LWATI - A Journal of Contemporary Research
VOLUME 6 (1) JUNE 2009
Editorial
This year marks another milestone for LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research as it
turns biennial. The Journal is growing tremendously and we thank scholars and intellectuals
who have thus far harnessed LWATI to express their research findings.
“Knowledge is Power,” “The Pen is mightier than the Sword” and “The Mind is a terrible
thing to waste” are slogans we are conversant with. In this age of rapid globalization, there
is no room for ignorance, ineptitude or Mediocrity. Through LWATI and related journals,
scholars-especially African Scholars are voicing their views on salient contemporary issues
that tend to accelerate development at various levels in our communities. Some of these
essays are veritable prescriptions for African and world governments to implement so as to
foster greater socio-economic and political uplift in their constituencies. Governments are
thus advised to listen and act accordingly!
Please feel free to forward your suggestions and recommendations about this Journal
to LWATIJO@YAHOO.COM. We welcome positive ideas that would make the LWATI
Journal better for readers, essayists and subscribers or patrons.
Francis Ibe MOGU,
Editor.
ABSTRACTS
Education
Entrepreneurship Education and Community
Outreach at the University of Botswana
Lily Mafela University of Botswana
This article is based on a study to assess and evaluate the benefits of the University of
Botswana Business Clinic to students, and the outcome of its community outreach to
the prospective and new enterprise owners. The business education programme at the
University of Botswana incorporates a business clinic, through which students undertake a
range of activities, where they are able to acquire skills while providing support to aspiring
and new enterprise owners. As in other business education programmes elsewhere, the
programme infuses entrepreneurship through incorporation of experiential learning and
carefully arranged student placement in industries and workplaces, where students are
able to put business theory into practice, alongside regular classroom activities. These
placements also enhance the relevance of the business education to the particular socioeconomic
context. In this way, entrepreneurship education forms a critical component
of entrepreneurship development. It signals a move away from the traditional business
education programmes, and incorporates a variety of learning activities and experiences,
which reflect the spirit and principle of entrepreneurship (Solomon, Duffy et al 2002;
Wilson et al 2003).
Child Abuse and Emotional Stability among Senior
Secondary School Students in Cross River State,
Nigeria
A. J. Isangedighi U. E. Ajake and N.N Bisong, University of Calabar, Nigeria.
Abstract
Survey data collected from 2,000 Senior Secondary Two (SS II) Students in Cross River
State, Nigeria were analysed to determine the influence of child abuse on later emotional
stability of the individual. Four dimensions of child abuse namely: physical abuse, sexual
abuse, emotional abuse and child neglect were considered in the study. One Way Analysis
of Variance was used in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 Alpha levels. The result obtained
showed a significant influence of child abuse on the individual later emotional stability.
The Current Status of Teachers and the
Teaching Profession in Tanzania
William A.L. Anangisye University of Dar Es Salaam
.
Abstract
This paper examines the current status of teachers and the teaching sector in Tanzania.
It draws on experiences of teachers, parents, and students in Dar es Salaam, Iringa and
Mbeya regions. Informed by the qualitative inquiry, the paper is largely empirical in
character. Data was sought through interviews and document search. Findings indicate that,
first, teachers and the teaching profession have low status today than during the colonial
days and up to a few years after independence. Secondly, the generality of teaching view,
second choosers view, and undesirable working and living conditions accounted for the
low status of teachers and the teaching profession. In conclusion, the status of teachers and
the teaching profession is measured in terms of economic gains which have implications
for social gains. Hence, the revival of the lost glory lies in the hands of the Government of
Tanzania and, partners or stakeholders in the teaching sector.
Multilingualism and Teacher Preparation for the
Universal Basic Education among Ethnic Minorities
in Nigeria
Mathew Nsing Ogar and Mercy Imoh Ugot, Cross River University of Technology,
Nigeria.
Abstract
The Universal Basic Education (UBE) programmeme was launched by the Federal
Government of Nigeria to ensure that each child of school going age compulsorily and
freely attends school continuously for 9 years. Specifically, it is aimed at inculcating
literacy, numeracy and life skills for entrepreneurship and national development. Also
language teaching and learning is one of the core components for achieving the UBE
goals. Although the National Policy on Education stipulates the learning of at least three
languages on completion of Junior Secondary School by each learner, the Nigerian
linguistic environment which is evidently multilingual poses some challenges and setbacks
for language teaching and learning among ethnic minorities. The absence of adequate
orthographies, materials and personnel in the languages and a general apathy in studying
the indigenous languages were identified as impediments for realising the objectives of
the UBE programmeme. A paradigm for language development and teacher preparation
was presented. It was concluded that a systematic approach which ensures the interactive
rather than the linear relationships of the steps provided should be adopted to achieve the
language objectives.
Investigating the Variables Influencing
Post-Retirement Satisfaction of Teachers
Osaerenren, Ngozi, Ilogu, G.C. and Addison, Kofi, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
The general purpose of this study was to find out the factors that contributed to or accounted
for post-retirement satisfaction among Ghanaian teachers; and whether female teacher
retirees and male teacher retirees differ in their post-retirement satisfaction with all those
factors that account for post-retirement satisfaction. After reviewing, the literature eight
main research questions were formulated to guide the study. Simple random sampling
procedure was used to select 230 respondents for the study. The instrument for the study
was the questionnaire. Data were analysed using correlations, cross-tabulations and chisquare
test of independence. The major finding from the study showed that retirees in
general are quite satisfied with all the indicators of post-retirement satisfaction. However,
apart from their accommodation status female teacher retirees and male teacher retirees
differ in their satisfaction with all the measures of satisfaction in retirement.
Quality Learning For Adults; What Makes It
Desirable? Perceptions and Views of UNISWA
Students.
Gertrude Nyakutse, University of Swaziland; and Phoebe Kashora Zimbabwe Women’s
University
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate why adults who had at one time attended a formal school
and left, decide to go back to engage in formal education. Our second thrust was what they
felt about the courses offered and how these impacted on their felt needs as well as what
hurdles and obstacles stood on their way in this quest. We used a descriptive survey in
which a questionnaire was administered to students enrolled in the Certificate and Diploma
courses in the University of Swaziland’s Department of Adult Education. Just over 50%
of the respondents had been out of the formal system for over 10 years, while 48% gave
no reasons why they had left school in the first place. Reasons for delaying going back to
school ranged from not having made up one’s mind to fear of failure in the event of one
making an attempt. Reasons for going back to school were given as; to be better informed,
get a degree and a better paying job and to join the elite group as well as dissatisfaction
with their current statuses and hence the need for change and improvement in their lives.
They perceived adult education as an escape from a life that they were dissatisfied with
and a gateway to an improved life characterised by better pay. 99% were happy with both
the courses offered as they were immediately applicable and impacted positively on their
job performances and the instructional methods used by their lectures, citing the fact that
contact hours were characterised by lots of discussions and participation by students
Students Perception of Entrepreneurship
as a Self-Reliance Strategy for Technical
and Vocational Education Products
Jane Itohan OviaweAmbrose Alli University, Nigeria; and Ehkovbiye, Osayame Ekhovbiye
School of Vocational and Technical Education, College of Education, Igueben,
Nigeria.
Abstract
This study examined students’ perception of entrepreneurship as a self-reliance strategy for
Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) products. The study sample consisted of 960
graduating TVE students from 12 Universities in Southern Nigeria. The findings revealed
that creating awareness, stimulating interest and participation in entrepreneurship by TVE
students/graduates is a sure way to reducing the ever increasing unemployment of school
graduates through self-employment and enhancement.
Investigating Teachers’ Personal Visions and Beliefs:
Implications for Quality in Language Teacher
Education
Adeosun A. O. and Maduekwe A. N. University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
Visions and beliefs are assumed to always shape his/her perception, attitude, focus and
performance. The growing influence of constructivism in teacher education and the
increase in the amount of research into teacher cognition has put the notion of beliefs
and vision into central focus such that it is fast becoming a dominant paradigm in ESL
(Brunner 1996). Teachers should be aware of their vision and belief systems, reflect on
them and determine the extent to which their actions are in keeping with existing beliefs
about language learning and teaching. This study therefore attempts to establish the
extent to which the beliefs of in-service teachers of English Language influence their
training input, pedagogical decisions and quality of teaching practice. The study made
use of an initial Likert-Scale questionnaire containing teachers’ belief statements about
self, language, teaching and learning processes, their students and their professional
training. With stratified randomized sampling technique, a survey was conducted on
three hundred respondents selected from different levels of English Education Sandwich
Students. Interview schedule as well as classroom observation were also employed to poll
the respondents’ beliefs and visions and how these might be currently reflected in their
academic work, readings and impact on their performances and quality of teaching output.
Data gathered were analyzed using different but intersecting statistical methods. Results
showed that some existing beliefs change in the course of training and practice while some
beliefs do not change but are strengthened.
Investigating Teachers’ Personal Visions and Beliefs:
Implications for Quality in Language Teacher
Education
Adeosun A. O. and Maduekwe A. N. University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
Visions and beliefs are assumed to always shape his/her perception, attitude, focus and
performance. The growing influence of constructivism in teacher education and the
increase in the amount of research into teacher cognition has put the notion of beliefs
and vision into central focus such that it is fast becoming a dominant paradigm in ESL
(Brunner 1996). Teachers should be aware of their vision and belief systems, reflect on
them and determine the extent to which their actions are in keeping with existing beliefs
about language learning and teaching. This study therefore attempts to establish the
extent to which the beliefs of in-service teachers of English Language influence their
training input, pedagogical decisions and quality of teaching practice. The study made
use of an initial Likert-Scale questionnaire containing teachers’ belief statements about
self, language, teaching and learning processes, their students and their professional
training. With stratified randomized sampling technique, a survey was conducted on
three hundred respondents selected from different levels of English Education Sandwich
Students. Interview schedule as well as classroom observation were also employed to poll
the respondents’ beliefs and visions and how these might be currently reflected in their
academic work, readings and impact on their performances and quality of teaching output.
Data gathered were analyzed using different but intersecting statistical methods. Results
showed that some existing beliefs change in the course of training and practice while some
beliefs do not change but are strengthened.
Winning their Minds: The United States Information
Service and the Development of Nigeria – American
Relations, 1958-1988
Michael M. Ogbeidi, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Abstract
Before 1960, it was difficult for the United States Government to officially implement the
contents of its cultural diplomacy programme in Nigeria. This was because of the quite
display of anti-American posture of the colonial government in Nigeria. However, the tide
of events began to change after 1960 when Nigeria achieved political independence from
Great Britain. This paper highlights and discusses the role of the defunct United States
Information Service (U.S.I.S.) to the development of Nigeria-US cultural relations from
1958 through 1988.
Language Study
Language and Socio-Cultural Values:
An Analysis of Ibibio Proverbs
Bassey A. Okon, and Stella A. Ansa University of Calabar
Abstract
Language is an important tool in the human society. Apart from the fact that it makes
communication and integration possible, it is an important aspect of the socio-cultural life
of a people. To this extent, language is closely knit with culture as it embodies the society’s
value system and patterned way of life. This paper explores proverb as an embodiment of
the socio-cultural values of the Ibibio people. This is done through the analysiGs of some
Ibibio proverbs which reflect the ethical values and philosophy of the people.
Applicative Constructions in Setswana in
LMT Theory
Setumile Morapedi, University of Botswana
Abstract:
Previous studies carried out on Setswana verbal affixes have confined their investigations
to these morphemes as elements of morphology but have failed to observe that these
affixes overlap into syntax. Yet current debates on the treatment of such Bantu languages
morphemes are focused on the nature of the relation between syntax and morphology.
(Sesotho: Machobane 1989); Chichewa: (Baker 1988), Alsina and Mchombo (1993);
Chishona: Harford (1993); Kinyarwanda: Kimenyi (1990); Kiswahili: (Bresnan and Moshi
1993:47). Further, the studies do not give any theoretical insight in the analysis of the
verbal extension in relation to argument structure Setswana. Therefore, certain features
that Setswana shares with other Bantu language are prejudiced. This paper approaches the
analysis of applicative verbal extension –el from a morpho-syntactic view point and shows
that the applicative verbal extension -el is capable of bringing into effect morphological
and syntactic marking to the sentence. In particular, this paper examines the applicative
constructions and argues that the suffixation of the verbal suffix –el suggests an entity
carrying out the action and somebody benefiting. This information is encoded in the
constituent structure. The analyses of data in this paper will be based on Lexical Mapping
theory (Bresnan and Kanerva (1989).
‘Urban Vernaculars’ in Search of Native Speakers:
The Case of ciTumbuka Newscasters on the National Radio in
Malawi.
Themba Moyo,University of Zululand,
Abstract
This article is primarily concerned with ciTumbuka as one of Malawi’s official languages,
also the predominant language in northern Malawi. It argues that while a language of wider
communication has continued to form the basis of most contemporary language policies
in post-colonial Africa, ciTumbuka like other languages in Anglophone African states,
is a product of colonial linguistics. The chosen or designated languages or their dialects
were designed to suit colonial masters’ grand designs of evangelisation and colonilisation.
It becomes misleading to conceptualise, primodialise and present indigenous languages
as if they were indeed authentic products of precolonial Africa. This study questions the
continued inadvertent entrenchment of these past legacies into post-colonial Africa, which
has resulted in much confusion, with the emergence of ‘urban vernaculars.’ Listeners
on radio Malawi have seriously questioned the authentication of speech forms of the
ciTumbuka aired in the news broadcasters and continue to raise the social legitimacy of the
so-called indigenous ciTumbuka. Finally, the need for the standardisation of ciTumbuka
along with the other official indigenous languages in the country is raised for use in early
education as well as for the general public usage.
Key words: urban vernaculars, mixed codes, discourse elements, lingua franca
What Kind of Literature for Ethical Education in
Africa?
Enongene Mirabeau Sone, University of Swaziland
Abstract
I attempt in this paper to answer the question “What kind of literature is needed for
ethical education in Africa, especially in this era of globalization?” I proceed to examine
three identifiable kinds of literature in Africa: Oral literature in local African and modern
European languages, written literature in local African languages and written literature
in European languages—to determine what role each is playing in our contemporary
educational system. I then advance the view that, in spite of the progressive transition of
Africa from the predominance of Oral literature in local languages to written literature
in European languages, and in spite of the undue influence of European languages in
the education of many Africans, Oral literature in African languages remains the most
appropriate language of education for Africans. This is especially true at the lower primary
level where the very foundation of ethics and all education is laid. Indeed, it is this aspect
which calls for the efforts of each and every African country in the development of oral
literature for these major reasons. In the first place, oral literature is an important component
of African cultural heritage. Besides being the most vigorous and effective medium of
reflecting contemporary ethical and cultural diffusion prevalent in Africa, oral literature
provides a greater opportunity for the development of literary talent than does written
literature in modern European Languages. I will use folktales and proverbs selected from
different parts of Africa to unde
Race and Gender in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea
Bathie Samb, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, de Dakar - Senegal
Abstract
This article explores the social demarcations between English and Creole cultural
identities foregrounding race and gender in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Set in a post
Emancipation West Indian colony, the novel dramatizes the impossibility of mutual and
creative exchanges between the fragments of a disintegrating world. When the novel
begins, the English hegemony is already structured and symbolically cast in the Caribbean
islands in terms of patriarchal family. We aim to demonstrate that the characters’ minds are
shaped in conformity with the theory of racial essentialism and nativism which suggests
the existence of a myth of an identifiable and homogeneous natural character. Such an
approach sets a white-black binary of race relations and assigns roles of masters and
subaltern to the two social groups. It accounts for the fact that Whites and Blacks refer
each to the racial others using stereotypical and over generalizing discourses. This study
contradicts also the idea according to which Whites make up one homogeneous racial
group. In fact, those who were born in Britain maintain their Englishness pure and whole
throughout the narration. Their place of birth confers on them superiority over the other
Whites whose birth in the West Indies instantly renders Creole.
This paper analyses as well the gender issue within the framework of the patriarchal
order imposed by the imperialist’s ideology foregrounding the lives of two female
characters: the white Creole protagonist and a woman of color. Throughout her life, the
former constantly strives to replicate the dominant ideals, values, and conceptual structures.
As for the latter, she appears as a self-determining agent, a defiant subaltern who opposes
a strong resistance to the oppressors’ ideology. Her resistance appears in many different
forms.
Things Fall Apart Across Cultures: The Universal
Significance of Chinua Achebe’s 1958 Reconstruction
of the African Heritage
Francis Ibe Mogu, University of Swaziland
Abstract:
Chinua Achebe wrote his classic novel, Things Fall Apart in response to the stark negative
portrayal of Africa and Africans by European Colonizers. This idea appears to have been
conceived during his undergraduate days at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Joyce
Cary’s Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness appear to have negatively
impacted and prompted Achebe to respond to the biased European colonial portrayal of
Africa and Africans. That initial written response was Things Fall Apart!
The characters, societies and views expressed in the novel essentially are universal
to humankind. There may be variations here and there in different social settings, but the
novel portrays people in a communal environment grappling with survival on a daily basis
on planet earth. The European colonizers painted a negative, one dimensional picture of
Africa and Achebe felt challenged to set the records straight. In doing this, he revealed
both the beautiful and ugly in the African ethos. This essay celebrates Things Fall Apart as
a beacon of light at the end of the tunnel of colonialism. Achebe’s text reaffirms African
people’s pride in their cultural heritage in the backdrop of attempts to dehumanize and
portray them as savages by Europeans.
Gender Consciousness, Feminine Revolt and the
Nigerian Home Video Film: Case of
Scars of Womanhood
Uwemedimo Atakpo University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Abstract
Gender consciousness and feminine revolt as exemplified in the Nigerian Home video
film are results. of the female struggle for the rights of women. .The issue of women rights
has become a world phenomenon as women of almost all the civilized world have stood
up and with one voice have rejected male domination and have also rejected some forms
of traditions that are inimical to their well being. .The Nigerian Home video relies on the
cultural norms and values of the Nigerian societies.. The video film Scars of Womanhood
shows that the traditions are set to negate the rights of women and must, be abandoned
especially where they touch on women health and well being. The video film dwells on
women circumcision or female genital mutilation. The film shows that tradition is set by
men to control the sexual urge of women the obnoxious set of values in a world dominated
by men even where and when such dominance is detrimental to women. The video film
makers support women in denouncing this practice. This paper clearly takes sides with
the resolve of the women to reject male chauvinism and traditions that are negative to the
welfare of the women folk.
Boundaries: Reading Caryl Phillips’s
Crossing the River as a Dialogic Text
Ayo Kehinde, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Abstract
Although Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River has received considerable critical attention,
the focus has been mostly on the issue of diasporic/exilic consciousness in the novel.
However, its dialogic strain, the constant, endless intentional and value-laden dialogue into
which it enters has not been adequately recognized. This critical gap forms the focus of this
essay, whose central thesis is that a close reading of Crossing the River will demonstrate the
untapped potential of Bakhtin’s dialogic theory for interpreting the spirit and the structure
of this novel which coalesces genres, geographical spaces, historical events, languages,
cultures, philosophies and beliefs to produce a ‘communal’, many-voiced text that crosses
a number of borders and transgresses multiple boundaries. This is in line with Stuart Hall’s
argument that fictional recreations of history and identity in postcolonial literature often
rely on appropriate narrative techniques that can capture and foreground the complexity
and enormity of the peoples’ experiences. In Hall’s words: “The past is always constructed
through memory, fantasy, narrative, and myth” (1996:13). This paper, therefore, examines
the strategies employed by Phillips to negotiate the narration of the phenomenon of slavery
in his novel, Crossing the River.
Dramatic Theories and Criticism:
Impetus for Creative Intellection
Edde E M. Iji, University of Calabar, Nigeria
Introduction
The coalescence of overriding, dominant ideas often begets theories. Theories are
recurrence of perspective shifts or adjustments of ideational, ideological or conventional
developments. These, in turns, shape reverberative critical thoughts, treatises and
discourses. The relationship between theories and criticism, in this regard, is analogical
to that between the existential imperative of the chicken and the egg, as to which comes
first. This timeless and placeless controversy appears to underline their irreducible
interdependence. In this regard, a theory, according to the new Webster’s Dictionary of the
English Language, (1995: 1025), is ’an organized body of facts relating to it ... sometimes
entirely a result of exercising the speculative imagination.” Thus a theory is a body of
knowledge ascribable to scientific or artistic or other disciplines. It can be derivable from
a study and speculation peculiar to such disciplines. In other words, it is a general body of
assumptions and principles guiding perceptions of reality to which it may give appropriate
forms, structures, codifications, as a reliable guide to consistent practices, or paradigm
shift
Double Consciousness in Negro Spirituals.
Barine Saana Ngaage, Niger Delta University, Nigeria.
Abstract
Negro spirituals have travelled round the world from their traditional home in America.
Some Negro Spirituals express consciousness about the world, problems, inhumanity and
the resilience of Negroes as well as the awareness of a better world. Materialism pales
in the face of spirituality in the pilgrimage of Negroes from earth to heaven. Indeed,
few songs express triple consciousness – references are made to towns in America, Israel
and Heaven. This essay investigates the double reference in the songs that give them
complexity and their different layers of meaning, establishing that these transform their
commonality to classicality.
Politics and Development
Functional Democracy in Nigeria: A Philosophical
Evaluation of Democratic Ethics
Matthew A. Izibili, Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper centres on a philosophical evaluation of democratic ethics vis- a- vis its
functionality in Nigeria. It outlines the qualities of a genuine democracy having adequately
conceptualises the term and its associated problems in the Nigerian context. The paper
concludes with suggestions that would improve the democratic system against the
background that the operators would have a change of heart in the practice of democracy.
It is the position of the paper that it is not the system that is fundamentally faulty but
the operators. Democracy will be functional in Nigeria if and only if the operators are
determined to make it so.
Impeachment Imbroglio and “The Impeachment of
Reason” in Nigerian Politics, 1999-2007
Simon P. I. Agi, University of Calabar , Nigeria.
Abstract
The paper is a philosophical and comparative analysis of the impeachment saga in Nigeria
in the last quarter of 2005 and most of 2006. Since Nigeria borrowed the constitutional
system she purports to practise from the U.S.A, the U.S. experience is brought to bear. The
paper argues that in the U.S.A. impeachment is straight forward enough; it is a matter strictly
within the purview of the legislature. In Nigeria, all manner of people and institutions,
from the presidency to local godfathers were allowed to get involved in the impeachment
process and praxis. The end result was the subversion of the constitution on a grand scale.
The paper queries the motives and mental state of those who, directly or indirectly, took
part in the impeachment exercise. While not holding brief as to the innocence or otherwise
of those governors impeached, it is argued that impeachment of public officials must be
carried out in accordance with the strict stipulations of the constitution; and due process
backed by purity of motive must be the guiding principle. Only then can impeachment, if
it becomes necessary, contribute to the advancement of the cause of law and democracy
in Nigeria.
Trade Liberalization and the Collapse of the
Nigerian Textile Industry
Ndukaeze Nwabueze, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Abstract
This study examines the circumstances leading to the imminent collapse of the Nigerian
textile industry. With a decline from124 to 45 firms between 1994 and 2005, a decrease in
employment by 87% from 150,000 to about 20,000 in that period, and the few surviving
firms operating at less than 40% installed capacity; total collapse of the industry is imminent.
This state of affairs is attributed to the pressure to liberalize international trade by bilateral
and multi-lateral interests and the uneconomic infrastructure status of the domestic
economy. To explore the effect of this condition, a checklist was completed by the workers’
and employers’ unions in the industry. Also executives, former employees and employees of
shut and surviving firms were interviewed. The results were triangulated with facts derived
from content analysis of relevant secondary documents. From this Nigerian experience, it
is deduced that contrary to the belief widely held by some scholars in advanced capitalist
economies that neo-liberal globalization has brought prosperity to rich and poor countries
alike; neo-liberal globalization does not bring prosperity to all of mankind. Instead, some
of its concomitants portend misery and despair from de-industrialization to marginal
players in global capitalism. Drawing empirical justification from the late 2008 global
financial crisis and the advanced countries’ bail-out plans, cautious domestic economic
protectionism, continued government regulation and monitoring of private capitalist
operators as well as revamping domestic industrial infrastructure are advocated to save the
textile industry in Nigeria from eventually going under.
Actualization of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020
Through Entrepreneurial Development Culture
Omoankhanlen, Joseph Akhigbe and B.S.O. Ighalo , Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria
Abstract
A worldwide consensus on the critical role of competitive markets and entrepreneurs
in economic development has emerged in the last decade. In developing countries, the
primary barriers to economic growth is often not so much a scarcity of capital, labour or
land, as it is a scarcity of both the dynamic entrepreneurs that bring these together and the
markets and mechanisms that can facilitate them in this task. The purpose of this paper is
to describe the essential features of an entrepreneurial development culture in Nigeria, as
it relates to vision 20:2020 and provides a sense of direction for Nigerian vision 20:2020
planners, makers of policies and government – for them to quickly realize and capitalize
on entrepreneurial development culture, since it is a tool for any economy development
– thus, it implies that entrepreneurial development culture is indispensable if Nigeria
must actualize vision 20:2020. Conclusively, the attainment of the Nigeria’s vision 20 –
2020 and other development milieu such as Seven – Point Agenda, National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and Millennium Development Goals
(MDGS) etc can hardly be achieved without a very strong backing of entrepreneurial
development culture. We therefore argue that entrepreneurial development culture that is
based on “indigenous entrepreneur” should stand as the basis for our development as a
nation.
Managerial Effectiveness: Impact of Emotional
Intelligence and Work-Family Role Conflict in
Work Organizations in Nigeria.
Akintayo, D. I. Olabisi Onabanjo Unversity, Nigeria
Abstract
This study investigated the impact of emotional intelligence and work-family role conflict
on managerial effectiveness of managers in work organizations in Nigeria. The descriptive
survey research method was adopted for the study. Instruments used for data collection
in this study are: Emotional Intelligence Scale, Work-Family Role Conflict Scale and
Managerial Effectiveness Scale. Linear Regression Analysis was used to test hypotheses
that were generated for the study at 0.05 alpha levels. Finding reveals that there was a
significant combined contribution of emotional intelligence and work-family role conflict
to managerial effectiveness. Also, it was found that emotional intelligence significantly
predicts managerial effectiveness of the managers. Also, the finding shows that there is no
significant contribution of work-family role conflict to managerial effectiveness. Besides,
the finding indicates that the role conflict experienced by the managers resulting from
work-family role interface has deleterious effects on their performance effectiveness.
Based on the findings of the study, the emotional intelligence of the managers needs to
be considered in the selection and placement process for managerial effectiveness to be
guaranteed. The managers with high emotional intelligence should be posted to highly
challenging managerial positions while the low emotional intelligence should be posted to
less challenging managerial positions for their leadership effectiveness to result in goals
achievement.
Public Relations Role and Impact in Managing
Environmental Related Crisis in the Niger Delta
Idorenyin Akpan, University of Uyo, Nigeria; and Presly Obukoadata Delta State
Polytechnic, Nigeria
Abstract
That the Niger Delta crisis in Nigeria has assumed a dimension fit to be described as a
global affair is not in dispute. What is however disputable is why it has taken so long for
the crises to be resolved, especially when obvious pointers to the imbroglio have glaringly
posted some strands of frosty relationships. Undoubtedly, the custodians of harmonized
relationships are the public relations practitioners. This, more than any other reason raises
questions of the role and impact public relations stands to contribute resolving and managing
the Niger Delta Crisis. Consequently, this paper appraises the Niger Delta situation and
highlights the roles and prospective impact of applying public relations strategies/models
in managing the environmental and resource control centreed crises in the Region.
The Crisis of Technological
Underdevelopment in Africa
Sunday E.N. Ebaye, Cross River University Of Technology Calabar,Nigeria
Abstract
Most countries in Africa lack even the ability to feed their own populations and rather than
gain grounds, are rapidly falling behind other third world states. This research attempts an
analysis of factors that impede Africa’s development bid. Corrupt governments, often kept
in power by foreign donors, repressive states concerned with preserving their own power,
and governments with no political will to change existing harmful political and economic
structures, foreign ideologically motivated aid programmes, unfair trading practices,
are cited among factors responsible for this underdevelopment. The odds are seemingly
overwhelming against any sort of economic development for most of the African states.
Based essentially on exports of raw materials and mass imports of manufactured goods,
African economies are characterize by dependence, a low growth rate of gross domestic
product, a huge trade deficit and a heavy foreign debt. In spite of these, the search for
developmental models must vary. Though, there are common problems, but they interact
in different ways in different places and some are more pronounced and intractable than
others. The paper concludes that rather than seeking general strategies for the resolution
of such problems, developmental efforts should be made towards analyzing individual
states. Every country has its own peculiar problems and must therefore seek its own path
to technological advancement.
HEALTH / GENDER STUDIES
HIV/AIDS and Health Inequalities in Sub-Saharan
Africa: Trends and Dimensions
Emeka E. Obioha, and M. Phokojoe- Niboye, National University of Lesotho,
Abstract
This paper focuses on the interface between the HIV/AIDS pandemic and health inequalities
in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an inbuilt assumption that the health inequality situation in
African nation states exacerbates, and therefore forestalls meaningful efforts towards the
control of HIV/AIDS spread in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper therefore articulates the
situation of HIV/AIDS pandemic in various African sub-regions, the context of health
inequality among various population and social groups in the continent, and the efforts of
government and non-governmental agencies in the provision of HIV/AIDS preventive and
cares programmemes. It therefore assesses how equitable these programmemes are in the
general population, which provides an understanding of the relative impact of health and
social inequality on HIV/AIDS preventive and care/management initiatives, especially the
procurement and use of anti-retroviral drugs
Assessment of the Involvement of the Community
Pharmacist in the Practice of Pharmaceutical Care
in Benin City, Nigeria
Osemwenkha, Sylvia O. and Akenzua, Iroghama A., University of Benin, Nigeria
Objectives: To assess the involvement of the Community Pharmacists in the practice of
pharmaceutical care in Benin City.
Method: A structured pharmaceutical care questionnaire was administered to all
Community Pharmacies with registered pharmacists in Benin City. Descriptive statistics
including frequencies, standard deviations and mean scores on sample characteristic and
questionnaire items were computed.
Result: The survey achieved about 66.7% response rate. All the component of
pharmaceutical care investigated were been practiced by Community Pharmacists in Benin
City.
Conclusion: The study shows that community pharmacist in Benin City are highly
involved in most of the practice of pharmaceutical care except in few areas where the
enlightenment and adequate facilities needs to be put in place.
Introduction
Evaluate data to identify health and drug problems
This process requires a systematic approach using critical thinking and problem solving
skills.
Problems and treatments are compared to ensure that every drug is managing a condition
and that every condition is being managed with or without a drug. Every drug used as per
an indicated ailment must be assessed for safety, efficacy, compliance, and appropriateness
of dosage regimen and dosage form.1, have identified different classes of drug therapy
problems, which may be adopted to include the following:
Religion and Philosophy
The Value of Human Death: The Moral Perspective
N.M. Eribo And. M.A. Izibili, Ambrose Alli University
Abstract:
Death has a bitter feeling, nobody wants to die. Every human person runs away from death
even when faced with the most ugliest situation of life, yet people want to live and not die
– death is the most Enigmatic phenomenon of life, but quiet unveiling and revealing. What
most people feels is dreaded, unacceptable and not wanted by any is naturally an inevitable
attribute of life, some though believe that it is a necessary end while some believe that it
is a process of transition from a lower level to a higher place of call yet, others hold that
death is the ‘bridge’, in between home call and earthly existence. Is there really life-after
death? Why do humans have to die? When death comes where do the components of the
human person go? What constitutes man as man? Does death has value? These and many
more questions are what this paper rise through the moral lane of death.
The Inevitability of Crisis in Human Existence
Ogunkoya, Jolley Oladotun, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper examines the nature of crisis and attempts to argue the thesis that the total
removal of crisis from the world is tantamount to the removal of the human species from
the surface of the earth and ultimately the end of the existence of society. It is reasoned
that human development is essentially anchored on the ability of the human person to
devise methods of surmounting problems that are encountered in society. Therefore,
the idea of fashioning the world in an orderly manner characterized by absolute peace
without any upsurge of crisis whatsoever is an expectation of a paradise on earth, where
absolute perfection would be a mark of identity of its inhabitants. Such an expectation,
though it holds sway only in the religious arena, is not only a fantasy but also an unreliable
hope which is doomed to fail at the onset. I argue that human existence itself is crisis, a
phenomenon which dictates the spate of societal progress and development.
Arts, Religion and the New Social Order:
Emerging Trends in Mediation in an Age of
Globalization
Esekong H. Andrew. University of Calabar, Nigeria
Abstract
The relationship between arts and religion as culturally interactive phenomena may not
be strange, but the dimensions of synergy are complex and increasingly so in an age
of globalization where art has evolved from its basic visual, literary and performative
formalisms to a sophisticated institution supported by a network of media that traverse time
and space. Similarly, religion has metamorphosed from the popular Marxist perception as
“the opium of the people” to a multi-faceted institution, addressing not only the spiritual but
also other wide-ranging social, political, cultural, economic and other needs. Supporting
movements have also emerged within religious systems to echo the advocacy for a new
social order through transparency, accountability, religious and cultural harmony, health
awareness and other issues. The interests, though divergent are meant to address common
and practical societal needs. It would appear that religious institutions, in a bid to cover
extended interests in newly defined territories now incorporate performance-enhancing
elements from allied disciplines. This is particularly apparent in Nigeria, the location of
this study where the major religions: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion
employ visual, performing and media arts to reach expanding audiences. The thesis of
this paper, therefore, is that the ability of religion to perform its newly assumed tasks
effectively is dependent, among other things upon the mastery of applied elements of
visual, performing and media arts as promotional tools in mediating a new social order
Geography and Regional Planning
Changing Flow Regime and its Predictability with
Climatic Variability in Aya Basin, South Eastern
Nigeria
Utang Pius, B. and Wilcox, I. Roger , University of Port Harcourt
Abstract
Explicating the changing flow regime and its predictability by climatic variability for Aya
River, the most probable explanatory determinant(s) were identified; while the implications
of increasing high and low flows were also highlighted. Data on mean monthly water
level, rainfall, Pan Evaporation and temperature were collected from documented sources.
Analyses techniques included time series, multiple and step-wise regression. The analyses
were based on inter-annual deviations in monthly values and intra-annual deviation during
the period of 24 years. That the climatic variables jointly significantly explained the general
seasonal pattern of water level regime (F > p < 0.05) was identified. This was corroborated
by the significance of the explanatory coefficients of two of the variables by the multiple
and step- wise regression. Thus monthly deviation in rainfall and evaporation were the most
significant predictors of the monthly deviation in water level at the mean intra-annual level.
At the yearly intra-annual deviation level, the most probable determinant and significant
predictor of the yearly variation in changing flow was rainfall. The trend analyses shows
that the maximum flow conditions exhibited a cyclic (oscillatory) pattern (variation), while
the low flow exhibited positive (increasing) trend. The implication of random fluctuation
in maximum flow for agriculture is increasing vulnerability of the floodplain dependent
communities to food insecurity due to unexpected inundation of croplands. In case of the
increasing low flow, reduced supply would truncate many domestic chores, while increased
pressure on available sources would be heightened.
ICT and Mass Commnication
The Trends and Challenges of Reporting Public
Affairs in an ICT- Driven World
Essienubong H. Ikpe and Sifon S. Ibekwe, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper reviews the environment of public affairs reporting in Nigeria and examines it
against the global trend as shaped by ICTs and the challenges this poses to the business
of reporting. The paper observes that not only have the traditional reportorial tools been
replaced with slim, fast and versatile digital tools, the challenges of computer assisted
live news reporting, appropriate terminologies, precision and transparency in reporting
and publishing of news items electronically are daunting tasks the public affairs reporters
must tackle everyday while on the beat. The paper recommends ICTs capacity building for
media houses and reporters, as well as practical training on ICT use, curriculum review or
enrichment with ICT specific modules and the need to embrace change.
The Influence of Media Coverage of Religious Crises
in Nigeria: A Case Study of the Mohammed Cartoon
Riots.
Pauline Mark Lere, University of Jos, Nigeria
Abstract
Cases of religious crises abound globally. The influence of religious crises have been
enormous the world over. To say that media reports of religious crises cause serious religious
tension around the world is an under-statement. The case of Nigeria is not different. That
religion in Nigeria has not only become sensitive in nature, but that it has resulted to
violent crises leading to huge destruction of lives and properties is not in doubt. This is
seen in the series of religious crises that engulf the country in the past three decades. This
paper explores the role of media in covering religious conflict in the country. The paper
focuses on the Mohammed Cartoon Riots in Nigeria.(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news ). It also
explores peoples opinion on media reports of religious conflict in Nigeria. The question
is what role the media coverage of religious crises plays in calming or igniting religious
tension in Nigeria. What are people’s attitudes on hearing reports of religious restiveness
over the media? How has the media helped in curbing religious tension in the country? To
achieve this, the author makes use of materials published from different media houses like
the radio, television, national dailies, and publication from other authors who have written
on similar issues. The outcome of the findings will be disseminated to the public for the
benefit of the media institutions,(both government and privately owned media houses),
journalists, the government and individuals.
Swaziland Newspapers in Indigenous Languages
Sarah Mkhonza ,Cornell University, Ithaca – New York
Abstract
The paper discusses the history of newspapers that are in indigenous languages in
Swaziland and looks at the role that they play in informing society. It argues that the
newspaper is the main means for making people get involved in governance because it
makes people know what is happening around them. It states that there is reason to study
closely why newspapers that are in SiSwati, the indigenous language have a problem in
Swaziland. It discusses newspapers from as way back as 1934 to the present. The problems
that the research reports include lack or a readership, lack of interest among reporters to do
journalism in SiSwati, poor translation and lack of government support. The newspapers
that are included in the study include Izwi LamaSwazi, Tikhatsi, Intsatseli, Umbiki, and
Umgijimi. Based on the stipulations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, it is obvious that more concerted effort is needed in producing
newspapers in SiSwati. This problem should not just be the problem of media houses
alone
Membership of the Nigerian Library Association
and Job Performance
Ebong Nyama Nkebem, Cross River University of Technology Library, Nigeria
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between membership of Nigerian Library Association
and job performance of librarians in University Libraries in the South - South geopolitical
zone of Nigeria. Ex-post facto was the design for the study. A validated research
questionnaire with responses based on Four Point Likert-type scales was used. A total of
172 librarians in 11 Universities were used. One hypothesis was formulated and tested for
significance at 0.05 level of significance. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC)
and simple regression analysis were the statistics used. The result revealed a significant
relationship between membership of Nigerian Library Association and job performance
of Librarian. Also the construct could predict job performance of librarians in Nigerian
University Libraries.
Editorial
This year marks another milestone for LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research as it
turns biennial. The Journal is growing tremendously and we thank scholars and intellectuals
who have thus far harnessed LWATI to express their research findings.
“Knowledge is Power,” “The Pen is mightier than the Sword” and “The Mind is a terrible
thing to waste” are slogans we are conversant with. In this age of rapid globalization, there
is no room for ignorance, ineptitude or Mediocrity. Through LWATI and related journals,
scholars-especially African Scholars are voicing their views on salient contemporary issues
that tend to accelerate development at various levels in our communities. Some of these
essays are veritable prescriptions for African and world governments to implement so as to
foster greater socio-economic and political uplift in their constituencies. Governments are
thus advised to listen and act accordingly!
Please feel free to forward your suggestions and recommendations about this Journal
to LWATIJO@YAHOO.COM. We welcome positive ideas that would make the LWATI
Journal better for readers, essayists and subscribers or patrons.
Francis Ibe MOGU,
Editor.
ABSTRACTS
Education
Entrepreneurship Education and Community
Outreach at the University of Botswana
Lily Mafela University of Botswana
This article is based on a study to assess and evaluate the benefits of the University of
Botswana Business Clinic to students, and the outcome of its community outreach to
the prospective and new enterprise owners. The business education programme at the
University of Botswana incorporates a business clinic, through which students undertake a
range of activities, where they are able to acquire skills while providing support to aspiring
and new enterprise owners. As in other business education programmes elsewhere, the
programme infuses entrepreneurship through incorporation of experiential learning and
carefully arranged student placement in industries and workplaces, where students are
able to put business theory into practice, alongside regular classroom activities. These
placements also enhance the relevance of the business education to the particular socioeconomic
context. In this way, entrepreneurship education forms a critical component
of entrepreneurship development. It signals a move away from the traditional business
education programmes, and incorporates a variety of learning activities and experiences,
which reflect the spirit and principle of entrepreneurship (Solomon, Duffy et al 2002;
Wilson et al 2003).
Child Abuse and Emotional Stability among Senior
Secondary School Students in Cross River State,
Nigeria
A. J. Isangedighi U. E. Ajake and N.N Bisong, University of Calabar, Nigeria.
Abstract
Survey data collected from 2,000 Senior Secondary Two (SS II) Students in Cross River
State, Nigeria were analysed to determine the influence of child abuse on later emotional
stability of the individual. Four dimensions of child abuse namely: physical abuse, sexual
abuse, emotional abuse and child neglect were considered in the study. One Way Analysis
of Variance was used in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 Alpha levels. The result obtained
showed a significant influence of child abuse on the individual later emotional stability.
The Current Status of Teachers and the
Teaching Profession in Tanzania
William A.L. Anangisye University of Dar Es Salaam
.
Abstract
This paper examines the current status of teachers and the teaching sector in Tanzania.
It draws on experiences of teachers, parents, and students in Dar es Salaam, Iringa and
Mbeya regions. Informed by the qualitative inquiry, the paper is largely empirical in
character. Data was sought through interviews and document search. Findings indicate that,
first, teachers and the teaching profession have low status today than during the colonial
days and up to a few years after independence. Secondly, the generality of teaching view,
second choosers view, and undesirable working and living conditions accounted for the
low status of teachers and the teaching profession. In conclusion, the status of teachers and
the teaching profession is measured in terms of economic gains which have implications
for social gains. Hence, the revival of the lost glory lies in the hands of the Government of
Tanzania and, partners or stakeholders in the teaching sector.
Multilingualism and Teacher Preparation for the
Universal Basic Education among Ethnic Minorities
in Nigeria
Mathew Nsing Ogar and Mercy Imoh Ugot, Cross River University of Technology,
Nigeria.
Abstract
The Universal Basic Education (UBE) programmeme was launched by the Federal
Government of Nigeria to ensure that each child of school going age compulsorily and
freely attends school continuously for 9 years. Specifically, it is aimed at inculcating
literacy, numeracy and life skills for entrepreneurship and national development. Also
language teaching and learning is one of the core components for achieving the UBE
goals. Although the National Policy on Education stipulates the learning of at least three
languages on completion of Junior Secondary School by each learner, the Nigerian
linguistic environment which is evidently multilingual poses some challenges and setbacks
for language teaching and learning among ethnic minorities. The absence of adequate
orthographies, materials and personnel in the languages and a general apathy in studying
the indigenous languages were identified as impediments for realising the objectives of
the UBE programmeme. A paradigm for language development and teacher preparation
was presented. It was concluded that a systematic approach which ensures the interactive
rather than the linear relationships of the steps provided should be adopted to achieve the
language objectives.
Investigating the Variables Influencing
Post-Retirement Satisfaction of Teachers
Osaerenren, Ngozi, Ilogu, G.C. and Addison, Kofi, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
The general purpose of this study was to find out the factors that contributed to or accounted
for post-retirement satisfaction among Ghanaian teachers; and whether female teacher
retirees and male teacher retirees differ in their post-retirement satisfaction with all those
factors that account for post-retirement satisfaction. After reviewing, the literature eight
main research questions were formulated to guide the study. Simple random sampling
procedure was used to select 230 respondents for the study. The instrument for the study
was the questionnaire. Data were analysed using correlations, cross-tabulations and chisquare
test of independence. The major finding from the study showed that retirees in
general are quite satisfied with all the indicators of post-retirement satisfaction. However,
apart from their accommodation status female teacher retirees and male teacher retirees
differ in their satisfaction with all the measures of satisfaction in retirement.
Quality Learning For Adults; What Makes It
Desirable? Perceptions and Views of UNISWA
Students.
Gertrude Nyakutse, University of Swaziland; and Phoebe Kashora Zimbabwe Women’s
University
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate why adults who had at one time attended a formal school
and left, decide to go back to engage in formal education. Our second thrust was what they
felt about the courses offered and how these impacted on their felt needs as well as what
hurdles and obstacles stood on their way in this quest. We used a descriptive survey in
which a questionnaire was administered to students enrolled in the Certificate and Diploma
courses in the University of Swaziland’s Department of Adult Education. Just over 50%
of the respondents had been out of the formal system for over 10 years, while 48% gave
no reasons why they had left school in the first place. Reasons for delaying going back to
school ranged from not having made up one’s mind to fear of failure in the event of one
making an attempt. Reasons for going back to school were given as; to be better informed,
get a degree and a better paying job and to join the elite group as well as dissatisfaction
with their current statuses and hence the need for change and improvement in their lives.
They perceived adult education as an escape from a life that they were dissatisfied with
and a gateway to an improved life characterised by better pay. 99% were happy with both
the courses offered as they were immediately applicable and impacted positively on their
job performances and the instructional methods used by their lectures, citing the fact that
contact hours were characterised by lots of discussions and participation by students
Students Perception of Entrepreneurship
as a Self-Reliance Strategy for Technical
and Vocational Education Products
Jane Itohan OviaweAmbrose Alli University, Nigeria; and Ehkovbiye, Osayame Ekhovbiye
School of Vocational and Technical Education, College of Education, Igueben,
Nigeria.
Abstract
This study examined students’ perception of entrepreneurship as a self-reliance strategy for
Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) products. The study sample consisted of 960
graduating TVE students from 12 Universities in Southern Nigeria. The findings revealed
that creating awareness, stimulating interest and participation in entrepreneurship by TVE
students/graduates is a sure way to reducing the ever increasing unemployment of school
graduates through self-employment and enhancement.
Investigating Teachers’ Personal Visions and Beliefs:
Implications for Quality in Language Teacher
Education
Adeosun A. O. and Maduekwe A. N. University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
Visions and beliefs are assumed to always shape his/her perception, attitude, focus and
performance. The growing influence of constructivism in teacher education and the
increase in the amount of research into teacher cognition has put the notion of beliefs
and vision into central focus such that it is fast becoming a dominant paradigm in ESL
(Brunner 1996). Teachers should be aware of their vision and belief systems, reflect on
them and determine the extent to which their actions are in keeping with existing beliefs
about language learning and teaching. This study therefore attempts to establish the
extent to which the beliefs of in-service teachers of English Language influence their
training input, pedagogical decisions and quality of teaching practice. The study made
use of an initial Likert-Scale questionnaire containing teachers’ belief statements about
self, language, teaching and learning processes, their students and their professional
training. With stratified randomized sampling technique, a survey was conducted on
three hundred respondents selected from different levels of English Education Sandwich
Students. Interview schedule as well as classroom observation were also employed to poll
the respondents’ beliefs and visions and how these might be currently reflected in their
academic work, readings and impact on their performances and quality of teaching output.
Data gathered were analyzed using different but intersecting statistical methods. Results
showed that some existing beliefs change in the course of training and practice while some
beliefs do not change but are strengthened.
Investigating Teachers’ Personal Visions and Beliefs:
Implications for Quality in Language Teacher
Education
Adeosun A. O. and Maduekwe A. N. University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
Visions and beliefs are assumed to always shape his/her perception, attitude, focus and
performance. The growing influence of constructivism in teacher education and the
increase in the amount of research into teacher cognition has put the notion of beliefs
and vision into central focus such that it is fast becoming a dominant paradigm in ESL
(Brunner 1996). Teachers should be aware of their vision and belief systems, reflect on
them and determine the extent to which their actions are in keeping with existing beliefs
about language learning and teaching. This study therefore attempts to establish the
extent to which the beliefs of in-service teachers of English Language influence their
training input, pedagogical decisions and quality of teaching practice. The study made
use of an initial Likert-Scale questionnaire containing teachers’ belief statements about
self, language, teaching and learning processes, their students and their professional
training. With stratified randomized sampling technique, a survey was conducted on
three hundred respondents selected from different levels of English Education Sandwich
Students. Interview schedule as well as classroom observation were also employed to poll
the respondents’ beliefs and visions and how these might be currently reflected in their
academic work, readings and impact on their performances and quality of teaching output.
Data gathered were analyzed using different but intersecting statistical methods. Results
showed that some existing beliefs change in the course of training and practice while some
beliefs do not change but are strengthened.
Winning their Minds: The United States Information
Service and the Development of Nigeria – American
Relations, 1958-1988
Michael M. Ogbeidi, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Abstract
Before 1960, it was difficult for the United States Government to officially implement the
contents of its cultural diplomacy programme in Nigeria. This was because of the quite
display of anti-American posture of the colonial government in Nigeria. However, the tide
of events began to change after 1960 when Nigeria achieved political independence from
Great Britain. This paper highlights and discusses the role of the defunct United States
Information Service (U.S.I.S.) to the development of Nigeria-US cultural relations from
1958 through 1988.
Language Study
Language and Socio-Cultural Values:
An Analysis of Ibibio Proverbs
Bassey A. Okon, and Stella A. Ansa University of Calabar
Abstract
Language is an important tool in the human society. Apart from the fact that it makes
communication and integration possible, it is an important aspect of the socio-cultural life
of a people. To this extent, language is closely knit with culture as it embodies the society’s
value system and patterned way of life. This paper explores proverb as an embodiment of
the socio-cultural values of the Ibibio people. This is done through the analysiGs of some
Ibibio proverbs which reflect the ethical values and philosophy of the people.
Applicative Constructions in Setswana in
LMT Theory
Setumile Morapedi, University of Botswana
Abstract:
Previous studies carried out on Setswana verbal affixes have confined their investigations
to these morphemes as elements of morphology but have failed to observe that these
affixes overlap into syntax. Yet current debates on the treatment of such Bantu languages
morphemes are focused on the nature of the relation between syntax and morphology.
(Sesotho: Machobane 1989); Chichewa: (Baker 1988), Alsina and Mchombo (1993);
Chishona: Harford (1993); Kinyarwanda: Kimenyi (1990); Kiswahili: (Bresnan and Moshi
1993:47). Further, the studies do not give any theoretical insight in the analysis of the
verbal extension in relation to argument structure Setswana. Therefore, certain features
that Setswana shares with other Bantu language are prejudiced. This paper approaches the
analysis of applicative verbal extension –el from a morpho-syntactic view point and shows
that the applicative verbal extension -el is capable of bringing into effect morphological
and syntactic marking to the sentence. In particular, this paper examines the applicative
constructions and argues that the suffixation of the verbal suffix –el suggests an entity
carrying out the action and somebody benefiting. This information is encoded in the
constituent structure. The analyses of data in this paper will be based on Lexical Mapping
theory (Bresnan and Kanerva (1989).
‘Urban Vernaculars’ in Search of Native Speakers:
The Case of ciTumbuka Newscasters on the National Radio in
Malawi.
Themba Moyo,University of Zululand,
Abstract
This article is primarily concerned with ciTumbuka as one of Malawi’s official languages,
also the predominant language in northern Malawi. It argues that while a language of wider
communication has continued to form the basis of most contemporary language policies
in post-colonial Africa, ciTumbuka like other languages in Anglophone African states,
is a product of colonial linguistics. The chosen or designated languages or their dialects
were designed to suit colonial masters’ grand designs of evangelisation and colonilisation.
It becomes misleading to conceptualise, primodialise and present indigenous languages
as if they were indeed authentic products of precolonial Africa. This study questions the
continued inadvertent entrenchment of these past legacies into post-colonial Africa, which
has resulted in much confusion, with the emergence of ‘urban vernaculars.’ Listeners
on radio Malawi have seriously questioned the authentication of speech forms of the
ciTumbuka aired in the news broadcasters and continue to raise the social legitimacy of the
so-called indigenous ciTumbuka. Finally, the need for the standardisation of ciTumbuka
along with the other official indigenous languages in the country is raised for use in early
education as well as for the general public usage.
Key words: urban vernaculars, mixed codes, discourse elements, lingua franca
What Kind of Literature for Ethical Education in
Africa?
Enongene Mirabeau Sone, University of Swaziland
Abstract
I attempt in this paper to answer the question “What kind of literature is needed for
ethical education in Africa, especially in this era of globalization?” I proceed to examine
three identifiable kinds of literature in Africa: Oral literature in local African and modern
European languages, written literature in local African languages and written literature
in European languages—to determine what role each is playing in our contemporary
educational system. I then advance the view that, in spite of the progressive transition of
Africa from the predominance of Oral literature in local languages to written literature
in European languages, and in spite of the undue influence of European languages in
the education of many Africans, Oral literature in African languages remains the most
appropriate language of education for Africans. This is especially true at the lower primary
level where the very foundation of ethics and all education is laid. Indeed, it is this aspect
which calls for the efforts of each and every African country in the development of oral
literature for these major reasons. In the first place, oral literature is an important component
of African cultural heritage. Besides being the most vigorous and effective medium of
reflecting contemporary ethical and cultural diffusion prevalent in Africa, oral literature
provides a greater opportunity for the development of literary talent than does written
literature in modern European Languages. I will use folktales and proverbs selected from
different parts of Africa to unde
Race and Gender in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea
Bathie Samb, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, de Dakar - Senegal
Abstract
This article explores the social demarcations between English and Creole cultural
identities foregrounding race and gender in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Set in a post
Emancipation West Indian colony, the novel dramatizes the impossibility of mutual and
creative exchanges between the fragments of a disintegrating world. When the novel
begins, the English hegemony is already structured and symbolically cast in the Caribbean
islands in terms of patriarchal family. We aim to demonstrate that the characters’ minds are
shaped in conformity with the theory of racial essentialism and nativism which suggests
the existence of a myth of an identifiable and homogeneous natural character. Such an
approach sets a white-black binary of race relations and assigns roles of masters and
subaltern to the two social groups. It accounts for the fact that Whites and Blacks refer
each to the racial others using stereotypical and over generalizing discourses. This study
contradicts also the idea according to which Whites make up one homogeneous racial
group. In fact, those who were born in Britain maintain their Englishness pure and whole
throughout the narration. Their place of birth confers on them superiority over the other
Whites whose birth in the West Indies instantly renders Creole.
This paper analyses as well the gender issue within the framework of the patriarchal
order imposed by the imperialist’s ideology foregrounding the lives of two female
characters: the white Creole protagonist and a woman of color. Throughout her life, the
former constantly strives to replicate the dominant ideals, values, and conceptual structures.
As for the latter, she appears as a self-determining agent, a defiant subaltern who opposes
a strong resistance to the oppressors’ ideology. Her resistance appears in many different
forms.
Things Fall Apart Across Cultures: The Universal
Significance of Chinua Achebe’s 1958 Reconstruction
of the African Heritage
Francis Ibe Mogu, University of Swaziland
Abstract:
Chinua Achebe wrote his classic novel, Things Fall Apart in response to the stark negative
portrayal of Africa and Africans by European Colonizers. This idea appears to have been
conceived during his undergraduate days at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Joyce
Cary’s Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness appear to have negatively
impacted and prompted Achebe to respond to the biased European colonial portrayal of
Africa and Africans. That initial written response was Things Fall Apart!
The characters, societies and views expressed in the novel essentially are universal
to humankind. There may be variations here and there in different social settings, but the
novel portrays people in a communal environment grappling with survival on a daily basis
on planet earth. The European colonizers painted a negative, one dimensional picture of
Africa and Achebe felt challenged to set the records straight. In doing this, he revealed
both the beautiful and ugly in the African ethos. This essay celebrates Things Fall Apart as
a beacon of light at the end of the tunnel of colonialism. Achebe’s text reaffirms African
people’s pride in their cultural heritage in the backdrop of attempts to dehumanize and
portray them as savages by Europeans.
Gender Consciousness, Feminine Revolt and the
Nigerian Home Video Film: Case of
Scars of Womanhood
Uwemedimo Atakpo University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Abstract
Gender consciousness and feminine revolt as exemplified in the Nigerian Home video
film are results. of the female struggle for the rights of women. .The issue of women rights
has become a world phenomenon as women of almost all the civilized world have stood
up and with one voice have rejected male domination and have also rejected some forms
of traditions that are inimical to their well being. .The Nigerian Home video relies on the
cultural norms and values of the Nigerian societies.. The video film Scars of Womanhood
shows that the traditions are set to negate the rights of women and must, be abandoned
especially where they touch on women health and well being. The video film dwells on
women circumcision or female genital mutilation. The film shows that tradition is set by
men to control the sexual urge of women the obnoxious set of values in a world dominated
by men even where and when such dominance is detrimental to women. The video film
makers support women in denouncing this practice. This paper clearly takes sides with
the resolve of the women to reject male chauvinism and traditions that are negative to the
welfare of the women folk.
Boundaries: Reading Caryl Phillips’s
Crossing the River as a Dialogic Text
Ayo Kehinde, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Abstract
Although Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River has received considerable critical attention,
the focus has been mostly on the issue of diasporic/exilic consciousness in the novel.
However, its dialogic strain, the constant, endless intentional and value-laden dialogue into
which it enters has not been adequately recognized. This critical gap forms the focus of this
essay, whose central thesis is that a close reading of Crossing the River will demonstrate the
untapped potential of Bakhtin’s dialogic theory for interpreting the spirit and the structure
of this novel which coalesces genres, geographical spaces, historical events, languages,
cultures, philosophies and beliefs to produce a ‘communal’, many-voiced text that crosses
a number of borders and transgresses multiple boundaries. This is in line with Stuart Hall’s
argument that fictional recreations of history and identity in postcolonial literature often
rely on appropriate narrative techniques that can capture and foreground the complexity
and enormity of the peoples’ experiences. In Hall’s words: “The past is always constructed
through memory, fantasy, narrative, and myth” (1996:13). This paper, therefore, examines
the strategies employed by Phillips to negotiate the narration of the phenomenon of slavery
in his novel, Crossing the River.
Dramatic Theories and Criticism:
Impetus for Creative Intellection
Edde E M. Iji, University of Calabar, Nigeria
Introduction
The coalescence of overriding, dominant ideas often begets theories. Theories are
recurrence of perspective shifts or adjustments of ideational, ideological or conventional
developments. These, in turns, shape reverberative critical thoughts, treatises and
discourses. The relationship between theories and criticism, in this regard, is analogical
to that between the existential imperative of the chicken and the egg, as to which comes
first. This timeless and placeless controversy appears to underline their irreducible
interdependence. In this regard, a theory, according to the new Webster’s Dictionary of the
English Language, (1995: 1025), is ’an organized body of facts relating to it ... sometimes
entirely a result of exercising the speculative imagination.” Thus a theory is a body of
knowledge ascribable to scientific or artistic or other disciplines. It can be derivable from
a study and speculation peculiar to such disciplines. In other words, it is a general body of
assumptions and principles guiding perceptions of reality to which it may give appropriate
forms, structures, codifications, as a reliable guide to consistent practices, or paradigm
shift
Double Consciousness in Negro Spirituals.
Barine Saana Ngaage, Niger Delta University, Nigeria.
Abstract
Negro spirituals have travelled round the world from their traditional home in America.
Some Negro Spirituals express consciousness about the world, problems, inhumanity and
the resilience of Negroes as well as the awareness of a better world. Materialism pales
in the face of spirituality in the pilgrimage of Negroes from earth to heaven. Indeed,
few songs express triple consciousness – references are made to towns in America, Israel
and Heaven. This essay investigates the double reference in the songs that give them
complexity and their different layers of meaning, establishing that these transform their
commonality to classicality.
Politics and Development
Functional Democracy in Nigeria: A Philosophical
Evaluation of Democratic Ethics
Matthew A. Izibili, Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper centres on a philosophical evaluation of democratic ethics vis- a- vis its
functionality in Nigeria. It outlines the qualities of a genuine democracy having adequately
conceptualises the term and its associated problems in the Nigerian context. The paper
concludes with suggestions that would improve the democratic system against the
background that the operators would have a change of heart in the practice of democracy.
It is the position of the paper that it is not the system that is fundamentally faulty but
the operators. Democracy will be functional in Nigeria if and only if the operators are
determined to make it so.
Impeachment Imbroglio and “The Impeachment of
Reason” in Nigerian Politics, 1999-2007
Simon P. I. Agi, University of Calabar , Nigeria.
Abstract
The paper is a philosophical and comparative analysis of the impeachment saga in Nigeria
in the last quarter of 2005 and most of 2006. Since Nigeria borrowed the constitutional
system she purports to practise from the U.S.A, the U.S. experience is brought to bear. The
paper argues that in the U.S.A. impeachment is straight forward enough; it is a matter strictly
within the purview of the legislature. In Nigeria, all manner of people and institutions,
from the presidency to local godfathers were allowed to get involved in the impeachment
process and praxis. The end result was the subversion of the constitution on a grand scale.
The paper queries the motives and mental state of those who, directly or indirectly, took
part in the impeachment exercise. While not holding brief as to the innocence or otherwise
of those governors impeached, it is argued that impeachment of public officials must be
carried out in accordance with the strict stipulations of the constitution; and due process
backed by purity of motive must be the guiding principle. Only then can impeachment, if
it becomes necessary, contribute to the advancement of the cause of law and democracy
in Nigeria.
Trade Liberalization and the Collapse of the
Nigerian Textile Industry
Ndukaeze Nwabueze, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Abstract
This study examines the circumstances leading to the imminent collapse of the Nigerian
textile industry. With a decline from124 to 45 firms between 1994 and 2005, a decrease in
employment by 87% from 150,000 to about 20,000 in that period, and the few surviving
firms operating at less than 40% installed capacity; total collapse of the industry is imminent.
This state of affairs is attributed to the pressure to liberalize international trade by bilateral
and multi-lateral interests and the uneconomic infrastructure status of the domestic
economy. To explore the effect of this condition, a checklist was completed by the workers’
and employers’ unions in the industry. Also executives, former employees and employees of
shut and surviving firms were interviewed. The results were triangulated with facts derived
from content analysis of relevant secondary documents. From this Nigerian experience, it
is deduced that contrary to the belief widely held by some scholars in advanced capitalist
economies that neo-liberal globalization has brought prosperity to rich and poor countries
alike; neo-liberal globalization does not bring prosperity to all of mankind. Instead, some
of its concomitants portend misery and despair from de-industrialization to marginal
players in global capitalism. Drawing empirical justification from the late 2008 global
financial crisis and the advanced countries’ bail-out plans, cautious domestic economic
protectionism, continued government regulation and monitoring of private capitalist
operators as well as revamping domestic industrial infrastructure are advocated to save the
textile industry in Nigeria from eventually going under.
Actualization of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020
Through Entrepreneurial Development Culture
Omoankhanlen, Joseph Akhigbe and B.S.O. Ighalo , Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria
Abstract
A worldwide consensus on the critical role of competitive markets and entrepreneurs
in economic development has emerged in the last decade. In developing countries, the
primary barriers to economic growth is often not so much a scarcity of capital, labour or
land, as it is a scarcity of both the dynamic entrepreneurs that bring these together and the
markets and mechanisms that can facilitate them in this task. The purpose of this paper is
to describe the essential features of an entrepreneurial development culture in Nigeria, as
it relates to vision 20:2020 and provides a sense of direction for Nigerian vision 20:2020
planners, makers of policies and government – for them to quickly realize and capitalize
on entrepreneurial development culture, since it is a tool for any economy development
– thus, it implies that entrepreneurial development culture is indispensable if Nigeria
must actualize vision 20:2020. Conclusively, the attainment of the Nigeria’s vision 20 –
2020 and other development milieu such as Seven – Point Agenda, National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and Millennium Development Goals
(MDGS) etc can hardly be achieved without a very strong backing of entrepreneurial
development culture. We therefore argue that entrepreneurial development culture that is
based on “indigenous entrepreneur” should stand as the basis for our development as a
nation.
Managerial Effectiveness: Impact of Emotional
Intelligence and Work-Family Role Conflict in
Work Organizations in Nigeria.
Akintayo, D. I. Olabisi Onabanjo Unversity, Nigeria
Abstract
This study investigated the impact of emotional intelligence and work-family role conflict
on managerial effectiveness of managers in work organizations in Nigeria. The descriptive
survey research method was adopted for the study. Instruments used for data collection
in this study are: Emotional Intelligence Scale, Work-Family Role Conflict Scale and
Managerial Effectiveness Scale. Linear Regression Analysis was used to test hypotheses
that were generated for the study at 0.05 alpha levels. Finding reveals that there was a
significant combined contribution of emotional intelligence and work-family role conflict
to managerial effectiveness. Also, it was found that emotional intelligence significantly
predicts managerial effectiveness of the managers. Also, the finding shows that there is no
significant contribution of work-family role conflict to managerial effectiveness. Besides,
the finding indicates that the role conflict experienced by the managers resulting from
work-family role interface has deleterious effects on their performance effectiveness.
Based on the findings of the study, the emotional intelligence of the managers needs to
be considered in the selection and placement process for managerial effectiveness to be
guaranteed. The managers with high emotional intelligence should be posted to highly
challenging managerial positions while the low emotional intelligence should be posted to
less challenging managerial positions for their leadership effectiveness to result in goals
achievement.
Public Relations Role and Impact in Managing
Environmental Related Crisis in the Niger Delta
Idorenyin Akpan, University of Uyo, Nigeria; and Presly Obukoadata Delta State
Polytechnic, Nigeria
Abstract
That the Niger Delta crisis in Nigeria has assumed a dimension fit to be described as a
global affair is not in dispute. What is however disputable is why it has taken so long for
the crises to be resolved, especially when obvious pointers to the imbroglio have glaringly
posted some strands of frosty relationships. Undoubtedly, the custodians of harmonized
relationships are the public relations practitioners. This, more than any other reason raises
questions of the role and impact public relations stands to contribute resolving and managing
the Niger Delta Crisis. Consequently, this paper appraises the Niger Delta situation and
highlights the roles and prospective impact of applying public relations strategies/models
in managing the environmental and resource control centreed crises in the Region.
The Crisis of Technological
Underdevelopment in Africa
Sunday E.N. Ebaye, Cross River University Of Technology Calabar,Nigeria
Abstract
Most countries in Africa lack even the ability to feed their own populations and rather than
gain grounds, are rapidly falling behind other third world states. This research attempts an
analysis of factors that impede Africa’s development bid. Corrupt governments, often kept
in power by foreign donors, repressive states concerned with preserving their own power,
and governments with no political will to change existing harmful political and economic
structures, foreign ideologically motivated aid programmes, unfair trading practices,
are cited among factors responsible for this underdevelopment. The odds are seemingly
overwhelming against any sort of economic development for most of the African states.
Based essentially on exports of raw materials and mass imports of manufactured goods,
African economies are characterize by dependence, a low growth rate of gross domestic
product, a huge trade deficit and a heavy foreign debt. In spite of these, the search for
developmental models must vary. Though, there are common problems, but they interact
in different ways in different places and some are more pronounced and intractable than
others. The paper concludes that rather than seeking general strategies for the resolution
of such problems, developmental efforts should be made towards analyzing individual
states. Every country has its own peculiar problems and must therefore seek its own path
to technological advancement.
HEALTH / GENDER STUDIES
HIV/AIDS and Health Inequalities in Sub-Saharan
Africa: Trends and Dimensions
Emeka E. Obioha, and M. Phokojoe- Niboye, National University of Lesotho,
Abstract
This paper focuses on the interface between the HIV/AIDS pandemic and health inequalities
in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an inbuilt assumption that the health inequality situation in
African nation states exacerbates, and therefore forestalls meaningful efforts towards the
control of HIV/AIDS spread in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper therefore articulates the
situation of HIV/AIDS pandemic in various African sub-regions, the context of health
inequality among various population and social groups in the continent, and the efforts of
government and non-governmental agencies in the provision of HIV/AIDS preventive and
cares programmemes. It therefore assesses how equitable these programmemes are in the
general population, which provides an understanding of the relative impact of health and
social inequality on HIV/AIDS preventive and care/management initiatives, especially the
procurement and use of anti-retroviral drugs
Assessment of the Involvement of the Community
Pharmacist in the Practice of Pharmaceutical Care
in Benin City, Nigeria
Osemwenkha, Sylvia O. and Akenzua, Iroghama A., University of Benin, Nigeria
Objectives: To assess the involvement of the Community Pharmacists in the practice of
pharmaceutical care in Benin City.
Method: A structured pharmaceutical care questionnaire was administered to all
Community Pharmacies with registered pharmacists in Benin City. Descriptive statistics
including frequencies, standard deviations and mean scores on sample characteristic and
questionnaire items were computed.
Result: The survey achieved about 66.7% response rate. All the component of
pharmaceutical care investigated were been practiced by Community Pharmacists in Benin
City.
Conclusion: The study shows that community pharmacist in Benin City are highly
involved in most of the practice of pharmaceutical care except in few areas where the
enlightenment and adequate facilities needs to be put in place.
Introduction
Evaluate data to identify health and drug problems
This process requires a systematic approach using critical thinking and problem solving
skills.
Problems and treatments are compared to ensure that every drug is managing a condition
and that every condition is being managed with or without a drug. Every drug used as per
an indicated ailment must be assessed for safety, efficacy, compliance, and appropriateness
of dosage regimen and dosage form.1, have identified different classes of drug therapy
problems, which may be adopted to include the following:
Religion and Philosophy
The Value of Human Death: The Moral Perspective
N.M. Eribo And. M.A. Izibili, Ambrose Alli University
Abstract:
Death has a bitter feeling, nobody wants to die. Every human person runs away from death
even when faced with the most ugliest situation of life, yet people want to live and not die
– death is the most Enigmatic phenomenon of life, but quiet unveiling and revealing. What
most people feels is dreaded, unacceptable and not wanted by any is naturally an inevitable
attribute of life, some though believe that it is a necessary end while some believe that it
is a process of transition from a lower level to a higher place of call yet, others hold that
death is the ‘bridge’, in between home call and earthly existence. Is there really life-after
death? Why do humans have to die? When death comes where do the components of the
human person go? What constitutes man as man? Does death has value? These and many
more questions are what this paper rise through the moral lane of death.
The Inevitability of Crisis in Human Existence
Ogunkoya, Jolley Oladotun, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper examines the nature of crisis and attempts to argue the thesis that the total
removal of crisis from the world is tantamount to the removal of the human species from
the surface of the earth and ultimately the end of the existence of society. It is reasoned
that human development is essentially anchored on the ability of the human person to
devise methods of surmounting problems that are encountered in society. Therefore,
the idea of fashioning the world in an orderly manner characterized by absolute peace
without any upsurge of crisis whatsoever is an expectation of a paradise on earth, where
absolute perfection would be a mark of identity of its inhabitants. Such an expectation,
though it holds sway only in the religious arena, is not only a fantasy but also an unreliable
hope which is doomed to fail at the onset. I argue that human existence itself is crisis, a
phenomenon which dictates the spate of societal progress and development.
Arts, Religion and the New Social Order:
Emerging Trends in Mediation in an Age of
Globalization
Esekong H. Andrew. University of Calabar, Nigeria
Abstract
The relationship between arts and religion as culturally interactive phenomena may not
be strange, but the dimensions of synergy are complex and increasingly so in an age
of globalization where art has evolved from its basic visual, literary and performative
formalisms to a sophisticated institution supported by a network of media that traverse time
and space. Similarly, religion has metamorphosed from the popular Marxist perception as
“the opium of the people” to a multi-faceted institution, addressing not only the spiritual but
also other wide-ranging social, political, cultural, economic and other needs. Supporting
movements have also emerged within religious systems to echo the advocacy for a new
social order through transparency, accountability, religious and cultural harmony, health
awareness and other issues. The interests, though divergent are meant to address common
and practical societal needs. It would appear that religious institutions, in a bid to cover
extended interests in newly defined territories now incorporate performance-enhancing
elements from allied disciplines. This is particularly apparent in Nigeria, the location of
this study where the major religions: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion
employ visual, performing and media arts to reach expanding audiences. The thesis of
this paper, therefore, is that the ability of religion to perform its newly assumed tasks
effectively is dependent, among other things upon the mastery of applied elements of
visual, performing and media arts as promotional tools in mediating a new social order
Geography and Regional Planning
Changing Flow Regime and its Predictability with
Climatic Variability in Aya Basin, South Eastern
Nigeria
Utang Pius, B. and Wilcox, I. Roger , University of Port Harcourt
Abstract
Explicating the changing flow regime and its predictability by climatic variability for Aya
River, the most probable explanatory determinant(s) were identified; while the implications
of increasing high and low flows were also highlighted. Data on mean monthly water
level, rainfall, Pan Evaporation and temperature were collected from documented sources.
Analyses techniques included time series, multiple and step-wise regression. The analyses
were based on inter-annual deviations in monthly values and intra-annual deviation during
the period of 24 years. That the climatic variables jointly significantly explained the general
seasonal pattern of water level regime (F > p < 0.05) was identified. This was corroborated
by the significance of the explanatory coefficients of two of the variables by the multiple
and step- wise regression. Thus monthly deviation in rainfall and evaporation were the most
significant predictors of the monthly deviation in water level at the mean intra-annual level.
At the yearly intra-annual deviation level, the most probable determinant and significant
predictor of the yearly variation in changing flow was rainfall. The trend analyses shows
that the maximum flow conditions exhibited a cyclic (oscillatory) pattern (variation), while
the low flow exhibited positive (increasing) trend. The implication of random fluctuation
in maximum flow for agriculture is increasing vulnerability of the floodplain dependent
communities to food insecurity due to unexpected inundation of croplands. In case of the
increasing low flow, reduced supply would truncate many domestic chores, while increased
pressure on available sources would be heightened.
ICT and Mass Commnication
The Trends and Challenges of Reporting Public
Affairs in an ICT- Driven World
Essienubong H. Ikpe and Sifon S. Ibekwe, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper reviews the environment of public affairs reporting in Nigeria and examines it
against the global trend as shaped by ICTs and the challenges this poses to the business
of reporting. The paper observes that not only have the traditional reportorial tools been
replaced with slim, fast and versatile digital tools, the challenges of computer assisted
live news reporting, appropriate terminologies, precision and transparency in reporting
and publishing of news items electronically are daunting tasks the public affairs reporters
must tackle everyday while on the beat. The paper recommends ICTs capacity building for
media houses and reporters, as well as practical training on ICT use, curriculum review or
enrichment with ICT specific modules and the need to embrace change.
The Influence of Media Coverage of Religious Crises
in Nigeria: A Case Study of the Mohammed Cartoon
Riots.
Pauline Mark Lere, University of Jos, Nigeria
Abstract
Cases of religious crises abound globally. The influence of religious crises have been
enormous the world over. To say that media reports of religious crises cause serious religious
tension around the world is an under-statement. The case of Nigeria is not different. That
religion in Nigeria has not only become sensitive in nature, but that it has resulted to
violent crises leading to huge destruction of lives and properties is not in doubt. This is
seen in the series of religious crises that engulf the country in the past three decades. This
paper explores the role of media in covering religious conflict in the country. The paper
focuses on the Mohammed Cartoon Riots in Nigeria.(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news ). It also
explores peoples opinion on media reports of religious conflict in Nigeria. The question
is what role the media coverage of religious crises plays in calming or igniting religious
tension in Nigeria. What are people’s attitudes on hearing reports of religious restiveness
over the media? How has the media helped in curbing religious tension in the country? To
achieve this, the author makes use of materials published from different media houses like
the radio, television, national dailies, and publication from other authors who have written
on similar issues. The outcome of the findings will be disseminated to the public for the
benefit of the media institutions,(both government and privately owned media houses),
journalists, the government and individuals.
Swaziland Newspapers in Indigenous Languages
Sarah Mkhonza ,Cornell University, Ithaca – New York
Abstract
The paper discusses the history of newspapers that are in indigenous languages in
Swaziland and looks at the role that they play in informing society. It argues that the
newspaper is the main means for making people get involved in governance because it
makes people know what is happening around them. It states that there is reason to study
closely why newspapers that are in SiSwati, the indigenous language have a problem in
Swaziland. It discusses newspapers from as way back as 1934 to the present. The problems
that the research reports include lack or a readership, lack of interest among reporters to do
journalism in SiSwati, poor translation and lack of government support. The newspapers
that are included in the study include Izwi LamaSwazi, Tikhatsi, Intsatseli, Umbiki, and
Umgijimi. Based on the stipulations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, it is obvious that more concerted effort is needed in producing
newspapers in SiSwati. This problem should not just be the problem of media houses
alone
Membership of the Nigerian Library Association
and Job Performance
Ebong Nyama Nkebem, Cross River University of Technology Library, Nigeria
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between membership of Nigerian Library Association
and job performance of librarians in University Libraries in the South - South geopolitical
zone of Nigeria. Ex-post facto was the design for the study. A validated research
questionnaire with responses based on Four Point Likert-type scales was used. A total of
172 librarians in 11 Universities were used. One hypothesis was formulated and tested for
significance at 0.05 level of significance. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC)
and simple regression analysis were the statistics used. The result revealed a significant
relationship between membership of Nigerian Library Association and job performance
of Librarian. Also the construct could predict job performance of librarians in Nigerian
University Libraries.
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