The peaking of the threat to the European Union integration through the Brexit of June 2016 has some important lessons for Africa. We argue that the major steps in African integration have been built from a European integration script. Any major changes and transformations in the integration process in the EU would give an easy prediction that there will be changes in a similar direction in Africa as well. While Africa sees Europe as the best and only script that would never fail, the refugee crisis and its corollary of terrorism threat (imagined or real) and the financial crisis in Greece and other weaker economies earlier like Portugal highlight fault lines. It shows that the script that Africa has been following has some missing links. We thus argue further that a closer perusal of the weaknesses in EU integration provides important lessons for Africa. Therefore, Africa should also detach from following external scripts in its development processes and develop its own peculiar functional and neo-functional paths towards integration.

Literature on the National Question of the Nigerian state has often taken the dimension of “value differences” for granted. Against this background, we examine cross-cultural conflict in Nigeria, as induced by the very tightly held and uncompromising values of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-national entities from amalgamation to the present time. Multiculturalism and differences emanating from contradictory values have culminated in various manifestations: civil war, agitation for state creation, federal character principle, revenue allocation, ethno-religious crisis, rotational presidency, zoning and recently, terrorism and national conference. A descriptive cum analytical approaches are applied in the work. Findings indicate the divisive characteristics of values which have resulted in the disunity of Nigeria. This paper provides one of the very few studies surgically identifying value differences in a multicultural entity such as Nigeria. It recommends, among others, that unpretentious resolution efforts should thoroughly consider and engage these value differences, in order to fully maximize the immense benefits inherent in Nigeria’s multiculturalism.

Pan-Africanism has remained a powerful force for African development, spanning over the past centuries. More still, before the rise of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), a number of Pan-Africanists agitated for a continental organisation that championed the political emancipation of the African continent from the yoke of colonialism, apartheid and racism. However, the birth of OAU in 1963 and its transformation into African Union (AU) in 2002, led to need for the management of many multi-dimensional contemporary problems facing the continent, which include poverty, external debt, diseases, security and environmental problems as well as clash of national interests. This paper traces the African origin of Pan-Africanism and African Union. It shows how the AU has being bedevilled with challenges, thereby crippling the rise of sustainable development in Africa and for Africans. The work therefore presents a number of Pan-Africanist ideas that are relevant for transformative development of African states and the enhancement of sustainable integration in Africa.

It is widely acknowledged that Africa’s integration efforts have not recorded the desired results. While other regions of the world have successfully used their integration mechanisms to improve their general wellbeing, regional integration in Africa has got a whole lot of challenges to contend with. In spite of the fact that several regional bodies are domiciled in the African continent, none of the African States is categorized as a ‘developed’ country. Majority of these African states are extremely poor, while others are developing. This paper hence attempts to examine the challenges to regional integration in Africa with special emphasis on different regional organizations domiciled in the African continent. It shows that lack of fund and standing army in many regions as well as poverty, conflict, war, terrorism, poor policy implementation, military intervention in politics, hegemonic politics, ideological differences and colonial influence were major factors that affect the road to integration. Finally, the paper called for increased home-bred developmental policies as against the neo-imperial ideas, while there is the need to strengthen the political will amongst sovereign states to build sustainable regional integration.

There is an increase in the tide of refugees due mainly to wars and insurgent activities in their home countries. The need for international treaties and agreements such as the United Nations and African Union’s convention on refugees and asylum seekers to ensure their protection in the host countries is vital. As a microcosm of globalized effort in this direction, South Africa has engaged with this problem and provides strong support for the work of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. However, certain factors and events seem to point to the fact that the initial levels of support seem to have nosedived in the South African case as a host nation. This article investigates what needs to be done in advocating and lobbying for necessary actions that needs to take place at national and regional levels of South(ern) Africa so that the South African government may enact new or amend existing legislations and policies that promote and protect the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers in the country. This study uses a content analytical framework gleaned from international and local organisations that recognizes and keeps records on refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa. Through the use of postmodern public administration and compliance based theories, we argue that South Africa though has pledged to maintain compliance with international and constitutional standards for refugee protection, the implementation of its supporting public policies leaves much to be desired.