Why Nigeria’s Election Matters to the World

Authors : Dr. Neha Sinha & Shahbaaz Manzoor

Source : BBC

Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. With independence, fireworks lit up the streets, hope and promise filled the air for thousands of  Nigerians who watched their new green and white flag being raised over the capital. Post independence many times, the Nigerians’ hopes have been dismantled as they have endured a bitter civil war, decades of military dictatorship and, in the past eight years there has been a rise in violence, terrorism and social-economic and political failure under President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria's presidential election that was held on Saturday, is considered one of the most consequential in twenty-three years since the last dictatorship ended and democracy took hold. The election is seen by many as a chance to change course. This time the voters are eager to elect a leader who could lead the youth of the country in the right direction, utlilise country’s potential, and pave new direction for the people of Nigeria. More than nine million voters turned out to cast their votes for the presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria - Africa's most populated country. Presently, Nigeria is going through a phase of economic instability, acute cash-crunch and worsening security conditions. The need of the hour is to have a government who would be able to rejuvenate the economy and tackle the deepening security crisis in the country. The outcome of this election will also be detrimental in structuring Nigeria's relations with other countries, keeping in mind the regional dimensions and vulnerabilities that exist in the global arena.. With around eighteen candidates fighting for the President's post, a tight fight is anticipated between Bola Tinuba of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Atika Abubakar of the main opposition People`s Democratic Party, Labour Party`s Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party. It's significant and noteworthy that even in an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, people are coming out to vote in huge numbers - which signifies the desperateness among the citizens of Nigeria, to bring a change in the country.

Further Read at https://www.dailypioneer.com/2023/state-editions/why-nigeria---s-election-matters-to-the-world.html

Dr. Neha Sinha is a Senior Assistant Professor at Amity Institute of International Studies

Shahbaaz Manzoor is a Post Graduate student at Amity Institute of International Studies

VICE ADMIRAL KK NAYYAR FELLOWSHIP CONFERENCE 2023

 Report by Alithia Paul and Ayushi Attri

The “Vice Admiral KK Nayyar Fellowship” was established at the NMF, in May of 2020, by the family of the late Vice Admiral KK Nayyar, PVSM, AVSM, IN (26 December 1929-18 September 2018), who was the founding chairman of the NMF and was a veritable Colossus within the maritime domain This Fellowship promotes and supports intellectual and policy- relevant research on subjects of maritime consequence to India and, in so doing, commemorates the life and achievements of this evangelist of Indian maritime thinking. The inaugural project of the Fellowship has addressed the issue of India’s coastal resilience vis-à-vis its urban agglomerations. The research was carried out by Dr (Ms) Chime Youdon, Associate Fellow, NMF, and Dr Saurabh Thakur (now a consultant at the MEA).

“INDIA’S COASTAL RESILIENCE VIS-À-VIS URBAN AGGLOMERATIONS”

It is an established and well-recognised fact that the world is passing through a climate- crisis of monumental proportions. South Asia in general, and India in particular, is highly vulnerable to an entire range of hydrometeorological hazards that are rapidly rising, both in terms of their intensity and frequency. Irrespective of the precise causal-factors, the effects of this rise in temperature are uniformly deleterious. Indian metropolises on the country’s western coast, for example, which had hitherto been accustomed to relatively calm maritime conditions, have been witnessing a sharp surge in extreme cyclonic activity these past few years. High-intensity cyclones such as Ockhi (2017), Vayu (2019), Nisarga (2020), and Tauktae (2021), have wreaked year-on-year havoc in India’s coastal areas. Given the magnitude of socio-economic and environmental impact, it is painfully obvious that climate-proofing of coastal cities is a task to which policymakers and planners must bend their efforts with alacrity and sharp focus.

As part of its own ongoing contribution to India’s quest for economically and politically viable policy-relevant solutions, the National Maritime Foundation has made the “India’s Coastal Resilience Vis-à-vis Urban Agglomerations” the central theme of its inaugural Vice Admiral KK Nayyar Fellowship Conference (KKNFC-2023). It aims to engage government officials, academia, DRR experts, civil society, and industry, private sector to better understand the different approaches and to identify best practices in the field of coastal urban planning and policy making across the Indian coastal regions.

The conference on "India's Coastal Resilience vis-à-vis Urban Agglomerations" started with the conceptual overarch by Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan, who briefed us about the significance of the conference and contribution of late vice admiral KK Nayyar. This was followed by a short speech by vice admiral KK Nayyar’s daughter Ms. Gita Nayyar. Later a monograph was introduced focusing on problems of coastal areas (specifically Mumbai). The panel consisted of 5 experts who talked extensively about the problems, challenges, causes and probable solutions to the coastal regions. Climate change, sea level rise and pollution was the major part of the discussion. Resilience in ecology was defined as the capacity of ecology to absorb the disturbance unlike the definition of resilience in physics.

Problems due to climate change were called “gray rhino” events because of there slow approaching yet heavily impactful nature. Additional problems of coastal disturbance includes climate refugees, operational loans, security concerns and so on.

Some solutions offered to manage risk included:

1. Pursuing reduction of no regret vulnerabilities- ex: timely cleaning of drains

2. Diversifying risks: ex: fishermen diversifying their source of income

3. Operationality: making sure the infrastructure is suitable or can be changed if needed.

Keeping in mind the natural solutions like maintaining a healthy ecosystem and role of mangroves coupled with policy intervention by the state if and when needed. Furthermore it was pointed out that it is not easy to pinpoint the cause and effects when many things at once are taking place and the consequences are not linear when we talk about systematic risks (in urban coastal areas specifically). The research needs to be multi hazardous and on multi sector within India by Indians.

On the second day, the conference focused on the following main themes:

1. Resilience of India’s Coastal Cities: Its Challenges

2. Resilience of India’s Coastal Cities: Its Current Policies

3. Building Coastal Resilience: The Way Ahead

The keynote address was given by Dr. G A Ramadass who talked about deep ocean mission: announced by Government of India On Sept 2021 by PM Narendra Modi and it spans for 5 years with an allotment of 4780 cr. He further talked about the EEZ of India which is 2 million kilometres.

An exploratory mining in deep seas was signed with UN tag-lined as the need for a Blue economy. He further mentioned about 6 verticals which are:

1. Decade of ocean science for sustainable development: covering the areas of Non living, living and ocean commerce (minerals, energy, fishing, transport and tourism)

2. Development of technologies, Deep sea mining, underwater vehicles and underwater robotics- to design, develop and deploy suitable technologies in the deep blue.

3. Development of suitable technology to combat climate change

4. Marine biodiversity and biotechnology

5. Deep Ocean survey and exploration

6. Energy and freshwater sources

Advanced marine station and ocean biology: Capacity building and hrd

He further discussed about the Samudrayaan Matsya 6000 which is a specialised deep water suspended submarine which will help researchers and scientists tap the resources in the Mariana Trench with ease.

The first session consisted of panelists from civil societies, government and private agencies who discussed enhancing the lives of fishing communities in the fishing sector. These panelists were Mr. Abhinash Mohanty, Ms. Devleena Bhattacharjee, Mr. Vijai Dharmamony and Dr. Deepak Samuel V. The second session also contained panelists from France discussing critical infrastructures required for building a coastline safe for the fishing communities and the ecosystem at large.