Legon Journal for International Affairs and Diplomacy

Monarchy, Autocracy or Democracy? Rethinking Term Limits Towards Peace, Stability and Development in Central Africa

Afua Boatemaa Yakohene — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 18:30:44 +0000

Central Africa’s governance system is punctuated with human rights abuses, high corruption index, abuse of incumbency power, particularly disrespect for political term limits. Central Africa is marked by civil unrest, disrespect for the rule of law and suppression of civil liberties. This observation could well explain why the area reels under slow economic growth and development despite oil export earnings. Its economic underdevelopment fraught with political inhibitions has been linked to poor governance structures, practices and fragile constitution that are easily amendable. Post-colonial rule in Africa has not provided much hope for the region despite the instutionalisation of Regional Economic Communities to harmonise the various economies in the region. Using secondary data, this paper assesses the historicity of the area that Central Africa occupies to establish whether bequeathed colonial legacies have any bearing on their systems of government and approaches resulting in non-adherence to term limits as established in their individual constitutions and legal frameworks. The paper touches briefly on their various governance systems generally and shows the consequences that come in the wake of a term limit violation and its prospects for national and regional peace, stability and development as a whole.

Themes, ideology, and social media: A critical analysis of US Vice President Pence’s Facebook posts

Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour, Godwin Etse Sikanku — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 18:37:44 +0000

Considering the paucity of literature in vice-presidential research, this exploratory study analyzes the Facebook discourse of former US Vice President Mike Pence. Employing (Fairclough 2013) three-tier Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). We observed five salient themes: Criticism of Democrats, citizen appreciation, spousal support, border discourse, and religious affirmation. We argue it recontextualizes the ideologies of “mediated Trumpism” and conservatism. In addition, we assert that his discourse on Facebook was more presidential than in his time as a Congressperson and Governor. Our findings indicate that his Facebook discourse demonstrates steadfast support for Donald Trump by openly touting his achievement and persona, as his posts were congruent with some of Trump’s discourse in the media, which we attribute to the power relations between a President and his Vice. It also comports to the established functions of the Vice President, which is to support, complement or further enhance the president’s position. This study contributes to the literature in language and politics by extending an established theory to provide insights into a rarely researched political actor.

Under-Reporting of Sexual Abuse Against Men; An Assessment of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Edinam Dzramedo — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 18:42:07 +0000

The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which was signed in 2003. The aim of the Commission was to “provide a forum that will address issues of impunity, as well as the opportunity for both victims and perpetrators of human rights violations to share their experiences in order to get a clear picture of the past to facilitate genuine healing and reconciliation”. Howbeit, the Commission’s definitive frameworks sidelined male victims and thereby, falling short of the effective realization of this aim. This paper submits that the female skewed statement-taking mechanisms adopted by the commission, women agenda’s institutional access to the state and societal constructions of masculinity and femininity can be identified as causes of this problem. It concludes that the work of the Commission cannot be described as successfully efficient if issues of sexual abuse against men were not examined as much as against women.

Beyond "Charity and handouts": A framing analysis of President Nana Akufo-Addo's 2021 Speech to the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly

Louise Donkor — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

This study examined Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo’s speech to the United Nations (UN) from a framing perspective. The study’s key objective was to critically interrogate major frames embedded in the President’s speech and how they were constructed. Communication is central to examining and understanding events on the world stage. This study makes an important contribution to studying contemporary international communication and research. Employing framing analysis as the methodological approach, the study found four dominant frames in the President’s speech: (a) post-dependency and self-sufficiency, (b) inadequate global structure/global inequality, (c) new global cooperation, and (d) problems/challenges. Above all, the President’s speech centered around the imbalance in international cooperation, which he constructed from a socially, culturally, and politically situated context as a leader from the Global South. The analysis fills a major scholarly gap, as speeches from developing or periphery nations such as Ghana at the United Nations, have hardly been the focus of academic research. The present application of framing furthers our understanding of the discursive role of political actors in shaping global reality.

The Role South African Black Males in the Anti-Foreign Africans Riots in South Africa

Samuel A Dseagu — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 18:53:25 +0000

In the post-apartheid era of South Africa there have been intermittent attacks in the townships and slums by young Black South African males on foreign Africans. The official report states that the causes are frustration by the Black South African poor over the slow pace of economic transformation, anger over the huge influx of foreigners into the country that has overwhelmed the social services meant for citizens, and resentment of foreign Africans for taking over the jobs of locals. Using statistical data for analysis, the paper demonstrates that the influx of foreigners into South Africa has remained constant during the apartheid and the post-apartheid eras. Using another set of statistical data, the paper explains that the majority of young Black males in townships and slums are unemployed and unemployable school drop outs while in contrast statistics reveal that the majority of foreign Africans engage in self-employed informal ventures that many South Africans avoid. The paper therefore argues that in actual fact there is marginal competition between locals and foreign Africans on the job market because the majority of Ale concludes that the real reason for the resentment by young Black South Africans of foreign Africans engage in informal activities resented by most locals. The paper concludes that the real reason for the resentment of foreign Africans appears to be that through the informal activities by the foreign Africans the young Black males have been exposed in their communities as lacking entrepreneurship to take advantage of the resources surrounding them.