Christopher Isike

University of Pretoria | UP · Department of Political Sciences

This paper revisits the literature on regional power-hood and its application to Africa with a view to answering two key questions: one, whether we can talk of regional hegemons in the continent in real terms, and two, whether group hegemonic leadership better explains regional hegemonic behavior in Africa. It uses Sandra Destradi conceptual framew...

The idea of the Panopticon concept presents a useful theoretical framework to understand the Big Brother Reality show generally and the Big Brother Naija (BBN) is not precluded. From its physical architectural form as a surveillance structure to its metaphoric and Foucauldian conception as norms, laws and policies which regulate behavior and compli...

Voting is an acceptable way of making the preferred choice among many alternatives. The return to democracy in 1999 has recorded mixed feelings about the voting behaviour of Nigerian citizens, especially the youths who are characteristically apathetic politically. Surprisingly, the same youths who have been passively involved in general elections h...

This is the first academic book length publication on the Big Brother brandinNigeria. Big Brother Naija is the Nigerian version of the Big Brother franchise created by John de Mol Jr., and aired for the first timein the Netherlands in 1999. It has since been adopted in over 54 countries of the world including Nigeria. The Nigerian version started a...

The Covid-19 pandemic border closure policy and other anti-migrant policies in 2020 have become another basis for flaunting the ECOWAS free movement protocols by member states now referred to as pandemic nationalism. Although not limited to (West) Africa, pandemic nationalism reinforces the inability of ECOWAS to demonstrate supranationalism and en...

This article explores the judicialisation of party primaries in contemporary Nigeria, which is a defining feature of the country's electoral process. Since the inception of the Fourth Republic, the lack of internal party democracy within the parties has been the source of protracted crises during nomination, and this often gravitates to the serenit...

The colonial disruption of organic state formation in Africa through the imposition of an alien state system adversely influenced state-building in the continent with consequences for good governance, belonging, and development in its holistic sense. Looking at the case of Nigeria, the adverse manifestations of the postcolonial state are signposted...

This chapter analysed the nature of dyadic (two-way) relations that exist between Congolese migrants and South Africans in Empangeni, a small town North of KwaZulu-Natal. It examined the nature of the linkages/ties between both groups and argues in line with the objectives of the book that beyond the hostility/xenophobia discourse, there is a convi...

This chapter explores the cyberspace as a relatively new and growing arena of engagement between African migrants and their South African hosts. Focusing on the conflictual aspect of contact between both groups, the chapter argues that this space (comprising all social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) has been largely...

This chapter sets the context and tone for the book by providing a background within which to understand conflict and concord as two extremes of group responses to contact from migration. It foregrounds these concepts in the case of African immigrants and South Africans’ relations in South Africa and outlines the broad methodological approach adopt...

Ubuntu is an African philosophical worldview that has increasingly gained prominence since South Africa's democratic transition in 1994. It places emphasis on the world's common humanity and its consequent interdependence. Through content analysis, the article examines the soft power that is inherent in South Africa's foreign policy, as codified in...

This paper is based on a follow-up study to an earlier one which focused on girls and young women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Similar to that study, the follow-up study aimed to understand issues affecting boys and young men in the province. The study also aimed to identify possible programmatic interventions to improve the quality of life of t...

Africa appears to have improved women‟s representation in political processes in the continent in the wake of feminization of public decision-making in the 1990s. However, women‟s representation in formal peacebuilding structures and processes remains low essentially because most of them are more involved in informal peacebuilding activities in the...

Terrorism is increasingly becoming a major threat to global peace and security given the changing geopolitical terrain on which it is enacted. This has given rise to new metageographies of geopolitics characterised by intricate operational networks used by terrorists to achieve their goals. Closely linked to the growing problem of terrorism is glob...

The question of basic housing for the poor majority of the world’s population remains a festering global development challenge given the plethora of housing delivery models which abound. In South Africa, the Capital Housing Subsidy Scheme and the Comprehensive Plan for Development of Sustainable Human Settlements are the dominant policy models that...

There is a constant interplay between the “people” (agency) and the “parts” (structure and culture), not only in teaching and learning, but also in postgraduate supervision practices globally. However, in South Africa, the tendency to use structure (higher education architecture, institutional history, institutional rules, policies and procedures)...

A major requirement for regional power status is the location and deployment of soft power attributes which may range from culture, political ideology, diplomacy, to sporting achievements, foreign policy articulation, tourism, media exports and language. While contemporary analysis of Nigeria’s regional and continental power profile is almost entir...

Chapter 7 of the NDP 2030 articulates a foreign policy vision for South Africa over two decades. While the NDP acknowledges the place of ‘soft power’ in realising this vision, it remains doubtful whether South Africa will indeed take advantage of the enormous gains offered by soft power as a foreign policy lever. This paper examines the role of sof...

This article examines the importance of adopting credible stakeholder engagement (SE) as a core management function, with particular reference to Nigerian business organizations. It used content analysis method to specifically examine the role of SE in business organizations; determine the utility of credible SE as a core management function rather...

This article examines the importance of adopting credible stakeholder engagement (SE) as a core management function, with particular reference to Nigerian business organizations. It used content analysis method to specifically examine the role of SE in business organizations; determine the utility of credible SE as a core management function rather...

Background: This paper is a product of a study which emanated from the need to get a nuanced understanding of the situation of young women in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in South Africa to inform evidence-based planning and programming. It aimed to analyse the lived experiences of girls and young women in the province focusing on broad questions around the...

This chapter uses a content analysis of headlines and the “African news” sections of national newspapers of five African states, one from each of the five subregions, and a focus group discussion with six Nigerian journalists to contextualize the role of the African media in (un)shaping perception about the continent. The chapter argues that the bl...

South Africa’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) elicited a mixed bag of responses. However, irrespective of whether one supports the decision or not, it is evident that this move has dialectical implications for South Africa’s putative influence, both in Africa and globally. In Africa, the decision has presumably bol...

This paper investigates increasing claims that the ANC as South Africa’s dominant party is losing its popularity and facing political decline. This is against the backdrop of growing disenchantment with the ruling party over a series of corruption cases, perceived poor service delivery and mal-governance characterizing the Jacob Zuma-led government...

Given its population size, economic strength, military capability and foreign policy directions, in past years Nigeria has been considered a major regional power in Africa. Clearly, this makes the country relevant at international and global levels. However, its status as a regional power on the continent is increasingly being affected as a result...

This paper analyzed the influence of adaptive collaborative governance on women's inclusion and participation in governance in the Niger Delta of Nigeria with focus on Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC's) community development model; the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU). It used the inclusiveness, governance and transparency scores...

This paper underscores the need for a different and transformative mode of politics in Nigeria's Niger-Delta. This entails a change from the present conception and practice of politics which excludes, alienates and oppresses the majority of the population (women) to one that is inclusive, participatory and treats them as the collaborative partners...

This article analyses the contemporary global politics of gay rights as it relates to the straining relations between the Western powers and many African states that oppose sexual minorities’ rights. While the West (with emphasis on the United States, EU, and Britain) advocates for the protection of gay rights in the world, Africa provides the larg...

Since 1994 when South Africa emerged from the doldrums of apartheid isolation, there has been much contention about the hegemonic profile of South Africa as well as its Nigerian counterpart whose continental leadership have reputedly held sway in Africa prior to this time. Clearly, both Nigeria and South Africa have been widely bandied as Africa's...

The paper contends that the Nigerian State can exploit the virtues of federalism to promote good governance within her territory. Nigeria being a heterogeneous, linguistic, religious and ethnically diversified country adopted federalism as a system of government with regional autonomy in 1954 in order to give every component unit of the federation...

This paper is an investigation into the views of African immigrants in South Africa on vital services that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) renders to immigrants, such as issuing work permits, study permits, permanent residence permits, marriage certificates, and conferring South African citizenship. The broad research question this paper deals...

Methode: deskriptive Studie; empirisch-quantitativ; anwendungsorientiert; empirisch; Längsschnitt; Fallstudie

Post-independence Africa has been plagued by a profound crisis of leadership which has had dire consequences for peace and development. This has become so perennial that it is now a political pathology generically associated with Africa even though its dominant characteristics such as corruption, insufficient accountability of public officials, eth...

Men act out of their images, they respond, not to the situation, but to the situation transformed by the images they carry in their minds. In short, they respond … to the ideas they have of themselves in the situation. The image sees … the image feels … the image acts, and if you want to change a situation you have to change the image men have of t...

Abstract Since the advent of a democratic South Africa in 1994, it has become a new destination for African immigrants, thus adding to the increasing trend of South-South migration globally. African immigration to South Africa has increased not only through the regular immigration of skilled professionals and other economic migrants, but also throu...

Women have always been at the centre of peace processes across differentpre-colonial African societies. Their peace agency in these societies can belocated in their cultural and socio-political roles as well as their contributionsto the overall well-being of these societies. It is noteworthy that women’speacebuilding roles then were reinforced by p...

This article is a statistical analysis of the perception that more women in politics would enhance peace building. The data was drawn from a comparative survey of 325 women and four men (community leaders) in the regions of the Niger Delta (Nigeria) and KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).According to the findings, the majority of respondents strongly per...

AFRICA INSTITUTE Abstract: Examines how democracy fared in Nigeria between 1999 and 2009, especially under former president Olusegun Obasanjo. Looks specifically at Obasanjo's self-perpetuation bid and its impact on democratic consolidation in the country. Concludes that Nigeria's democratisation process is still trapped in its transitional stages

This paper examines trends in the political marginalisation of women in KwaZulu-Natal between 1994 and 2004. South Africa's political representation of women has been increasing significantly since 1994. KwaZulu-Natal has just over 25% female representation in provincial governance, an enviable percentage compared to world figures. This paper exami...

On February 6 2007, former President George W. Bush officially announced the decision of his government to create a Unified Combatant Command for Africa, known as U.S. Africa Command or AFRICOM, which became activated as a full-fledged unified combatant command on October 1 2008. The intention was that this new security organ would have responsibil...

This paper takes a cursory look at the empirical relationship between the inflow of capital, globalization (as proxied by the degree of openness), poverty, and economic growth in South Africa. The vector autoregressive modeling technique was used in determining the relationship between these variables. It was found that variation in economic growth...

This paper scrutinises the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) by raising a number of questions to unravel its true purpose; either as an instrument to enhance American security interests in Africa or to foster African development as claimed by the US. It contends that Western strategic / security needs in Africa would be best assured not by us...

Abstract This paper argues that men remain vital to any effort to curb the HIV and AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa given the often critical roles they play in spreading the HIV virus. Accordingly, it explores the plausibility of reconstructing and modernizing contemporary African masculinities within an African cultural prism to progressivel...

The global triumph of capitalism has in its wake globalised issues that were previously the exclusive purview of state domestic control. Among these are environmental despoliation and human rights. These issues have been a source of conflict and human insecurity in many Third World countries including Nigeria. The Niger Delta of Nigeria, endowed wi...

As everywhere else in the world, women in Africa, in spite of their majority stake in the population of most countries, assume a minority status as they are socially, economically and politically excluded from the formal sectors of the public space. They remain 'traditionally' confined to the private domain of motherhood. The masculinisation of the...

This paper analyses Nigeria's Dilemma in the implementation of its Big-brother diplomacy agenda in the resolution of the Ivorian Crisis. Situating the civil strife and imminent state collapse in the bonding of congeries of ethnic groups within the emergent nation-state, it concludes that a cautious and discriminatory implementation of Big-brother d...