, the Boko Haram insurgency, cybercrime, militancy in the Niger Delta, communal conflict and violence, as well as police corruption. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the theoretical foundations of internal security, the threats to internal security, the role of formal and informal agencies in internal security management and the challenges of internal security management.
Author: Rasheed Olaniyi Publisher: ISBN: 9788025129 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 64
Book Description
Kano is a city where a multi-layered form of community policing was established in the era of the rollback of the state in social provisioning in the midst of ever-increasing armed banditry and crime. Between 1985 and 2005, vigilante groups were established in almost all the neighbourhoods of Kano with the support of the traditional authority and community leaders. However, government interference, political instrumentalisation and inadequate support undermined its critical rote. Part of the rationale for the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) in Sabongari lies not in the efficacy of such initiative in reducing the incidence of crime but to confer a sense of identity, control of crime and security. The contradiction in PCRC could be located in the pathological fixation of police on corruption, which alienated and depressed the public from providing valuable information for crime control. The activities of vigilante groups and Hisba have reduced the high rate of juvenile delinquency in metropolitan Kano. The litmus test for Hisba in the implementation of Sharia law would be how it could reconcile the social diversity in a multicultural society such as Kano to ensure security and social harmony. The study concludes that the gap between different forms of vigilante groups, conflicting political motivations and the near discordant relations with the police, produced a dysfunctional mechanism for crime control.
Author: Daniel Jordan Smith Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 1400837227 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
E-mails proposing an "urgent business relationship" help make fraud Nigeria's largest source of foreign revenue after oil. But scams are also a central part of Nigeria's domestic cultural landscape. Corruption is so widespread in Nigeria that its citizens call it simply "the Nigerian factor." Willing or unwilling participants in corruption at every turn, Nigerians are deeply ambivalent about it--resigning themselves to it, justifying it, or complaining about it. They are painfully aware of the damage corruption does to their country and see themselves as their own worst enemies, but they have been unable to stop it. A Culture of Corruption is a profound and sympathetic attempt to understand the dilemmas average Nigerians face every day as they try to get ahead--or just survive--in a society riddled with corruption. Drawing on firsthand experience, Daniel Jordan Smith paints a vivid portrait of Nigerian corruption--of nationwide fuel shortages in Africa's oil-producing giant, Internet cafés where the young launch their e-mail scams, checkpoints where drivers must bribe police, bogus organizations that siphon development aid, and houses painted with the fraud-preventive words "not for sale." This is a country where "419"--the number of an antifraud statute--has become an inescapable part of the culture, and so universal as a metaphor for deception that even a betrayed lover can say, "He played me 419." It is impossible to comprehend Nigeria today--from vigilantism and resurgent ethnic nationalism to rising Pentecostalism and accusations of witchcraft and cannibalism--without understanding the role played by corruption and popular reactions to it. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
Author: Abimbola Adesoji Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1527525570 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 679
Book Description
This collection of essays explores the critical and fluid nature of security challenges that have plagued Nigeria since colonial times. Insecurity in diverse forms remains the bane of growth and progressive development in the country, and has the capability to derail a society no matter how sophisticated. What has generated insecurity at the macro- and micro-levels? How has insecurity been tackled? Why have security challenges escalated particularly in the post-independence period? What lessons could be learnt from the way security matters have been (mis)handled in the past? This volume presents chapters on the historical roots and antecedents of security challenges, and considers the nexus between the economy, political leadership and development, and its impacts on security in modern Nigeria. It also explores the effectiveness of the strategies employed to address security challenges, and discusses why some security challenges have lingered.
Author: Clarence J. Bouchat Publisher: Army War College Press ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 136
Book Description
The political economy problems of Nigeria, the root cause for ethnic, religious, political and economic strife, can be in part addressed indirectly through focused contributions by the U.S. military, especially if regionally aligned units are more thoroughly employed.
Author: Temitope B. Oriola Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 100047982X Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
This book investigates the devastating impacts of the Boko Haram terrorist campaign in Nigeria, reflecting on the group’s historical context, organizational dynamics, and emerging trajectories. Since its inception in 2002, Boko Haram’s terrorist campaign has become one of the major threats to security and human development in West Africa, killing tens of thousands of people, and displacing many more. This book reflects on the origins and development of Boko Haram, contextualizing it in the global trend of militant Islamist movements. It delves into the tactics of the organization, their deployment of sexual and gender- based violence against women and human rights abuses in the war against them. The war against Boko Haram has seen engagement from the international community, national and regional military operations, and also a range of civilian- led movements. This book reflects on the roles of these different actors, and the emerging trajectories that need to be considered in order to eradicate Boko Haram. Drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fi elds of sociology, political science, African studies, and peace and conflict studies.
Author: David Pratten
Author: Thomas G. Kirsch
Author: Oshita O. Oshita
Author: Rasheed Olaniyi
Author: Daniel Jordan Smith
Author: Abimbola Adesoji
Author: Clarence J. Bouchat
Author: David Pratten
Author: Temitope B. Oriola
Author: Ali Arazeem Abdullahi