Traditional institutions held pre-eminence positions in the pre-colonial societies in Nigeria. The level of order witnessed during this period was a testimony to the invaluable roles played by the traditional rulers in administering their different empires, kingdoms and communities. However, during the colonial era, the position of traditional rulers was compromised as they became mere stooges of the colonial power. The post-colonial period saw the traditional rulers’ roles diminished as they were given advisory roles in previous constitutions and with no single role in the 1999 Constitution. Thus, for the continuous relevance of the traditional institutions, there is a need for re-examination of their roles in the country. This chapter argues for community based developmental roles for the traditional rulers in the country. These include promotion of tourism development, encouraging modern agricultural development, maintenance of peaceful co-existence among the people of their domain and settlers from other parts of the country, providing platform for alternative dispute resolution, monitoring the activities of the various vigilante groups and other unconventional security apparatus in their communities and lastly partnering the security operatives through intelligence gathering within their domains for effective operations of security outfits in serving the people better.

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This paper examines the contribution of sub-national legislature in reinforcing democratic consolidation in Nigeria by drawing lessons from the Osun state legislature in SouthWest Nigeria. Specifically, the authors interrogate changing party composition, oversight actions and executive reactions and constituencies' activities of members of the Assembly across three terms of twelve years: 1999-2003; 2003-2007 and 2007-2011. The analysis presented in the paper reveals that relationship between the Osun state legislature and executive has been defined by dominance by the latter manifested through financial dependence of the Assembly in carrying out legislative activities, overdependence on the executive for maintenance of members and their offices, domination of legislative agenda with executive bills and other executive oriented activities as well as reliance on the executive to guarantee legislative members' political career. The paper concludes that in spite of the foregoing drawbacks, the Osun state legislature remains relevant to the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria especially in its contributions towards legitimising, supporting and stabilising the polity and serving as deliberative arena for securing government policies and programmes.

Abst ractEvidences from counterterrorism and the war on terrorism operations in Africa have revealed the inadequacies of the conventional counterterrorism strategy. The over-reliance on the use of simply hard-military and offensive strategy in prosecuting the war against terrorism and forms of insurgencies in Africa since the inception of the war on terrorism and counterterrorism in Africa has largely been counterproductive. From Boko Haram in Nigeria to the Islamic State of West African Province in West Africa (ISWAP), to Al-Shabab in eastern parts of Africa, and then to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the rise and spike in terrorism in Africa remains indirectly proportionate to the conventional counterterrorism operations and strategy. The deficiency of the use of conventional counterterrorism strategy in the prosecution of war on terrorism in Africa, coupled with its flawed outcome, has ignited calls for alternative counterterrorism strategies. Chief amongst these alternative counterterrorism strategies is the Community and Vigilante-Group Policing in Africa which emboldens culture, language, episteme, authority, and interest of the people in quest to address the scourge of terrorism and other security threats. This article is therefore an attempt to unpack the prospects and side-effects of the Community and Vigilante-Group Policing as an alternative counterterrorism strategy in the war on terrorism in Africa. 29nr 2/2021 (52)Beyond conventional counterterrorism strategy: Prospects and challenges of community and vigilante groups' policing in Africa. Terrorism, counterterrorism and security: Conceptual clarificationsTerrorism is "a special type of political violence which is a public threat" (Lewis, 2017). However, there is lack of agreement on its definition so much that there is a common observation that "one's person's terrorist is another freedom fighter". Therefore, scholars define terrorism based on individual preferences, beliefs, and political, religious or cultural orientations.According to United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, terrorism can be in two types: (1) international terrorism which refers to violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/ or groups who are inspired by, or associated with, designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored), and (2) domestic terrorism which refers to violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2020).According to another definition, offered by Barash and Webel (2009), terrorism involves a premeditated, usually politically motivated, use, or threatened use, of violence, to instill a state of fear in its victims, usually for the purpose of influencing another, less reachable audience, such as a government. Such victims may include civilian non-combatants but are not necessarily limited to them (Barash, Webel, 2009).Various d...

Although corruption has long been identified as, because of its devastating effects, the greatest threat to the development and continued existence of every state, most especially, the third world states. It is however, not until recently, that it is attracting the required attention in the discourse of Third world states' underdevelopment. The subject of corruption is not only attracting more attention presently than it once did but its indispensability in understanding Third world states' underdevelopment is now widely acknowledged and appreciated. In fact, it has been argued that, based on the plethora instances of high-profile corruption cases in South Africa that is purportedly seen as a relatively developed country and Nigeria within the Third world region, corruption now manifests as a global pathological problem which is not only confined to the shores of Africa and other Third world countries but whose causes, manifestations and consequences vary from one society to another (Gupta, 1995). However, unlike the developed region, corruption alone accounts for the greatest predicament of poverty and underdevelopment bedeviling the African continent (Okojie and Momoh, 2005). While South Africa fares better in development terms than its Nigerian counterparts, both countries are still deep-rooted and neck-deep in the menace of corruption. Although, corruption accounts for the economic woes in both countries at varying degrees, its continued persistence may hinder the full realization of each of the country's potentials, and as a consequence, have serious consequences on Africa's development in general owing to the importance and leadership positions occupied by these two countries in Africa. In recognizing the need to curb and fully ground the menace of corruption before it grounds the development agenda of both countries, South Africa and Nigeria have, in the past, taken some measures through political and economic reforms as well as setting up anti-corruption agencies with a view to minimizing and eradicating corruption. Nigeria established the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; South Africa, in the same logic, is prosecuting the war against corruption through its National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). However, despite the number of cases of corruption that have been identified and prosecuted by Anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria and South Africa, it remains evident that the anti-corruption crusades in both Nigeria and South Africa have not really yielded substantial results (Enweremadu, 2012; Egwemi, 2012). Although, South Africa has fared better in taming and prosecuting corrupt cases than Nigeria, both