Ben Nwosu | University Of Nigeria Enugu Campus (original) (raw)
Papers by Ben Nwosu
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Voluntas, Jan 25, 2017
This book with contributions by authors from majorly social science and related backgrounds inclu... more This book with contributions by authors from majorly social science and related backgrounds including three Political Scientists, three scholars of Development studies, two Statisticians, a Geographer and another Social science expert provides an interesting disciplinary mix for the impressionable theme interrogated in the area of third sector inquiry. At a time when zealots project a warped image of a religion through gory terrorist killings, Human Security and Philanthropy: Islamic Perspectives and Muslim Majority Country Practices could be deemed an intervention in remaking the civic ideals of Islam. In contrast to notions generated by inappropriate use of funds from Islamic religious charity, the purpose of the book is to analyse philanthropy, functioning and performance of the third sector and how they bear on human security (Hasan, 6). Divided into six parts with twelve chapters in which six chapters were done by one contributor, the work is expertly written and bears an uncommon intellectual imprint of the core contributor in the areas of human development and tenets of Islamic religion. Part one, the introduction and theoretical framework leads the reader to understand human security and simplifies the concept by expressing its identifiable elements that include individual security, economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and the political aspects of security (Hasan, 17). Part one also connects the teachings of Islam with human security and shows how aspects of philanthropy in Islam reinforce it. Part two is on policy, legal framework and challenges of philanthropy and the third sector in Muslim Majority Countries. Part three presents a situation analysis of Muslim philanthropy and their applications in education, health, poverty elimination
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
This book examines the complex relationship between the state and civil society and the impact th... more This book examines the complex relationship between the state and civil society and the impact that this has had on democratisation processes in Nigeria from colonial times to the present. Expanding notions of democracy, the author builds a theoretical understanding of civil society to show how it can be both antithetical to and an ally of the state in the struggle for democratisation. Combining the neo-Gramscian framework with discursive perspectives from Habermas and Foucault, the book takes a dialectical approach that traces the incarnations of the state and civil society and relates the mutual connections of the two spaces. This book will be of interest to scholars of African politics, democratisation and civil society.
African Security Review, 2020
The worth of public facilities (schools, health centres and worship centres) destroyed in the aff... more The worth of public facilities (schools, health centres and worship centres) destroyed in the affected local governments were valued at US $2.229 billion. 19 What we can add to these findings is that the losses in the affected communities reinforces the poverty situation, causes rural-urban dislocation, worsens the crime levels due to loss of livelihood, reduces incentives for engaging in agriculture because of insecurity, and damages the local economy and food security.
Review of African Political Economy, 2015
The informal waste management (IWM) sector is often disparaged in Africa and suffers various degr... more The informal waste management (IWM) sector is often disparaged in Africa and suffers various degrees of social opprobrium from the public owing to the work being perceived as low status. The work i...
Politikon, 2021
Democracy in the sphere of policy-making warrants fulfilling the popular will by opening spaces f... more Democracy in the sphere of policy-making warrants fulfilling the popular will by opening spaces for citizen knowledge of the governance processes participation, inclusion and a framework for accountability. The four budget stages of preparation, approval, implementation, and audit necessarily ought to integrate the above principles for an essential nexus with democracy. Using the work of two groups of civil society partners working on Nigeria’s budgeting, we studied the 2016–2019 period around the principles of democratic budgeting as well as explored changes related to civic engagements over the period. We found a monopoly of budget preparation by cloistered bureaucratic experts. The approval stage is marred by politics of vested interests in the legislature and executive with resulting delays in implementation and limited monitoring of the process by citizens. Budget audit suffers delays and non-response to its sensitive findings. Nonetheless, participatory civic engagements have ...
Nnamdi Azikiwe Journal of Political Science, 2023
The existence of both the primordial and modern public spheres in Nigeria in which individuals sh... more The existence of both the primordial and modern public spheres in Nigeria in which individuals share simultaneous membership but with differential attachments, trust and obligations to both spheres mirror the tension of state and society. In the differential obligations and degrees of acceptance of both publics, the primordial public enjoys a higher preference and therefore more participation. However, a recent civil society intervention in Anambra State not only led to a systematic horizontal cooperation of ensembles in the primordial public but also a vertical linkage between them and state departments, for participatory budgeting. Deploying the method of process tracing, this paper explores whether participatory budgeting in the state has resolved the tension and distrust in state/society relations. Using Anambra State experience of participatory budgeting, we propose a grounded theory of state-society nexus. Evidence from the field indicates that what is opened up yet for vertical integration of primordial and civil segments of the two publics is only a fractional slice of the annual budgets. Nonetheless, vertical integration has pulled together several otherwise apathetic primordial groups into active participation in the civic sphere and offers optimism that the primordial and civic publics could be united for democratic popular participation and accountability.
Socialscientia Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
Successful democratic revolutions create new ruling groups, transform the order of political rule... more Successful democratic revolutions create new ruling groups, transform the order of political rule and extend a regime of citizenship rights as well as vest the agency of the same democracy on the citizens. This pathway of revolutionary success can also be deflected through a conscious resistance to the gains of a democratic revolution. Studies of two important moments of democratic revolutionary ruptures in Africa namely Second Liberation Movement and the Arab Spring render independent accounts of institutional effects of the revolutions without a conscious effort to provide a theoretically grounded analysis of democracy's trajectories in national experiences. In this paper, I apply Antonio Gramsci's concept of passive revolution to study the democratic trajectories of states that underwent the second liberation movement and the Arab Spring. I argue that in these two revolutions, the initial successes in change of regimes and the constitutional order could not be sustained and the politics of the affected states relapsed to pre-revolutionary practices. Using the cases of Benin Republic and Congo Democratic Republic for the Second Liberation Movement, Tunisia and Egypt for the Arab Spring, I analyse the recapturing of the machinery of the state by old guards and reverse movements on the rights of citizenship in the entire cases as passive revolution.
Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 2022
A transformation of the public sphere driven by information and communication technology is takin... more A transformation of the public sphere driven by information and communication technology is taking place across different parts of the world. Information about abuses of political rule easily circulate to the masses and drive different forms of critical actions from social media to physical protests and dissensions. The new public sphere which is hosted in large part by the new/social media, provides a virtual context of hard, open engagement of the state and its institutions by the masses. Easy access to the new public sphere, relative safety of its actors, and vast communicative participation hold potentials for expanding the democratic space. In the Nigerian case, however, the nexus of growing vigor of the public sphere and democratization is yet to be established. This paper argues that the emerging culture of dissent against authoritarian rule while growing in internet robustness, ignores the decisive framework of electoral participation to achieve change in political power and extend and embed democracy in Nigeria. Focusing on two major national protests, namely the Occupy Nigeria protest of 2012 and End SARS protest in 2020, the paper explores state responses on the selected episodes of popular dissent supported by the new public sphere and how they bear on civil, political, and social rights as major indicators of democracy's status. Overall, the internet-driven expansion of the discursive and activist public sphere is yet a net gain for democracy in Nigeria.
Small Wars & Insurgencies
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Voluntas, Jan 25, 2017
This book with contributions by authors from majorly social science and related backgrounds inclu... more This book with contributions by authors from majorly social science and related backgrounds including three Political Scientists, three scholars of Development studies, two Statisticians, a Geographer and another Social science expert provides an interesting disciplinary mix for the impressionable theme interrogated in the area of third sector inquiry. At a time when zealots project a warped image of a religion through gory terrorist killings, Human Security and Philanthropy: Islamic Perspectives and Muslim Majority Country Practices could be deemed an intervention in remaking the civic ideals of Islam. In contrast to notions generated by inappropriate use of funds from Islamic religious charity, the purpose of the book is to analyse philanthropy, functioning and performance of the third sector and how they bear on human security (Hasan, 6). Divided into six parts with twelve chapters in which six chapters were done by one contributor, the work is expertly written and bears an uncommon intellectual imprint of the core contributor in the areas of human development and tenets of Islamic religion. Part one, the introduction and theoretical framework leads the reader to understand human security and simplifies the concept by expressing its identifiable elements that include individual security, economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and the political aspects of security (Hasan, 17). Part one also connects the teachings of Islam with human security and shows how aspects of philanthropy in Islam reinforce it. Part two is on policy, legal framework and challenges of philanthropy and the third sector in Muslim Majority Countries. Part three presents a situation analysis of Muslim philanthropy and their applications in education, health, poverty elimination
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
This book examines the complex relationship between the state and civil society and the impact th... more This book examines the complex relationship between the state and civil society and the impact that this has had on democratisation processes in Nigeria from colonial times to the present. Expanding notions of democracy, the author builds a theoretical understanding of civil society to show how it can be both antithetical to and an ally of the state in the struggle for democratisation. Combining the neo-Gramscian framework with discursive perspectives from Habermas and Foucault, the book takes a dialectical approach that traces the incarnations of the state and civil society and relates the mutual connections of the two spaces. This book will be of interest to scholars of African politics, democratisation and civil society.
African Security Review, 2020
The worth of public facilities (schools, health centres and worship centres) destroyed in the aff... more The worth of public facilities (schools, health centres and worship centres) destroyed in the affected local governments were valued at US $2.229 billion. 19 What we can add to these findings is that the losses in the affected communities reinforces the poverty situation, causes rural-urban dislocation, worsens the crime levels due to loss of livelihood, reduces incentives for engaging in agriculture because of insecurity, and damages the local economy and food security.
Review of African Political Economy, 2015
The informal waste management (IWM) sector is often disparaged in Africa and suffers various degr... more The informal waste management (IWM) sector is often disparaged in Africa and suffers various degrees of social opprobrium from the public owing to the work being perceived as low status. The work i...
Politikon, 2021
Democracy in the sphere of policy-making warrants fulfilling the popular will by opening spaces f... more Democracy in the sphere of policy-making warrants fulfilling the popular will by opening spaces for citizen knowledge of the governance processes participation, inclusion and a framework for accountability. The four budget stages of preparation, approval, implementation, and audit necessarily ought to integrate the above principles for an essential nexus with democracy. Using the work of two groups of civil society partners working on Nigeria’s budgeting, we studied the 2016–2019 period around the principles of democratic budgeting as well as explored changes related to civic engagements over the period. We found a monopoly of budget preparation by cloistered bureaucratic experts. The approval stage is marred by politics of vested interests in the legislature and executive with resulting delays in implementation and limited monitoring of the process by citizens. Budget audit suffers delays and non-response to its sensitive findings. Nonetheless, participatory civic engagements have ...
Nnamdi Azikiwe Journal of Political Science, 2023
The existence of both the primordial and modern public spheres in Nigeria in which individuals sh... more The existence of both the primordial and modern public spheres in Nigeria in which individuals share simultaneous membership but with differential attachments, trust and obligations to both spheres mirror the tension of state and society. In the differential obligations and degrees of acceptance of both publics, the primordial public enjoys a higher preference and therefore more participation. However, a recent civil society intervention in Anambra State not only led to a systematic horizontal cooperation of ensembles in the primordial public but also a vertical linkage between them and state departments, for participatory budgeting. Deploying the method of process tracing, this paper explores whether participatory budgeting in the state has resolved the tension and distrust in state/society relations. Using Anambra State experience of participatory budgeting, we propose a grounded theory of state-society nexus. Evidence from the field indicates that what is opened up yet for vertical integration of primordial and civil segments of the two publics is only a fractional slice of the annual budgets. Nonetheless, vertical integration has pulled together several otherwise apathetic primordial groups into active participation in the civic sphere and offers optimism that the primordial and civic publics could be united for democratic popular participation and accountability.
Socialscientia Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
Successful democratic revolutions create new ruling groups, transform the order of political rule... more Successful democratic revolutions create new ruling groups, transform the order of political rule and extend a regime of citizenship rights as well as vest the agency of the same democracy on the citizens. This pathway of revolutionary success can also be deflected through a conscious resistance to the gains of a democratic revolution. Studies of two important moments of democratic revolutionary ruptures in Africa namely Second Liberation Movement and the Arab Spring render independent accounts of institutional effects of the revolutions without a conscious effort to provide a theoretically grounded analysis of democracy's trajectories in national experiences. In this paper, I apply Antonio Gramsci's concept of passive revolution to study the democratic trajectories of states that underwent the second liberation movement and the Arab Spring. I argue that in these two revolutions, the initial successes in change of regimes and the constitutional order could not be sustained and the politics of the affected states relapsed to pre-revolutionary practices. Using the cases of Benin Republic and Congo Democratic Republic for the Second Liberation Movement, Tunisia and Egypt for the Arab Spring, I analyse the recapturing of the machinery of the state by old guards and reverse movements on the rights of citizenship in the entire cases as passive revolution.
Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 2022
A transformation of the public sphere driven by information and communication technology is takin... more A transformation of the public sphere driven by information and communication technology is taking place across different parts of the world. Information about abuses of political rule easily circulate to the masses and drive different forms of critical actions from social media to physical protests and dissensions. The new public sphere which is hosted in large part by the new/social media, provides a virtual context of hard, open engagement of the state and its institutions by the masses. Easy access to the new public sphere, relative safety of its actors, and vast communicative participation hold potentials for expanding the democratic space. In the Nigerian case, however, the nexus of growing vigor of the public sphere and democratization is yet to be established. This paper argues that the emerging culture of dissent against authoritarian rule while growing in internet robustness, ignores the decisive framework of electoral participation to achieve change in political power and extend and embed democracy in Nigeria. Focusing on two major national protests, namely the Occupy Nigeria protest of 2012 and End SARS protest in 2020, the paper explores state responses on the selected episodes of popular dissent supported by the new public sphere and how they bear on civil, political, and social rights as major indicators of democracy's status. Overall, the internet-driven expansion of the discursive and activist public sphere is yet a net gain for democracy in Nigeria.
Small Wars & Insurgencies