One noticeable development in the Nigeria’s 2015 general elections is the differentials in the numbers and outcomes of women involvement as candidates in comparison to the 2011 elections. The percentage of women contesting for presidential position decline from 12.5% in 2011 to 7.1% in 2015. That of the gubernatorial election also witnessed a reduction from 10.2% in 2011 to 7.1% in 2015, while the percentage of women for deputy governorship positions was relatively stable with only an increase of 0.4%. However, there was a double increment in the contestations for Senatorial posts from 10.3% in 2011 to 22.2% in 2015. Also, the number of women candidacy into the House of Representative and State Houses of Assembly recorded an increase of 5.7% and 5.6% respectively. However, when it comes to actual successes at the polls, the outcomes were not encouraging. With the exemption of deputy governorship number that improved from 2.8% in 2011 to 13.8% in 2015, all others witnessed a sharp decline. While Presidential and Governorship numbers returned nil percentages, there were shortfalls of 1.8% and 2.5% of women elected into the Senate and the House of Representatives respectively. Given the presence of 35% affirmative action and incentives introduced by various parties, some questions arise: Why do the positive changes refused to come? What does this say about the Nigerian society?.......

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Because of the political and religious disagreements in Mali, the protection of the country's world heritage sites (WHSs) has been a constant agenda of state-parties to the World Heritage Convention (WHC). To avoid irreversible damage and loss of these valuable national heritages, appropriate action is needed at every level for their conservation and preservation. Significant attention has been directed at understanding the relevance and benefits of WHSs to the economic sector specifically, but, there has been relatively little academic and policy research on the destruction and looting of WHSs especially in Timbuktu, Mali. This is the gap this study intends to fill. This calls for serious questions regarding what precipitated and led to the destruction of Timbuktu's cultural heritage. What is the significance of Timbuktu's WHSs to the Malians? How should government authorities respond to the destruction of the sites? Finally, against the background of the destruction of the Timbuktu WHSs, how can the WHSs be preserved and protected? This study critically interrogates insurgents' attacks on the WHSs, with the motive of developing a sustainable template suitable for forestalling potential attacks by Islamic/jihadist insurgents, or any other insurgents for that matter, in other locations in Mali, using the attacks in Timbuktu as a case study.

The politics of land rights and low or high intensity protest in the twenty-first century has produced several land-related protesters with a variety of strategies. This study focuses on the challenges of urbanization as it affects the Kpaduma community in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (fct), Nigeria. Kpaduma, an indigenous group, has a history of protest at various times with the government over its ancestral land. The last protest in 2016 brought massive destruction of settlements and forced displacement. Quite a number of works have been written on the land protests, with particular reference to their causes and consequences. However, the post-protests situation, particularly regarding the tense relationship and urbanization process in the locality, is yet to be sufficiently explored. This study investigates the state of relations between the government and Kpaduma as well as the urbanization processes in the country’s capital after the forced displacement of Kpaduma.