Africa has an unenviable record of 100 military coups in the past five decades, and that may not be the last count. The military still holds power in Guinea and Mauritania, while their incursion saw the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau in March 2009. Fifteen of the 53 African leaders came to power by the force of arm; 23 have been on the throne for more than 10 years. The undemocratic inheritance left behind by military dictators and authoritarian one-party, sit-tight presidents, remain major sources of armed conflicts and civil wars that have claimed well over 20 million lives. The continent has a deluge of 3 million refugees. Out of the 23.7 million IDPs worldwide, 12.6 million are in Africa. Africa: Conflict Resolution And International Diplomacy, reflects on contending issues in contemporary African politics, examines Africa's crisis flash-points and traces various diplomatic initiatives taken by the international community; the UN, AU, EU, the G8, African regional communities and NGOs to ensure peace and stability. Seen purely from an African perspective, Ifeoha Azikiwe delves into the origin, the immediate and remote causes of these conflicts, as well as their cumulative effects and proffers short and long-term preventive measures. He foresees new conflicts erupting from desperate attempts to promote and institutionalise "democratic monarchy" - a recipe for future conflicts. Looking forward, he concludes by highlighting current initiatives, economic and political strategies that could fast-track the process towards full continental integration and formation of a "United States of Africa." Although a number of issues raised in the book may seem unpalatable, the author believes that the time has come to tell us some basic truth, if only to curb excessive impunity, uncanny democratic practices, external manipulations and neo-colonial tendencies that exacerbate conflicts in Africa.

ONE HUNDRED years past and gone, just like yesterday, and Nigeria is still in transition. Created on the vagaries of British imperialism, Lord Frederick Lugard, on January 1, 1914, unilaterally stitched together, two diametrically opposed Northern and Southern parts of the Niger bend to form an entity he called NIGERIA. Since then, Nigeria has remained changeless but with severe internal contradictions that threaten the shaky foundation on which it was formed. By the amalgamation of 1914, Nigeria marks her centenary in 2014 - a century that reverberates 46 years of colonial domination, which set the agenda for political instability and internal conflicts; 29 wasted years of incessant bloody military coups and dictatorship, and 25 years of incoherent democratic governance. Echoes of a Century discusses fundamental issues in Nigeria's loose federation as well as unresolved national challenges in the past 100 years. It also examines the issue of leadership and its ceaseless manipulation through zoning, federal character, demography, ethnicity and religion that revolve around individuals against national interests; the politics and illusion of oil wealth that has become the nation's albatross; endemic corruption and societal decadence that negate her growth and development, and the clamour for a national conference to renegotiate the country's future. Could Nigeria have done better as two separate entities as it were, before the amalgamation of 1914, or better still, as three separate nations as envisaged in 1957, against the encumbrances of its present structure, where trust is lacking, and confidence progressively eroding among federating units? With visible cracks on its bonds of unity, rising cases of religious bigotry and fundamentalism, ethnic chauvinism and exclusion, it is argued that should Nigeria eventually survive as one united nation, it may not develop beyond the status of a third world country.

ONE HUNDRED years past and gone, just like yesterday, and Nigeria is still in transition. Created on the vagaries of British imperialism, Lord Frederick Lugard, on January 1, 1914, unilaterally stitched together, two diametrically opposed Northern and Southern parts of the Niger bend to form an entity he called NIGERIA. Since then, Nigeria has remained changeless but with severe internal contradictions that threaten the shaky foundation on which it was formed. By the amalgamation of 1914, Nigeria marks her centenary in 2014 - a century that reverberates 46 years of colonial domination, which set the agenda for political instability and internal conflicts; 29 wasted years of incessant bloody military coups and dictatorship, and 25 years of incoherent democratic governance. Echoes of a Century discusses fundamental issues in Nigeria's loose federation as well as unresolved national challenges in the past 100 years. It also examines the issue of leadership and its ceaseless manipulation through zoning, federal character, demography, ethnicity and religion that revolve around individuals against national interests; the politics and illusion of oil wealth that has become the nation's albatross; endemic corruption and societal decadence that negate her growth and development, and the clamour for a national conference to renegotiate the country's future. Could Nigeria have done better as two separate entities as it were, before the amalgamation of 1914, or better still, as three separate nations as envisaged in 1957, against the encumbrances of its present structure, where trust is lacking, and confidence progressively eroding among federating units? With visible cracks on its bonds of unity, rising cases of religious bigotry and fundamentalism, ethnic chauvinism and exclusion, it is argued that should Nigeria eventually survive as one united nation, it may not develop beyond the status of a third world country.

Africa has an unenviable record of 100 military coups in the past five decades, and that may not be the last count. The military still holds power in Guinea and Mauritania, while their incursion saw the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau in March 2009. Fifteen of the 53 African leaders came to power by the force of arm; 23 have been on the throne for more than 10 years. The undemocratic inheritance left behind by military dictators and authoritarian one-party, sit-tight presidents, remain major sources of armed conflicts and civil wars that have claimed well over 20 million lives. The continent has a deluge of 3 million refugees. Out of the 23.7 million IDPs worldwide, 12.6 million are in Africa. Africa: Conflict Resolution And International Diplomacy, reflects on contending issues in contemporary African politics, examines Africa's crisis flash-points and traces various diplomatic initiatives taken by the international community; the UN, AU, EU, the G8, African regional communities and NGOs to ensure peace and stability. Seen purely from an African perspective, Ifeoha Azikiwe delves into the origin, the immediate and remote causes of these conflicts, as well as their cumulative effects and proffers short and long-term preventive measures. He foresees new conflicts erupting from desperate attempts to promote and institutionalise "democratic monarchy" - a recipe for future conflicts. Looking forward, he concludes by highlighting current initiatives, economic and political strategies that could fast-track the process towards full continental integration and formation of a "United States of Africa." Although a number of issues raised in the book may seem unpalatable, the author believes that the time has come to tell us some basic truth, if only to curb excessive impunity, uncanny democratic practices, external manipulations and neo-colonial tendencies that exacerbate conflicts in Africa.