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The cultivation of a culture of constitutionalism remains the greatest challenge to Nigeria’s constitutional democracy. Militarism affected in a very substantial way Africa’s efforts to develop a culture of constitutionalism in the continent. Nigeria typifies the failed African effort in trying to establish an enduring democracy and constitutionalism. After ten years of transition from militarism to constitutional democracy and the euphoria of the country’s return to democracy, the country is still on a slow march in the entrenchment of the practice of constitutionalism. This work primarily sets out to investigate the state of constitutionalism in Nigeria. Human rights and judiciary as constituents of constitutionalism are the main focus of that investigation. A crucial question that encapsulates the main objective of the study is how can Nigeria entrench a culture of constitutionalism? The study, therefore, investigates the question whether constitutional formalism or textualism without more can guarantee constitutionalism. It advocates that constitutionality does not necessarily lead to constitutionalism. The work further probes into the nature, extent and reasons for the past failure of constitutionalism in the country and its current state. The study also embarks on an exploration into the mechanisms for the protection of human rights, the problems and challenges in Nigeria. The challenges include the introduction of the “new Sharia” by some States in Nigeria; the failure to accord socio-economic rights due consideration in Nigerian jurisprudence and the poor pace of the domestication of human rights norms. The work demonstrates the relationship and linkage between human rights, democracy and judicialism in the study of constitutionalism. / Public Constitutional and International Law / LL.D.

This study provides a critical interrogation of the perceptions held by the undergraduate Philosophy of Education students at an open and distance learning institution, towards African philosophy. The study is premised on famed Kenyan philosopher, Odera Henry Oruka‟s classification of African philosophy into four trends: ethno-philosophy, philosophic sagacity, nationalist-ideological philosophy and professional philosophy. These trends confirm that African philosophy is more than traditions, culture or ubuntu, and more complex than the students make it to be. The study makes a link between the students‟ flawed perceptions of African philosophy with their lack of critical thinking skills. The study has attempted to answer questions such as why students have flawed perceptions of African philosophy; how critical thinking assists in changing their perceptions of African philosophy, and what role can the education system play in equipping students with critical thinking skills. The study‟s findings show that undergraduate Philosophy of Education students conflate African philosophy with African people‟s traditions and cultures, and with ubuntu. Students perceive that African philosophy lacks reason and rationality - key elements of critical thinking. The study‟s findings show that students lack critical thinking skills. The study notes that the way students are taught makes a large contribution to their perceptions and lack of critical thinking skills. The study makes the following recommendations. Firstly, to deal with the problem of students‟ conflations, the study recommends the introduction of the principles of African philosophy, namely, ubuntu, communalism and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the school curriculum, and to emphasise these principles in the curricula of higher education institutions. Secondly, the study recommends the introduction of philosophy for children (P4C) in schools. It is envisaged that P4C will assist learners to acquire critical thinking skills at an early stage of learning. Thirdly, the study recommends the teaching of critical thinking skills at universities. Finally, the study recommends that in- service training be made an integral part of teachers‟ and lecturers‟ professional training, to bring them up-to-date with new ideas and methods of teaching. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Il s’agit d’une « photographie » géopolitique de la République de Maurice avec deux axes très précis : la géopolitique interne et la géopolitique externe du pays. L’analyse est faite à partir de faits essentiellement rapportés dans la presse mauricienne, si riche en diversité et commentaires. Puisant dans la profondeur historique pour essayer d’expliquer le présent, c’est le premier travail d’analyse et de réflexion sur la géopolitique de la jeune république mauricienne. La complexité des rapports entre les différents territoires (Rodrigues et Agaléga) avec l’île Maurice est expliquée, de même que les relations et positions d’ambiguïté avec la Grande-Bretagne (et les Etats-Unis) et la France sur les « contentieux » au sujet de l’archipel des Chagos et de Tromelin respectivement. Les rapports tendus entre les différentes communautés présentes à Maurice sont exposés, de même que la problématique de conversion de terres, souvent agricoles, en résidences de luxe pour étrangers fortunés et projets immobiliers d’envergure. La politique étrangère « neutre », propre à Maurice, est aussi examinée dans le cadre de sa géopolitique externe, de même que sa multiple appartenance aux organismes régionaux indianocéaniques et africains. De par sa « réussite économique » connue de l’étranger, Maurice ambitionne de devenir le centre de toutes choses dans la région et elle se propose d’être la passerelle financière entre l’Afrique et l’Asie. Ayant des liens « ombilicaux » avec l’Inde, Maurice est restée cependant pro-occidentale avec une nette poussée de la francophonie et un déclin de l’influence britannique. Africaine politiquement, Maurice s’oriente économiquement vers l’Asie. / The work is a ‘snapshot’ of the geopolitics of the Republic of Mauritius with a two-pronged approach: The Internal Geopolitics and the External Geopolitics of the country. The analysis made is from facts mainly reported in the Mauritian press, so rich in diversity and comments. Going down the historical depth to try to explain the present, it is the first work of analysis and reflection on the geopolitics of the young Mauritian republic.The complexity of the relationships between the different territories (Rodrigues and Agalega) with Mauritius Island is explained, as well as the relationships and ambiguous positions with Great Britain (and the United States) and France on the issues of the Chagos Archipelago and Tromelin respectively. The tense relationships between the different communities present in Mauritius are exposed, as well as the controversial issue of land conversion -often agricultural land- to luxury residences for wealthy foreigners and ambitious real estate projects. The ‘neutral’ foreign policy of Mauritius, so unique, is also examined in the context of its External Geopolitics, as well as its multiple belongings to regional organisations in the Indian Ocean and in Africa. Known abroad for its ‘economic success’, Mauritius aspires to become the regional hub of all possible things and it has positioned itself to be the financial gateway between Africa and Asia. Having ‘umbilical’ links with India, Mauritius has remained however pro-western with an impressive Francophone boost and a decline of the British influence. Politically African, Mauritius is now economically oriented towards Asia.

Text in English / The problem of leadership and corruption in Nigeria is a known fact. A good number of Nigerian politicians and top government officials do not think that politics has anything to do with ethics. Currently, injustice is displayed in all spheres of Nigerian life. Indigenous moral values are almost completely ignored and abandoned. Nigeria no longer operates according to the hallowed observance of the rubric ‘Aa kii see’ (it is not done). It is no longer a society of law and order, crime and punishment, good behaviour and adequate reward. It is no longer a society which recognises the principles of abomination/taboos, or what the Yorubas describe as eewo. Taboos represent the main source of guiding principles regulating and directing the behaviour of individuals in the community. However, experience has shown over the years that politics’ functional peak is only attainable with the help of ethics. Politics based on the ethical principle of social equality is one of the indispensable features of true democracy. For politics to be effective and meaningful, ethics must not be forgotten. Politics without morality produces unethical leadership. This study claims that, the much desired political moral uprightness is achievable in Nigeria, if African traditional ethics is harnessed as a tool in solving the problem of unethical leadership and corruption, especially embezzlement. The thesis also attempts to show that, through reinforced moral education for both young and old, it will become more accepted that morality is the backbone of politics and it must not be ignored. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

The cultivation of a culture of constitutionalism remains the greatest challenge to Nigeria’s constitutional democracy. Militarism affected in a very substantial way Africa’s efforts to develop a culture of constitutionalism in the continent. Nigeria typifies the failed African effort in trying to establish an enduring democracy and constitutionalism. After ten years of transition from militarism to constitutional democracy and the euphoria of the country’s return to democracy, the country is still on a slow march in the entrenchment of the practice of constitutionalism. This work primarily sets out to investigate the state of constitutionalism in Nigeria. Human rights and judiciary as constituents of constitutionalism are the main focus of that investigation. A crucial question that encapsulates the main objective of the study is how can Nigeria entrench a culture of constitutionalism? The study, therefore, investigates the question whether constitutional formalism or textualism without more can guarantee constitutionalism. It advocates that constitutionality does not necessarily lead to constitutionalism. The work further probes into the nature, extent and reasons for the past failure of constitutionalism in the country and its current state. The study also embarks on an exploration into the mechanisms for the protection of human rights, the problems and challenges in Nigeria. The challenges include the introduction of the “new Sharia” by some States in Nigeria; the failure to accord socio-economic rights due consideration in Nigerian jurisprudence and the poor pace of the domestication of human rights norms. The work demonstrates the relationship and linkage between human rights, democracy and judicialism in the study of constitutionalism. / Public Constitutional and International Law / LL.D.

This thesis explores the origin of one of the most engrossing concerns of the post-colonial Indian state, that is, its extensive, intricate, and expensive feeding arrangements for the civilians. It tracks the colonial origin of the post-colonial welfare state, of which state-management of food is one of the most publicized manifestations. This thesis examines the intervention of the late colonial British state in food procurement and distribution in India during the Second World War, and various forms of such intervention, such as the introduction of food rationing and food austerity laws. It argues that the war necessitated actions on the part of the colonial state to secure food supplies to a vastly expanded British Indian Army, to the foreign Allied troops stationed in India, and to the workers employed in war-industries. The thesis brings forth the constitutional and political predicaments that deprived the colonial central government's food administration of success. It further reveals how the bitter bargaining about food imports into India between the Government of India and the War Cabinet in Britain hampered the state efforts to tackle the food crisis. By discussing the religious and cultural codes vis-à-vis food consumption that influenced government food policies, this thesis has situated food in the historiography of consumption in colonial India. In addition to adopting a political approach to study food, it has also applied sociological treatment, particularly while dealing with how the wartime scarcity, and consequent austerity laws, forced people to accept novel consumption cultures. It also contributes to the historiography of 'everyday state'. Through its wartime intervention in everyday food affairs, the colonial state that had been distant and abstract in the perception of most common households, suddenly became a reality to be dealt with in everyday life within the domestic site. Thus, the macro state penetrated micro levels of existence. The colonial state now even developed elaborate food surveillance to gather intelligence about violation of food laws. This thesis unravels the responses of some of the political and religious organizations to state intervention in quotidian food consumption. Following in this vein, through a study of the political use of famine-relief in wartime Bengal, it introduces a new site to the study of communal politics in India, namely, propagation of Hindu communal politics through distribution of food by the Hindu Mahasabha party. Further, it demonstrates how the Muslim League government's failure to prevent the Great Bengal Famine of 1943-44 was politically used by the Mahasabha to oppose the League's emerging demand for the creation of Pakistan.

This study provides a critical interrogation of the perceptions held by the undergraduate Philosophy of Education students at an open and distance learning institution, towards African philosophy. The study is premised on famed Kenyan philosopher, Odera Henry Oruka‟s classification of African philosophy into four trends: ethno-philosophy, philosophic sagacity, nationalist-ideological philosophy and professional philosophy. These trends confirm that African philosophy is more than traditions, culture or ubuntu, and more complex than the students make it to be. The study makes a link between the students‟ flawed perceptions of African philosophy with their lack of critical thinking skills. The study has attempted to answer questions such as why students have flawed perceptions of African philosophy; how critical thinking assists in changing their perceptions of African philosophy, and what role can the education system play in equipping students with critical thinking skills. The study‟s findings show that undergraduate Philosophy of Education students conflate African philosophy with African people‟s traditions and cultures, and with ubuntu. Students perceive that African philosophy lacks reason and rationality - key elements of critical thinking. The study‟s findings show that students lack critical thinking skills. The study notes that the way students are taught makes a large contribution to their perceptions and lack of critical thinking skills. The study makes the following recommendations. Firstly, to deal with the problem of students‟ conflations, the study recommends the introduction of the principles of African philosophy, namely, ubuntu, communalism and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the school curriculum, and to emphasise these principles in the curricula of higher education institutions. Secondly, the study recommends the introduction of philosophy for children (P4C) in schools. It is envisaged that P4C will assist learners to acquire critical thinking skills at an early stage of learning. Thirdly, the study recommends the teaching of critical thinking skills at universities. Finally, the study recommends that in- service training be made an integral part of teachers‟ and lecturers‟ professional training, to bring them up-to-date with new ideas and methods of teaching. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

印度乃全球最大民主政體，本研究係以晚近印度政壇發展，作為探論主題。印度在憲法上是一個世俗國家，但在印度晚近的發展中，「印度教民族主義」配合著「國民志願服務隊」（RSS）、「印度人民黨」（BJP）、「世界宗教大會」（VHP）等組織的宣傳效應，卻產生了阿瑜陀之爭，並使得印度調合教派政治的努力，受到嚴重的考驗。印度民主政體的特殊發展經驗，也向西方對自由民主政體與民族主義所抱持的普世性假定，提出了強烈地挑戰。 　　出現於殖民時期與晚近民主國家中的民族主義浪潮與宗教運動，警醒了許多西方觀察者。本研究企圖將宗教社群主義的議題，放在印度教傳統實踐與歷史發展的脈絡中從事考察，而避免將這類涉及認同與社群意識的問題，過度化約成社會與經濟的決定論觀點，或是政治與社經利益的呈現。宗教社群意識的政治化，確為印度製造了社群衝突，但根深柢固的仇恨意識，則來自印度教徒與穆斯林間錯綜複雜的歷史糾葛。 　　透過印度民族主義與印度教徒民族主義之間關係的探討，本研究將把宗教社群衝突的問題置放在一個較寬廣的政治、宗教及歷史的脈絡中。藉由印度教徒與穆斯林在印度發生衝突的例子，揭示宗教社群議題如何表現於社會與歷史的面向之上。本研究試圖提供對於印度政治不同的觀察角度，俾益於我們對後殖民時期印度民主政體發展的理解。最後，本研究也企圖評析右派印度人民黨，如何藉由古代印度教精神的宣揚，而獲致廣泛的民眾認同並在近十年中快速崛起。 / The theme of this thesis turns our attention to recent events in the world’s largest democracy, India. India is constitutionally a secular state. But recent developments in India in the form of Hindu nationalism, propagated and propagandized with great effects by such organizations as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and that generated the Ayodhya temple dispute, are putting India’s capacity to negotiate a viable relation between a unified polity and sectarian religio-politics severely to the test. The Indian experiences of democracy thus challenge several of the widely held assumptions about the universality of the western trajectory of liberal democracy and nationalism. 　　 　　The rise of strong nationalist and religious movement in colonial era and newly democratic countries alarms many western observers. Rather than reducing the problems of identity or communal consciousness to social-economic determinism, or a strictly matter of political and social-economic interest, this thesis places the emergence of Communalism within the context of Hindu traditional and historical praxis. The politicization of communal consciousness did create communal problems in India, but the fundamental intricacy remains the deep-seated animosity between Hindus and Muslims created by history. 　　By presenting the relationship of Indian nationalism and Hindu nationalism, this thesis situates communal conflicts in its larger political, religious, and historic contexts. Using example of Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, the issue of Communalism with social-historical context will be explored. This thesis tried to offers fresh insights into Indian politics and, by focusing on Ayodhya dispute, advances our understanding of democracy in the post-colonial India. This thesis analyzes Indian receptivity to the right-wing Hindu nationalism party and its political wing, the BJP, which claims to create a polity based on ancient Hindu culture. This thesis is also an attempt to explain the factors that led to the sudden rise of BJP in the last decade.

L'évocation de l'Île Maurice fait rêver : ses couleurs « arc-en-ciel », ses plages paradisiaques et sa population accueillante sont bien connues dans le monde. L'île a été tour à tour colonie hollandaise, colonie française et colonie britannique. Aujourd'hui, elle fait toujours partie du Commonwealth, au même titre que d'autres ex-colonies, notamment l'Inde. Après presqu'un siècle et demi de domination britannique (1810-1968), Maurice est aujourd'hui une république indépendante qui souffre des maux typiques de la décolonisation et de l'ère postcoloniale. On y observe les problèmes liés à la construction identitaire, comme dans les sociétés multiethniques, sur lesquels se greffent des dysfonctionnements liés aux inégalités entre les groupes qui composent le pays. Cette thèse se propose de dépasser l'image idyllique que nous avons de cette île, pour nous concentrer sur la vie quotidienne de ses habitants, plus spécifiquement sur les relations sociales qu'entretiennent les « Créoles » avec les autres groupes en présence. Nous tentons d'identifier et d'expliquer les raisons pour lesquelles une certaine catégorie de Créoles est particulièrement touchée par la pauvreté et les discriminations, ce qui entraîne des fléaux tels que la prostitution, la drogue, l'alcoolisme, la violence domestique, le viol, les enfants des rues et les grossesses précoces. Après avoir rappelé les différentes phases de peuplement de l'Île Maurice, nous nous penchons sur les notions, parfois controversées, de « race », couleur, mondialisation, regard et perception, pour essayer de comprendre les relations assez conflictuelles entre les différentes communautés, notamment entre les Créoles et les Hindous. Nous émettons l'hypothèse selon laquelle le passé historique lié à l'esclavage, avec la déshumanisation dont ont été victimes les ancêtres d'un certain nombre de Créoles, pèse encore aujourd'hui sur leurs descendants. À travers des études de cas, des interviews et des observations, nous analysons les limites dans les relations interethniques, intergroupes et intercommunautaires, prenant en compte les particularités de chaque groupe afin de savoir dans quelle mesure certains peuvent être qualifiés d'ethnies, de communauté ou simplement de groupe. Le résultat de nos recherches sur le terrain nous montre que différentes formes de discrimination sont exercées contre les Créoles et qu'elles sont dues essentiellement au verrouillage exercé par les Hindous, les seuls véritables détenteurs des rênes politiques locales, en plus, bien entendu des riches Blancs et des riches Chinois. Nous observons cependant que les Créoles semblent enfin commencer à accepter leur identité, dans un monde postcolonial où ils s'autonomisent et se distancient d'un passé esclavagiste. / The image conveyed by Mauritius is full of fantasy with pretty rainbow colours everywhere, beaches of white sand and friendly people. The island was alternately a Dutch, a French and a British colony. It is still a member of the Commonwealth, like other former British colonies, including India. After almost one and a half century under British rules (1810-1968), Mauritius is now an independent Republic, which suffers from the typical trauma linked to decolonisation and the post-colonial era. As a result, we can spot problems linked to identity construction in multiethnic societies along with the dysfunctions related to inequalities among the groups in this country. This thesis proposes to go beyond the idyllic image that we have of this island, to focus on the daily life of its inhabitants, more specifically on the social relationships among the Creoles and between the Creoles and other groups. We try to identify and explain the reasons why a certain class of Creoles is particularly affected by poverty and discrimination, which lead to evils such as prostitution, drugs, alcoholism, domestic violence, rape, street children and teenage pregnancy. After recalling the different phases of settlement in Mauritius, we focus on some controversial concepts such as, "race", colour, globalisation, gaze and perception, to understand the rather conflicting relations among the different communities, especially between Creoles and Hindus. We hypothesise that the historical past and slavery – as well as the dehumanisation affecting Creole ancestors – are still weighing on their descendants. Through case studies, interviews and observations, we analyse the limits in inter-ethnic and inter-community relations, and attempt to define the specificities of each group to determine whether it can be considered as an ethnic group, a community or a simple social group. The results of our field research show that different forms of discrimination are exercised against the Creoles, and that they are mainly due to obstruction by the Hindus, the only true ‘owners' of local political power along with the wealthy Whites and the wealthy Chinese. However, we observe that the Creoles finally seem to accept their identity in a postcolonial world where they find empowerment and are able to distance themselves from their ancestors' slave past.