RE: Northern Nigeria: An Iranian haven's future implications (original) (raw)
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THE POWER OF AUTHORITY AND THE AUTHORITY OF POWER IN MUSLIM WEST AFRICA: A NARRATIVE FROM NIGERIA
By the nature of training in Muslim West Africa, an intellectual is expected to be a “public intellectual”, to borrow from Tarlow and Stutz1. By this I mean someone who is able to deploy the expertise and authority in his specific intellectual domain to wider publics and subjects such that he is able to challenge or influence, through his own perspectives, existing assumptions on issues or events of public interest. This becomes all the more important with an audience or a readership with varied interests and specialism. Muslim West Africa is an alternative term I have decidedly chosen as a substitute for sub-Saharan Africa, a seemingly pejorative term in the Western and pro-Western Africanist discursive traditions which follow in the fashion of such nomenclatures as the “Indian subcontinent”, “South African subcontinent”, among other “subs” with underlining negative stereotyping. Western and Africanist narratologies have traditionally portrayed the Sahara as a dividing line for Africa, as if the desert, “the big blank space”, as a 19th C French governor of Senegal would call it, compartmentalized the continent into the Muslim Arab North and Animist non-Arab South. A familiar tradition in some Western institutions often group Middle East with North Africa for academic or political purposes, not minding the negative divisive implications of this for the cohesive heterogeneity and unique unity in diversity of the African continent. Ghislaine Lydon has brilliantly shown that “the Sahara was never a barrier but a bridge to intercontinental exchange”. So the first part of my paper will deal with the nature of power and authority in Muslim West Africa from a trajectory of history.
Threat to Nigeria Since 1960: A Retrospection
2014
The post-independence Nigerian state was faced with the intractable task of governing a multifaceted nation, comprised of 36 regional states which were divided along ethno-religious lines, up to 300 ethnic groups and a plethora of linguistic dialects, in addition to three (3) distinct religious groupings. The challenge of the post-colonial Nigerian state was the efficient administration and governance of a broad-based society with a multiplicity of interests, values, traditions and cultural inclinations.
This paper argues that the Shi'a inspired Islamic religious group known as Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) has suffered wrong diagnosis. For instance, researches on IMN have always investigated IMN in the context of Iranian shi'a ideology and theology only. This alone is not sufficient, therefore very misleading. The reason is that the same Iranian Shi'a inspired groups in Nigeria such as the Ahlul Bait Institute (ABI), located in Kano, has always disagreed with IMN over its incurable political commitment and total disregard for the Nigerian state. Furthermore, Isa and Sani (2017) have argued that another Iranian inspired Shi'a group, Ransulul A'zam Foundation (RAAF) does not support the popular processions (mu āharāt) which have become the hallmark of the IMN and which often turn into political demonstrations. Unlike the IMN, the RAAF recognizes the supremacy of the Nigerian government and abides by the laws of the state. This paper, therefore, posits that Iran is only using IMN in the context of religious soft power. The term 'soft power' refers to the ability of a state to shape the preferences of another state's aggressive ways, policy conduct, including the use of proxies for hidden agenda. In this case, Iran is using IMN to fight Western interests particularly that of Israel and USA that is mounting pressure for it to be continually sanctioned for a number of reasons that pose a threat to global peace. This paper conclude with the view that Iran is only perfecting her strategy of using proxies for its interest.
Nigeria and Africa in the 21st Century
The study critically appraises the redeemer posture of Nigeria in Africa’s plethora of dire straits in the 21st century. Like the United States once regarded it a manifest destiny to protect and exercise influence over its “backyard” in the Western Hemisphere, so does Nigeria assumes a role of salvaging Africa and repositioning it, which has manifested in its Afrocentric or Africa-centered policy. The continent’s problems include a debilitating economic strangulation, civil wars, religious conflict, poverty, bad government, HIV-AIDS, underdevelopment, which continually plague the continent. Hence, a supposed promise land encounters dashed hopes because it is lost in multifaceted crises. However, Nigeria’s competence to be the “Giant” redeemer of Africa that it claims to be, is drastically impaired or eroded by a number of forces within the internal context. The paper, considers the social, political, international, and historical forces in the coloring and shaping of Nigeria’s foreign policy that make it imperative to assume a forerunner in African situation; and also seeks reasons for the “Giant’s” wasted opportunities to redeem Africa, and finds answers to these.
The Military, the West, and Nigerian Politics in the 1990s
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 1997
There is a consensus among scholars, as well as within the innermost decision making circles of government, that the Nigerian State is under severe strains unparalleled in its post-independence history. There is indignation over "how a country which was once regarded as the Great Black Hope has become the Big Black Shame."3 How, many have pondered, did a country hitherto
The Contemporary Conflict in Africa: Enemy within or without? Nigeria's Experience
The paper examined the contemporary conflicts in Africa with a view of determining whether they are internally induced or externally influenced using Nigeria as a case. The African continent is currently bedeviled with various internal conflicts, which has impeded the socioeconomic and political development. Africa has become a continent with negativity in terms of human security globally. The continent has not had favorable vertical relationships with her counterparts ranging from the slave trade period to the colonial era. However, Nigeria has the largest concentration of black African population on earth, with an estimate of two hundred and six million people, and two hundred and thirty ethnic nationalities. Nigeria was engulfed in a civil war that lasted for 30 months barely 6 years after the attainment of political independence in 1960.
NIGERIA'S FOREIGN POLICY AND TRANSNATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES IN WEST AFRICA: A Review.
Abdulkareem Abdulrazaq Kayode, 2014
Abstract: The article to be reviewed appeared in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 26, No. 2, April 2008, pages 183- 196 by Cyril I, Obi. This article explores how Nigeria has tilted its Foreign Policy towards combating transnational crimes through ECOWAS. The major strength of this article is that it explains how Nigeria became a powerful force in the region of West Africa partly due to its endowment. Also, a major weakness of the article is that it emphasizes more on the strength of Nigeria as a major player in the affairs of ECOWAS underscoring the strength of other nations such as Senegal who are also giant players in stalling peace in the region. This paper concluded that however, Nigeria still remains the backbone of ECOWAS and as such for ECOWAS to function in full capacity, Nigeria has to rise back to its feet or ECOWAS fail woefully