International law and the responsibility to protect: legal and theoretical basis for international intervention in Nigeria

One of the primordial aims of international law is to foster international co-operation, peace, security and amicable relations among nations of the world. Internal conflicts, however, continue to pose threat to the international order and development globally. Consequently, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle has recently gained recognition as an emerging norm of international law that enjoins the international community to intervene when countries fail to protect their populations from mass atrocity crimes namely: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. One of the key foundations of the emerging R2P norm is the principle of intervention which allows international action whenever it is necessary and justifiable to reduce or resolve internal conflict among the constituent States of the world. Despite the growing application of the norms of intervention in international law, its practical implementation and effects have been received with mixed feelings. There are especially, questions whether interventions really aid or hinder international peace and security, although it may be functional to avert apparent helpless situations. This paper examines the imperatives of intervention in internal conflicts and its continued relevance in international law. It also comments on the applicability and desirability of international intervention in Nigeria in response to the Boko Haram conundrum. It argues that although intervention is appropriate as it were to protect Nigerian citizens from Boko Haram in the apparent failure of the Nigerian government so to do, international intervention should be properly regulated to ensure that it is not used as a tool to jeopardize sustainable development in Nigeria as well as in other developing countries.Keywords: Intervention, R2P, Internal conflicts, and International Law

Realization of Health Right in Nigeria: A Case for Judicial Activism

Nigeria adopts the dualist approach to international human right laws and it remains one of the countries with the highest medical-related death rates in the world The nonenforceability of member state s minimum core obligation and the non-justiciability of ECSRs in Nigeria remains seemingly a major impediment to the realization of health right in Nigeria thus Nigeria ranks 158 out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index Eleanor D Kinney suggested approaches that can advance recognition and implementation of human right to health in the US however Kinney wittingly excluded justiciability approach to the implementation and realization of right to health given that once a legislation is enacted and full recognition is given to this class of right policies and programs will be established and adequate funding will become essential The present position in Nigeria is different There are laws international and regional treaties already domesticated These laws are focused on the realization of health rights in Nigeria The paper therefore contends that given the judicial activism evidences from India South Africa and its effects on the implementation and accessibility of health care right in these countries the setbacks in realizing health right in Nigeria is a challenge to the Nigerian Judiciary The paper suggests that the judicial activism experienced in India and South Africa offers an instrument for realizing health right also in Nigeria while accountability on budget allocation and the appropriate interpretation of the existing corpus for realization of health right is a required tool which would guarantee realizing the right to health in Nigeria and not justiciability of health right per s

Realizing the right to development in Nigeria: an examination of legal barriers and challenges

The United Nations General Assembly has, through several Conventions, emphasized the need for the full realization of the right to development, alongside the rights to food and clean water, the right to shelter and the right to housing. According to the United Nations, if Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) are violated, the right to development is also violated. However, the realization of ESCRs in Nigeria continues to face challenges, therefore, the realization of development remains germane both in Nigeria and the international community at large. The search for development in Nigeria, therefore, requires the grasping of the conceptualized Right to Development (RTD), and dealing with the barriers and legal challenges, which affect the realization of the RTD. This article, therefore, aims to analyse the content, commitment, and nature of the right to development and examines the barriers to its implementation in Nigeria. The article discusses problems such as governmental corruption, lack of resources, lack of institutional capacity, poverty, internal conflicts, judicial performance, lack of implementation and enforcement of laws, and concludes that the goals of sustainable development in Nigeria cannot be fully realized without a conscious effort towards reduction in corruption which can practically serve as a panacea for achieving meaningful development.Keywords: Development, Developing Countries, Human Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Right

Realization of Health Right in Nigeria: A Case for Judicial Activism

Nigeria adopts the dualist approach to international human right laws and it remains one of the countries with the highest medical-related death rates in the world. The nonenforceability of member state’s minimum core obligation and, the non-justiciability of ECSRs in Nigeria remains seemingly, a major impediment to the realization of health right in Nigeria thus; Nigeria ranks 158 out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index. Eleanor D. Kinney suggested approaches that can advance recognition and implementation of human right to health in the US however, Kinney wittingly excluded justiciability approach to the implementation and realization of right to health given that once a legislation is enacted and full recognition is given to this class of right, policies and programs will be established and adequate funding will become essential. The present position in Nigeria is different. There are laws – international and regional treaties already domesticated. These laws are focused on the realization of health rights in Nigeria. The paper therefore, contends that given the judicial activism evidences from India, South Africa and its effects on the implementation and accessibility of health care right in these countries, the setbacks in realizing health right in Nigeria is a challenge to the Nigerian Judiciary

Conceptual Framework for Semantic Interoperability in Sensor-enhanced Health Information Systems (SIOp4Se-HIS)

Transducer integration into different accessories such as eyeglasses, wristbands, vest, wristwatches, among others, has brought myriads of physiological data that could be of help in making patients health monitoring easier. However, this myriad of data are generated from different devices with different formats and uncoordinated data types which ultimately compromises the data integrity and renders it medically less importance. Furthermore, several wearables do operate as data island as they cannot incorporate their captured data into the Health Information Systems (HIS) for easy accessibility by the health-care professionals for further processing, interpretation and actions on the patients’ health. Therefore, to enable the flow of data that will be useful to both patient and health-care professional, the existing HIS should be transducer enhanced / enabled, and they should operate at the same semantic interoperability level to allow for exchange of meaningful data from transducers to HIS. In bid to achieve this, several attempts have been made using standards, and archetypes, which goes a long way in providing interoperability at the technical and syntactic level. However, repositories of heterogeneous transducer data as provided by health monitoring systems, requires actionable knowledge of context (environment) from which the data is collected for it to be medically useful and interoperate at the semantic level with the HIS. There are three approaches: the model-driven; standard based and archetype approach but only the ontology driven guarantees making the applications smarter, or make the data smarter. The study propose the latter option using a dual model approach to leverage semantic technologies in order to provide and apply more meaningful health monitoring data representation between transducers and HIS. We approached this study using the design science research methodology and developed a hybrid methodology by combining two methods to develop our ontologies that are based on standards in the domains, with this unique method we achieved a novel approach to solve the obstacle of semantic interoperability through our proposed framework for Semantic Interoperability for Sensor-enhanced Health Information Systems (se-HIS) and bridged the gaps in systems’ interoperability between monitoring units and HIS. The outcome is a robust, explicit conceptual framework for sensor-enhanced health information systems Interoperability (IOp) at the semantic level. This semantically enabled our HIS, to interoperate with Transducers that are compliant with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 21451 family of standards, and it provides the ability to query high-level knowledge of the data context as well as low-level raw data accessibility in a multi-transducer enable HIS

The role of the protein PGR5 in photoprotection and photosynthetic productivity in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

In plants, the need to efficiently respond to constant environmental fluctuations has led to the evolution of photoprotective mechanisms to regulate photosynthetic light reactions. One of such mechanism is cyclic electron transport (CET) which generates a pH gradient inducing the nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) of excess excitation energy, synthesis of ATP and maintenance of balanced redox state of the photosynthetic electron transport (PET) chain. Two major pathways of CET involve the NADH dehydrogenase-like complex (NDH)-dependent pathway, and the Proton Gradient Regulation 5 (PGRS)-dependent pathway. However, the mechanism and function of the PGRS-dependent CET to adapt the photosynthetic process in response to environmental variations and its impact in rice photosynthesis remains unclear. This study aims to determine the role of the photo protective protein, PGRS in the regulation of photoprotection and photosynthesis under constant as well as dynamic conditions and its impact on plant growth and development. Oryza sativa var. Kaybonnet, PGRS RNA interference (RNAi) and overexpression (OE) transgenic rice plants were characterised based on their physiological and morphological traits in a controlled environment and in glasshouse under constant and fluctuating light intensities. This study showed that PGRS-dependent CET was actively occurring in rice leaves grown under non saturating light but its rate increased significantly with overexpression of the PGRS protein in saturating light. Under constant and fluctuating light, elevated NPQ observed in the OE was absent in the RNAi lines indicating that PGRS is essential for cyclic electron flow in rice both during induction and at steady state photosynthesis. CO2 assimilation in both OE and RNAi were limited by maximum rate of carboxylation (Vcmax) although the RNAi was also photoinhibited. Experiments under dynamic condition of low atmospheric moisture indicated that the PGRS-dependent CET plays an important role in photoprotection of PSI and PSI!. Results from this experiment further suggest that PGRS could function efficiently in stress alleviation both in the short- and long term. Growth and biomass accumulation in the glasshouse and controlled environment showed that the PGRS protein is important in rice leaf photosynthesis. However, in a biomass experiment, significant photosynthetic advantage attributed to overexpression of PGRS could not be identified except in photoprotection and regulation of the PET chain. This study indicates that the ATP/NADPH ratio may modulate PGRS dependent CET response in rice, however, its regulation is likely to depend on the availability of PSI electron acceptors such as ferredoxin. PGRS may be important in meeting the demand for ATP in rice. In conclusion, this study has shown that the protein PGRS plays a very important role in enhancing photoprotection and is required for efficient photosynthesis in rice. However, there may be need for balance between enhancing photo protection and crop productivity in future improvement programmes

Contrasting roles of deoxynivalenol and nivalenol in host-mediated interactions between Fusarium graminearum and Sitobion avenae

Fusarium graminearum is the predominant causal species of Fusarium head blight in Europe and North America. Different chemotypes of the species exist, each producing a plethora of mycotoxins. Isolates of differing chemotypes produce nivalenol (NIV) and deoxynivalenol (DON), which differ in toxicity to mammals and plants. However, the effect of each mycotoxin on volatile emissions of plant hosts is not known. Host volatiles are interpreted by insect herbivores such as Sitobion avenae, the English grain aphid, during host selection. Previous work has shown that grain aphids are repelled by wheat infected with DON-producing F. graminearum, and this study seeks to determine the influence of pathogen mycotoxins to host volatile chemistry. Volatile collections from infected hosts and olfactometer bioassays with alate aphids were performed. Infections with isolates that produced DON and NIV were compared, as well as a trichothecene deficient transformant derived from the NIV-producing isolate. This work confirmed the repellent nature of infected hosts with DON accumulation. NIV accumulation produced volatiles that were attractive to aphids. Attraction did not occur when NIV was absent and was, therefore, a direct consequence of NIV production

The role of photoprotection in defence of two wheat genotypes against Zymoseptoria tritici

This study provides new insights into the role of photoprotection in preformed and induced defence of two wheat genotypes with contrasting phenotypes to infection by Zymoseptoria tritici. We investigated the mechanisms of the photoprotective response during early infection, including nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ), β-carotene-derived xanthophylls, reactive oxygen species, and the phytohormones abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), and salicylic acid (SA). Furthermore, we quantified the effects of pathogenesis on photosynthesis, stomatal control, and expression of plant defence molecular markers. The photoprotective mechanism of successful defence involved the qI component of NPQ leading to rapid down-regulation of photosystem II quantum yield and chlorophyll a:b, increased biosynthesis of the xanthophyll neoxanthin and ABA, and the expression of chloroplast-specific enzymes to engage in scavenging of O2●−. Elevated ABA in the resistant genotype correlated with preformed leaf defence traits including low stomatal density, increased expression of wax biosynthesis, and lignification. Z. tritici exhibited reduced germination and branching on the resistant host genotype and hijacked stomatal control in both genotypes by enhancing stomatal sensitivity to light. Increased biosynthesis of JA and anthocyanins, in contrast to SA, were quantified in the incompatible interaction. Our results indicate that ABA and JA in antagonistic action to SA were associated with defence in the resistant genotype, Cougar, against Z. tritici

Altered gene expression by sedaxane increases PSII efficiency, photosynthesis and growth and improves tolerance to drought in wheat seedlings

Succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides have been shown to increase PSII efficiency and photosynthesis under drought stress in the absence of disease to enhance the biomass and yield of winter wheat. However, the molecular mechanism of improved photosynthetic efficiency observed in SDHI-treated wheat has not been previously elucidated. Here we used a combination of chlorophyll fluorescence, gas exchange and gene expression analysis, to aid our understanding of the basis of the physiological responses of wheat seedlings under drought conditions to sedaxane, a novel SDHI seed treatment. We show that sedaxane increased the efficiency of PSII photochemistry, reduced non-photochemical quenching and improved the photosynthesis and biomass in wheat correlating with systemic changes in the expression of genes involved in defense, chlorophyll synthesis and cell wall modification. We applied a coexpression network-based approach using differentially expressed genes of leaves, roots and pregerminated seeds from our wheat array datasets to identify the most important hub genes, with top ranked correlation (higher gene association value and z-score) involved in cell wall expansion and strengthening, wax and pigment biosynthesis and defense. The results indicate that sedaxane confers tolerant responses of wheat plants grown under drought conditions by redirecting metabolites from defense/stress responses towards growth and adaptive development

Direct and host-mediated interactions between Fusarium pathogens and herbivorous arthropods in cereals

Fusarium head blight and fusarium ear rot diseases of cereal crops are significant global problems, causing yield and grain quality losses and accumulation of harmful mycotoxins. Safety limits have been set by the European Commission for several Fusarium-produced mycotoxins; mitigating the risk of breaching these limits is of great importance to crop producers as part of an integrated approach to disease management. This review examines current knowledge regarding the role of arthropods in disease epidemiology. In the field, diseased host plants are likely to interact with arthropods that may substantially impact the disease by influencing spread or condition of the shared host. For example, disease progress by Fusarium graminearum can be doubled if wheat plants are aphid-infested. Arthropods have been implicated in disease epidemiology in several cases and the evidence ranges from observed correlations between arthropod infestation and increased disease severity and mycotoxin accumulation, to experimental evidence for arthropod infestation causing heightened pathogen prevalence in hosts. Fusarium pathogens differ in spore production and impact on host volatile chemistry, which influences their suitability for arthropod dispersal. Herbivores may allow secondary fungal infection after wounding a plant or they may alter host susceptibility by inducing changes in plant defence pathways. Post-harvest, during storage, arthropods may also interact with Fusarium pathogens, with instances of fungivory and altered behaviour by arthropods towards volatile chemicals from infected grain. Host-mediated indirect pathogen–arthropod interactions are discussed alongside a comprehensive review of evidence for direct interactions where arthropods act as vectors for inoculum