The loudness of the “Unsaid”: Proverbs in selected African drama

The paper reflects on the use of proverbs as communicative constituents of African drama, how they are used by playwrights to establish themes, build context, enrich dialogue and develop characterisation. Many African paremiology scholars have studied proverbs as expressions of social realities and cultural practices as well as markers of identities (Amali, 2001; Akinyemi, 2007; Yankah, 2012; and Appiah-Adjei, 2014). The paper observes that in the bid to represent socio-cultural realities on stage, proverbs constitute a significant part of verbal resources in the dialogue of selected African plays. There is, therefore, the need to probe further the use of proverbs in African drama to reveal the “unsaid” elements of discourse and socio-cultural situations couched in proverbs with a view to enriching our understanding of the plays. To this end, textual illustrations are drawn from Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, Ola Rotimi’s Kurunmi, Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa and Mohammed ben-Abdallah’s The Trial of Mallam Ilya

Beliefs and attitude towards Spectacles

The study was conducted in order to discover the beliefs and attitude of the people towardswearing glasses in order to improve acceptance of glasses when prescribed thus reducing blindness and visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive errors. Across sectional study of 198 participants using a pretested structured questionnaire was conducted during the parent-teacher association (PTA)meeting of three public secondary schools chosen at random from a list of schools in Osogbo. Information obtained included the age, sex, history of using glasses, experience if using glasses,whether or not theywill allowtheirwards to use glasses if prescribed and if no,why theywill not. The data obtained was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 11.0 version) Computer Software. Association between variables was examined using chi-square and T-test accordingly. Level of significancewas drawn at

The Ford Foundation And Development Of Western Education In Nigeria: A Historical Evaluation

The Post World War II years witnessed increasing involvement of international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the social and economic transfiguration of the Third World nations. Nigeria as a developing economy did attract the attention of the Ford Foundation to the development of her social sector particularly. The paper examined the Ford Foundation engagements in all facets of the Nigerian educational system, namely, primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The resultant findings revealed that despite its constraints, the huge investments of the Ford Foundation in the areas of comprehensive high school education, teaching and research as well as information and communication technology, no doubt, helped in identifying and nurturing the potentials of Nigerian students for academic, technical or general education. The paper concluded that the involvement of the Ford Foundation in Nigerian educational development helped, in no small way, in re-directing the course of Nigeria’s educational system. It recommended that Nigeria government should redouble its efforts towards providing an enabling environment that will attract more credible NGOs like Ford Foundation and encourage them to play effective role not only within the educational sector but also in other key sectors such as agriculture, health, science and technology to assist the country achieve the much touted Millennium Development Goals

An institutional analysis of the implementation of integrated water resources management in Nigeria

Many studies have investigated Nigeria’s experiences of river basin management. Despite the acceptance of IWRM by the Nigerian Government, findings from the literature demonstrate that there remain significant water management challenges in Nigeria. However, reported research which exposes the forces influencing the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Nigeria remains sparse. This thesis exposes these forces, and most importantly, the environments within which they are embedded by drawing upon theoretical and empirical evidence on the processes required to transfer IWRM from theory to practice. The retroductive logic of enquiry was adopted as a guide and a conceptual framework was developed to illustrate the forces influencing IWRM implementation at the river basin level in Nigeria and the environments within which they are embedded. The conceptual framework formed the basis for the development of the research questions and also informed the choice of neo-institutional theory as a guide to proffer answers to the research questions. The research process employed a qualitative social science approach to provide answers to the research questions and realise the study’s main aim. The study’s theoretical framework followed a string of hermeneutics, phenomenology, and interpretivists philosophies and a case study research strategy to explore issues related to IWRM implementation in both Ogun-Oshun River Basin and Benin-Owena River Basin from different perspectives using multiple sources of evidence – documents, semi-structured interviews, and direct observations. Interviews were conducted with the staff of the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) and other water-related national and international organisations in the selected case river basins in Nigeria. The data obtained were first analysed using textual approach and then followed by variance institutional approach. Findings clearly illustrate that: (i) there were weaknesses in IWRM implementation in Nigeria, and (ii) both institutional (that is, regulative, normative, cognitive, and cultural) and technical (that is, water infrastructure) elements which are located within the macro and the operational environments were the forces that contributed to the weaknesses in IWRM implementation at the river basin level in Nigeria. Consistent with the institutional analysis perspective, to improve IWRM implementation in practice in Nigeria, the study proposed improvements to the regulative institutions to serve as a shock. This study contributes to IWRM and reinforces the importance of institutional and technical elements as potent forces that can enable or constrain the implementation of a water management approach, IWRM

Volume equations for five economic hardwood species in Oluwa Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria

Tropical rainforest remains one of the most complex ecosystems in the world. Tree growth dynamics is a major technique in quantifying the forest composition. However, there is dearth of knowledge on tree volume equations of hardwood tree species in the tropical rainforest especially in Nigeria. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop tree volume equations for selected economic hardwood species (Lovoa trichiliodes, Celtis zenkeri, Picralima nitida, Buchlozia coriacea and Diospyros crassiflora) in Oluwa Forest reserve, Nigeria. Two transect (500m) were laid in the study area, in which distance between each transect was 400m. Systematic sampling technique was adopted to lay four temporary sample plots (TSP) on each transect making a total of Eight TSPs (size 50 x 50m) for the study. All tree species of the aforementioned hardwood species with dbh ≥ 10cm were identified in each TSP. Five models were selected as candidate models for the study. The result revealed that nonlinear model produced the best fit for Buchhlozia coriacea, Celtis zenkeri, Diospyros crassiflora and Picralima nitida while generalized nonlinear model produced a better fit for Lovoa trichiliodes. Residual analysis was carried out to validate the best fitted model for each species. The selected models (Nonlinear and Generalized nonlinear equations) can be very useful for sustainable forest management assessment of Lovoa trichiliodes, Celtis zenkeri, Picralima nitida, Buchhlozia coriacea and Diospyros crassiflora plantations in the study area and similar ecological areas.Keywords: Volume Equation, nonlinear model, generalized nonlinear mode

A Comparative Study Of Occurrence Of Ankara, Lace And Other Fabrics In Christian Worship Centres In Osogbo

Many Christians put on decent or a particular dress when attending churches especially on Sunday worship services.  There had been dearth of literatures on textile art tradition especially Ankara, lace and other fabrics which this study is about to proffer solution to. Therefore the study aims at documenting the analysis of the fabrics that are predominantly used for Sunday services.. The study deals with the comparative occurrence of Ankara, lace and other fabrics in churches especially during Sunday services. The research design is exploratory and descriptive while both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used in gathering and formulating the data.  The study used the first 100 attendees as samples in five different churches on Sundays for the analysis totaling 500 samples. The study classified the attendees into male and female based on the visual perception of their attires. Findings reveal that majority of the worshippers in various worship centres dress in their special clothes to the worship centres on Sundays. Dressing in lace or Ankara attire shows that the fabrics are more popular than any other materials

Religious Tolerance and Peaceful Co-Existence: The Case of Female Religious Cults Relationship in Ijebuland, Ogun State Nigeria

There is in Nigeria today, a depressed mood of daily occurrences of war, tension, impending collapse of the political system, social decay, corruption and religious violence. The core cause of this crisis in Nigeria among other reasons is religion. Despite various government’s efforts to put an end to all the violence there seems to be no end to the violence and intolerance dividing the nation. The various violent or religious crisis has had a bitter impact on inter-religious relationship in a pluralistic religious state like Nigeria. Most of the violence was caused by religious crisis, lack of tolerance among the different religious groups or faith, ignorance, the struggle for power and monopoly-having absolute knowledge about God. Since all the religions practised in Nigeria advocate peace, harmony, tolerance, patience understanding, good neighbourliness and even the idea of ‘live and let others live’, one then wonders why all the religious crisis or violence against each other. The theme of this paper is religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence from the perspective of the traditional African religion taking examples from the inter-cultic groups in Ijebuland. It is necessary to note that inter-cultic groups in Ijebuland would continue to be an integrating power that would unite people in Ijebuland and not disintegrate them. The traditional religion through the various activities of its adherents should be a reckon force for integration since there is a mutual inter-cult relationship among the various cultic group. Among these group of people, their religion is not a mere faith which they profess but a way of life, a system of social control through which they get an organizing mechanism in which they live their everyday life peacefully. Keywords: Religious tolerance, peaceful co-existence, female cults, Ijebulan

Determinants of Child Poverty in Rural Nigeria: A Multidimensional Approach

The profiles and determinants of child poverty in rural Nigeria were identified using the Demographic and Health Survey 2008 data The multidimensional child poverty concept was applied to children under-5 years of age In all a total of 4 543 children were analyzed About half of the children were male and the mean age for all the children is 29 months old A single step Multiple Correspondence Analysis MCA was carried out to generate weights for five dimensions used in the multidimensional poverty estimations These dimensions are safe drinking water sanitation housing health and nutrition The Alkire and Foster 2007 counting approach was applied to generate multidimensional poverty profiles for the children When the poverty cut off K 1 52 of the children were multidimensional poor as against 27 9 poor when k 3 This implies that when children are deprived in at least one dimension 52 are multidimensional poor The health and sanitation dimensions had the highest relative contribution of 38 54 and 22 58 respectively to the overall multidimensional poverty inde

Factors Influencing Irrigation Technology Adoption and its Impact on Household Poverty in Ghana

The treadle pump technology was promoted and disseminated as an alternative to traditional rope and bucket for irrigation in Ghana by the International Non-Governmental Organization, Enterprise Works. The aim is to improve output, increase incomes and consequently reduce poverty among farm households. The paper employed the Heckman two-stage and the Ordinary Least Square procedures to identify the factors that influence adoption of the technology and the impact of adoption on the poverty status of farm households. Farm and household level data were obtained from 108 farmers consisting of 52 adopters and 58 non-adopters. The results demonstrated that availability of labor and increases in number of extension visits per year are factors that increase the probability of adoption. The results also showed that increase in irrigated area has the highest impact on poverty followed by adoption of treadle pump and literacy level of farmers

Powerful and Powerless: Women In Religion And Culture In The Traditional Ijebu Society In South-West Nigeria

Women have been variously conceptualized by different people as the beaver of human beings or as a special specimen of the human race or as the chattel of men, whose purpose is to work and bear children. Also, they are regarded as the source through whom kinship and succession is determined or, better still, as the powerful pivot which present the picture of weakness both in the home and in the society. These and many more have engendered the various inhumane and agonizing circumstances in which women find themselves. It has often been asserted that the role of women could only be gleaned from the domestic chores they perform at home. Before now, women have been relegated to the background, they were treated as nonentities who could only be seen and not heard. They were treated as an inferior or less privileged class of people whose only duty was to manufacture children and to tend their husband’s house. It was not until recently that women began to take issues relating to their well-being very seriously by taking steps to bridge the gap between themselves and their male counterpart. In spite of the debilitating circumstances in which women have found themselves, Ijebu religion places a premium on women and their roles in the society. This is as a result of their preponderant involvement in different cults of religious worship and their other roles in the society. This paper, therefore attempts to highlight the status of women in Yorubaland especially among the Ijebu people viz-a-viz their involvement in social, economic and religious activities, as well as their political roles. This presupposes that for a proper understanding of women, it is apposite to examine their involvement in social, economic and political roles in the society. It is on this analysis that their roles as mothers, leaders and religious experts are subjected to scrutiny in order to ascertain their contribution to social and particularly, religious developments. Keywords: Women in Ijebuland, Socio-Political roles, Yoruba culture, Emancipation