Prof. Olanrewaju Olu-Adeyemi

Mandela: A hero to blacks and Whites Though saddened by his demise, millions of his admirers across the globe were glad to see Nelson Mandela conclude his long walk to freedom from lung infection and tuberculosis last Thursday as he bade the world a final farewell. Given the hard time he had endured during his long incarceration, first at the redoubtable Robben Island, and later at Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai, Cape Town, it was gnawing and annoying to see him lean on medical practitioners and technology just to stay alive. Now that he is dead, he is free from aches and pains; free from syringes and scalpels; free from intravenous and extra-venous therapies. He is free at last; free from dependence, free from speculations; free from a world earnestly waiting to hear the announcement of his passing. The Madiba was not just a South African hero; he was a global idol. He was loved and revered by people across cultures as well as religious and political persuasions. He was a globa...

ADEKUNLE AJASIN UNIVERSITY AKUNGBA AKOKO DEPT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION POS 404: THEORIES OF WAR AND STRATEGIES OF PEACE Course description War is a most constant phenomenon in the continuing evolution of politically organized human communities from the earliest times to the present. So also has the attempt to restore peace become an inevitable accompaniment of the phenomenon of war. This course examines these realities, seeking in the process an appreciation of the real nature and causes of war as explicated in extant theoretical postulations on the one hand, and the strategies of attaining peace on the other. Expectations To facilitate robust interaction on the topics in the class; a list or relevant texts and documents is provided by the Instructor. Every student is expected to search, read and understand the key arguments of the identified articles before coming to class. A good percentage of the overall scores go to constructive participation in cl...

Brief on Political Analysis Politics The frontiers of Political inquiry have continued to expand overtime. The word “politics” is derived from the Greek word ‘Polis’, meaning a city.  In ancient , the basic unit of human organisation, coterminous with the State, was the city. From ‘Polis ‘ came the word ‘Polities’ meaning ‘citizen’, and ‘Politikos’, an adjective meaning ‘appertaining to the city, the citizen, and citizenship’. (Khan, et al, 1987:3). From ‘Politikos’ is derived the English word “politics” which implies the study of the general principles on which government can be carried on successfully; in other words, the study of the exercise of power. The truth remains that the entire gamut of human activities falls within the sphere of political control.  The above brings to fore the Aristotlean conception that ‘every man is a political animal’.  Not animal in the lower animal sense but simply because politics dictates man’s basic existence. The American Politi...

A difficult way forward in Egypt As Egypt teeters on the verge of a catastrophic confrontation, it is difficult to discern who has been more short-sighted: an arrogant Muslim Brotherhood that misread electoral gains for a political blank-check or a reckless opposition that has appeared ready to sink the country in order to bring down the Islamists and whose criteria for ousting the president – generalised incompetence and wide unpopularity – could send many presidents packing. The priority today must be to avoid further bloodshed. It is, too, to ensure that the next chapter in Egypt’s troubled transition, unlike the last, is inclusive and consensual. The alternative is to continue with exclusionary, confrontational politics, albeit with greater violence with only a change of characters at the helm. Egypt’s profound divisions rarely have been on starker display than these past days. Millions took to the streets on 30 June to demand President Mohammed Morsi’s departure; smaller, ye...

Political Analysis This module provides students with an introduction to the theories, methods and approaches which shape political analysis. The module encourages students to reflect on how they interpret and define political events. This involves exploring the relationship between knowledge, its validation and the methods we use to collect information. It aims to cultivate: a sophisticated and nuanced approach to political analysis; conceptual clarity; analytical rigor; methodological awareness; interest in theory-building; and intellectual maturity and curiosity. It achieves this by focusing on the role and value of political concepts as the basic units of political debate and analysis. This includes exploring the ‘essentially contested’ nature of concepts, the distinction between ‘stretching’ and ‘travelling’ and also how concepts have evolved and emerged over time. Part of this conceptual exploration will reflect upon the history of the subject of ‘political studies’ or ‘polit...

Local Government Administration in Nigeria INTRODUCTION The term local government administration in Nigeria has attracted serious attention both nationally and internationally since the great local government reform of 1976. Local government is the closest tier of government to the people of Nigeria, yet the resident population in it is denied the benefits of its existence. The failure of local government in the area of service delivery over the years has made the citizens to loose faith and trust in local government administration as an institution in Nigeria. From historical perspective, modern local government administration in Nigeria can be traced to the British system of local government. But it should be stated however, that local administration did not start with the advent of British Administration in Nigeria, because some forms of system of local government adminis- tration pre-dated the British rule. Local govern- ment administration is one of man’s oldest institut...