Ihonvbere, Julius O.
(Julius Omozuanvbo Ihonvbere)

PERSONAL:

Born in Nigeria. Education: University of Ife, Nigeria, B.A.; Carleton University, M.A.; University of Toronto, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Praeger/Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. 88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881.

CAREER:

University of Ife, Ife, Nigeria, former assistant lecturer in international relations; University ofPort Harcourt, former lecturer in political science; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, former visiting professor of political science; Houston-Tillotson College, Austin, TX, associate professor of political science, 1993; University of Texas, Austin, former professor of government; Ford Foundation, Washington, DC, currently program officer in governance and civil society. Special advisor to the Nigerian president on program and policy monitoring.

AWARDS, HONORS:

First Mario Zamora Memorial Award, Association of Third World Studies.

WRITINGS:

The Oil Industry in Nigeria: An Annotated Bibliography,Center for Developing Area Studies (Montréal, Quebec, Canada), 1983.

The 1983 Elections and the Buhari Coup in Nigeria: Contradictions in a (Semi-)Peripheral Political Economy, Center for African Studies, Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1985.

(With Toyin Falola) The Rise and Fall of Nigeria's Second Republic, 1979-1984, Zed Books (Totowa, NJ), 1985.

(With Timothy M. Shaw) Towards a Political Economy of Nigeria: Petroleum and Politics at the (Semi-)Periphery, Avebury Books (Brookfield, VT), 1988.

(Editor, with Toyin Falola) Nigeria and the International Capitalist System, L. Rienner Publishers (Boulder, CO), 1988.

(Editor) Claude Ake, The Political Economy of Crisis and Underdevelopment in Africa: Selected Works of Claude Ake, JAD Publishers (Lagos, Nigeria), 1989.

Nigeria: The Politics of Adjustment and Democracy,Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 1994.

Economic Crisis, Civil Society, and Democratization: The Case of Zambia, African World Press (Trenton, NJ), 1996.

(Editor, with John Mukum Mbaku) Multiparty Democracy and Political Change: Constraints to Democratization in Africa, Ashgate (Brookfield, VT), 1998.

Labor, State, and Capital in Nigeria's Oil Industry, E. Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 1998.

(With Timothy M. Shaw) Illusions of Power: Nigeria in Transition, Africa World Press (Trenton, NY), 1998.

(With Pita Ogaba Agbese) Structural Adjustment and the Nigerian State, Howard University Press (Washington, DC), 1999.

Africa and the New World Order, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with John Mukum Mbaku) The Transition to Democratic Governance in Africa: The Continuing Struggle, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2003.

(Editor, with John Mukum Mbaku) Political Liberalization and Democratization in Africa: Lessons from Country Experiences, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Educator and political scientist Julius O. Ihonvbere is an expert in the economics and politics of a number of African nations, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, as well as his native Nigeria. Educated at the University of Ife in Nigeria, Ihonvbere has lectured in political science and international relations at a number of universities, both in Nigeria and in North America. He then went on to work at the Ford Foundation, serving as a program officer in Governance and Civil Society, and to serve as Special Advisor to the Nigerian President on Program and Policy Monitoring. Ihonvbere has written extensively on the state of politics, economics, and democracy in Africa, and on the ways in which Africa fits into the global arena. In his Economic Crisis, Civil Society, and Democratization: The Case of Zambia, Ihonvbere addresses the change in the political structure of that nation following the successful 1990 multiparty elections. John A. Wiseman commented in the Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics that "the author's use of extensive quotes from newspapers and from informants is valuable in capturing the confrontational rhetoric and heightened language with which Zambian politics is conducted. However, in some instances the author might have made more attempt to distinguish between wild political accusation and reality." Multinational Monitor critic Robert Weissman remarked that the book "draws important lessons about the democratization process from the case of Zambia."

Africa and the New World Order provides an overview of the way the continent fits in with the global economy, and how its history and political turbulence has contributed to its isolation. Kisangani F. Emizet, writing in Africa Today, claimed that "the first chapter is refreshing in the clarity of issues it discusses, and the author deserves credit for casting his net wide enough to include several major factors that not only explain African predicaments but also structure the remaining six chapters of the book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Africa, spring, 2002, Tom Young, review of Africa and the New World Order, p. 337.

Africa Today, summer, 2001, Kisangani F. Emizet, review of Africa and the New World Order,p. 164.

American Political Science Review, September, 1995, Otwin Marenin, review of Nigeria: The Politics of Adjustment and Democracy, p. 781.

Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics,March, 1997, John A. Wiseman, review ofEconomic Crisis, Civil Society, and Democratization: The Case of Zambia, p. 118.

Multinational Monitor, January-February, 1997, Robert Weissman, review of Economic Crisis, Civil Society, and Democratization, p. 35.

ONLINE

Africa Database,http://people.africadatabase.org/ (July 12, 2006), profile of Ihonvbere.