Browsing by Author "Apentiik, Rowland Anyebadek"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Institutional Counterinsurgency Frameworks in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin and the Operations of the Multinational Joint Task Force Against Boko Haram
    (2021-04-30) Adela, Gershon; Stapleton, Timothy; Huebert, Robert Neil; Apentiik, Rowland Anyebadek
    The Islamist group, Jama’atul Alhul Sunnah Lidda’wati wal Jihad, translated as “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and jihad” is commonly known as Boko Haram which means “Western education is forbidden.” Boko Haram originated in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno in 2002, but its violent activities extend into neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger in the Lake Chad Basin. Such transnational dimension of the group’s violence and its increasing sophistication necessitated the establishment of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) as a sub-regional coalition to combat it. The Task Force comprises troops from the affected member states in the Lake Chad Basin and Benin Republic with the African Union (AU) as its strategic partner. The MNJTF’s member states are split between the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Nigeria, Niger, and Benin Republic are members of the former while Chad and Cameroon belong to the latter. Irrespective of the existence of a sub-regional counterinsurgency force, Boko Haram remains very resilient and continues to launch lethal attacks across the Lake Chad Basin. Yet, the institutional conditions that account for the ineffectiveness of the MNJTF’s operations have not been studied. The thesis explored the influence of the counterinsurgency frameworks of AU, ECOWAS, and ECCAS on the operations of the MNJTF against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin. The thesis utilized the Regional Security Complex Theory by Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver as the framework of analysis and Policy Analysis as the methodological approach. The study found that the institutional counterinsurgency frameworks of the AU, ECOWAS and ECCAS have undermined military cooperation and intelligence sharing among the MNJTF’s member states due to their emphasis on single-state counterinsurgency efforts, their respect for and protection of states’ territorial sovereignty, and distortions in their counterinsurgency approaches. The study, therefore, recommended that the Lake Chad Basin Commission formulates its own counterinsurgency strategy. Also, the MNJTF should establish common values and principles for its member states, adopt a top-to-bottom joint command and coordination mechanism, and establish its own technical units to aid its operations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemEmbargo
    Women’s Experiences in the Colonial Justice System of Southern Nigeria, 1920 -1960
    (2023-12-08) Osondu, Yolanda Chinelo; Stapleton, Timothy; Campbell, Lyndsay; Apentiik, Rowland Anyebadek; Yacob-Haliso, Olajumoke; Akinfemisoye-Adejare, Motilola Olufenwa
    The law and criminal justice institutions are embodiments of a state’s authority to govern and punish erring subjects. This study highlights how southern Nigerian women navigated traditional versus colonial approaches to acts deemed criminal during a period of regime change. This micro-history of southern Nigerian women seeks to individualize their experiences within the framework of the criminal justice system by weaving a narrative of how these institutions deliberately and in other cases, unintentionally provoked the display of female agency in matters involving defiance, crime, and punishment. The stories of these women, culled from newspapers, archival documents, and court records reveal how they imagined, understood, and negotiated, their crimes when brought before institutions of the criminal justice system. Firstly, I examine how colonial institutions punished women for engaging in the non-violent crime of profiteering during World War II. At first glance, the actions of these accused women might be viewed merely as resistance to the intrusion of imperial law. However, a deeper analysis of this crime reveals how colonial institutions created conditions resulting in a collision between normative and legal orders in southern Nigeria. This study also reveals how the blanket term ‘profiteering’ camouflaged the involvement of women in other forms of crimes during this period. Secondly, in seeking to demystify the rather exclusive images of male-dominated violent crimes in Nigeria, this study also examines female-perpetrated homicide. Unlike profiteering, homicide had normative implications in both colonial and traditional cultures. Thus, I examine the changes and continuities in the punishment of women involved in this crime. I also focus on officials of the justice system and argue that because of their pertinent role in examining the cadaver of the victim and understanding the state of a woman’s mental and physical health, male medical witnesses began to play a significant role in determining the truthfulness of a woman’s words. However, a woman’s biological peculiarity, societal perceptions and a judge’s discretion based on his cultural understanding of a case mattered and were sometimes brought to the fore in the prosecution of female-perpetrated homicide. Overall, this study reveals a paradox of female experiences in the colonial justice institution, which sanctioned and punished women for their ‘crimes’ but sometimes created avenues for negotiation, compromise, and accommodation.