The COVID 19 pandemic has become a global health issue that now intersects with security issues, especially in African countries. The outbreak of the virus in Africa has halted political, economic and social activities, including countering armed violence. Nigeria is one of the African countries that is faced with security challenges, ranging from Boko Haram insurgency, rural banditry, farmers-herders clash, kidnapping, robbery to piracy among others. However, much attention has concentrated on mitigating the spread of COVID 19 pandemic and the provisions of palliatives to cushion the effects of the abrupt stoppage of formal and informal economic activities. This study examines the intersections between the pandemic and armed banditry in Northwestern. It appears that armed bandits have intensified attacks on communities, against the background of government’s anti-COVID policy. Government has equally re-strategized in responding to the bandits’ attacks. The study gathered data from documented sources and media reports and were analyzed, using content analysis. The study observed that the armed bandits used the COVID 19 lock down policy to increase attacks on some communities, thereby providing a complex dimension to rural banditry in Northwestern Nigeria. This led to increased air and land offensive by the Nigerian military against the bandits. This study recommends among others that government should increase surveillance and adopt strict measures on movements to curtail the activities of the bandits.

COVID 19 pandemic has strategically overwhelmed all the global sectors of human endeavours since its first appearance in December 2019. The Virus shattered and paralysed all socioeconomic activities for several months. One of the areas that is seriously affected globally is the education sector. Nigeria is most affected just like other world countries economically and socio-culturally. The Nigerian Policy on Education has been widely criticised for its failure to make adequate provisions for an unforeseen contingency like pandemic periods. Thus, when COVID 19 emerged in Nigeria, the education sector emerges arguably as the most affected. Schools were totally shut down for more than two terms or nearly two semesters for tertiary institutions. The study examined the Nigerian education policy and the impacts of COVID 19 on tertiary institutions. The study used both primary and secondary sources of data. The data obtained were discussed using manual SPSS. The study discovered that the obsolete educational policies subjected tertiary institutions to the mercy of COVID 19 protocols which left the schools closed for many months leading to crisis of confidence from the students and a total loss of a whole session in most cases. The study recommends among others that the Nigerian Policy in Education should be immediately revisited to cater for future pandemic preparations that will avoid closure of schools or learning. This can be achieved through the adoption of e-learning and provision of modern tools of learning in public schools.

Administrative justice is generally seen as a component of good governance. While the former has developed in Nigeria largely through the Common Law, the latter is a relatively emerging ideal that has eluded public administration in Nigeria. For decades, corruption and maladministration have become the central problems facing the country. The people have suffered and are still suffering from the consequences of poor governance. This article examines administrative justice as an element of good governance in Nigeria. It demonstrates that the problems are the results of misuse of administrative discretion at all levels of government and the lack of sufficient accountability mechanisms. Although efforts have been made to address these problems through legal and intitutional reforms, however, the problems still persist. Using these twin concepts of administrative justice and good governance, this article argues that the legal and institutional reforms undertaken to address the problems have not been effective because they failed to approach the problems from the 'inside-out'. The article partly attributes the failure of the reforms to the restrictive approach in administrative justice, a 'top-bottom' approach bequethed by the common law and incorporated into the general legal and constitutional arrangement in the country. While advocating for a 'bottom-up' approach which constrains the exercise of administrative discretion at all levels, from the individual 'street level bureaucrat' to the top government official, the article proposes the institutionalisation of democratic values of checks and balance, oppenness, transperancy and accountability in decision-taking such that official discretion may be reasonably constrained without jeopardising administrative efficiency.

Purpose: Colonialism, a phenomenon which has long gone remains an interesting subject of debates especially among the African scholars. This is perhaps, due to the aggressive nature in which colonialism violently altered the evolutionary destiny of the African states. Any study that carefully dig deeply can easily come up with an area of contribution regarding the subject matter of colonialism in Africa. This study specifically explored how colonialism emasculated the political and religious institutions of Northern Nigeria with a view to ascertain the current crisis of identity that the region is facing. Design/Methodology/Approach: Descriptive analytical design was adopted, thematic analysis and a qualitative content analysis method was used in this study which analyzed critically the various views and dimensions on the role played by colonialism in the emasculation of political and religious institutions in Northern Nigeria. Findings: The results revealed that Northern Nigeria had a well-articulated and functioning political and religious institutions prior to the emergence of the exploitative colonialism. The British colonialist supervised the destruction of these heritages and replaced them with the alien ones that failed to function well leading to crisis of identity.  Implications/Originality/Value: So it is concluded that colonialism succeeded in damaging the Northern Nigerian heritage and that there must be a reversal towards that indigenous culture and social settings for Northern Nigeria to record a meaningful progress in the 21st century.

Over the past few decades, sovereign debt crises have become recurring phenomena across the world. Studies have shown the devastating impacts of these crises on the realisation of socioeconomic rights. Sovereign debtors constantly face an "obligatory dilemma" of simultaneously satisfying multiple contractual and treaty obligations owed to different constituencies, including to their citizens and private creditors. Unfortunately, there is currently no binding legal framework to deal with sovereign debt crises and, consequently, creditors are unwilling to compromise. Therefore, using Waldron's theory of socio-economic rights, this article argues for the prioritisation of socio-economic rights considerations during debt crises. It observes a convergence between the areas of business and human rights and sovereign debt restructuring regimes and suggests the employment of the former to achieve this prioritisation. This can be done by taking advantage of the efforts to develop a binding instrument on business and human rights.