Towards Effective Collective Security and Human Rights Protection in Africa: An Assessment of the Constitutive Act of the New African Union

Netherlands International Law Review -     

“Cocksparrow Diplomacy”: Percy Spender,The Colombo Plan And Commonwealth Relations

Percy Spender, the Australian Foreign Minister in 1950, played a critical role in the establishment of the Colombo Plan. The programme was proposed by Commonwealth ministers in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in January 1950. In May, Spender hosted the first meeting of the Consultative Committee to work out the modalities for the aid programme. Using Canadian and British sources, the article re‐examines Spender's diplomacy at the Sydney conference. It demonstrates why his conduct elicited such strong condemnation from his fellow ministers and almost precipitated a crisis in Commonwealth relations. It argues that Spender antagonised Commonwealth ministers unnecessarily with his tactics without achieving the objectives he had set for himself. His diplomacy did not advance his vision of the aid programme; instead, the British vision of the Colombo Plan prevailed in Sydney.     

The role of the judiciary in combating corruption: aiding and inhibiting factors in Nigeria

Based on empirical facts and research in socio-economic fields, it is consensually agreed among scholars that corruption is one of the greatest hindrances to the development of any country. As part of the efforts to combat the menace of corruption, laws and institutions have been put in place. Consequently, judges, by virtue of their position in society, have an important role to play to ensure the effectiveness of those laws and institutions. However, the Nigerian judiciary has failed to live up to its responsibility in its role of combating corruption in the country and is even itself accused of corruption. This article discusses the factors that are necessary to assist in building an effective, vibrant and corruption-free judiciary. Salient factors that hinder the judiciary in the performance of its role to combat corruption are highlighted. The article finally suggests the need to reform Nigeria’s judicial sector and to set in motion all the machinery necessary for the purpose of creating a formidable judiciary in the country.     

Modelling composition of growth,FDI and welfare in Africa: a SEM approach

Economic Change and Restructuring - While there have been separate studies on FDI–growth and FDI–welfare links, few or no studies exist that simultaneously examine...     

The United Nations,the African Union and the Darfur Crisis: Of Apology and Utopia

Netherlands International Law Review -     

A Correspondence analysis of lifestyle health risk behavior of public service employees

The study analyses the health risks to which individual employees of public institutions in Nigeria, particularly tertiary institutions, are exposed as a result of their individual lifestyles. It makes use of the special features of correspondence analysis to examine, comprehensively, the health lifestyle behaviours of the three categories of staff in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The study finds that academic members of staff are more exposed to risk than the other categories of staff as a result of their lifestyle. It recommends that a special counselling programme be drawn up for this category of staff to sensitise them about the risks associated with particular lifestyle behaviours. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in this respect. It is expected that with proper counselling directed at the group that is most at risk, the incidence of sudden deaths can he reduced. In turn, this will help the institutions to work out a smoother succession plan.