Azeez Olaniyan

Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, Political Science, Faculty Member

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National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy"

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Ozyegin University

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Papers by Azeez Olaniyan

Boko Haram insurgency and the challenges of securing Nigerian state

African Renaissance, 2015

Nigeria, it seems, has given birth to a new danger and it is called Boko Haram. Rare have been th... more Nigeria, it seems, has given birth to a new danger and it is called Boko Haram. Rare have been the months over the past three years that have not witnessed at least one attack carried out by the group. Since the climax of the battle of Maiduguri in early August 2009, it has steadily escalated its armed campaign to the extent that it now threatens the lives and peace of mind of millions of people living throughout northern and central Nigeria. So rapid and dramatic has its growth been and so audacious and well-executed some of its attacks, that it is now looked upon as a global threat. However, its potency is its implication for governance and security in Nigeria. This paper takes a historical and theoretical look at the spate of insurgencies in Nigeria as prelude to the emergence of Boko Haram. It then highlights the various impacts of the group's activities on the Nigerian state, stating the various crimes being committed in all areas of operation. It then identifies the reason...

The Cattle are "Ghanaians" but the Herders are Strangers: Farmer ⴀ૰-ȁHerder Conflicts, Expulsion Policy, and Pastoralist Question in Agogo, Ghana

African Studies Quarterly, 2014

The phenomenon of farmer ⴀ૰-ȁherders conflict across West Africa has prompted management strategi... more The phenomenon of farmer ⴀ૰-ȁherders conflict across West Africa has prompted management strategies by several governments across the subcontinent. One of the conflict resolution mechanisms has been the policy of expulsion, which the Ghanaian state adopted as a response to incessant conflict between the settled agriculturalists and migrating Fulani herders. This paper focuses on migration and conflict as well as the intrigues and politics of expulsion of Fulani pastoralist from Agogo town in Ghana since 2009. There are multiple factors responsible for the migration of Fulani herders to Agogo area that are linked to climate change. We also examine the social and political factors triggering the expulsion as well as agitation to expel the Fulani. Counter to this we examine the Fulani reactions towards this development. Through this we also critique the policy of expulsion as a means of dealing with the pastoralist question. By means of a critical assessment of the conflict we offer st...

Minorization of the Majority: The Politics of Ekiti State Creation and the Limits of Homogeneity Thesis in Nigeria

Journal of Social Sciences, 2014

Studies on intra-ethnic relations among the sub-ethnic groups in Nigeria have observed that alleg... more Studies on intra-ethnic relations among the sub-ethnic groups in Nigeria have observed that allegations and counter claims of marginalization and domination among the groups within states are rife. In some paradoxical instances, numerically superior groups allege domination and subjugation by the minorities dominated. This paper, using the agitation for the creation of Ekiti state as a case study, examines the specter of minorization of the majority in the struggle for state creation in Nigeria. The study observes that in spite of its superiority in the areas of demography, education, landmass and homogeneity, Ekiti became marginalized and excluded by the groups who are in the minority. But no sooner than the state was created for them than in-fighting started. This study examines the factors contributing to this paradox. Specifically, the paper concludes that numerically superior groups could become minorities in the context of the latter’s ability to control power or influence pow...

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Nigeria : Climate War . Migratory Adaptation and Farmer-Herder Con licts Temitope

Climate change and its impacts on the physical environment have received increased attention in r... more Climate change and its impacts on the physical environment have received increased attention in recent years, spurring debates on its global and local dimensions. While a common ground has been reached on its causes, manifestations and options for mitigation, its human security implications remain poorly understood. Links between climate change and social con lict is one of the most controversial issues in the climate change impacts assessment literature as priorities diverge between generalised scienti ic validity (pedagogy) and context-based security analysis (policy). This paper examines climate change-con lict linkages drawing upon experiences of migrant pastoralists and arable farming host communities in Nigeria. It found a strong causal linkage between exposure to impacts of climate change and growing incidence of con lict over renewable natural resources. It recommends contextualised analyses of the linkage as well as the integration of climate-related con lict into Nigeria’s...

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Everywhere as Grazing Land: Interrogating the Pastoralist Question in Nigeria

Boko Haram and the widening of cleavages in Nigeria

The politics of renewed quest for a Biafra Republic in Nigeria

Defense & Security Analysis, 2017

The quest for a Biafran Republic by the Igbo ethnic group has become a recurring demand in Nigeri... more The quest for a Biafran Republic by the Igbo ethnic group has become a recurring demand in Nigeria since the late 1960s. The agitation has been premised on claims of marginalisation and exclusion of the Igbo people in the Nigerian body politic. In spite of the consistency of the agitation through various Administrations, there was a noticeable lull in such demands during the time of President Goodluck Jonathan, only to assume a frightening proportion since the advent of the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. This article locates the factors in the outcomes of the 2015 general elections: the question of inclusion and representation; the unfinished nature of the Nigerian civil war; economic challenges, miscalculation both on the part of the Igbo people and indiscretion in the initial appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari. The article recommends political restructuring of Nigeria as one of the ways to address secessionist tendencies.

Proxy border wars and management strategies in Mano River and Darfur regions

This paper presents a comparative analysis of proxy border wars in Liberia/Sierra Leone and Sudan... more This paper presents a comparative analysis of proxy border wars in Liberia/Sierra Leone and Sudan/Chad as well as examines the conflict resolution strategies that worked for them. While the Liberian conflict started as a proxy war for Ghadafi who trained and armed Charles Taylor's NFPL in pursuance of a continental hegemonic agenda, the Sierra Leone's crisis also started as a proxy war for Charles Taylor who backed and funded Foday Sankhor's RUF rebel movement in order to have unfettered access to Sierra Leone's diamond fields. Both NFPL and RUF later engaged in cross-border raids with attendant heavy tolls on human and material resources. In the same vein, Sudan and Chad were for some times embroiled in a proxy war through various rebel movements and auxiliary militias, with each government supporting rebels fighting against the other. Khartoum continues to encourage Janjaweed militia attacks across the border into Chad and actively supported various groups of Chadi...

A Comparative Analysis of Women Candidatures and Outcomes in the 2011 and 2015 Nigeria General Elections

One noticeable development in the Nigeria’s 2015 general elections is the differentials in the nu... more One noticeable development in the Nigeria’s 2015 general elections is the differentials in the numbers and outcomes of women involvement as candidates in comparison to the 2011 elections. The percentage of women contesting for presidential position decline from 12.5% in 2011 to 7.1% in 2015. That of the gubernatorial election also witnessed a reduction from 10.2% in 2011 to 7.1% in 2015, while the percentage of women for deputy governorship positions was relatively stable with only an increase of 0.4%. However, there was a double increment in the contestations for Senatorial posts from 10.3% in 2011 to 22.2% in 2015. Also, the number of women candidacy into the House of Representative and State Houses of Assembly recorded an increase of 5.7% and 5.6% respectively. However, when it comes to actual successes at the polls, the outcomes were not encouraging. With the exemption of deputy governorship number that improved from 2.8% in 2011 to 13.8% in 2015, all others witnessed a sharp de...

The state of human security in Africa - an assessment of institutional preparedness

This monograph is a collection of papers that were presented at the African Human Security Initia... more This monograph is a collection of papers that were presented at the African Human Security Initiative conference that was held in Addis Ababa in February 2008. It discusses the changing methodologies used to analyse and map violent conflicts, conflict resolution and peace building approaches in Africa by moving away from Western-focused sociopolitical lenses that have defined the different policy reactions to conflict in the region. It is thus an attempt to apply a more holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding causes of violent conflict and, perhaps more importantly, how to diffuse them in a way that allows for the total disengagement of the military from the political control of the state by positioning the former in a manner that allows them to safeguard the territorial integrity of the states they serve, as this guarantees democratic stability by protecting and defending legitimate democratic institutions. The monograph's chapters offer distinctive and harmonisi...

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What about the followers? Leadership-development deficits and the place of followership in Nigeria

Discourses on governance and development failures in Nigeria are often woven around leadership is... more Discourses on governance and development failures in Nigeria are often woven around leadership issues. Yet, a crucial ingredient in the making of good leadership is also good followership, a concept that has not enjoyed robust representation in the literature of politico-development failures in Nigeria. By acting as the determinants of political ascendancy and/or succession, bulwark against tyranny and insisting on efficiency and accountability, good followership shapes the conducts of leaders and by effect, serves as harbinger of good governance. In essence, therefore, good leadership, and, by implication, good governance, seldom emerges in the absences of good followership. The Nigerian society is characterized by leadership impunity, recklessness and insensitivity to the plight of the people, which stems from inability of citizens to have a say in the emergence and conduct of leaders. The point then is that there is a presence of poor followership in Nigeria. For Nigeria to attai...

Desperate Guests, Unwilling Hosts: Climate Change-Induced Migration and Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Southwestern Nigeria

Con lict Studies Quarterly Issue 10, January 2015, pp. 23-40 Abstract. Discourses on the relation... more Con lict Studies Quarterly Issue 10, January 2015, pp. 23-40 Abstract. Discourses on the relationship between climate change and violent con lict have created two opposing views of the enthusiasts and the skeptics, with the former arguing that there is a strong connection and the latter doubting it. This paper combines elements from the two lines of thought to assess the phenomenon of incessant farmer-herder con licts in southwestern Nigeria. Presenting evidence collected from a town in southwestern Nigeria, the paper demonstrates not only the saliency of climate change but also its instigating in luence in human migration and the associated violent con licts in southwestern Nigeria. It argues that acute shortage in rainfalls, increasing dryness and scorching heat have resulted in depletion of water, lora, and fauna resources on the land. This has triggered forced migration of many cattle herders of the region to the lush wetter parts of the south in desperate search of grazing spac...

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The Cattle are “Ghanaians” but the Herders are Strangers: Farmer-Herder Conflicts, Expulsion Policy, and Pastoralist Question in Agogo, Ghana

African Studies Quarterly

ABSTRACT

Cows, Bandits, and Violent Conflicts: Understanding Cattle Rustling in Northern Nigeria

Africa Spectrum

Cattle rustlings have become a major crime in Nigeria recently, with the northern region being th... more Cattle rustlings have become a major crime in Nigeria recently, with the northern region being the hardest hit. In the past few years, rustling activities have resulted in the theft of a huge number of cows, deaths of people and destruction of property. Daily reports across the northern region have confirmed that cattle rustlings have significantly contributed to the increasing security challenges facing the Nigerian state and seem to have become big business involving the herders, big-time syndicates, and heavily armed bandits. However, despite the growing level of cattle rustling and its consequences for society, the situation has yet to receive adequate scholarly interrogation. This paper investigates the causes and consequences of, and state responses to cattle rustling in Nigeria.

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When two elephants fight: insurgency, counter-insurgency and environmental sufferings in northeastern Nigeria

Journal of Contemporary African Studies

Nigeria: Climate War. Migratory Adaptation and Farmer-Herder Conflicts

Conflict Studies Quarterly

‘A bad child has his own day’: Gwama Boys and post-conflict peacebuilding dilemma in oil-bearing communities of Ondo state, Nigeria

African Identities

The curse of a size: socio-cultural conception of dwarfism and effects on political participation in south-western Nigeria

IJDS Indonesian Journal of Disability Studies

Election sophistication and the changing contours of vote buying in Nigeria’s 2019 general elections

The Round Table

Steven Pierce. Moral Economies of Corruption: State Formation and Political Culture in Nigeria. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2016. vii + 275 pp. Maps. Notes. Index. $27.95. Paper. ISBN: 978-0-8223-6091-9

African Studies Review

Corruption is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges facing the Nigerian state. It has been fi... more Corruption is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges facing the Nigerian state. It has been fingered to be at the root of a wide range of maladies, such as insecurity, poverty, poor infrastructure, and general underdevelopment. Nigerian corruption has attracted the attention of numerous scholars over the years, and this has given rise to a plethora of insightful analyses, from several different angles. However, Steven Pierce, in Moral Economies of Corruption: State Formation and Political Culture in Nigeria, offers a new perspective and fresh insight into the discourse. He takes as a point of departure the position that Nigerian corruption is rooted in the culture of the people, and this explains why it has been extremely difficult to eradicate. According to Pierce, corruption is a cultural characteristic, and the prevalence of corruption in Nigeria derives from its cultural complexity (5). This cultural complexity explains the differentials in interpretation and definition of corruption in the country. In essence, wide gamuts of practices have come to be subsumed under the rubric of corruption, which therefore assumes different dimensions, aptly identified by Pierce as the corruption-complex. This corruption-complex, which predates colonial penetration, became part of the building blocks of the Nigerian state. Although the book has its setting in northern Nigeria, the author extrapolates it into the whole Nigerian state because "Muslim Hausa culture has been politically central to Nigeria from the start of internal selfrule onward" (9). The whole of the book, which is divided into two parts, was therefore written to explain this position. Part One, which consists of three chapters, provides the empirical discussion that supports the conclusion reached in Part Two. In this first part, the author explains the various elements of corrupt practices that predate colonial penetration. Pierce explains with historical details how traditional political leaders in northern Nigeria used their offices and status for personal ends. Gratification of various forms was regarded as a perquisite of office and therefore it was demanded, even when it was not given. The pattern of

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Boko Haram insurgency and the challenges of securing Nigerian state

African Renaissance, 2015

The Cattle are "Ghanaians" but the Herders are Strangers: Farmer ⴀ૰-ȁHerder Conflicts, Expulsion Policy, and Pastoralist Question in Agogo, Ghana

African Studies Quarterly, 2014

Minorization of the Majority: The Politics of Ekiti State Creation and the Limits of Homogeneity Thesis in Nigeria

Journal of Social Sciences, 2014

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Nigeria : Climate War . Migratory Adaptation and Farmer-Herder Con licts Temitope

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Everywhere as Grazing Land: Interrogating the Pastoralist Question in Nigeria

Boko Haram and the widening of cleavages in Nigeria

The politics of renewed quest for a Biafra Republic in Nigeria

Defense & Security Analysis, 2017

Proxy border wars and management strategies in Mano River and Darfur regions

A Comparative Analysis of Women Candidatures and Outcomes in the 2011 and 2015 Nigeria General Elections

The state of human security in Africa - an assessment of institutional preparedness

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What about the followers? Leadership-development deficits and the place of followership in Nigeria

Desperate Guests, Unwilling Hosts: Climate Change-Induced Migration and Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Southwestern Nigeria

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The Cattle are “Ghanaians” but the Herders are Strangers: Farmer-Herder Conflicts, Expulsion Policy, and Pastoralist Question in Agogo, Ghana

African Studies Quarterly

ABSTRACT

Cows, Bandits, and Violent Conflicts: Understanding Cattle Rustling in Northern Nigeria

Africa Spectrum

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When two elephants fight: insurgency, counter-insurgency and environmental sufferings in northeastern Nigeria

Journal of Contemporary African Studies

Nigeria: Climate War. Migratory Adaptation and Farmer-Herder Conflicts

Conflict Studies Quarterly

‘A bad child has his own day’: Gwama Boys and post-conflict peacebuilding dilemma in oil-bearing communities of Ondo state, Nigeria

African Identities

The curse of a size: socio-cultural conception of dwarfism and effects on political participation in south-western Nigeria

IJDS Indonesian Journal of Disability Studies

Election sophistication and the changing contours of vote buying in Nigeria’s 2019 general elections

The Round Table

African Studies Review

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