The effective division of powers is critical to ensuring the promotion of good governance, democracy, and the rule of law in Africa. This book examines key issues arising during reforms of African constitutions, and focuses on the emergence of independent constitutional institutions providing checks against future abuses of powers.

A stunning revision of our founding document’s evolving history that forces us to confront anew the question that animated the founders so long ago: What is our Constitution? Americans widely believe that the United States Constitution was created when it was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788. But in a shrewd rereading of the Founding era, Jonathan Gienapp upends this long-held assumption, recovering the unknown story of American constitutional creation in the decade after its adoption—a story with explosive implications for current debates over constitutional originalism and interpretation. When the Constitution first appeared, it was shrouded in uncertainty. Not only was its meaning unclear, but so too was its essential nature. Was the American Constitution a written text, or something else? Was it a legal text? Was it finished or unfinished? What rules would guide its interpretation? Who would adjudicate competing readings? As political leaders put the Constitution to work, none of these questions had answers. Through vigorous debates they confronted the document’s uncertainty, and—over time—how these leaders imagined the Constitution radically changed. They had begun trying to fix, or resolve, an imperfect document, but they ended up fixing, or cementing, a very particular notion of the Constitution as a distinctively textual and historical artifact circumscribed in space and time. This means that some of the Constitution’s most definitive characteristics, ones which are often treated as innate, were only added later and were thus contingent and optional.

Obasanjo's first term in office as a civilian president (1999 - 2003) was a major litmus test for the future of Nigeria's fledgling democracy. Set in a critical conjuncture characterized by high popular expectations and international goodwill on the one hand and weak institutions and deep-seated social cleavages exacerbated by years of military rule on the other, the new civilian governments at the Federal and State levels were expected to quickly deliver the "e;dividends of democracy"e; to prevent an authoritarian throwback. The expectations included a quick improvement in social service delivery, ending egregious human rights violations of the military era, improving infrastructure, strengthening institutions of governance and creating jobs. But how did the Obasanjo regime fare in meeting the citizens' expectations in its first term in office? What were the challenges faced by practitioners in all the branches and levels of government in achieving their electoral promises and public expectations? And how did they respond to those challenges? In this book, some of Nigeria's leading academics dialogue with politicians who hold or have held key political positions, including Governor Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State, former state governors Orji Kalu, Sam Egwu and Chris Ngige, as well as other key political practitioners to find answers to some of the above questions. The contributors address numerous thorny issues in Nigerian politics and governance including federalism and presidentialism, elections and the electoral process, the judiciary and courts, parties and the party system, the economy, as well as foreign policy. Specifically, they address the issues of executive-legislative relations, executive-judiciary relations, party-government relations, Federal and State relations and the relations between President Obasanjo and State Governors that he regarded as recalcitrant. The book is unique in that it departs from the conventional academic balance sheet approach of matching popular expectations against government's service delivery to actually incorporate the views and experiences of the practitioners in the field. This is done not for self-justificatory purposes, but to genuinely articulate and perspectivise the challenges the practitioners faced and their own efforts at coping with such challenges.

This book explores the world of Nigerian universities to offer an innovative perspective on the history of development and decolonisation from the 1930s to the 1960s. Using political, cultural and spatial approaches, the book shows that Nigerians and foreign donors alike saw the nation’s new universities as vital institutions: a means to educate future national leaders, drive economic growth, and make a modern Nigeria. Universities were vibrant places, centres of nightlife, dance, and the construction of spectacular buildings, as well as teaching and research. At universities, students, scholars, visionaries, and rebels considered and contested colonialism, the global Cold War, and the future of Nigeria. University life was shaped by, and formative to, experiences of development and decolonisation. The book will be of interest to historians of Africa, empire, education, architecture, and the Cold War.