The power of influence : human rights organisations and political mobilisation in Nigeria (1990-1999)

This study examines the impact of human rights in the democratisation process in Nigeria between 1990 and 1999. It looks at how human rights organisations influenced domestic politics. It discusses the influence of international human rights networking and the role of local context in mediating the global influence of human rights in Nigeria. It used as a case study, the Civil Liberties Organisation, the first local human rights organisation in Nigeria. Through a combination of theoretical insights from democratisation, globalisation and media construction of politics, the study developed analytical tools used to examine how human rights organisations influenced democratisation in Nigeria. The study also used a combination of methods within the qualitative research approach to collect primary data. The findings from this study indicate that instead of a one-way (north-south) perspective of looking at globalisation of democracy, a two-way context based analysis of organisation's network offers a useful insight into local responses to globalisation. Hence, putting globalisation processes in the context of local responses will provide a better understanding of the dynamics and tensions underlying political and power processes within and across national boundaries.