University of Warwick

Graduate Student, Politics and International Studies

PhD Candidate

Thesis Title: An assessment of the African Peer Review Mechanism: The case of Nigeria.

About

The APRM is tied into an overarching continental development agenda pioneered by the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). It is a self monitoring mechanism voluntarily acceded to by member states of the AU and part of a regional development strategy promoted as an 'African owned' approach to achieving and sustaining good governance in the continent.

There has been limited research into the process and its implementation in Nigeria. Hence, this thesis focuses on the APRM process in Nigeria; it assesses the extent of implementation and attempts to explain how the review process panned out in Africa’s most populous country. This analysis explores the criteria of “African ownership” through the engagement of Nigerian civil society in the review and post-review process of the APRM. The analysis runs along two main levels: a broader neo-Gramscian explanation of the conceptual and international dimension of the APRMs good governance agenda, and a Prebendalist approach (Richard Joseph) for understanding and explaining the Nigerian socio-political context. The research will be conducted on the basis of a combination of primary empirical data from elite interviews with state and non-state actors (mostly civil society) in Nigeria and from the APRM Secretariat in South Africa; and secondary materials from official documents, reports, and publications on the APRM in Nigeria. The aim is to make an assessment of the APRMs stucture and processes in Nigeria, then through empirical and theoretical analysis determine the extent of implementation. Furthermore, this thesis aims to make a contribution to an understanding of the Nigerian socio-political culture through the way it approches and implements the APRM.

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