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Grant disbursals and school-based management interventions have received growing attention from policy-makers despite their mixed success at improving educational outcomes. This paper reports results from a large-scale, cluster randomised controlled trial in Sokoto state, Nigeria. School-based management committees received a training and a grant to improve access to and quality of primary school education, especially for girls. One year after implementation, the intervention had no impact on schools' infrastructure, educational attainment or learning outcomes. Therefore, understanding the context-specific constraints to primary school education is important to avoid spending 100 million USD on a programmewith no discernible impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging is a natural occurrence often associated with decline in body functioning and common health conditions. With the emergency of new diseases, vulnerable groups like older adults are prone and more possibly to be infected. In the era of COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, health management of older adults becomes demanding with increasing ill-health, morbidity and mortality. This paper aims to investigate caregivers' lived experiences in health care management of older adults amid and post COVID-19 pandemic for quality of life and wellbeing in Nigeria. With the phenomenological approach in qualitative research, we sourced our data using focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDI) from 21 caregivers purposively selected from three health institutions based on their ownership in Nsukka. Data were analyzed thematically. Results revealed that though care-giving is perceived to be filial, it is no longer effectively provided owing to financial and health status of the care recipient. Other findings indicated that factors predicting responds to preventive measures in older adults' health care include disregard of information, inadequate geriatric knowledge and noncompliance of health information. Suggestions to ease challenges in health care demand of older adults were brought to fore. Recommendations were on aligning geriatric professionals in health institutions and health care financing for all older adults in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous knowledge (IK), a key component of knowledge, is considered crucial in any country's knowledge system. However, despite the importance of indigenous knowledge in promoting the knowledge economy, it has been observed that many indigenous knowledge systems in developing countries such as Nigeria are gradually becoming extinct due to cultural, educational and economic developments. This paper investigated the preservation and use of indigenous knowledge in public libraries in Southwest Nigeria. A survey method anchored on the positivism paradigm was employed for the study. Based on this, copies of the questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. One hundred and fifty (150) library personnel were randomly selected from the five (5) purposely chosen public libraries in Southwest Nigeria. The study's findings revealed that educational purposes were the primary reason for using the indigenous knowledge in the libraries. It was also revealed that video and audio recordings were significant sources of preserving IK in public libraries. Access to IK resources by the users was through the use of ICT tools such as computers and compact discs, while inadequate funding was identified as the major challenge facing the development of IK. The study recommends, among others, increased budgetary allocation to public libraries for the management of IK resources; and that practical steps should be taken to create awareness on the need to preserve IK activities in video or audio formats. This study contributes to knowledge in IK development by providing new data and information relevant to policymaking and IK research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the links between adverse events, depression, and decision-making in Nigeria. It investigates how events such as conflicts, shocks, and deaths of family members can affect short-term mental health, as well as longer-term decisions on economic activities and human capital investments. First, the findings show that exposure to conflict has the largest and strongest relationship with depression, associated with a 21-26 percentage point increase in the probability of depressive symptomatology. Second, depression is associated with lower labour force participation, child educational investment, and annual per capita income, holding constant covariates such as exposure to adverse events. People with depressive symptoms are 8 percentage points less likely to work. In addition, parents exhibiting depressive symptoms spend 18% less on their children's education. These findings show the links between adverse events and important outcomes such as labour and education through mental health. As such, policymakers must consider both the direct and indirect effects that adverse events – particularly conflicts – and depression can have on welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive literature on rural poverty outcome, the labour employment channel has not been carefully investigated for rural Nigeria. The paper used the socioeconomic data from the three waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey Panel (2010/2011, 2012/3013 and 2015/2016 to examine the nature of household employment. By exploiting the panel nature of the data, we used a logit model and fixed effect approach to analyze the factors determining the employment expansion and earnings. From the descriptive statistics, agricultural employment sectoral share remains substantial but declined over the period considered. The study finds that much of the employment in rural Nigeria during the period 2010 to 2015 is farm self-employment. Though declining, it is two times the non-farm employment share and five times wage employment share. Wage employment is least and declining during the period covered. Findings from the econometric analysis suggest rural programmes that promote rural infrastructural, human capital development, networking, higher income and the diversity of income. It is an imperative policy goal to create an enabling environment for productivity and employment-intensive growth across all sectors of the economy particularly in agriculture.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiplicity defines the features of the the Nigerian State. This paper examines the role of Islam in the training of Catholic priests in Nigeria. The work employs the historical, analytical and evaluative methods to examine the transformative stages of Islam from its inception and the challenges its poses to the Christian evangelical mission in Nigeria. The findings reveal that Islam, which arrived through commercial activities, has become a powerful influence in Nigerian society. It exercises a dynamic influence on the spiritual formation of Catholic priests and provides strategies for their mission in the country. The paper recommends a commitment to interreligious dialogue by the Catholic and cooperation with Islamic citizens. This commitment and cooperation should be embedded in the curriculum of Nigeria's Catholic seminaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical background of Nigeria as a state and how state and non-state actors within its domain influence the nation's domestic and international activities demonstrate the conflict and complexity between dominant ideologies and resistance between competing actors in Nigeria. Such struggles arose following the imposition of colonial rule and subsequent introduction of the English legal system, which unsettled existing indigenous systems that were hugely dependent on customary law. Although such platforms successfully served colonial interests, they were challenged by different resistance groups. Through historical narrative, this paper contributes to Global South scholarship in the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourse in international law, with Nigeria as a case study. The paper shows that in order to successfully address hegemonic tendencies, which flow from the international system and are sustained by the Nigerian state, the resistant role of non-state actors is imperative in the making of international law to accommodate the Nigerian experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-colonial African communities were ethnically and culturally diverse with no single dominant ethnic and religious group. Unwritten customary law and procedures were the means by which local communities resolved disputes in the absence of state authority. The laws were based on a common cultural belief and ethical codes that generate a binding regulation on members. Communities adopted this model to impose sanctions against violators and resolve disputes arising among members through various mechanisms. However, the introduction of a new justice system by the colonialists completely interrupted the indigenous system. Today, the indigenous justice system in many African countries is restricted to handling only civil matters through the application of ADR to address some of the challenges facing the contemporary justice system. This paper argues that the customary justice procedure can be adopted in criminal matters as a model that seeks to understand and address the realities of the social causes of crime. The paper concludes that the two systems of justice can complement each other to restore public confidence in the system by catering for the loss suffered by victims rather than focusing on the offenders and offence, bringing justice closer to people without any stress, reintegrating offenders back into the society and ensuring social harmony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In northern Islamic Nigeria, prevailing traditions order society so that power is unequally distributed between the sexes. Almost all institutions and social processes in the region reproduce and exert the dominance of men over women, with existing dominance in the region rooted in Salafism. This is a version of Islam that rejects religious novelty and perpetuates the unequal distribution of power between men and women. My paper examines how activities promoting women empowerment destabilise the dominance by men as shaped by Salafist Islam in northern Isamic Nigeria. I used mixed research design for the study to tease out the interconnection of lived experiences, thoughts, and actions. Findings indicate that women empowerment activities of Oxfam, Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative, and post-secondary Hausa literature (Littattafan Soyayya, novels of love), challenge hegemonic imaginary of Salafism entrench in patriarchal dominance and the centrality of nature over culture. The paper concludes that women empowerment in northern Islamic Nigeria appeal to sensibilities of an ungendered pre-Salafist northern Nigeria where women were active, rational and public. Thus, patriarchy is open to disruption and change when shared indigenous values form the basis of women's empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the generally acephalous landscape of the Igbo society of southeastern Nigeria, forms of hierarchy are noticeable, with certain criteria traditionally established to rank some villages higher than or 'senior' to others. This paper drew from ethnographic research in two Igbo towns to explore ways in which masks and oral tradition were deployed to advance the ranked orders of lineages and villages. Contemplating this scenario in such a place like the Igbo society well known for its acephalous landscape is the broader perspective the paper raised. In the village groups studied, oral tradition and ranking of masked performances were seen to co-extend from existing lineage- and village-based hierarchies. Masking and oral tradition were major tools that ritualized and ratified the prevailing hierarchies, endowing them with supernatural legitimacy, in order to ensure their sustenance. The benefits accruing to the advantaged lineages and villages would tend to motivate a tendency to sustain the established structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of child marriages has been discussed at length. Some authors have analysed the Nigerian legal framework to provide appropriate strategies for addressing this problem. Building on the important foundational works of these authors, my paper analyses this problem from a different perspective by focusing on the ideological foundations for the increased perpetration of child marriages. I use institutional ethnography, a feminist socio-legal methodology by Dorothy Smith to show that the problem of cultural violence against girls, as seen in the practice of child marriages, is not in the culture but in the manner in which the social, political and legal environment is developed to only meet the needs of the dominant class. This methodology requires conducting an empirical investigation, which goes beyond the limits of this paper. For now, I use the tool of textuality adopted by Smith to reveal the organising power of texts and make visible how activities in local settings are coordinated and managed extra-locally. The paper focuses on the actions of those acting within the institutional process and shows how the ruling relations in Nigeria as a whole, and more specifically the Northern region, both rely on and determine the girl child's everyday experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines unabated gas flaring menace in Nigeria and calls for the need for strict gas utilization and enforcement of applicable laws. It adopts the doctrinal method in tackling issues raised. For over sixty years, gas flaring continues unabated in the Niger Delta Region. This has resulted in adverse environmental impacts on the people. The government in a bid to end gas flaring, enacted flare abatement laws and introduced fiscal incentives. These laws and measures have not produced the desired results. The paper concludes by stating that the government needs to be more pro-active by strictly enforcing applicable laws pertaining to gas flaring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football betting (FB) is on the rise in Nigeria especially among the youths. This study examines the nature of FB among Nigerian youths, drivers, as well as its peace and security implications. Findings show that youths involved in FB usually play online by themselves or register in abet company outlet. The paper also discovered that increase in the use of smart phones and availability of the Internet facilities enhance playing of FB; but, it is driven largely by widespread unemployment and poverty among the youths. Rising FB among youth in Nigeria is found to be directly correlated to increase in violence and criminal activities. In view of the increasing call for ban of football and sport betting generally in Nigeria, the paper recommends that rather than criminalizing football or sport betting in Nigeria, the government should address widespread unemployment and poverty which continue to propel youths into betting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is arguably one of the biggest challenges globally. In order for countries to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement, climate investments need to be scaled up for adaptation and mitigation strategies. Green bonds are one of the most emerging climate finance mechanisms for large-scale climate projects and offer investment opportunities for many developing countries. Most developing countries are heavily reliant on climate funds which are insufficient. Hence, the urgent need to tap into emerging climate finances such as green bonds. Out of all the regions, Africa is expected to be the worst impacted by climate change and green bonds can contribute to the much needed climate finances. The growth of the green bond market has been observed in the economic hubs of the continent with countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa demonstrating huge potential in being active and contributing to the growth of the market. However, this paper recommends that for the green bond market to further expand in these countries and rest of the continent, there needs to be public–private partnerships fostered, integrated policies, political will as well as effective institutional frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on fieldwork at three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria. It interrogates the pre-displacement experiences of participants, their transition to and experiences of internal displacement, vignettes of life at IDP camps, their relationship with host communities, the non-universality of experiences of sexual and gender-based violence among female IDPs (despite the particularities of experiences of women and young girls) and the resilience and agency of IDPs. The paper argues that scholarly engagement with IDPs and their social conditions should go beyond fixation on or fetishisation of poverty. Overall, the paper contributes to the empirical literature on conditions of internal displacement in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the exercise of the executive powers of president Buhari in suspending Onnoghen chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) from office. It questions whether the power was rightly exercised by taking a look at applicable provisions of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended pertaining to the appointment and removal of judicial officers. It also examines the doctrine of separation of power in tandem with the rightful exercise of the executive powers of the President. The paper re-echoed a similar situation in Pakistan. It concludes that the executive powers of the president was wrongly exercised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continued pregnancy after an abortion attempt is a likely outcome in countries where unsafe abortions prevail. Yet there is a paucity of literature on the consequences and implications of failed abortions. This study explored young women's abortion decision-making, their experiences of failed abortion and its consequences in South-Western Nigeria. It presents findings from semi-structured interviews conducted with 14 women who had become unintentionally pregnant as unmarried teenagers, desired abortions, yet became mothers. Whilst the fear of the stigma associated with young unmarried motherhood gave rise to participants' desire for abortion, restrictive abortion laws influenced their experiences and abortion decision-making. Participants who attempted an abortion failed and were forced to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term. They then experienced continued discrimination, forced motherhood, and a rejection of maternalism. Their experiences are analysed as responses to the complex interplay between social norms, abortion restrictions, stigma and forced motherhood. The paper makes a case for improving women's reproductive autonomy in decision-making, – highlighting the social and mental health consequences of restricted access to abortion, and reinforce the importance of taking a holistic approach to addressing the sexual health of young women, by focusing not only on physical health but also on ensuring wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Nigerian elections are sufficiently observed by domestic and international observer groups, the frequent pronouncements of religious leaders claiming to have supernatural insights into election outcomes have never captured the attention of these observers. This is despite the fact that election prophecy may have adverse effects on the electoral process and the survival of Nigeria's nascent democracy. This paper critiques the failure of election observers to capture this unfolding trend in their reports bearing in mind that pre-emptive electoral prophecies violate Section 95 (3) (b) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). The tendency to question the integrity and neutrality of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the judiciary (in cases of post-election litigations), has worsened because of unguarded electoral prophetism. It is therefore recommended that election prophecy should be captured in official election reports so as to – at least – show its enormity. This may trigger a concerted effort among election stakeholders to control it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there is an increasing concern about the dearth of white-collar job opportunities for many recent graduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, including graduates of Library and Information Science (LIS) programmes. Hence, there is a need for LIS professionals to proactively explore ways to create jobs based on their professional skills and knowledge, rather than wait to be employed. This paper identifies and discusses areas of information driven entrepreneurial opportunities available for LIS professionals in Nigeria and highlights how competitive intelligence could be applied as a strategic tool to start their own businesses by putting LIS skills into practice. It also highlights the necessary skills required for entrepreneur startup and its sustainability as well as the benefits of being a librapreneur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role and significance of ideology for party politics in twenty-first century neoliberal Nigeria. The question it sets out to answer is: Has the market economy's dominance led to the convergence of conservative and progressive/liberal ideologies in twenty-first century Nigerian political party contests? The importance of ideology for party politics in Nigeria seems to have declined with the market economy's dominance over other systems. The deployment of neoliberalism as an ideology in the last three decades through common-sense rhetoric about the goodness of the free market, aided by international lending institutions, has led to a dilution of individual party ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diesel generators have long been in use in rural communities in Nigeria despite the impact of emissions caused by these generators on the environment. Due to the high cost and fluctuation in the diesel price and the need for a greener environment, such electric generating systems seem not to be economical and environmentally friendly and need to be addressed. The potential of utilizing the major renewable energy sources prevailing in the Umuejim Amorka community was investigated based on related site surveys and data collected from each household. This paper also investigates the feasibility and economic viability of employing a hybrid-electric system in rural communities. The HOMER software that analyzes system configuration was used to study the application and functional limitations of each hybridized arrangement. The results showed that the renewable energy (RE) based system, photovoltaic (PV)//battery(B), has the lowest cost of energy (COE) and net profit cost (NPC) compared to the PV/Diesel Generator (DG)/B and standalone DG systems. Although the diesel generator (DG) hybrid-electric system (HES) has lower NPC and COE values compared to PV/DG/B, the DG system has the highest significant pollution emission. Furthermore, the result revealed that the PV/B system has the lowest capital and total costs compared to the other two HESs. Moreso, the PV/B system, has the highest return on investment (ROI), making the system the most economically viable and adjudged to be a better candidate for rural community electrification demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pan-African worldview of Nigeria's political leaders and Abuja's putative hegemonic leadership in Africa had entailed Nigeria operated an idealistic border policy. However, convinced that border closure remained a solution to the perennial insecurity and economic 'sabotage' in Nigeria, President Buhari imposed border closure in 2019. While the government declared the controversial policy a 'success' in the fight against crimes, this paper disagrees with this assertion, contending that the closure failed to achieve its purposes. The study interrogates the factors accountable for this failure. It identifies poor governance of national borders despite closure as a potent factor exacerbating the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 Pandemic has compelled governments across nations of the world to devise and implement emergency measures for curtailing the spread of the lethal virus. A fundamental debate is the relevance of legislature's involvement in the emergency decision-making and the extent to which this representative assembly is able to assert its oversight role by making the government accountable to the public in emergency governance. Nigeria, like many other nations across the globe, has called upon government emergency powers to deal with the pandemic. This paper examines the imperative of legislative oversight of emergency governance and interrogates the extent to which the legislature has been able to monitor, control and make government accountable to the public in the COVID-19 emergency response in Nigeria. The study which is qualitative, relied heavily on secondary data and adopted a systematic literature review for data collection and analysis. Findings revealed the limited legislative oversight of government's emergency declarations for dealing with the pandemic which further perpetuated executive dominance in the governance process of Nigeria. The invocation of the Quarantine Act of 1929 by the President instead of its state of emergency powers, the latter which constitutionally requires legislature's oversight, and the subsequent issuing of COVID-19 regulations, portrays executive aggrandisement. The relegation of the legislative oversight in the use of emergency powers for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic enhances executive dominance and undermines the democratic principles of checks and balances with its concomitant implications for accountability, inclusivity and democratic legitimacy required in emergency governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nexus between innovation and employment growth. In contrast to most studies that employ data from technologically advanced economies, the study uses well-documented data from a leapfrogging and catching-up economy in sub-Saharan Africa. We find a positive relationship between process innovation and employment growth among Nigerian manufacturing and services firms from 2005 to 2010. Furthermore, product innovation is also positively related to employment growth in manufacturing. This study's peculiarity is that innovative firms' ability to grow rely on their operations in regional and export markets, respectively. Our study contributes to the understanding of innovation and firm development in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception, Nigerian poetry in English has always been characterized by protest in nature. Beyond its aesthetic scope, it has been critical of socio-political and environmental problems that have bedevilled the nation. This paper is concerned with such literary instrumentalism; the use of poetry by Nigerian writers, living in Nigeria, as an instrument against abuses of human and environmental rights. The theoretical framework that is employed is drawn from the notions of protest writing in Africa and ideas of postcolonial ecocriticism. This will provide a context that brings the fate of humans and nonhumans together under the weight of a failed home government and multinational capitalism in contemporary Nigeria. This study will trace the development of literary and political events in Nigeria, followed by a textual analysis of selected poems. Attention will also be paid to the growth of environmental legislation in Nigeria since the colonial period. This article concludes by arguing that in the absence of an effective or practical legal framework, poetry remains one of the most significant instruments for highlighting the violation of human and environmental rights. As such, the study benefits contemporary scholarship by drawing attention to the social dimension of poetry – and the arts generally – as well as the role literature plays in foregrounding environmental crises in postcolonial societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mistrust between practitioners and academics in Northern Nigeria's primary education sector has severely limited the potential for intra-sectoral collaborations that could lead to the development of robust policy-focused research. This paper examines a Research Capacity Strengthening Strategy (RCSS) intended to bring the two sub-sectors together. The RCSS had five components: (i) engaging in policy-driven research; (ii) partnership; (iii) mentoring; (iv) repeated policy feedback; and (v) hands-on support. These components are examined here in the context of a collaborative study aimed at generating policy recommendations for the identification, recruitment, and deployment of effective primary school teachers. The RCSS was a success but it highlighted the problem of intra-sectoral mistrust. It was evaluated through a qualitative case study. Here that mistrust and its resolution are explored and explained with reference to social identity theory. Although the findings are context-specific, they have considerable significance for addressing concerns about intra-sectoral mistrust in and beyond Northern Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on field research in Lagos and seeks to examine a group of actors that is often neglected in the literature as well as in local discourses. I refer to these actors as informal music distributors: small-scale entrepreneurs like tape bootleggers and bloggers, whose business is the distribution of music recordings via channels that are not (yet) used by established institutions and which are not or only partially legitimized by them. Labelled with the catch-all term 'pirates', these actors are often depicted as exploiters of those who do the real work (like musicians or labels) and as both the cause and profiteers of a continuous crisis the Nigerian recording industry has found itself in since the 1980s. By contrast, I suggest a more nuanced perspective on the complex roles that informal music distributors play in this crisis. To this end, the paper investigates how the crisis unfolded, its impact on the Nigerian recording industry, and how different informal music distributors relate to it. I argue that by focusing on these distributors' entrepreneurial skills, we can learn about how they deal with crises, how they turn precarious conditions into success while their formal competitors struggle to do so and explore their larger impact on Nigerian music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gross domestic products (GDP) can be viewed as an internationally accepted measure of economy size and strength. Recent studies have described the relationship between economic growth in terms of GDP and income, decline in mortality and improved health outcomes of some countries. In this paper, stochastic models based on autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA (p, d, q)) models of various orders are presented, with a view to identifying the optimal model for the GDP of Nigeria. ARIMA (p, d, q) models are formulated for GDP from some economic components and Nigerian overall GDP on a yearly basis. The choice of ARIMA models of orders p and q is intended to retain any persistence in natural process. Observed data are compared with the fitted data using the optimal models. The result shows that the GDP from agriculture, industries, trade and services show statistically significant increasing trends (p value <2.22e-16) over the study period from 1985 to 2015 while the overall GDP decreases in 2016 due to a decrease in the GDP from industry and a slight decrease in GDP from each of construction, trade and services. Also, the Nigeria's GDP data is linear, nonseasonal and has no structural break. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emphasis on local or hybrid efforts in peacebuilding literature brings front and centre the importance of being rooted within a particular context, with leadership and vision for social change and justice proffered by local actors. This is the same emphasis found in development literature and a necessary foundation for transformation. Scholars and practitioners nevertheless also note a role for outsiders in supporting local efforts (eg Lederach in 2005). Yet a significant challenge arises for outsiders, and to some extent local actors: how do you know what was tried or is underway that you might support or from which you might learn? This paper reports findings from a collaborative research project that examined the gap between the practice of peacebuilding locally and internationally available 'knowledge' via publications produced on local peacebuilding in Jos, Nigeria, between 2001 and 2008. It identifies a staggering gap between efforts and knowledge in the form of publications. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in terms of what it means for outsiders when thinking about helping resource local transformation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore the political implications of China's economic relationship with Africa using the case study of Sino-Nigerian economic relations. China – perhaps the most prominent rising economy of the contemporary era – and Nigeria – one of the Africa's largest economies with a fast-growing consumer population – provide an ideal context to study the economic significance of bilateral ties for the 'Global South.' Nigeria's prospects of sustained economic growth, through Sino diplomatic relations, could appear relatively bleak considering issues involving its growing debt burden, unequal trade composition and deteriorating governance standards, some of which are attributable to China. This paper explores both sides of the argument before concluding that certain political aspects of Sino-Nigerian bilateral relations do indeed undermine sustainable economic development in the long run. It is argued that unequal economic practices, lack of transparency, disregard for environmental concerns, exclusion of civil society and absence of serious engagement with wider social actors and other checks and balances could indeed nurture elements of rentierism across Africa – particularly in resource-rich countries like Nigeria leaving significant detrimental effects that could well outweigh short-term gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how small business owners in Africa talk about their tax responsibility, using Nigeria as a case study. Data were collated through interviews, focus group sessions, and online chats. The study identifies two main types of tax responsibility talks amongst these business owners: (1) duty-based and (2) right-based discourses. The duty-based talks see taxation primarily as the citizens' responsibility to governments, which should always be fulfilled unconditionally, while right-based talks see taxation primarily as the government's responsibility to citizens, which should be fulfilled first, in order for the government to earn the trust of citizens for higher tax compliance. Further analyses reveal that these talks are anchored on four common discursive themes – i.e. socioeconomic development, and legal, moral, and philanthropic themes, which business owners respond to in different ways. The paper argues that understanding these diverse responses will help tax regulators respond to taxpayers' attitudes effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nollywood audiences are under-researched. Understanding audiences' sites of spectatorship has contributed to how and why Nollywood is consumed, and with what cultural implications for these audiences, and for producers, distributors and exhibitors. With the re-emergence of cinema theatres in Lagos, scholars are yet to articulate how the cinema-going audiences engage with Nollywood films in specific cine-plexes. This paper addresses the nature of a subset of Lagos-based audiences and ways in which they convene at cinema centres, experience a Nollywood film, The CEO (2016), and disperse from the spaces made possible by Lagos cinema operators. A commercially-vibrant city, Lagos is not only the birth place of Nollywood but also the location of a majority of the cinemas in Nigeria. The paper throws up insights on the demographic nature of Lagos cinema-going audiences and their meaning-making habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nollywood scholar Jonathan Haynes has suggested that a useful task for Nollywood scholars would be to develop categories of genre classification. This paper attempts a genre classification of the sermon genre and the film of the spirit genre, in particular as developed by the film traditions developed by Mount Zion Faith Ministries International. Indigenous evangelical video on Nigeria was first popularised by Mike Bamiloye, the founder of Mount Zion Faith Ministries. Mount Zion Film Productions has become the most prominent film group in Nigeria, their film work developing out of their travelling stage productions. I give an overview of the approach taken by Mount Zion Film Productions, to casting as well as production, and proceed to an overview of the two most prominent genres used in their films, the sermon genre and the film of the spirit. The paper identifies the genre characteristics of sermon films and spirit films, and also attempts to account for the appeal of the spirit films beyond members the church. Muslims as well as adherents of Yoruba traditional belief systems, I argue, respond to these films because of the syncretic representations of the spirit world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misuse of ship-owners' stronger bargaining power during the nineteenth century resulted in the formulation of rules to regulate carriage of goods by sea contracts. The adoption of the Hague Rules in 1924 was followed by that of the Hamburg Rules in 1978. Nigeria has domesticated both Rules – the Hague Rules under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), 2004 and The Hamburg Rules by the United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (UNCCGSA), 2005. In order to bring the Hamburg Rules into force, article 31 of the same Rules enjoins parties to denounce the 1924 Convention. Since the domestication of the Hamburg Rules in Nigeria, the COGSA has neither been denounced nor repealed, leading to confusion as to the applicable law in this area. This paper sets out to evaluate whether the enactment of the UNCCGSA has repealed the COGSA or whether the two legislation apply concurrently in Nigeria. Through analysis of case law, it contends that the enactment of the UNCCGSA has impliedly repealed the COGSA in Nigeria. Finally, the paper offers further suggestions which will aid in bringing certainty and uniformity to this area of law in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the glocal trends in Nigerian hip hop music production in the age of digital communication technology. The concept of music glocalisation explains the local consciousness in music production, dissemination and consumption amid the forces of globalisation. Following the adoption of American hip hop in Nigeria in the 1990s, a renegotiation of hip hop's cultural authenticity led to the production of localised hip hop with features of preceding popular music genres, especially highlife music. Although highlife was the most favoured popular music in Nigeria before the 1990s, it did not receive immediate global distribution and appreciation as localised hip hop did during the internet era from around 2004 to date. Increased internet access in Nigeria largely strengthened the access to global hip hop production and consumption. By focusing on the music of two Nigerian hip hop artists, 2face and Flavour, this discussion explores the production and transnational projection of transcultural hip hop identities amid global hip hop music flows. The paper contends that hip hop glocalisation promotes blending of hip hop practices of diverse locales, transcultural communication and global appreciation of Nigerian hip hop culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an estimation of the electricity generating potential as well as the environmental implications of bio-oil derivable from pyrolysis of plastic in some selected cities of Nigeria is conducted. The estimation premise on the experimental results obtained across different literatures, which gave the possible bio-oil yield of different mixture of plastics. First, the amount of plastic in different streams of municipal solid waste across the selected cities are sourced from the local literature and are used to estimate the theoretical amount of bio-oil obtainable through pyrolysis of plastics. Thereafter, the electricity generation potential of the bio-oil is estimated. The environmental impact assessment is conducted through the determination of its global warming and acidification impact. Some of the key results show that pyrolysis of plastic waste has great potential for electricity generation in Nigeria with total electricity generation potential of 87.5 MW with total global warming potential 634.9 kgCO2 (i.e. 0.634922769 tCO2e) and acidification potential of 16.4 kgSO2. The paper is important as it gives an insight into the probable opportunities in waste to energy technology for electricity generation using plastic wastes. This could be an eye-opener to the investors, researcher, policy makers, relevant government parastatals, and legislators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of foreign aid in enhancing economic growth in aid-recipient countries remains much debated. This paper takes an empirical perspective and focusing on non-resource tax revenues in Nigeria, examines whether foreign aid does enhance public domestic resource mobilisation (DRM), with a specific focus on tax revenue mobilisation. Using grants and loans, for the 1981–2015 period, the results indicate that foreign aid in the form of grants can be an effective tool for enhancing tax revenue mobilisation in the long-run. The results suggest that by including measures to ensure adherence to prescripts of greater accountability, foreign aid in the form of grants helps enhance tax revenue compared to loans whose repayments has the potential for policies that may have a negative impact on tax revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing is a very important human need along with food and clothing. The process of providing housing should be such that does not alienate the beneficiaries from the process. This study examined residents' participation schemes in the United Kingdom for drawing lessons for the Nigerian housing environment. It used case study method to explore three residents' participation schemes in the UK and collect data for this study. While drawing useful information from approaches and processes of residents' participation in housing in the UK, the paper proposes approaches that can suit the local conditions in Nigeria. Specifically, the paper outlines how policy makers, housing agencies and professionals could adapt the lessons to Nigeria in order to ensure positive outcome from the housing process. It concludes that residents' participation in housing should be more widely practiced in Nigeria to improve the likelihood of meeting the housing needs of residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conflict and international studies, the security of children is gradually becoming a budding area of study. This is against the backdrop of rising concerns over the humanitarian and security dimensions of the experiences of children in conflict zones. This paper focuses on the case of children in the Boko Haram conflict, which has over a ten-year period ravaged the northeastern part of Nigeria and other areas of the Lake Chad. Despite the reality that children have been one of the most affected, the scholarly narrative of the conflict, as well as policy directions, do not seem to pay adequate attention to them. This paper, therefore, analyzes the implications of the Boko Haram conflict for child security and further appraises the existing interventions to deradicalize, rehabilitate and reintegrate children involved in the conflict. It demonstrates that children are of strategic interests to both the terrorists and the state security forces; hence, this poses a major threat to the freedom, survival and development of children in the conflict zone. The study advocates for the inclusion of child security in peacebuilding efforts in northeastern Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There are large gaps in the literature measuring levels of poverty and inequality within the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria and rural and urban areas. This study addresses this issue by using income measures to determine trends in the extent of poverty in Nigeria with regard to the geopolitical zones and between rural and urban areas. Approach: This paper compares the levels and distribution of income poverty using the Nigeria General Household Survey (GHS-Panel) datasets. These are analyzed using the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Pα class poverty measure to determine the headcount ratio, poverty gap and poverty gap squared. The Cumulative Distributive Function (CDF) is also derived. By comparing the income variables from wave 1 (2010–2011) with wave 2 (2012–2013) of the GHS-Panel in rural and urban areas and across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, the authors find that there was an overall deepening of poverty in Nigeria between 2010 and 2013. The northern zones and in particular, the North West zone, overwhelmingly dominate both the incidence and share of poverty compared to the southern zones. Implication: The analysis shows unambiguously that the federal government needs to urgently implement policies that will bring about improvements in the living standards of poor people in all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The aims of these policies should explicitly be poverty reduction and amelioration. Value: The paper addresses the issue of income poverty using aggregated and disaggregated poverty indicators in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and the rural and urban areas to understand the complexity of poverty between and within each of the zones and rural and urban areas across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tenancy relationships in Nigeria are largely regulated by statutes. Most of the provisions of these statutes to lawyers and other stakeholders are susceptible to inconsistent interpretations. In recent times, the courts in Nigeria have taken steps to look beyond the law books and give flesh to areas in tenancy matters where there seem to be inadequacies in the provisions of the laws. In doing this, the courts have come up with some legal principles that the relevant statutes do not explicitly provide for, but arguably flow from the provisions of such statutes – a good example being the principle that a tenant who contests ownership with the landlord loses right to statutory notice to quit. Terms such as 'landlord' and 'tenant' are not as simple as they appear, especially considering the statutory definitions given to them by some of the tenancy statutes in Nigeria – particular attention is given in this regard to Tenancy Law of Lagos State 2011. This paper considers the intricacies of the definition of and relationship between the landlord and the tenant as provided in statutes and as interpreted by overtime by courts in Nigeria. The paper analyses the nature of the relationship between the landlord and the tenant as may be conceived and disambiguates the scope of law of a landlord and tenant relationship in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the dialectics of protest and revolt in Childish Gambino's musical video 'This is America' and its adapted version in Falz's musical video 'This is Nigeria' within the context of Musical Discourse Analysis. In Gambino's 'This is America', the African-American youths become the centre of attention, while America is depicted as a country of racial inequality. Correspondingly, a revolt thematic is further pursued in Falz's 'This is Nigeria' to reflect a devaluation of youths' lives, and highlight other local conflicts that impinge on Nigeria's continuity as a sovereign nation. Surprisingly, among the emerging hip hop voices in America, Donald Mckinley Glover Jr., otherwise known as Childish Gambino, most clearly heralds revolt against a longstanding racism that all too often result in the lives of African-American youths been desperately wasted through the high rate of mass shootings. Although relatively new on the list of Nigerian hip hop, Folarin Falana, whose stage name is Falz, has made a controversial but compelling reinterpretation of Nigerian social crises in 'This is Nigeria'. His innovative adaptation of Gambino's 'This is America' forcefully brings a formal order out of chaos. Apparently, the visual parallelism in their musical videos engages appropriately with metatheatre to clearly challenge conventional assumptions of youths' lives in America and Nigeria. Suffice it to state that by embracing the path of resistance, both Gambino and Falz have proven that their individual frustrations are the frustrations of youths in their cross-cultural societies. Chaos, marginality and resentment epitomised in the two musical videos undergird the focus of this paper to explore the signification of American and Nigerian youths' cross-cultural pursuit of protest, conflict and revolt through meta-theater in 'This is America' and 'This is Nigeria'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the dominant narrative of ill-governed or ungoverned territories in the northern region of Nigeria where informality and socioeconomic deficit fashioned the mannerism of everyday life. Reconnoitering ungoverned territories, positing that radical jihadist and non-jihadist movements and criminal-armed groups are ideologically driven by localism and informal networks, particularly in the areas unkempt by the state. The paper interrogates to what extent ungoverned spaces embolden the recruitment of criminal and terrorist groups in northern Nigeria. It explains the complex security paradoxes confronting the Nigerian state, it analyses the Boko Haram insurgency, Fulani militancy and banditry within the context of ungoverned spaces that continuously breed terrorist organizations, and criminal networks, that pose an enormous risk to human security. It adopts a qualitative approach and spatial network analysis using Geographical Information System (GIS). The paper argues that the primordial negligence of ungoverned areas with limited state surveillance or unharmonized state presence, controlled by informal networks and hybrid arrangements creates an enabling environment for warlordism, religious fanaticism and tribal self-defense forces. It further demonstrates that governance failure in these regions stimulates illegal movement of arms and ammunition, the raw material for bombs, illegal drugs and foreign machines, and becomes abodes for Boko Haram jihadist and non-Boko Haram armed groups. The paper concludes that ungoverned spaces could be morphed into a production site for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by the terrorists in the near future, thus, until the Nigerian state pays attention to the territories under-governed or poorly governed, it will become difficult to win the war against terrorism, Fulani militancy and banditry through military response. Therefore, good governance that transcends ethnic chauvinism remains a veritable weapon in conquering multilayered security quagmires facing the giant of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death registration provides an opportunity for the legal documentation of death of persons. Documentation of deaths has several implications including its use in the recovery of inheritance and insurance benefits. It is also an important input for construction of life tables which are crucial for national planning. However, the registration of deaths is poor in several countries including Nigeria. This paper describes the performance of death registration in Nigeria and factors that may affect its performance. We conducted a systematic literature review of death registration completeness in Nigeria to identify, characterize issues as well as challenges associated with realizing completeness in death registration. Only 13.5% of deaths in Nigeria were registered in 2007 which regressed to 10% in 2017. There was no data reported for Nigeria in the World Health Organization database between 2008 and 2017. The country scored less than 0.1 (out of a maximum of 1) on the Vital Statistics Performance Index. There are multiple institutions with parallel constitutional and legal responsibilities for death registration in Nigeria including the National Population Commission, National Identity Management Commission and Local Government Authorities, which may be contributing to its overall poor performance. We offer proposals to substantially improve death registration completeness in Nigeria including the streamlining and merger of the National Population Commission and the National Identity Management Commission into one commission, the revision of the legal mandate of the new agency to mainly coordination and establishment of standards. We recommend that Local Government authorities maintain the local registries given their proximity to households. This arrangement will be enhanced by increased utilization of information and communications technology in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics processes that ensure records are properly archived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Evidence Act 2011 came into force in June 2011. It repealed the Evidence Act 1945 that hitherto governed rules of evidence in Nigerian courts. The new enactment appears to have undermined entrenched rules guiding judicial notice of custom by substituting section 14(2) of the repealed Act with section 17 of the extant Act. The Act induces adverse legal implications by introducing new condition for judicial notice of custom. To safeguard indigenous system of law in Nigeria, this paper calls for review of section 17 and preservation of the salient conditions for judicial notice of custom in the repealed Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the patronage of street food vendor in Nigeria. The data for this study was collected from 385 street food customers in northwest Nigeria, and was analyzed using multiple regression. Also, composite reliability and Average Variance Extracted were used to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. The finding shows that patronage of street food vendor is taken as a function of quality food, value for money and familiarity of the food contents. Since the industry is one of the sources of employment generation, understanding what makes people patronize them can be a contribution to the development of the literature and an important step in designing a more effective policy mechanism for economic growth. Informal sectors are under researched and most researchers delved more on formal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial skills are considered one of the most important competencies expected to be possessed by Library and Information Science (LIS) faculty and academic librarians as information professionals. These skills include technical skills, managerial skills, business skills, personal maturity skills, ICT skills and information literacy skills. The context observation and literature review indicated limited research on the entrepreneurial skills of Library and Information Science (LIS) faculty and academic librarians in Nigerian universities. The need to fill this inadvertently created gap initiated this study. The study aimed to assess entrepreneurial skills level as well as identify entrepreneurship issues and prospects of LIS faculty and academic librarians in South-West Nigerian universities with library schools. This paper was anchored on survey research design. The study employed the total enumeration method to cover all LIS faculty and academic librarians in these universities. An adapted structured questionnaire was administered and responses were analyzed quantitatively using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Findings revealed lackluster technical, business and ICT skills of these information professionals including unacceptable managerial skills. Furthermore, entrepreneurship issues showed government-centered, institutional and personal subjects such as government policies, economic problems, legal registration, funding, excessive workload and lack of entrepreneurial attitude. The study also uncovered dwindling entrepreneurship prospects. The study recommends premeditated efforts by LIS faculty and academic librarians and universities at entrepreneurial development and the advancement of citizen-friendly entrepreneurial policies and a blueprint by the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examined the relationship between mentoring, motivation, and achievement of organizational set-goals of the six public tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria at the time of this study. Structured and self-developed copies of questionnaires were used to obtain data for the study. The study reported a positive and significant relationship between mentoring and organizational set-goals (r = 0.353, p < 0.01) as well as a positive and significant relationship between financial motivation (r = 0.736, p < 0.01) and non-financial motivation (r = 0.687, p < 0.01) with achievement of organizational set-goals among libraries of public tertiary institutions in Lagos state. However, the study confirmed that mentoring: B = 0.415, t = 2.873, p = 0.01 < 0.05 and motivation: B = 0.652, t=-3.414, p = 0.00 < 0.05; contributed significantly to the achievement of organizational set-goals of libraries of public tertiary institutions in Lagos State but motivation (B = 0.652) contributed more than mentoring to the achievement of organizational set-goals. Against these findings, the study recommended that mentoring should be given priority in the studied tertiary institutions in Lagos State in particular and Nigeria as a whole while efforts should further be put in place to ensure continuous staff motivation as these two variables are capable of strengthening the achievement of organizational set-goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central argument of this paper was to examine the intervention of Multinational Corporations toward improving tertiary education. Tertiary education in Nigeria is undoubtedly challenged; among these issues are inadequate funding and mismanagement of funds, infrastructural problem, and ongoing strike by university lecturers. A qualitative method of data collection and analysis was used for the study. Interviews were conducted, and NVivo software was utilized in the transcription, coding, and analysis of data from the interview. This was supported by the secondary data, including journals, relevant books, periodicals, newspaper reports, internet sources, government releases, and CSR reports. The findings reveal that per Sustainable Development Goals for education (SDG 4: Quality Education), Etisalat has considerably improved Nigeria's Tertiary education. This includes the Etisalat telecommunications engineering postgraduate program. The scholarship was also provided for university lecturers to improve their capacity. It has empowered the local lecturers to learn cutting-edge competence in telecommunication engineering. Since its inception, the merit scholarship award has improved the knowledge of STEM among Nigeria's tertiary institutions. This study adds to the literature on the role of non-state actors, especially Multinational Corporations, in developing the education sector in Nigeria and achieving sustainable development goals around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender hierarchy and inequality are attributes of Western colonialism enforced in several colonised societies. Similarly, feminism (Western), as the antithesis of European sexism, has permeated colonised societies and has been assimilated without proper reflection. This is concretely evident among the Yorùbá people of south-western Nigeria. Before European colonisation, Yorùbá culture was gender-neutral and gender-silent; women were seen as complementary and not subordinate to men. Hence, according to Oyěwùmí's work on The Invention of Women, caution and reflections must be raised on the continual adoption of mainstream Western feminist philosophy in Yorùbá culture. In essence, the colonial imposition of the Western gender binary in Yorùbá society and women's anti-colonial and feminist activities are discussed. Furthermore, the paper challenges some feminist approaches and ideologies in Nigeria, while advocating for a communal, transformative, and Pan-African feminism in Yorùbá and African societies. The decolonisation of Africa and the Yorùbá education system are recommended, alongside a proper history of Indigenous Yoruba people and knowledges. Contemporary feminist campaigns (including digital feminisms) and movements must also develop a 'shared text of blackness'. The duo should align and improve the worth of women based on the indispensability and esteemed status offered to women in 'pre-colonial' Yorùbá society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]