As the world-wide clamour of group claims to difference and equality grows even louder, this text analyzes the complex constitutional devices required to accommodate ethnic differences in multi-ethnic Nigeria. Through an examination of the philosophical arguments of Will Kymclika and Charles Taylor, and the empirical studies of Arthur Lewis, Arend Lijphart, Eric Nordlinger and Donald Horowitz, Ejobowah reveals how constitutional structures that express cultural plurality must be carefully constructed to ensure both justice and social stability. This African case study on the impact of cultural and ethnic differences on political life should be of interest to scholars of multiculturalism and African studies seeking perspectives on the study of ethnic identity.

This book , NIGERIA: LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT - ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF CHIBUIKE ROTIMI AMAECHI , is an attempt to clarify the issue about leadership and how , in our circumstances , it has impeded ( or for those who believe differently , facilitated ) the achievement of the Nigeria project. The philosophy behind this book is that if those who are doing well get encouragement they will see the need to remain focussed and stay the course ; they may then inspire others who may aim to achieve even more. It is useful to always be critical in appreciating those who lead because it might help them to improve . But it is most unhelpful to always condemn everything , and thus attracting into the ring those who are entirely shameless. There is something to be gained by encouraging those who show signs of understanding that Nigeria cannot afford to continue muddling through unless it wants to literally fall off the map in a globalized world . Leadership is an honour and an opportunity for service to humanity and not just a platform for self - promotion. PETER EKEKWE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GARDENCITY LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE PORT-HARCOURT NIGERIA

Considers the challenges that Nigeria's leadership now faces, offering rich-and-sobering-analyses of the current political and economic systems.

Nigeria is a bellwether, in an enormous continent, endowed with natural resources and human capital, whose development and greatness have been marred by political instability since gaining home-rule from Britain in 1960. The contemporary political, economic, and social quandaries that have stultified Nigeria’s growth project flows from difficulties in cultivating patriotic leaders with pluck to enact efficacious policies that will catapult the country to greater heights developmentally. Nigeria in the Fourth Republic: Confronting the Contemporary Political, Economic, and Social Dilemmas, edited by E. Ike Udogu, examines some of the vital issues responsible for the current political malaise and recommends strategies for exculpating the country from her current political quagmires. The contributors to this book argue, inter alia, for the avoidance of false starts reminiscent of the military interventions that aborted the democracy project and advocates the enactment of effective policies to supersede decision dictated by politics. This volume proposes national healthcare strategies to address the country’s healthcare needs and for dialogue to extinguish combustible inter-religious conflicts. The book recommends ways to assuage police highway malfeasance and explains why human rights observance is critical to further national cohesion while creating space for the subalterns to have their voices heard in discourses on how to advance peaceful coexistence.

This book presents the case that liberal constitutionalism in the global South is a legacy of colonialism and is inappropriate as a means of securing effective peace in regions that have been subject to recurrent conflict. The work demonstrates the failure of liberal constitutionalism in guaranteeing peace in the postcolonial global South. It develops an alternative, more compelling constitutionalism for peacebuilding in conflicted regions. This is based on constitutionalism that recognises plurality as a major feature in the global South. Drawing on events in Nigeria, it develops a constitutional model, based on Cognitive Justice, which could deliver peace by addressing historic, conceptual, legal, institutional and structural issues that have created social inequality and injustice. The study also incorporates insights from the development of plurinational constitutions in South America. The book will be an invaluable resource for researchers, academics and policy-makers with an interest in constitutional legal theory, peacebuilding and postcolonial studies

Banning minarets by referendum in Switzerland, publicly burning Korans in the United States, prohibiting kirpans in public spaces in Canada—these are all examples of the rising backlash against diversity that is spreading across multicultural societies. Trust has always been precarious, and never more so than as a result of increased immigration. The number of religions, races, ethnicities, and cultures living together in democratic communities and governed by shared political institutions is rising. The failure to construct public policy to cope with this diversity—to ensure that trust can withstand the pressure that diversity can pose—is a failure of democracy. The threat to trust originates in the perception that the values and norms that should underpin a public culture are no longer truly shared. Therefore, societies must focus on building trust through a revitalized public culture. In Trust, Democracy, and Multicultural Challenges, Patti Tamara Lenard plots a course for this revitalization. She argues that trust is at the center of effective democratic politics, that increasing ethnocultural diversity as a result of immigration may generate distrust, and therefore that democratic communities must work to generate the conditions under which trust between newcomers and “native” citizens can be built, so that the quality of democracy is sustained.

The politics of identity and ethnicity will remain a fundamental characteristic of African modernity. For this reason, historians and anthropologists have joined political scientists in a discussion about the ways in which democracy can develop in multicultural societies. In Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, the contributors address why ethnicity represents a political problem, how the problem manifests itself, and which institutional models offer ways of ameliorating the challenges that ethnicity poses to democratic nation-building.