Ethno-Religious conflicts and the voices of the past

Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria. All these African countries are noted for the violence that has become part of their most recent history ( Rwanda’s 1994 conflict and Higazi’s work on the Jos conflict). Conflict resolution has proven particularly difficult in most of these countries and studies of conflicts in the region have focused on social, economic and political deprivations. While these reasons do help in providing some understanding of some of the conflicts they have not been able to help in providing lasting solutions. We can see that some of these conflicts like the ones that are ravaging the northern part of Nigeria are proving intractable, while the tensions between ethnic and religious groups remain tense in many African countries

Empowering family owned tourism business in Obudu Mountain Resort

Family owned tourism business development and sustainability has tremendous contribution to family life, community viability, destination development and industry competitiveness. They are nowadays arguably effective vehicles for the economic transformation and revitalization of rural communities. With their copious benefits, very little academic attention has been given to the phenomenon as a promising approach for rural communities’ empowerment in the context of developing countries. The existing approaches to rural communities’ empowerment such as Community Based Tourism (CBT), Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) and Community Benefit Tourism Initiatives (CBTIs) are laudable initiatives but, they have limitations in terms of understanding the family system and their ability to provide wide spread empowerment for all strata of rural communities. In order to explore this contemporary phenomenon, Obudu mountain resort whose host communities still live in poverty was chosen. It is currently relatively the most organized tourists destination in Nigeria with the existence of active family owned tourism businesses. Thus, factors affecting the development and sustainability of micro and small tourism businesses were examined. Using a qualitative case study research strategy, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 members of 14 family owned tourism businesses and 10 management staff members of the government and private agencies. The collected data was analysed thematically. The study found inadequacy of disposable capital and extreme seasonality as the main factors affecting the development and sustainability of family owned tourism businesses in the mountain destination. While the low capital base impedes industry specific training and effective marketing, extreme seasonality impact severely on the entire business and family system as the owners depend solely on the businesses for survival. Despite the effects of seasonality, the ability of the operators to remain in business all year round, adopting varying strategies indicates that the “familiness” of family owned tourism business has the potential of reducing seasonality effects in rural areas. As a way of promoting the development and sustainability of family owned tourism business in Obudu mountain resort, for rural poverty alleviation and communities’ well-being sustainability, a multi-stakeholder framework was designed to guide the government, private organizations and the existing and prospective tourism entrepreneurs

The international criminal court of justice – International or African in nature?

While the events in Libya came to a head with the (convenient) death of Muammar Gaddafi, the actions of the International Criminal Court in respect of Libya and its issuance of arrest warrants for Muammar Gadhafi and some of his lieutenants once again raised issues regarding the operations of the court. The establishment of the International Criminal Court of Justice was meant to serve as a check to the genocides and war crimes that were being perpetrated around the world where the offenders were hitherto safe from the long arms of the law and able to live in relative peace within their borders. The court was thus meant to transcend territorial borders of states that were unable or unwilling to bring these ‘war criminals’ to trial by holding them to much higher standards

Nigeria – Ensuring [un] rule of law

The current crisis in the Nigerian Judiciary is indicative of the failure of the executive arm of government to allow the judiciary to attain some level of independence and autonomy. An independent and autonomous judiciary is important for ensuring respect for the rule of law so as to check the excesses of the executive arm of government especially in terms of corruption, human rights violations and abuse of office. A continual disregard for the rule of law has major implications for the survival of the country’s nascent democracy and the dividends that may emerge from a stable and enduring democracy

Empowering local communities through family business in tourism in Nigeria: a multi-stakeholder model

Micro and Small family owned tourism businesses are arguably reliable vehicles for the economic transformation and the improvement in the livelihood of rural dwellers. With the numerous benefits associated with their development, they have been given less consideration as a promising way of alleviating poverty in rural peripheral tourism destinations in developing countries and Nigeria in particular. In order to investigate the phenomenon, semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 38 members of the existing micro family owned tourism businesses in Obudu mountain resort, 10 staffs of government and private agencies and a focus group with local communities’ inhabitants. The study finds inadequacy of disposable capital and extreme seasonality as the main factors affecting the growth and sustainability of family owned tourism businesses in the mountain destination. While the low capital base impedes industry specific training and effective marketing, extreme seasonality experienced impact severely on the entire business and family system as the owners depend solely on the businesses for survival. As a way of promoting the development of family owned tourism businesses in developing countries for rural poverty alleviation and communities’ well-being sustainability, a multi-stakeholder model was developed to guide the existing and prospective tourism entrepreneurs, the government and private organizations

Application of Problem-Based Learning Method (PBLM) in Teaching Visual Arts by Primary School Teachers in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

This study was aimed in assessing the application of problem-based learning method in teaching visual arts subjects by public primary school teachers. Three objectives and three research questions were raised. The survey research design was used. A total of forty (40) arts teachers were selected for the study. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects. Teachers Teaching Observational Guide (TTOG) consisting of 23-items developed by Sam (2006) was adopted modified with reliability of 0.85 and questionnaire were used as instrument for data collection. Data were converted into frequency and percentage for analysis. The major findings shows that public primary school Teachers do not know how to use problem-based learning method in teaching visual arts subjects; Teachers do not know about problem- based learning method and Teachers were faced with problems of lack of in-service training, seminars and workshops on how to use the method, lack of facilities, equipments, materials and lack of awareness on the subject itself are all problems faced by Teachers. Finally, conclusion and recommendations were made. Keywords: Problem based, Traditional teaching method, Teacher, Visual art

Management of Abnormal Vaginal Discharge in Pregnancy

Abnormal vaginal discharge in a pregnant woman causes discomfort and increases risk of complications. Management of such patient is difficult as the physician will need to distinguish leucorrhoea of pregnancy from pathological vaginal discharge and also to decide on the drugs to prescribe that are not contraindicated in pregnancy

Multi-Stakeholder Perception of Tourism Impacts and Ways Tourism Should be Sustainably Developed in Obudu Mountain Resort

This paper outlines the findings from an empirical investigation to ascertain whether differences in perception of the impacts of tourism and how tourism should be sustainably developed exist between five stakeholder groups in Obudu Mountain Resort: residents, entrepreneurs, tourists, local government employees and tourism students. Data were collected from stakeholders using 359 self-administered questionnaires. The results of our ANOVA test and Scheffe test performed on the data to discover whether differences exist and which groups differs in the variable used for this study indicate that there were differences in perception of the impacts of tourism in eleven of the sixteen items and in three of the fourteen items for how tourism should be sustainably developed. The variation in differences was very evident for increases in alcoholism, prostitution and sexual permissiveness, and the need for family-owned tourism businesses to be encouraged for the sustainable development of Obudu Mountain Resort. In particular, marked differences in perception were found between local government employees and all stakeholder groups, residents and all stakeholder groups, tourism entrepreneurs and all stakeholder groups, tourists and all stakeholder groups, and tourism students and all stakeholder groups for the impacts of tourism and how tourism should be sustainably developed. Keywords: Stakeholders; Perception; Impacts of tourism; Sustainable tourism; Mountain touris