Journal of Nation-building & Policy Studies - latest Issue

Men all over history have exhibited a lot of efforts in building sustainable nations and better societies. Unfortunately, in every epoch, the challenge of promoting societal transformation through nation building have remained a herculean task for both the political elite and the subjects. In Africa, the situation seems to be worse due to the multiple challenges undermining continental transformations.

Consequently, in this issue, scholars from different parts of the continent have interrogated the multiple challenges of nation building and policy studies.

The building of any nation depends on the capacity of its human resources. While the media and academic literature focuses on the political elite as the prime movers of nation building, this study investigates into the role of the youth in creating an innovative and sustained economy. This paper is a broad overview of how to steer the career paths of youth in a recessed economy for nation building. In discussing the sub- topics therein, Nigeria peculiarities were taken into consideration. The discourse captured salient areas such as career as a concept, nation building, career development. The paper advocates that the establishment of career development programme is crucial to helping youth create a fulfilling career so as to contribute to nation building. The study notes that government is at the forefront of nation building hence should be concerned with career issues of the youths and build a capacity that would ensure mass participation of all and sundry in the career development of youths. The youths in our dear African nations need to be provided with adequate career assistance and guidance to assist them make realistic career choice if they would be relevant in our societies.

It may be recalled that erstwhile colonial masters or post-war agreements among major powers regarding borders have often created monstrosities in which ethnic, religious or linguistic groups were haphazardly thrown together or separated without any recourse to those groups‘ peculiarities and aspirations. Worrisomely, therefore, the greater percent of African borders did not follow latitudinal and longitudinal lines, and many scholars believe that such artificial (unnatural) borders, created ethnically fragmented countries or, conversely, separated the same people into bordering countries, are at the root of Africa‘s political, economic and social tragedies. Specifically, in Africa with the exception of a handful of states such as Egypt and Ethiopia are constructed predominantly on artificial lines. Therefore, how possible can regional integration be an instrument of combating the myriad of challenges confronting the states in the ECOWAS sub-region? This poser is premised on the fact that ECOWAS has achieved little in attaining its cardinal objectives. Thus, this paper, in reliance to functionalism as its theoretical framework, investigates the challenges of regional integration in the ECOWAS sub-region. The paper discovers that state artificiality (a situation where political borders do not coincide with the natural divisions of ethnic nationalities) is what has prevented the ECOWAS from attaining its mission goals. Howbeit, the methodology of this study is descriptive and analytical using data from documented secondary materials. The paper recommends that while it is apposite for African integration efforts to rely on sister integration efforts as the E.U., there is the need for more African intrusiveness.

This paper examines the state of civil-military relations so far under the Nigerian fourth republic. It studies the dimensions which the civil-military relations have taken in order to establish a pattern similar or in variance with the previous republics. The underlying argument here is that since the inception of the fourth republic, civil-military relations have a pattern in which the civilian administration had been having a grip on the military. The paper relied on secondary data and the analyses was based on content analysis. The study found that the political class has been conscious of the need to maintain their hold on the military. This is mostly carried out through the removal of the military personnel with political affiliation. The different forms of intimidations received by the populace from the military were described as a major concern in the civil-military relations in the fourth republic. This paper recognizes the fact that the military dehumanizes the civilians in the road blocks on slight provocation. It suggests the need to re-orientate the military towards humanitarian‘s services and better civil-military relations.

By the time Nigeria gained independence in 1960, there was amassed hope that within a decade, the country with her large human resources and level of western education would be an epitome to other countries of Africa in terms of nation building and otherwise. It was hallucinated that the diverse ethnic and religious groups of the federation will create unity in diversity. But within few years of this independence, the reverse was the case. It was such that with the passage of time, the centripetal force was speedily dwindling while the centrifugal force was growing in geometric progression. The quest for nation building thus lied helpless. This researcher therefore used historical qualitative research methodology to inquire into the impacts of ethno-religious activities in the nation building and used thematic and descriptive methods to present his findings. The researcher argues that sectionalism both in religious and ethnic spheres of the nation’s activities will rather worsen the case. Therefore, he recommended among other things, the Inclusive Theory of Conflict Resolution as one of the therapies needed to set the wheel of nation building in Nigeria on motion.

One of the facets of a progressive process of nation building is religion. Religion has been practiced from time immemorial. Over the years, religion has contributed immensely to nation building and development in Nigeria. However, in contemporary time, many have questioned the ability and credibility of religion in enhancing national development, sustainability and nation building. This is sequel either to the various religious riots and crisis, intolerance, motivated killings or undue quest for wealth and corrupt practices perpetuated by political leaders who profess religion. This study uses two methodologies. One, the social scientific approach which enables it discuss issues on nation building. And two, the African cultural communal hermeneutics that draws from the African experiences and environment to interpret religious experiences. Therefore, this study argues that religion transforms individuals who build the nation. It recommends that when individuals imbibe religious transformational values, ethics, forgiveness, and doctrines most societal ills would be curbed. Thus, religion is capable of not only ensuring but building sustainable and formidable nationhood.

The paper examines the phenomenon of gender in relation to policy formulation in Africa. It drew inspiration from the biblical text in Numbers 27:1-11, noting that the continent of Africa is greatly characterized with the paucity of women public appearance and participation at policy formulation due to the traditional conception of patriarchy. Consequently, women have generally perceived the public domain as men‘s world hence active involvement is conceived as being extrovert. More so, they have not largely seen the need to raise questions over certain policies and decisions within the home and beyond. The paper therefore uses the case of Zelophehad‘s daughters as a model for African women active involvement in policy formulation and implementation. It adopts expository, hermeneutical and critical interpretation of the phenomenon while lending support to women who are front liners, calling and pushing for women active involvement. It discovers that the low level of involvement and participation is couched under traditional norms of the people without seeing the need to recognize women beyond the domestic duties. Women also, have contributed to the challenges by not helping to project a fellow woman to such enviable heights which they considered as a mark of honour to remain at the background. This has caused the dearth of women in both public and private offices. It concludes by recommending that all known rules which input values based on sex should be considered extant and anti-human. Traditional norms and values should not be made sacrosanct as Moses did in his case. Therefore, there is no basis for fear as some have already entertained thinking that once women are empowered, they will eventually abandon their domestic roles and responsibilities in the home.

Obviously, the military is essentially an institution saddled with the responsibility of protecting the territorial integrity of a nation. The military was not established for political governance. However, the crises-ridden political atmosphere in Nigeria gave rise to the January 15, 1966 coup that terminated Nigeria‘s first republic. This paper appraises the contributions of Murtala-Obasanjo military regime towards nation building in Nigeria. It discusses the concepts of military government and nation building. Nation building is one of the un-accomplished desires in Nigeria, mainly because of numerous challenges. These challenges are extensively discussed for better comprehension of this paper. The paper ended with contributions of the military government (Murtala-Obasanjo regime) towards nation building in Nigeria.