The article examines the challenges facing foreign policy formulating institutes in Nigeria. The institute involved are Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and its sister institute the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). These aforementioned institutes came into being in 1961 and 1979 respectively to help provide data through their research activities. The data generated were to help government in formulating policies aimed at enhancing Nigeria's foreign relations. Consequently, the paper identifies the myriad of challenges facing the research bodies since their inception and suggests ways through which the challenges could be tackled so as to pave way for better understanding of international Affairs.

The quest for the democratization of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the most critical issues that has confronted the United Nations (UN) system for the better part of the organization’s existence. To this end, this paper examines the call for the democratization of the UNSC and the challenges thereof. It argues that the attempts to democratize the UNSC has been unsuccessful due to fact that the UNSC was not designed to be a democratic organ from its inception. The paper submits that a democratically constituted UNSC will lead to chaos and disorder in the international system.

The manner in which the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is presently constituted remains the greatest challenge to the realization of the ambitions of UNSC permanent seat seekers. For the highly infl uential economic giants better known as the “middle powers”- Japan, India, Brazil, and Germany; and African leading contenders such as Nigeria, South-Africa and Egypt ambitions to yield the desired result, they must mandatorily secure the support of the UNSC Permanent fi ve veto holding members. In light of the foregoing, this paper examines the attempts to reform the UNSC since the late 1960s and the roles of the Permanent fi ve members of the UNSC such as Britain, China, France, USA and Russia regarding this endeavour. Specifi cally, it argues that the Permanent fi ve member’s disposition to this issue has been the major challenge to the much desired reform of the UNSC. The UNSC is the main organ of the United Nations (UN) that is vested with powers to maintain international peace and security. Since its creation in mid 1940s, this organ has been criticized for its undemocratic nature by member states whose region are either not represented in the Security Council (SC) or under-represented.

The manner in which the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is presently constituted remains the greatest challenge to the realization of the ambitions of UNSC permanent seat seekers. For the highly infl uential economic giants better known as the "middle powers"-Japan, India, Brazil, and Germany; and African leading contenders such as Nigeria, South-Africa and Egypt ambitions to yield the desired result, they must mandatorily secure the support of the UNSC Permanent fi ve veto holding members. In light of the foregoing, this paper examines the attempts to reform the UNSC since the late 1960s and the roles of the Permanent fi ve members of the UNSC such as Britain, China, France, USA and Russia regarding this endeavour. Specifi cally, it argues that the Permanent fi ve member's disposition to this issue has been the major challenge to the much desired reform of the UNSC. The UNSC is the main organ of the United Nations (UN) that is vested with powers to maintain international peace and security. Since its creation in mid 1940s, this organ has been criticized for its undemocratic nature by member states whose region are either not represented in the Security Council (SC) or under-represented.

The security, economic, social and political disruptions of the state induced by the activities of organized crime has weakened the state’s authority to carry out its expected functions of good governance. In Nigeria, the illegal activities of criminal cartel groups affect government’s resources and its ability to enhance the welfare, basic human needs and living standard of its citizens. The criminal cartels who in their corrupt practices penetrate political offices to wax their influence, strengthened by the integration of security agencies and judicial organs of the state to shield their illegal activities carried out by violence or threat of violence have become a course for national concern. This is why urgent attention needs to be taken to address the menace. It is against this background that the paper examined the impact of organized crime on good governance and also to proffer ways the menace can be reduced to the barest minimum. The paper adopted the bureaucracy model of organized crime since it is organized like a conventional bureaucracy pyramid shape with members in hierarchical leadership through which its activities are carried out. The paper utilized secondary sources of data and was historically analyzed. The findings of the paper revealed that the ill activities of organized crime undercut government’s transparency, accountability, popular political participation and ability to harness resources for the well-being of the citizens. It is also observe that the infiltration of organized criminals in public affairs subverts government’s welfare policies of its citizens, due to gross corruption all over public office, among others. The recommendations include inter alia: That political and economic agencies should beef up their administrative tentacles and arsenals to stem the tide of organized criminal cartels, leaders should muster the political will to restrict people from lifestyles that encourages organized crime, the government should ensure that welfare dimension of human needs is provided to attract citizens’ patriotism to shun criminal groups and their activities, among others.