Jima, Kingsley Celestine
Research Interests:
Politics and International Relations, Diplomacy, Journalism, Political Conflicts, Politics and Policies Integration, Global Studies, Media Representation, Conflict, and Identity Reporting
Geographical Area:
Nigeria and the broader Sahel
Current Project:
Politics of the “Unknown Gunmen”: Media Epistemologies, Ambiguity, and Crisis Reporting in Nigeria
This study aims at unravelling the ‘mystery’ behind the media usage of the phrase ‘unknown gunmen.’ My research fundamentally seeks to address the question of why the vague phrase ‘unknown gunmen’ is predominantly used by Nigeria’s major television houses. There is hardly any prior research on the factual or journalistic (re)presentation by television houses in Nigeria, regarding their use of the nomenclature ‘unknown gunmen’ in addressing the multiple violent attacks in the North-west. My research focuses on the theories of framing and the ideal of objectivity in journalism in relation to the political conspiracy theories that concern the persistent use of the phrase “unknown gunmen” as a generic term used by television houses to describe violent activities in North-west Nigeria. This study would shed light on the complex interrelationship between the phenomena of banditry, media narratives and popular suspicions or conspiracy theories. The idea is to triangulate different kinds of perspectives and information to highlight the ways in which different groups and social categories deal with the complexities of banditry in North-west Nigeria.
Academic Career:
2021-2026: Doctoral Researcher/PhD Candidate- Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, Germany
2019-2021: Joint Master's Degree: Global Studies: A European Perspective: University of Leipzig, Germany; and University of Vienna, Austria
2006-2012: Bachelor of Arts: Politics and International Relations: Concentration: Religious and Political Conflicts- American University of Nigeria (AUN). Course Degree Honors
Publications:
Kingsley Jima and William Hansen (2025): "Bandity, Terrorism and State Failure: The Politics of Religion, Identity and Tradition in Northern Nigeria." Internatinoal Critical Thought.
Kingsley Jima (Forthcoming- Book Chapter) "Gendered Abductions: Women and the Girl Child in Mobility Crimes in Nigeria." Edited Volume- Cartographies of Kidnapping. Mapping crimes against (Im)mobility in the XXI Century.
Kingsley Jima (2021). Northern Nigeria's Protracted Social Deprivation and Violent Extremism: The "Almajiri" Phenomenon and the Recruitment of Dissident Groups in Post-colonial Northern Nigeria. DOI: 10.25365/thesis.70424
Kingsley Jima., Hansen, William W, Nurudeen Abbas, and Basil Abia. "Poverty and 'Economic Deprivation Theory': Street Children, Qur'anic Schools/Almajirai and the Dispossessed as a Source of Recruitment for Boko Haram and the Other Religious, Political and Criminal Groups in Northern Nigeria." Perspectives on Terrorism 10, no. 5 (2016): 83-95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26297656.
Kingsley Jima (Forthcoming- Book Chapter Project): On the Construction of Ambiguity in Journalistic Accounts of Violence in North-Western Nigeria- Politics of the Unknown: Conspiracism and Conflict- University of Bayreuth
Research Assistant: JAAS (Journal of Asian and African Studies) publication Volume 52: April issue 2016 Boko Haram: Religious Radicalism and Insurrection in Northern Nigeria. DOI: 10.1177/0021909615615594 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314550216_Boko_Haram_Religious_Radicalism_and_Insurrection_in_Northern_Nigeria.
Contacts:
Kingsley.Jima@uni-bayreuth.de / kingsley.jima@aun.edu.ng