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An upsurge in the rate of violence against women has an adverse effect on women in South Africa. Sadly, many South African women who are the victims of violent sexual conduct, such as, rape and other forms of violent sexual abuse, have in part contributed to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS infection among women. Of the 7,7 million South African living with HIV/AIDS in 2018, 4,7 million were women, while another 69 000 were among the new infections. They are more vulnerable to HIV infections with 21,17 percent of women living with the disease. Using personal conversations, literature searches and documents for primary and secondary data, this article argues that value orientation that ascribes superiority to men has damaging consequences on the status of women. South African women are exposed to violent habitual actions of men that denigrate their womanhood. The article, therefore, submits that there is a need to reinforce civil society and strengthen the justice system for the protection and promotion of the rights and freedom of women. Aside from this, the government should increase its commitment to the enforcement of requisite legislative frameworks that safeguard the rights and freedom of women, and review punishments for any acts of violence against women.

This book presents a holistic perspective and analysis of democratic practice, processes, and governance in South Africa. It examines the development in the South African governing system and its response to the challenges of the crisis of governance under the influence of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). While doing so, the book's central objective is to examine the progress of the South African government in strengthening democracy and political governance. Each of the contributions follows a similar structure and addresses the following thematic issues: (1) Assessment of the implementation of the core APRM-related programs; (2) Identification of areas of excellence and prognosis for further improvement; (3) Identification of the weak areas of each and how to make the future implementation better, (4) Identification areas to improve democracy and political governance. A self-assessment strategy initiated by the African Union (AU) in 2002 and adopted in 2003, the APRM is a voluntary mechanism adopted by countries in the African continent to improve governance in general. As a specialized AU agency, APRM monitors the peer review activities of each African country. It serves as a tool for sharing experiences, reinforcing best practices, identifying deficiencies, and assessing capacity-building needs to foster policies, standards, and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development, and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration. This book will be useful for and appeal to scholars and researchers in political science, public administration, and the social sciences in general, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of democratic practice and processes, governance, public policy, and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

This book examines the problem of accountability in two African political systems, South Africa and Nigeria. Despite the principle of separation of powers and the doctrine of checks and balances among the institutions of governance, a burgeoning governance crisis stifles the potential of accountability and good governance. Legislative oversight in the two countries remains largely ineffective while citizens are left to face the consequences of the mismanagement of public resources by political elites. This book critically assesses how the legislative institutions in South Africa and Nigeria have been unable to harness the requisite constitutional powers to ensure accountability in government and explores the feasibility of their effectiveness. The book begins with a comparative analysis of the principles, tradition, and powers associated with legislative capability in South Africa and Nigeria. The chapters explore constitutional provisions and analyze the capacity of each legislature to function within its respective political environment. The book also examines the process and challenges associated with the various measures and mechanisms available for legislatures to ensure accountability in the two countries. Researchers, scholars and students of African politics will find this book useful in their understanding of the problems associated with the simmering governance crisis in South Africa and Nigeria.--

Separation of powers among the three branches of government, in most Constitutional democracies, is a design to avert the tyranny of a personalized rule. With specific roles, in relationships characterized by separated but shared powers, each branch of government is a watchdog against the other in case of any abuse. In the South African governing system, the Constitution guarantees functional power relationships among the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary branches of the government. Nevertheless, the dominant party system, in practice, has weakened the legislative oversight and accountability powers to tame the excesses of the executive, contrary to the intendments of the drafters of the Constitution. Judicial review of the various legislative and executive actions, however, has created precedents that seek to reassert legislative capacity to hold the executive accountable. At one time or the other, the judiciary had indicted the legislature and the executive of dereliction of duties. Using primary and secondary data from judicial pronouncements, constitutional provisions, and other public documents, with extant literature, respectively, this paper reviewed the environment that prompted the activist posture of the South African judiciary. An entrenched culture of party loyalty and the incapacity of the legislature to enforce accountability have bolstered the need for assertive judicial review in ensuring accountability. The failure of the legislature to exercise its oversight power has provided the platform for the judiciary to rise as a formidable accountability instrument. Judicial independence, guaranteed by The Constitution, would continue to sustain the tenets of South African representative democracy.

The principle of separation of powers and the doctrine of checks and balances are the two major mechanisms that define power relations among branches of government in presidential system. These institutional control measures are meant to avert disproportionate exercise of power. The assumption of the culture of presidential system is the near absence of personalization of power. In Nigeria, power relations among the three branches of government are clearly defined to ensure the promotion of good governance. Nevertheless, residual and inherent powers of the executive tower above the other two branches of government. This paper discovered that the uneven distribution of powers among the arms of government hampers the operation of a system of checks and balances. Thus, the institutional safety valves become ineffective in the face a rising culture of corruption and impunity. The outcome is the preponderance of governance crisis and abuse of state power. Competition for power among political elites endangers good governance. The paper submits that an informed public capable of enforcing accountability is a sine qua non for a redirection of the culture of accountability in Nigeria's presidential system.

Extant provisions of Nigeria's presidential constitution seek to promote a culture of accountability through a system of checks and balances. Since Nigeria's return to civil rule in May 1999, promotion of good governance through accountability government continues to be a challenge. All indications point to a worsening governance crisis in the midst of abundant resources. Besides, Nigeria's socio-economic performance and visible poor service delivery depict a deepening governance crisis occasioned by mismanagement of public resources. The data collected by means of documents and literature indicates that the presidential system has checks and balances as measures to prevent the abuse of power. Impeachment is the major institutionally recognised legislative mechanism to hold the executive accountable. The puzzle since the inception of Nigeria's Fourth Republic is the failure of the legislature to appropriate this statutory authority to police the execution of public policies in a manner that will conform to the constitutional requirements. While there are requisite constitutional provisions that mandate the legislature to ascertain its power over the executive, indicating Nigeria's commitment to the promotion of good governance, the legislature has failed to appropriate these instruments to stimulate a responsible government that is open to promoting good governance. Using the theories of structural functionalism and elites, this paper argues that this legislative failure to appropriate the instrument of impeachment to instil the culture of responsible executive in policy process engenders the prevailing governance crisis in Nigeria. The paper concludes that a political system where systemic corruption prevails will reduce impeachment to a mere instrument of political vendetta.

Extant provisions of Nigeria's presidential constitution seek to promote a culture of accountability through a system of checks and balances. Since Nigeria's return to civil rule in May 1999, promotion of good governance through accountability government continues to be a challenge. All indications point to a worsening governance crisis in the midst of abundant resources. Besides, Nigeria's socio-economic performance and visible poor service delivery depict a deepening governance crisis occasioned by mismanagement of public resources. The data collected by means of documents and literature indicates that the presidential system has checks and balances as measures to prevent the abuse of power. Impeachment is the major institutionally recognised legislative mechanism to hold the executive accountable. The puzzle since the inception of Nigeria's Fourth Republic is the failure of the legislature to appropriate this statutory authority to police the execution of public policies in a manner that will conform to the constitutional requirements. While there are requisite constitutional provisions that mandate the legislature to ascertain its power over the executive, indicating Nigeria's commitment to the promotion of good governance, the legislature has failed to appropriate these instruments to stimulate a responsible government that is open to promoting good governance. Using the theories of structural functionalism and elites, this paper argues that this legislative failure to appropriate the instrument of impeachment to instil the culture of responsible executive in policy process engenders the prevailing governance crisis in Nigeria. The paper concludes that a political system where systemic corruption prevails will reduce impeachment to a mere instrument of political vendetta.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. The Legislature in a Presidential System: Structure, functions and expectations -- Chapter 3. The Historical Overview of the Evolution of the Legislature in Nigeria -- Chapter 4. Legislative Oversight as Accountability Mechanism: The Nigerian Perspective -- Chapter 5. The Politics of Legislative Investigations in Nigeria's National Assembly in the Fourth Republic -- Chapter 6. The Legislature and Social Development in Nigeria, 2015-2019 -- Chapter 7. Representative democracy, political disengagement, and young people's perceptions of legislators in Nigeria -- Chapter 8. Corruption and Executive Interference in Legislative Oversight in Nigeria's Fourth Republic -- Chapter 9. Constituency Projects in Nigeria's 8th National Assembly, 2015-2019 -- Chapter 10. Nigeria's Presidential System and the Vicissitudes of Executive-Legislative Conflicts in the Fourth Republic -- Chapter 11. Party Affiliation and Law-making Efficiency: A Study of the Seventh and Eighth Nigerian National Assemblies -- Chapter 12. Comparing the 'New' and 'Old' Regimes of Legislative-Executive Relations and its Implications in Governance: Evidence from Osun State -- Chapter 13. Nigerian Presidentialism and legislative decadence in the Fourth Republic, 2015-2021 -- Chapter 14. Legislative Turnover in Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Issues and Implications -- Chapter 15. The Legislature, the Rule of Law and Impeachment in Nigeria's Fourth Republic -- Chapter 16. The Legislature, Subnational Governments and Child's Education Rights in Nigeria's Fourth Republic -- Chapter 17. Constitutional Underpinnings of Partisanship and Consensus Building in Nigeria's National Assembly -- Chapter 18. Two Decades of Legislative Activities in Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Issues, Challenges, and the Way Forward.

This book investigates whether legislative institutions, state and national, in Nigerias Fourth Republic have been able to harness constitutional powers to impact public policy. Presenting how the Nigerian state has not been able to showcase the expected dividends of presidential democracy since 1999, it analyzes the crisis of governance and its impact on political stability, social cohesion, and the livelihood of citizens. The book further discusses the depreciating infrastructure, corruption, and mismanagement of public resources, and shows how defiant attitudes of public political and bureaucratic officials define the new wave of corruption and profligacy in Nigeria, presenting this development as a result of a weakened legislature. The book displays the necessity of implementing a culture of accountability and discusses oversight mechanisms to make the executive accountable. These mechanisms are designed to ensure effective public service delivery. Finally, the book situates the legislative institutions in Nigeria within the context of the contributions of the National Assembly and the Assemblies of the State Houses to the development of this emerging democracy in Africa. The book will appeal to students and scholars of political science and public administration, as well as policy-makers and practitioners interested in a better understanding of democracy, separation of powers, governance, and Nigerian politics.

This book presents a holistic perspective and analysis of democratic practice, processes, and governance in South Africa. It examines the development in the South African governing system and its response to the challenges of the crisis of governance under the influence of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). While doing so, the book's central objective is to examine the progress of the South African government in strengthening democracy and political governance. Each of the contributions follows a similar structure and addresses the following thematic issues: (1) Assessment of the implementation of the core APRM-related programs; (2) Identification of areas of excellence and prognosis for further improvement; (3) Identification of the weak areas of each and how to make the future implementation better, (4) Identification areas to improve democracy and political governance. A self-assessment strategy initiated by the African Union (AU) in 2002 and adopted in 2003, the APRM is a voluntary mechanism adopted by countries in the African continent to improve governance in general. As a specialized AU agency, APRM monitors the peer review activities of each African country. It serves as a tool for sharing experiences, reinforcing best practices, identifying deficiencies, and assessing capacity-building needs to foster policies, standards, and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development, and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration. This book will be useful for and appeal to scholars and researchers in political science, public administration, and the social sciences in general, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of democratic practice and processes, governance, public policy, and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

This book examines the challenges confronting the practice of democracy and governance in Nigeria. The bookexamines the theoretical underpinnings and the procedural and institutional components of democratic practice in Nigeria, including the challenges associated with elections, the legislature, the media and gender issues. Approaching the pluralistic characteristics of the Nigerian state and how theyimpede democratisation throughcontributions by experts and scholars in the field, the bookanalyses the issues and nuances inherent to governance and democracy in Nigeria, as well as domestic policy process, global governance and human security. Democratic Practice and Governance in Nigeria will be of interest to students and scholars of African politics and democratisation.