Development of a training programme for school health nurses on guiding adolescents in their decision-making about reproductive health in Ijebu Ode local government area of Nigeria

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThis study focused on developing an intervention programme for school health nurses on guiding adolescents in their decision-making on reproductive health. A review of literature shows that this role is necessary, as there is a great need to reduce adolescents' morbidity and mortality rates due to poor decision-making about their reproductive health. School health nurses are strategically positioned to perform this role in ensuring that adolescents are well guided in making responsible decisions about their reproductive health. However, available evidence shows that school health nurses have not been performing this role in the school health service, especially in Nigeria. The provision of guidance for adolescents, on making decisions about their reproductive health is an adaptive role of school health nurses. The literature further shows that school health nurses require adequate preparation before they can perform this role. The study was conducted in the secondary school environment of Ijebu Ode local government area of Nigeria. Work role performance theory, adult learning principles, and experiential learning constituted the theoretical point of departure for this study. The paradigmatic assumptions revolved around intrepretivism/constructionism using the qualitative methodological approach. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were the means of obtaining information from study participants for the study. The Intervention Design and Development model of Rothman and Thomas (2013) was used to design the study. The participants for the study were eight school health nurses, five school teachers, thirty-six adolescents, and one school health coordinator. They were all purposively selected. The data collected was analysed manually using inductive content analysis. The main findings from the interviews show that school health nurses have a poor awareness of their role and responsibilities, a lack of knowledge on how adolescents make their decisions, a lack of adequate knowledge on how to guide adolescents in their decision-making. The findings also show that there is poor interpersonal communication between school health nurses, and adolescents, and between school health nurses and members of the teaching staff. The findings further show that there are insufficient continuous professional development programmes. Results from integrative reviews regarding the types of intervention programmes that had been developed for school health nurses at different times in the past focused on role orientation, knowledge and skills acquisition, and mutual interaction between school health nurses and adolescents, and members of the teaching staff. The findings reflect a gap in how school health nurses provide guidance to school adolescents in decision-making on their reproductive health, hence the need for a training programme that will assist them in discharging this function effectively. A training programme was designed and developed for school health nurses to assist them on guiding adolescents in their decision making about their reproductive health. The training programme was pilot tested with observational methods, an interview being used as a means of assessing the quality and outcomes of the training programme. The results of the pilot test show the participants' satisfaction with the organisation and the quality of the training workshop. Participants indicated that they had gained more knowledge and understanding of adolescent reproductive issues, and their decision-making processes. They also said that they had gained more interpersonal skills, and greater communication skills. Some expressed the conviction that they had gained more confidence in their ability to communicate with the teaching staff. Some also expressed their readiness to apply the skills obtained during the training to their practice area. It is recommended that the training programme be fully evaluated in phase five of the Intervention Design and Development model of Rothman and Thomas, which will enable full dissemination and implementation of the programme (Rothman and Thomas, 2013). It is further recommended that the training programme be disseminated to end users (school health nurses) by sensitizing the necessary stake-holders on the need to use the training programme for school health nurses in their respective school contexts

For money, children and peace : Everyday struggles in changing times in Ado-Odo, southwestern Nigeria.

Owo, omo ati alafia (money, children and peace) play an Important part in the everyday struggles of women and men in Ado-Odo, a small town in southwestern Nigeria. Without money, alafia becomes all the more elusive, without children it is hard to be happy; alafia is less a goal to be actively pursued, than a state defined by an absence of difficulties and trouble. Owo, omo ati alafia are the things that women and men pray for and struggle to maintain. In this thesis, I explore the relational contexts in which their quests for money, children and peace take place. Discourses on women's behaviour in Ado-Odo present a powerful normative critique in which women and men of all ages are lively participants. Conjuring up unruly women who fail to obey their husbands, fight with his other wives and run after men and money, these discourses make reference to another time, 'the olden days', when women endured their marriages without complaint and knew their place. Discourses on the kinds of trouble that can disrupt the quest for money, children and peace implicate particular kinds of women as trouble-makers, invoking quite different models of gendered agency. Focusing on the relational positions that people occupy as subjects in different domains of association and at different points in their life courses, I take discourses on women as a starting point from which to explore the impact of social and economic change on gender relations in Ado-Odo. Situating my account historically and in the different domains of association within and between which people move in their everyday lives, I draw on narratives of change and the lived experiences of people of different generations. 1 explore what discourses on women's behaviour say about women and men, and about relationships between them and look at the ways in which trouble is made and averted, focusing on relationships between women. Exploring further some of the challenges of everyday struggles in changing times, 1 address issues of contingency, uncertainty and agency in the pursuit of owo and omo, and the means to find alafia

Survey and theological analysis of the spiritual and Pentecostal-evangelical churches in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with special emphasis on the influences of the indigenous religious pneumatology

Experiencing and obtaining Spiritual power is the primary goal of indigenous religious activity. The failure of evangelical missionaries to recognise and make use of this primal praeparatio evangelica, led to the development of an educated and elitist Church in Freetown from 1815 onwards. Krio Christianity failed to make accommodation for the African spiritual heritage and thus produced a very alien and exclusive form of African Christianity. The first form of Christianity to take root in Freetown was that carried across the Atlantic by the Nova Scotians in 1792. Their Christianity, born in the Great Evangelical Awakening of the seventeenth century, developed independent of White control. Enthusiasm, emotion and pneumatological manifestations were major features of their worship. Nova Scotian Christianity eventually lost its revivalistic fervour and was eventually taken over by Krio Christianity and British missionary control. Krio Christianity failed, however, to meet the Krios' own existential needs for spiritual power. Problem -solving power was sought along indigenous lines. This produced in Krio Christianity a religious dualism and an identity crises. in 1947, the Nigerian Church of the Lord (Aladura) arrived in Freetown. The "Adejobis" challenged the Krio Christian community, but by and large, having taken the evangelical Christianity of the Victorian era as their own traditional religion, they did not receive it. The Spiritual churches appealed more to the non -Krio residents of the city, and particularly to the illiterate. The style of Christianity introduced was highly indigenised. In many aspects it appeared as the indigenous pneumatology expressed in Christian forms and terms. Its main attractions lay in the areas of healing, problem- solving, and fortune -telling revelations. The Pentecostal- evangelical movement arrived in Freetown as early as 1905. The first Pentecostal church was planted among the Km in the early 1920s. After World War 2 Pentecostal- evangelical churches were begun by AOG missionaries among the Temne and Limba. However, it was not until Pentecostal -evangelicalism took root in Krio society in the late 60s and 70s with the formation of the "English- speaking Church ", Bethel Temple, that general growth on a large scale began to take place in Freetown. This Krio Pentecostal - evangelical church became the model church for other Freetown Pentecostal -evangelicals. In the present expansion of Pentecostal -evangelicalism in Freetown - now a non -Krio movement in which the Limba are front -runners - an increasingly indigenised form of pneumatic Christianity is developing. The interaction between the evangelical Gospel and the indigenous pneumatology is producing a dynamic church that appeals to the whole spectrum of Freetown society, rich and poor, literate and illiterate, Krio and Provincials. It is apparent that as the evangelical churches need the indigenous pneumatology to enliven, revive and make relevant their worship, the indigenous pneumatology itself needs Apostolic doctrine and evangelical teaching to transform its chaotic unruly elements into powerful forces for good and the Gospel. From a positive and balanced interaction, the light of Christ and His Cross shines into the shadowy, darker side of the indigenous spirituality's pneumatic nature and subjects its turbulent powers to the yoke of Christ and then redirects them to the benefit and blessing of society. It is at this point that Krio Christianity with its heritage of evangelical teaching on the nature and character of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, have a significant part to play in bringing its own deep insights of a theologia crucis to bear on the popular theologia pneumatica. Krio Christianity with its unique history, African roots and evangelical heritage is well placed for making a stabilising and salutary contribution towards the New Testament, Apostolic development of the present dynamic Sierra Leonean Church

An Auto-Ethnographical Study of Integration of Kanuri Traditional Health Practices into the Borno State Health Care Stystem

There are many forms of traditional health practices in Nigeria, many of which are at odds or conflict with orthodox western biomedical practices. Yet they are hightly patronized, especially by rural dwellers who make up about 80 percent of the country’s population. The objective of this thesis is to consider the traditional health practices of the Kanuri people of Borno, NE Nigeria, and the extent to which they may harm and endanger the lives of people especially mothers and children. The context of the study is the high rates of maternal and infant mortality in the state. I occupy a dual role as both an upholder of the traditions of the Kanuri people (including their health traditions) and a public health professional. The dissonance and paradox inherent in this dual role is illustrated with firsthand examples throughout the thesis. It gave me the motivation to undertake this piece of research with a view to reducing the rhetorical gap between theory and practice which pertains in the state in regard to integrating the two systems, the co-existence and integration of which is promoted by the health policy of the country as a whole. Formal ethnographic research was conducted during a five year period from 1999 to 2005. The philosophy of reflexivity was adopted, drawing on my earlier experiences in an auto-ethnographic manner. Data triangulation was employed due to the complex nature of the research. Focus group discussions, interviews and questionnaire administration were employed with different categories of research subjects – traditional and orthodox health workers, urban and rural mothers. The results show that western-trained health professionals in the state stand between their own culture, which is of course changing, and the global professional identities they have acquired through professional development and training. At the same time the traditional healers can no longer operate in a context separate from official western-based systems which co-exist with the traditional practices and are widely known to the general public in Borno. Historically, the systems have been in opposition. Now there is supposed to be collaboration and overlap

A historical analysis of the emergence of newer Pentecostal churches in Adamawa State, Nigeria from 1975 to 2008.

Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.Scholars and observers have described Pentecostalism as the fastest growing Christian movement in the world today. Since the beginning of the 20th century the movement has aimed to repeat the experience of the early church, with special emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, miracles, ecstatic prayers, singing, visions and prophecies. Divine healing and holiness were and are still aspects of its teachings. In the developing world, Africa has been identified as the continent with the fastest growth of the Christian church in general. Nigeria holds a leading position in this respect with a spectacular growth of the Pentecostal movement. The present research is concerned the rise of Pentecostalism in one out of the 36 states of Nigeria namely, Adamawa State. The research focused on discovering the factors that have stimulated the establishment and growth of Pentecostalism in Adamawa State. In conducting interviews and gathering of data, oral history methodology was employed followed by phenomenological and participatory observation approaches at worship services and conventions. Part of the research consisted of conducting in-depth structured and semi-structured interviews with leaders, „apostles‟, „founders‟, elders, clergy and other influential members of the churches which were used as case studies. Critical players of the mainline churches, as well as former „mainliners‟ who have moved on to Pentecostal churches, have been interviewed, along with independent observers who are experts particularly social scientists. The research indicates that Pentecostalism gained influence in Adamawa State through the activities of members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who were ardent readers of Pentecostal literature in their university days. During their service year, they usually get posted as teachers in schools. This gave them the opportunity to influence the students they taught. Also, new universities and schools established all over Nigeria in 1975 helped to prepare the ground for the spread of Pentecostal Christianity in the North of Nigeria where Adamawa State is situated. Thus, the first leaders of indigenous Pentecostal churches in Adamawa were products of the new universities and schools that had been influenced by „Pentecostalized‟ teachers from the southern universities. The research also demonstrates that, in the mid-1970s, the first contacts with neo Pentecostalism took place through the Lutheran Youth Fellowship (LYF) and its leadership. The second medium was to be found in the Associate Fellowship of Christian Students/Fellowship of Christian Students (AFCS /FCS) set up in schools, colleges and churches. The research highlights further that the various Pentecostal churches in Adamawa are quite independent of each other but, at the same time, maintain close net-working to support each other. It was also discovered that the age groups most attracted to Pentecostalism are those of secondary school leavers and university graduates. The research further observes that liberalism in music and church architecture have contributed greatly to the status of Pentecostalism in Christianity. Pentecostal theology is centered on Christ and on Christ alone. Christ must constantly be experienced in the believer`s life and the constant presence of Christ is required in all facets of life. Marriages are pre-arranged for members. This is done to check the behaviour of intending couples because there is great stress on chastity before marriage among Pentecostals. Faith healing is a draw-card for Pentecostals in Nigeria where illness is rife. Repentance, required of every sinner, must precede belief in Christ in order to activate faith. The study observed that most Pentecostals do not display the Cross which is generally seen as the most important Christian symbol, either in their churches or at their conventions. Pentecostal leaders in Adamawa State are still strongly attached to their former mainline churches. They pray for them and hope for a reformation among the mainline Christians and they also see the mainline churches as mission fields. Pentecostals have revised their stance regarding governments and politicians with whom they previously kept at bay and whom they considered as outcasts who defiled the treasure of being „born again‟ for the sake of access to power. Today, business communities and Pentecostals maintain a symbiotic relationship. The close association of the Pentecostal churches with the business community also helps to sustain the flamboyant life style of the Pentecostal clergy while the drive to secure a wealthy membership has been a reason for many splits among Pentecostals and their proliferation. Among the most essential factors contributing to the proliferation of Pentecostalism in Nigeria are a lack of proper theological education and the role played by the so-called African worldview, the quest for modernization and the “Nigerian phenomenon”, namely the “survival spirit” of people who are characterized by determination and an unlimited thirst for wealth accumulation

Climate Change Issues in Nigeria: A Call For A Sustainable Policy in Agricultural Sector

Climate change has been reported to have been caused by human activities and its impacts on global economy and the citizen is devastating in nature. This paper aims to identify various ways through which farmers in the rural community contribute to climate change. This study intends to contribute to environmental sustainability and farmers’ adoption of cleaner agricultural production practices. This research adopted descriptive survey design type. The methodology includes the use of four stage sampling procedure to select 120 farmers from the study area. Interviewed schedule was used to collect data from the respondents, while the data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that majority (92.4%) engaged in bush burning, 96.7% were involved in deforestation,59 % engaged in soil nutrient depletion activitieswhile 92.4% engaged in drainage construction. All these activities contribute to global warming. Therefore, it is recommended that awareness campaign about the cause of climate change should be organized for the farmers in the zone,while policy should be formulated to encourage farmers to use climate smart agriculture in their production process in order to establish environmental sustainability. Key words: Climate change. Bush burning, Deforestation, Sustainability, Farmers activities Global warmin