Call for Panelists: The Crippled Giant, 25 Years On: Democracy, Developmental Federalism and (Dis)contents in the Scholarship of Eghosa Osaghae

[Tobi Adewunmi]

Dear Sir/Ma

If you don't mind, please help circulate this call within your networks and please consider sending an abstract or memo on other ways of participation if you're interested in the theme of the panel.

Thanks and Warm Regards!

- 'Tobi Adewunmi

For the Graduate Research Clinic (GRC)

+++++++++++++

The Crippled Giant, 25 Years On: Democracy, Developmental Federalism and (Dis)contents in the Scholarship of Eghosa Osaghae

The 7th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference

Conference Theme: Rethinking Decoloniality: African Decolonization and Epistemologies in the 21st Century

Format: Hybrid (In person, University of Lagos and Virtual)

Date: June 20-24, 2023

Abstract Deadline: January 1, 2023

Panel Organisers: Olúwatóbilóba Adéwùnmí (Graduate Research Clinic) and Emmanuel Remi Aiyede (University of Ibadan)

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 signalled a watershed in the global order, bringing an end to the Cold War and the Third Wave of democracy to Africa, after several years of postcolonial dictatorship. As military rulers, previously backed by the Cold War superpowers, began to lose their grip on a vocal citizenry who were committed to finding new ways of improving their countries, there was hope that a second independence was underway. However, three decades into the Third Wave of democracy in Africa, African countries are still confronted with the crisis of nation-building on one hand, and development on the other. Nigeria, for example, has remained a “Crippled Giant”—in the word of Eghosa Osaghae.

Osaghae has paid critical attention to notions of ethnicity, federalism, democracy and development drawing on the African experience. His corpus has brought Africa’s travails with democracy and federalism, its efforts at institutional and ideational innovation to bear on these concepts derived largely from the governance experiences and practices of the West. Twenty-five years after the publication of Osaghae’s Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence (1998), the promises of democracy and federalism remain inchoate if not confounded in most parts of Africa, as several democratic experiments and federal constitutional arrangements remain flawed and unable to lead to sustainable development.

The poor development performance of many African countries in the 21st century points to a need to rethink the epistemological and ontological foundations of democracy and federalism, among other issues captured in Osaghae’s magnum opus. So, we ask: How does the global framing of democracy and federalism re/produce fragility in Africa? Why and how are democracy and federalism inextricably linked to the development of postcolonial African states? Can we imagine an alternative understanding of democracy and federalism in Africa? What would the parameters of an alternative African perspective(s) of democracy and federalism look like?

The panel hereby calls for original or review papers that unsettle and reconceptualise notions of federalism, democracy, development and their components in innovative and interdisciplinary ways, as conceived especially, but not exclusively, in Professor Eghosa Osaghae’s oeuvre.

If you would like to participate, please send a 250-word abstract and a short bio to 'Tobi Adewunmi (odaad...@gmail.com) or Remi Aiyede (eai...@gmail.com) by January 1, 2023.

UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN COMMENCES ADMISSION INTO ITS OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMME FOR THE 2021/2022 ACADEMIC SESSION

---

In a bid to increase access to the UI , the General Public should be informed that suitably qualified candidates can now apply for admission into University of Ibadan through the Open Distance Learning mode for the 2021/2022 Academic Session at:

https://modeofstudy.ui.edu.ng

For enquires and support, WhatsApp/Call: Nike: +234 810 481 2619, Kehinde: +234 816 204 3939

This email and any attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the addressee, do not disclose, copy, circulate or in any other way use or rely on the information contained in this email or any attachments. If received in error, notify the sender immediately and delete this email and any attachments from your system. Emails cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free as the message and any attachments could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, delayed, incomplete or amended. The University of Ibadan, Distance Learning Centre and its subsidiaries do not accept liability for any damage caused by this email or any attachments.

Any view(s) or opinion(s) expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and do not necessarily coincide with those of the organisation.

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail!