Political Science
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Item The institutional framework of the 2012 elections in Ghana: consolidating or reversing democratic achievement?(Journal of African elections, 2013) Aiyede, E. R.; Erameh, N. I.; Orimolade. O. S.The 2012 elections were peaceful, but the results were contested by the New Patriotic Party in a petition brought to the Supreme Court challenging the National Democratic Congress and the Electoral Commission of Ghana. Revelations during the hearing of the petition raised some disquiet about the abilities of the ECG and the integrity of Ghana’s electoral institutions. The fallout from the 2012 elections demands a critical intellectual engagement with the institutional foundation of the elections. There were several institutional changes in the Ghanaian system in the build-up to the elections as well as changes in the general political economy of the country that have made access to public office particularly attractive. This article reviews the institutional context of the elections and examines the constitutional and non-constitutional rules relating to electoral governance, focusing on such issues as electoral management, delimitation of constituencies and assembly size, electoral formula, voting procedure and ballot structure and the party system. It demonstrates how these institutions were implicated in the challenges relating to the electoral process during the 2012 elections, providing insights into how to overcome them.Item Federalism, decentralisation and the liberalisation of business environment in Nigeria(Development policy centre, 2001) Aiyede, E. R."This study examines how federal restructuring and decentralisation can be tailored towards the creation of an enabling environment for business in Nigeria. It does this by making a comparative assessment of the business environment in Nigetia; exploring the character of federalism and decentralisation programmes in Nigeria. It also examines the implications of these for governance and the business environment in Nigeria while suggesting decentralisation reforms required to enhance government efficiency and effectiveness as well as improving the business environment. The study noted that decentralization programmes in Nigeria began from the colonial era but have largely taken the form of spatial deconcentration. As a result, they have had the effect of increasing central control and reducing opportunities for citizen participation, and stultified creativity. The restraint in devolving power is attributable to the effort at regime sustenance in the face of limited state legitimacy, the problem of fragile national unity and the prevalence of military dictatorship with its centralizing tendencies. Territorial fragmentation and internal boundary adjustments have resulted in a proliferation of states and local governments; but such levels of government have been without local power that can attract and stimulate participation. Spatial deconcentration has resulted in a bloated states sector, with minimal private sector development, and a suppression of innovative and entrepreneurial energy. Dependence of sub-national units on oil revenue from the centre has been one of the major reasons fur the failure to diversify the economic base of the country. The competition that had characterised inter-state relations under the three and four-region Systems in which derivation was a significant factor of horizontal revenue sharing gave way to political struggles for federation funds. Thus, local spending became completely separated from local resources in the name of even development across the country. The centralisation of resources control and the adoption of a general revenue allocation formula provided no incentive for competitiveness among the various sub-national governments. Decentralisation reforms have become imperative but need to be done democratically. There should be wide spread consultation and negotiation to reach consensus on an ideological base for the envisaged decentralization programme. There should also be very clear institutional arrangement for managing the process, realistic and clear-cut distribution of powers and functions among the various governments based on the principle of subsidiarity with clearly spelt out institutions of horizontal and vertical accountability. The programme should be informed by a more practicalconcern about economic competitiveness, such that the country will be restructured into competing governmental units, providing room for public/private partnership in productive activities at the lower levels, such that would enable the exploration and development of economic potentials of the various states. The current general revenue sharing formula should be reconsidered with a view to promoting competition hand in hand with the drive for equity and accountability. Caution should be taken during the process to avoid fanning the embers of centrifugal forces. Nigeria should borrow ideas from successful decentralisation efforts in other lands. "Item Corruption perception studies and anti-corruption in Nigeria(Journal of culture, politics and innovation, 2016) Aiyede, E. R.Perception studies of corruption have proliferated in the last decade. However, there is a lingering controversy over the proper us of the outputs from such studies to benefit anti-corruption efforts. Against this backdrop, these paper reviews the theoretical context of the perception studies of corruption and their justifications. It examined key perception studies of corruption at the global, regional and national levels in relation to Nigeria and discusses key issues associated with them. These include controversies around the definition of corruption, methodological issues such as the reliability of the perception approach to the study of corruption, possibilities of cross country comparisons, the connections between global, regional and local anticorruption studies and the issue of how such studies and rankings reflect power relations. The paper argues that perception studies will be significant and effective to the extent that elites and government officials continue to take the opinion and perception of citizens and other stakeholders seriously.Item Civil society efficacy, citizenship and empowerment in Africa(International society for sector research, 2016) Aiyede, E. R.This paper contributes to the debate on the limited efficacy of civil society in Africa. It examines the complex interface between notions of civil society and citizenship within the context of the postcolonial state in Africa. It argues that the bifurcated character of citizenship is implicated in the inefficacy of civil society. This is underlined by the limited achievements in social citizenship, aggravated by the economic crisis and neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s as well as the politics of regime sustenance. Political disengagement, drain on the moral content of public life and diminished collective orientation of citizens, aggravated conflicts within society, thereby, promoting a democratisation of disempowerment and a disorganised civil society.Item Institutional change and Nigeria’s 2015 elections(Journal of constitutional development, 2015) Aiyede, E. R.This essay explores the nature of the changes in the electoral rules in Nigeria and the factors that have catalysed such changes. It explores how the choice and adjustment of these rules have affected the character of elections in Nigeria, It provides insights on how to deal with emerging challenges from the recent elections, especially the 2015 elections in Nigeria. This essay argues that changes' in the electoral institutions have been geared more to reflect descriptive representation and functionally representative and less geographically representative, they have also been geared towards promoting the integrity of elections as part of the effort to achieve democratic stability, The process of electoral reform and institutional change have been slowed by these competing factors of democratic values and self interest as politicians seek to win elections in Nigerias intense contests. The paper concludes that the success of the 2011 and the 2015 elections show the relative positive effect of the changes that have been made in the electoral institutions since 1999 and beyond. It points to additional institutional issues that need to be addressed to strengthen the gains so far made, and to ward off future challenges that may lead to crisis.Item Public service reform and Nigeria’s global competitiveness(Ibadan journal of the social sciences, 2014) Aiyede, E. R.Nigeria’s federal public service had been subjected to a series of reforms since the reinventing government ideas came with the structural adjustment programmes in the late 1980s and became fully embraced in 1999 as part of democratic reforms. More recently, the reforms have been driven by the need to make the public service supportive of the government’s vision of a globally competitive economy. This broad goal of global competitiveness provides a basis for evaluating the reform in the absence of clear indicators for measuring progress. Using a historical institutional approach, the paper provides details of the trajectory of the reforms and argues that there is little evidence that the service has become more professional, efficient and effective with improved capacity to deliver services. A cut in the bloated size of the junior cadre and removal of government provision of fringe benefits to public servants do not appear to have translated into achieving the mix of skills, interest and will that are needed to achieve reform goals. A protracted reform blues is underlined by resistance to reform and the predatory values that animate governance. For reforms to be successful there is need to address the cultural patterns of public life at large. Reforms should include training of public servants as well as civic ethics education addressed to the public and politicians.Item The institutional framework of the 2012 elections in Ghana: consolidating or reversing democratic achievement?(Journal of African elections, 2013) Aiyede, E. R.; Erameh, N. I.; Orimolade, O. S.The 2012 elections were peaceful, but the results were contested by the New Patriotic Party in a petition brought to the Supreme Court challenging the National Democratic Congress and the Electoral Commission of Ghana. Revelations during the hearing of the petition raised some disquiet about the abilities of the ECG and the integrity of Ghana’s electoral institutions. The fallout from the 2012 elections demands a critical intellectual engagement with the institutional foundation of the elections. There were several institutional changes in the Ghanaian system in the build-up to the elections as well as changes in the general political economy of the country that have made access to public office particularly attractive. This article reviews the institutional context of the elections and examines the constitutional and non-constitutional rules relating to electoral governance, focusing on such issues as electoral management, delimitation of constituencies and assembly size, electoral formula, voting procedure and ballot structure and the party system. It demonstrates how these institutions were implicated in the challenges relating to the electoral process during the 2012 elections, providing insights into how to overcome them.Item Federalism, power sharing and the 2011 presidential election in Nigeria(Journal of African elections, 2012) Aiyede, E. R.Power sharing has become a prominent feature of post-election conflict management practice in Africa in recent times. A study of the Nigerian experience provides useful lessons about the theory and practice of power sharing in a divided society with a federal system. Nigeria instituted the ‘zoning with rotation’ principle to shore up the affirmative action/federal character principle earlier devised to manage the inter-ethnic tensions that followed the crisis thrown up by the annulment of the presidential elections of 12 June 1993. This article examines the challenges and debates over power sharing in the build-up to the 2011 elections as a result of the entrance of Goodluck Jonathan (a southerner) into the presidential race, made possible by the death of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua (a northerner) in a clear upset of the power-sharing arrangement. It argues that while the ‘zoning with rotation’ principle remains useful for stability and representation in Nigeria its sustenance depends on its flexible application and the creativity of the elites as they negotiate and manage the power disequilibrium that results from perceived access or lack of access of segments of Nigerian society to top political office. The Nigerian case shows that the ‘zoning with rotation’ principle is problematic as a long-term solution because it constrains the notion of free political competition and the uncertain outcomes that are central to democracy.Item Public service ethics in Nigeria’s local government system(Book point ltd., 2003) Aiyede, E. R.This paper attempts to explain the ethical crisis in local government in Nigeria by' examining the structural and nonnative ethical content of local government reforms. It argued that, although efforts were made to integrate public service ethics into the reforms, ethics programmes were unsystematic and were for a long time very limited. Moreover, key actors did not demonstrate serious commitment to them. The reason for the lack of commitment is attributed to the instrumental use of corruption for regime sustenance that shot through Nigeria's politics of distributive federalism, which came to its own in the last two decades. This has destroyed the idea of public service and generated strong forces within local government angling for a share of the "national cake." Popular accountability has been undermined by the disjunction of the location of expenditure from the sources of local government revenue.Item Electoral governance and women's political leadership in Nigeria(IDASA, 2005) Aiyede, E. R.