Volume 5 Number 2
In democracies, the media plays a pivotal role in post-election peacebuilding. Beyond setting the political agenda, the media in Africa also addresses the challenges of electoral conflict and violence, security, and post-election peacebuilding. This article examines the role of the media in the electoral process in relation to post-election peacebuilding in Nigeria since 1999. Specifically, it highlights the Nigerian media experience with reflections on windows of opportunities for post-election peacebuilding. Content analysis is used to discuss the peacebuilding objectives of the Nigerian media election coverage, editorials, and media programs. The article concludes that the media undermines the impact of its role on conflict dynamics because of selfish interests. It is, therefore, recommended that the media re-embrace professionalism to prevent election violence and ensure peacebuilding.
Volume 1 Number 2
The history of nuclear weapon testing by the major nuclear powers during the Cold War is intimately tied to the history of military colonialism in the 20th century. For each of the first five nuclear powers (U.S., USSR, UK, France, and China) the process of selecting a site for nuclear weapon testing was driven more by the location of a small group of politically marginalized people unable to object to being exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive fallout, to the loss of their homes, and the contamination of the land and seas providing their primary food sources, than it was by scientific and military requirements. Invariably these populations were constituted of people of a different racial, ethnic or religious group than that of the colonial power. This article examines the selection of nuclear test sites for each of the five major nuclear powers both in the reaches of their military empires and their own domestic landmasses.