Might Nigeria be witnessing an International Relations moment in the event of an assemblage around a book on ex-UNIJOS scholar of the discipline? This is the question provoked by activities around the book in question taking place January 26th and 27th, 2022.
Although Nigeria is basically invisible in the theoretical, conceptual and epistemological battleground that the discipline of International Relations has become in the post Cold War, it is nevertheless keenly aware of the knowledge – power nexus at stake in that battleground. And this might offer the only lens by which to appreciate the coming together of many centres of reflection and praxis in the domain to hold a maiden National Conference and unfold a book of essays in honour of an extant big name in the discipline in the country: Prof WO Alli.
The assemblage stretches beyond the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, (NIIA) and the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA) to intellectual signifiers of Nigeria’s capital city university – the University of Abuja; the Nigerian Political Science Association, (NPSA); the state owned National Orientation Agency, (NOA); the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS) and the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) cum former Director General of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC).
Attendees at the conference will specifically be cracking their brains on the feasibility of the developmental state in Nigeria in the context of leadership and democratic governance at the University of Abuja where the on-site version will take place.
No one can rule out the possibility of this being the beginning of the liberation of International Relations from fragmentary neorealism which has defined and dominated the discipline in much of Nigeria’s history at a time the discipline has moved elsewhere.
Prof W O Alli, a Soviet trained political scientist has been teaching International Relations at the University of Jos, with a stint at the NIIA.
