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This collection of articles reviews a wide range of social issues cusped in the broad themes of Africas development, impact of Covid 19, transnationalism and climate change in the 21st Century. Given its contemporariness, it provides voice for the urgency for Africa to come to grips with its development woes Professor Sultan Khan, Sociologist, University of KwaZulu-Natal The book takes a cursory look at the drivers and the directions of Africas developmental drive as a largely developing continent within the frameworks of the ever-dynamic global space, putting into perspective inherent challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century, and thereafter. Being the continent with most youthful population, Africa appears to still lack in requisite innovative interventions to transmute such demographic dividend into economic opportunities for the benefits of the larger population. Instead, there has been increasing trend in South-North migrations among both skilled and unskilled Africans across all age groups. Besides, impacts of climate change on the continent have also implied unstructured migratory trend within and beyond the bounds of the continent. Africa has continued to play a feeble role in various United Nations (UN)-enabled Conference of Parties (COP) negotiations, such as the COP-26 in Glasgow, Scotland (2021). The management of recent Covid-19 epidemic across the world has presented a clear pointer to Africa that except development is internally-driven, no one is ready to exogenously drive sustainable good life for others. Ostensible vaccine nationalism that has dotted the production and availability of various Covid-19 vaccine brands, which has ultimately left Africa as the begging continent one more time calls for in-depth interrogation in contextualizing what the place of Africa has been, is and to be within the global interactive mode. Adebusuyi Isaac Adeniran is Professor in sociology, migration and development studies at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Visiting Scholar in migration and development studies at York University, Toronto, Canada and Research Consultant with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

This book offers in-depth ethnographic analyses of key informants' interviews on the ecological urbanism and ecosystem services (ES) of selected green infrastructure (GI) in Yoruba cities of Ile-Ife, Ibadan, Osogbo, Lagos, Abeokuta, Akure, Ondo, among others in Southwest Nigeria. It examines the Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) demonstrated for wellbeing through home gardens by this largest ethno-linguistic group in Nigeria. This is in addition to the ES of Osun Grove UNESCO World Heritage Site, Osogbo; Biological Garden and Park, Akure; Lekki Conservation Centre, Lagos; Adekunle Fajuyi Park, Ado-Ekiti; Muri Okunola Park, Lagos; and some institutional GI including University of Ibadan Botanical Gardens, Ibadan; Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta Botanical Garden, Abeokuta; and University of Lagos Lagoon Front Resort, Lagos, Nigeria. The study draws on theoretical praxis of Western biophilic ideologies, spirit ontologies of the Global South, and largely, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) to examine eco-cultural green spaces, home gardens, and English-types of parks and gardens as archetypes of GI in Yoruba traditional urbanism, colonial and post-colonial city planning. The book provides methods of achieving a form of modernized traditionalism as means of translating the IKS into design strategies for eco-cultural cities. The strategies are framework, model, and ethnographic design algorithms that are syntheses of the lived experiences of the key informants.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Ecosystem Services of Green Infrastructure – Towards a Theoretical Praxis -- Chapter 2. Ecological Urbanism in Yoruba Cities – An Ecosystem Services Survey -- Chapter 3. Ecosystem Services of Yoruba Home Greens – Indigenous Knowledge System for Wellbeing -- Chapter 4. Between Profanity and Sacredness – Global North and South Divide -- Chapter 5. Conclusion: Evidence-based Design of Eco-cultural Cities.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- About the Author -- List of Figures -- 1: Introduction: Reflecting on the Practice of Migration in Africa -- Extant Culture of Migration in Africa: Juxtaposing Pre-Modern Practice with Contemporary Pattern -- Theoretical and Conceptual Discourse on Migration Processes in Africa -- Theoretical Synthesis -- Research Design and Sources of Data -- Socio-Historical Undertones of African Transnationalism -- Migration Network and Patterns in African Context -- Role of Identity in African Migration -- Why Budding Preference for Transnational Migration in a Globalizing African Society? -- References -- 2: Failed Governance: The Foundation of a Culture of Irregular Migration in Twenty-First-Century Africa -- Manifestations of Failed/Failing Governance Structure in Africa -- Corruption: An Outcome of Failed Governance and a Stimulator of Irregular Migrations in Africa -- Conflicts and Rising Cases of Human Displacement in Africa -- Humanitarian Crisis as a Factor of Irregular Migration in Africa -- Social Injustice and Economic Deprivation as Factors of Irregular Migrations in Africa -- Poor Development Initiatives as Precursors of Irregular Migrations in Africa -- Regional Free Movement Protocol and Failing/Failed National Governance in Africa -- References -- 3: African Demographic Dividend, Migration-Development Nexus and Global Economic Reality -- The Nature of Migration Crises in a Globalizing African Society -- Youth Unemployment and Challenge of Irregular Migration in Africa -- Unstructured Transnational Migration as Inevitable Alternative to Economic Deprivation Among African Youth -- Regional Integration in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities -- 'Open Border' Policy as Remedy for Unstructured Transnational Mobility of African Youth -- Migration-Development Nexus: Transnationalism as a Win-Win Scenario.

Survey research incorporating data dummying is an acceptable research design for studying environment-security issues from primary data in socio-politically polarized societies where this is problematic. The question is, but why? The simplest answer is that many members of the study populations do not cooperate in giving required information because of security apprehensions. One solution to this problem is maximizing the usefulness of data provided through data dummying. The topic of the research described in this methods case was of interest because it promised to extend the knowledge on and to suggest a solution to the problem of social inequality and its attendant urban insecurity. The decision to design the research as a survey was contingent on the geographical spread of the population that formed the sampling frame. The essence was to identify how socio-spatial territoriality was implicated on urban insecurity, residential fencing, and house gating in Ilorin, Nigeria. In the research design and context, inequality was conceptualized as socio-spatial polarization and insecurity as criminal victimization. The research practicalities that had to be considered included designing a systematic sampling protocol. Responses to absence of expected participants and non-cooperation included repeated visits and sampling the next building, respectively. The dummying took place through the research instrument design that incorporated relevant questions on a sampled building and its next neighbors that were not sampled. Major practical lessons learnt include strategies for circumventing barriers to primary data collection and doubling data size through instrument design in survey researches.

"The book is written to engage both the academics and the general public in the current debate regarding science /​ religion divide. It is therefore a lucid analysis of what I referred to as the 'false bifurcation between science knowledge and religion knowledge'. This is a wake up call to the extremists on both sides of the divide - the 'scientismists' (the proponents of scientism) and the proponents of the dogmatic, closed religious system approach to knowledge. It contains academic references and quotes of interviews and views expressed in blogs and so on, in order to critique arguments put forward by both sides, thereby steering the debate towards the book's unity of knowledge thesis that ensures a whole system approach to the coherence theory of truth." --Publisher description

Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- About the Author -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Why a Borderless ECOWAS? -- 2 Social Organization of Mobility -- 3 Migration Network, Determinants and Patterns -- 4 The Process of Identity Integration -- 5 Identity Dualism and Regional Integration -- 6 Uncensored Space and Regional Development -- 7 Theoretical, Conceptual and Methodological Frameworks for a Borderless ECOWAS -- 8 Concluding Comments -- References -- Index

Annotation

This article draws upon a wider empirical study that situates gender visibility (GV) in public places within the context of socio-spatial qualities (SSQ) of open spaces of the six Federal Universities in Southwest Nigeria by relying on the theorization of genius loci and humanization of spaces. Since the literatures provide scanty empirical information on these geographies, the question is, to what extent do SSQ affect the politics of GV and how can a conceptual framework that is contingent on these qualities be developed? Accordingly, in a crosssectional survey through stratified random sampling protocols, 3,016 users participated in the study with questionnaire instrument. Correlation results suggest that GV is dependent upon social factors including conviviality, visual and audio privacies, security from criminal victimization and fear of it, and social interaction while it is not reliant on safety and meditation spaces. Further results indicate that GV is impacted by spatiality including accessibility, connectedness and convenience. Proximity, walk-ability, and continuity have no effect on GV. Significant socio-spatial variables have their distributions to be different across the genders. Based on these findings, a socio-spatial conceptual framework of GV in campus open spaces was developed. In recommending the framework for best practices, it is argued that open spaces of universities are (re)constructed as gendered places.

This paper synthesizes the assessment of anti-corruption strategies adopted by previous administrations in Nigeria, and the effectiveness of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Factors militating against the effectiveness of EFCC were identified, and solutions proffered. Corruption in education was also noted. The administration of some heads of state before the establishment of EFCC were discovered to fuel corruption, while some administrations proved to have adopted Gandhian approach to fight corruption; they recorded success but were not sustained because their efforts were found to have been frustrated by their succeeding administrations. The results of the frustrations lead to the establishment of EFCC which is an institution to tackle corruption during democracy. Finally, it was revealed that the achievement of EFCC's mandates is low. Towards anti-corruption strategies and the effectiveness of EFCC, recommendations were suggested. It is believed that if the recommendations were fully implemented, balanced development is inevitable.

Although extant reconstruction of the limits of international development practice has been implicated in the budding involvement of China in Africa, debates on China's actual intents and prospects have continued to rage. Engaging an exploratory design and a political-ecology approach, which affirms the significance of human factors in contextualising, structuring, and contesting the natural world, this study assesses specific short-term and long-term outcomes of China's Gansu-modelled water conservation project in Kano, Nigeria. The shared ecological interface between China and Nigeria has facilitated transfer of relevant technology to the Guinea and Sahel regions in Northern Nigeria. Chinese involvement in the Nigerian water/agricultural sector has resulted in improved indigenous farmers' skills, yields, and incomes. Sustaining the trend of ongoing intervention would imply a significant boost to Nigeria's drive towards self-reliance, though a long-term cleavage towards such Chinese interventions might eventually imply neo-dependency. (JCCA/GIGA)

This paper asserts that there is a nexus between the nature and character of leadership and the stock and genre of social capital in a polity. Specifically, it posits that low levels of bridging social capital (generalised trust) in contemporary Nigeria are reflective of the abysmally low levels of leadership capital possessed by the holders of State power in particular and the political class in general. The paper takes its bearing from the following postulations: First, it asserts that leadership is the central actor in the creation and maintenance of social capital, whether bonding or bridging. Second, it argues that low levels of bridging social capital in post-authoritarian Nigeria is largely due to the inability of the political leadership to engender trust among the diverse people that constitute the State. The low levels of bridging social capital, therefore, have serious negative implications on inter-ethnic and inter-group relations in the country. It concludes that an adherence to the idea of servant leadership would substantially increase the stock of bridging social capital in Nigeria and the spate of identity-related conflicts ravaging the nation (since until now, political leadership has not been able to create generalised trust) would drastically reduce.

This study explores how a home-grown framework could be advanced for the process of socio-economic transformation of the ECOWAS sub-region. Subsisting cleavages toward former colonial powers (and other global powers), existence of multiple monetary zones and border posts have been hindering productive socio-economic interactions among over 300 million inhabitants of West Africa. The study analyzes how uncensored cross-border mobility and institutionalization of a single monetary zone could facilitate regional socio-economic integration and development of West Africa. It identifies extant culture of 'transnational simultaneity' among Nigerian migrants in Cote d'Ivoire as a formidable means in this regard. Imperative data for the study were derived from primary (interviews) and secondary (evaluative) sources.