The Hajj pilgrimage is central to Nigeria–Saudi Arabia relations, extending beyond its religious obligations to encompass diplomacy, governance, and economic dimensions. Despite efforts by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), recurring challenges in pilgrims’ welfare, weak accountability, and governance lapses have undermined Nigeria’s diplomatic credibility. By contrast, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 emphasizes digitization, efficiency, and transparency in Hajj administration, setting a benchmark that Nigeria must adapt to remain credible and strengthen bilateral ties. This study aims to analyze how pilgrims’ welfare and accountability mechanisms influence Nigeria–Saudi relations and to propose a Vision 2030–aligned framework for NAHCON. The specific objectives were to assess the state of welfare and accountability in Nigeria’s Hajj administration, evaluate their impact on bilateral relations, and identify reforms necessary for alignment with Saudi standards. Adopting a mixed-methods design, the study combined survey data from 400 pilgrims with qualitative evidence from documents and media reports. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analyses were employed alongside thematic analysis for explanatory depth. Findings show that welfare services were rated moderately (means ≈3.4–3.5), while accountability mechanisms received weaker ratings (means ≈3.1). Regression results revealed accountability (β = 0.520) had a stronger impact than welfare (β = 0.387) on perceptions of Nigeria–Saudi relations, highlighting governance credibility as central to diplomatic outcomes. The study contributes by providing empirical evidence that links Hajj administration with foreign policy outcomes, advancing a Vision 2030–aligned framework for NAHCON that integrates welfare, transparency, digital transformation, and diplomacy, thereby positioning Hajj as a tool of Nigeria’s soft power and bilateral engagement.

Every field of study has enormous roles to play in the quest for good governance and measures towards curbing social vices in society. Each Nigerian literary writer has to pay attention to the experiences prevalent in and peculiar not only to Nigeria but also Africa at large, exposing corrupt practices, impunity, mayhem, erratic economy, epileptic power supply, human trafficking, upward Western migration and my riad of issues plaguing the continent. If the status quo must change, the utilitarian value of literature to reflect and refract the society should come to play. Literary writer must be a chronicler of events and a theorist of permutations geared towards development. This study sets to examine Chimamanda Adichie’s genius in(ter)vention in socio-political realities in Nigeria as mirrored in Americana. Eclectic literary survey of postcolonial, socio-cultural and political creeds forms the theoretical framework on which this paper is predicated. Social life in Nigeria is in the state of comatose−nothing goes well−everything is at the verge of collapse. It is characterised by unfriendly socio-political and economic atmosphere. The outcome is massive migration of Nigerians in search of better life. Paradoxically however, cross border-politics, ethnocentric prejudice and racial discrimination are issues Nigerians face in the diaspora. It is recommended that Nigerians should stay in Nigeria and offer themselves to the supreme change needed.

Objectification, according to Martha Nussbaum, is the act of treating someone as an instrument or object. And objectification theory offers a significant framework for comprehending, researching, and intervening to enhance the lives of women in a sociocultural environment that sexually objectifies the female physique and links a woman’s value to her physical appearance and sexual abilities. Further, sexual objectification encompasses a broad range of practices and institutions that contribute to the portrayal of women as mere sex objects. This objectification theory explicates the harms and wrongs of sexual objectification, as it explains the association between instrumentalization and the processes of social stereotyping facilitate its functioning. This paper, therefore, investigates how Mira is sexually objectified in Shashi Deshpande’s The Binding Vine, and its devastatingly traumatic impact on the victim’s psyche.