Perception of domestic violence among rural women in Kuje

Domestic violence has become a global social problem affecting women and girls across different sociodemographics and culture. Often times a greater attention is paid to the experiences of urban women and girls to the detriment of their counter parts in rural areas who constituted major victims. The study explored the experiences, awareness and perception of domestic violence among rural women in Kuje, Nigeria. A total of 130 respondents were selected using stratified and simple random sampling technique. Indepth interview was conducted on 13 women and market leaders across Kuje. The findings revealed that 43.8% of the respondents fall within 30 years and above age bracket, 26.9% had non-formal education, 67.7% were Christians, while 56.2 % were married A total of 97.7% of the respondents were aware of domestic violence, while 43.8% linked domestic violence to early marriage. There is a significant relationship between level of education and perception of what constituted domestic violence among the respondents. Qualitative data revealed that culture and family affected expectations and treatment of women in rural Nigeria. The study concluded that domestic violence affects women and girl child negatively, and recommended that a more vigorous advocacy campaign against it should be intensified through mass media, family, community and religious leaders. Government should intensify efforts on free and compulsory education to empower the populace and reduce poverty among families

Gambling in sub-Saharan Africa: traditional forms and emerging technologies

Purpose of Review: The gambling industry in Africa has seen substantial growth and evolution over recent years with a growing body of literature describing these shifts. Here, we provide a narrative synthesis of the extant literature on the origins, trends and consequences of the expansion and intensification of the commercial gambling industry in sub-Saharan Africa with a reference for future research on gambling as a growing public health concern. Recent Findings: The historical shift and permeation of gambling in sub-Saharan Africa is diverse with evidence of certain countries following a neo-colonial logic. Advances in technology have made gambling more accessible and created new markets in Africa. A key motive driving gambling on the continent is a lack of stable employment. While the intensification and growth of Africa’s gambling industry has brought economic benefits to some African investors and individuals, this has been accompanied by a range of gambling harms. Legislation and policies designed to better regulate the gambling industry and redress these harms are needed. In this context, a small number of services and campaigns designed to mitigate gambling harms demonstrate promise, but more research is needed in this area. Summary: The gambling industry in sub-Saharan Africa has undergone a dramatic transformation. While it is true that the growth of the African gambling industry has provided an additional revenue stream to governments, it is also necessary to acknowledge the concurrent rise in gambling addiction and the health-related and social harms that it elicits. As such, designing effective regulatory measures and policy interventions that can reduce the public health burden of gambling harms is vital. However, these interventions need to take in to account the significance of cultural differences that exist among countries on the continent

Challenges in Nigeria’s education sector and the migration of Nigerian postgraduate students to South African universities

Education remains the weapon for upward stratification, social and economic development of any nation but the Nigerian government has not shown enough commitment to the educational sector. The manifestation could be seen in the shrinking government funding on education, decaying and lack of infrastructure in Nigeria’s universities which have led to demoralization of the academia. A major consequence of this is the frustration experienced by postgraduate students who are pursuing higher education and having to spend longer period than expected record time. This frustration in pursuing higher educational qualification often leads to stunted career progression. This has led to an alternative decision to migrate in search of higher education abroad. Consequently, in recent times, Nigerian postgraduate students have migrated more than ever before to South African Universities that are believed to have modern facilities for training and ensuring completion of programmes in record time. This study employed the use of structured questionnaire to investigate the determinants of this form of migration. Among other findings, this study found that the decision to migrate and pursue postgraduate student abroad is informed by the demoralization and frustration suffered in attaining postgraduate education in Nigeria. The study also found that many Nigerian postgraduate migrant students that desired to stay back in South Africa after the programme were discouraged from doing so because of the frequent hostilities between the bulging South African youths. Their hostility is associated with the shrinking capacity of the host government (South Africa) to create new jobs for them. In addition, the belief of the agitating South African youth that the migrant postgraduates are responsible for their unemployed status, by taking up their jobs especially in those areas where required skills among the South African are lacking further gingers hostilities. This study, therefore, suggests among others that the home country should increase budgetary allocation to improve the education sector as well as monitor such allocation to ensure that it is prudently utilized. It is also recommended that institutional processes and procedures to monitor and evaluate postgraduate studies in Nigerian universities be institutionalized

Motivations for Women Involvement in Urban Agriculture in Nigeria

Poverty and food insecurity are some of the problems facing Nigerian population and governments at various levels today. Urban agriculture holds promise at solving these intractable problems. Urban agriculture is a practice that takes place in all urban centres, but existing studies have not succinctly examined the involvement of women in agriculture in small urban centres of Nigeria. The aim of this paper therefore, is to examine the motives behind involvement of women in urban agriculture in small agro-towns of Kwara State, Nigeria. A total of 1,801 women farmers were selected from 13 settlements cutting across 8 LGAs. Simple percentages, graphic illustrations, charts, tabulation and cross tabulation and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the generated data. The study identifies three factors: food security, income supplement and accessibility to land, accounting for 98.6% as the best predictors of women involvement in urban agriculture. The study recommends that urban agriculture should be given official recognition by advocating for its support while women should be provided with financial resources to expand their farm plots

Establishment of Institutional Repository (IR) in a Developing Country: Lessons from Landmark University, Nigeria

This paper discussed the establishment of institutional repository in a private university, Nigeria. It started with the introduction and stated that repository is a key element in institutional research agenda. It went further to discuss Eprints software used by Landmark University for her repository. The paper further discussed the current state of Landmark University (LMU) repository, how it is being managed, the practical processes and procedures involved in depositing documents into the repository. The paper went further to discussed the factors that contributed to the success of LMU repository such as institutional support, dedicated repository staff, faculty and staff support, quality infrastructures and equipment among others. It also highlighted some of the challenges to include indexing irregularity, mobility of authors, and workload of repository administrator among others. Based on these discussion, it was concluded and recommended that the university library should carry our enlightenment campaign, University management should introduce a policy document that states conditionality for self-archiving. All these will enable landmark university IR to meet up with best practices, thereby taking the university to the leagues of world best universities ranking and rating