Developmental Democracy in Africa: A Review

Democracy is one of the virtues we ache for, as many now observe an undemocratic society as a savage society. Richard L. Sklar built up a hypothesis called developmental democracy in which he opines that democracy will essentially prompts the improvement of African people and states. For the most part, there has been contention whether development precedes democracy or rather democracy helps development, which is very much unclear. Regardless of the answer, since the prodemocracy charges hit Africa since 1990s, democracy has not made substantial strides. There have still been huge issues of underdevelopment, corruption and mal-administration. Many have started scrutinizing the possibility of democracy been ideal for Africa. The purpose of this paper is to audit the possibility of developmental democracy within African context. This paper presents that democracy is not ideal for Africa, it likewise guarantees that, if democracy is really what it is said to be, there would not have been any requirement for polarization, for instance, developmental, liberal, social democracies and so on. This is because any democracy will essentially include all. It is on this background that the paper attempts to criticize Richard’s Sklar’s idea of developmental democracy

Translating Evidence into Public Health Practice

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the third leading cause of deaths in Nigeria. Lack of clear understanding of where new infections are occurring may imply that state HIV prevention programme are not driven by evidence. Several evidences are available but not accessible and in other cases, accessible but not applied in planning and designing context-specific HIV interventions. This has led to a reversal or slow pace of controlling the epidemic in Nigeria for the past decades. A retrospective analysis of health data was collated and analyzed. Results were compared with established baseline in project interventions to determine if this available information were considered by policy makers, health planners and programme designers as HIV interventions are developed for states and at national level. Findings reveals that most states have used data to tailor-guide interventions leading to significant changes in behavior, uptake of HIV services and corresponding decline in HIV prevalence. Keywords: evidence-informed interventions, planning, HIV contro

Changing the Landscape of Nutrition Programmes in Nigeria Using Precede-Proceed Model (PPM) and Trans-theoretical Model (TTM): A Shift to Change-Theory Approaches

There are empirical evidences that informed the cause and effect of malnutrition in Northern Nigeria. Addressing malnutrition in Northern Nigeria will require a shift from theories to resolving social-determinants. A desk research review was conducted on several nutrition-focus and/or sensitive programmes to examine its level of contributive change to resolving malnutrition in Nigeria. Findings reveals that nutrition programmes proposed and implemented in Nigeria have been largely focused on promoting health education than addressing socioeconomic and environmental characteristics. This paper focuses on critical analysis of empirical evidence of malnutrition in pregnancy and children, and proposes models towards addressing it. Keywords: Malnutrition, socio-economic determinants, Precede and Proceed Model and Trans-Theoretical Mode

Adverse Effect of Water Contamination or Pollution to Human Health and Safety in the Nigeria Delta – Nigeria: An Environmental Case Study

Water have been found to be a life-supporting liquid. Humans like other living being required water for purposes of its metabolism. Human uses water for other purposes including domestic and industrial activities. Nearly every human daily activities will be free of water use. This goes further to connote the important of water. Contamination of water sources relatively has great impact on human health, domestic and industrial development as well as the survival of aquatic lives which also serve as a source of food for humans. This paper seeks to analyze this environmental situation in relation to its related health issues. Empirical evidence was examined to establish concrete evidence that water contamination can lead to severe health problems. The paper focus its scope of analyzing water contamination situation in the Niger Delta, Southern Nigeria and its impact on the health of the residence. Recommendations were proposed on how water contamination can be mitigated to avoid advent of increased mortality in Niger Delta. Keywords: Water contamination, Human Health and Safety, Water-borne diseas

Social hysteria, moral panic and the (dys)functional order of postmodernity in Amma Darko’s Faceless and Bolaji Abdullahi’s Sweet Sixteen

Amma Darko‟s Faceless and Bolaji Abdullahi‟s Sweet Sixteen creatively interface a dialogue that centres on the prevalent social order, charts the course for salvaging the disoriented mass from the present socio-cultural pervasion. The two novels are read critically and inter-textually towards discerning the complex socio-cultural dynamics of postmodern society that seem adrift on the cleavages of moral precipice. The thrust of this paper hinges on the strategies of representation by which writers serve as chroniclers of the state of the world, sensitisers of humanity, and as advocates for the vulnerable, with particular interest on the girl child and the younger generations. Darko‟s major characters portray the grim picture of the present social order, just as Abdullahi‟s story projects pedagogically, the propositions towards arresting the prevalent situation and healing society of its falling ethical foundation. A combination of the two creative scenarios constitutes veritable platform for dialogue, for synergising discourse of value re-engineering, socio-economic justice and of moral repair. The analytical thrust of this paper is therefore guided by postmodernism as theoretical tool suitable for interrogating the complex cleavages of contemporary socio-cultural experience

Investigation of Foreign Students' Problems in Selected Oklahoma Institutions of Higher Learning

Higher Educatio

Multivariate Analysis of Four Aspects of Stillwater News-Press Content

This study attempted to determine the attitudes of readers toward three Display .treatments (Headlines, Photographs and Type-faces) in the stillwater News-Press, and to determine the reading frequency of four kinds of News and non-News content carried by the NewsPress. The study also attempted to determine readers' attitudes toward the News-Press in general. It is hoped that the findings will be beneficial to the NewsPress management in future decision-making on the paper.Mass Communicatio

A Case for Investing in HIV-Sensitive Social Services for Vulnerable Children in Nigeria

HIV and AIDS are reported to be one of the leading causes of death in Nigeria, behind other child-related death illnesses – influenza and pneumonia (CDC, 2013). The presence of HIV and AIDS in a family, including related orhpanhood because of the disease has a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of children. It also dramatically impacts the long-term implications and costs to society. However, there remains a notable disparity between the contributions made by different actors – including all levels of the Nigerian government, international donors, private organizations and civil society. A desk review was conducted to examine the current gaps in investment related to care and treatment for children living with or affected by HIV. Findings reveal that foreign funding declined from 82 – 71% for financing of HIV related programming and interventions. While there seems to be some progress compared to increased contributions to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) programming from domestic sources (e.g., government and private sector), this comes at the same time when there is a decline in foreign donor support towards the issue. Conversely, private sector contributions to OVC issues remain an untapped resource in Nigeria. Therefore, there is a need for an investment case to clear articulate and advocate for increased financial support for an HIV sensitive social service system that can adequately address and respond to the needs of vulnerable children. Keywords: Investment case, OVC financing, cost of inaction, OVC programing, Nigeri

Waste Frying Oil as a Feedstock for Biodiesel Production

This study was initiated to blend the biodiesel produced from waste frying oil (WFO) with petroleum diesel in three different proportions (B20, B50 and B80), and the dual fuels were tested on compression ignition engine to evaluate their emission characteristics. The biodiesel produced from WFO was achieved via heterogeneous catalyzed transesterification using anthill-eggshell-Ni-Co mixed oxide composite catalyst at reaction temperature of 70°C, reaction time of 2 h, catalyst loading of 3 wt% and methanol to oil molar ratio of 12:1. Various analyses carried out on the prepared WFO-based biodiesel confirmed that it is of good quality and also meet the ASTM standard. The blended fuel containing 20% by volume biodiesel content (B20) emitted 1050 and 14,000 ppm of CO and CO2, respectively, which were lower than those emitted by B0, B50 and B80. It can be concluded that blending the diesel with appropriate volume of biodiesel not only improves its quality but also lowers greenhouse gases emission

A Comparative Study of the Effect of Family Types on Social Adjustment of Adolescent in Aba, Abia State

The aim of the study was to compare the influence of family type on adolescent social behavior in Aba Metropolis of Abia State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three specific objectives, two research questions and two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. A survey research design was adopted for the study, 600 adolescents were purposively selected from 17 Secondary school in Aba Metropolis and used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire tagged Single Parent and Adolescent Social Adjustment Questionnaire (SPASAQ). The instrument had four sections A – D and 32 items. The instrument was validated by three experts and the reliability coefficient of 0.80 was high enough to guarantee the instrument reliable for use in the study. Data obtained was analysed using descriptive statistics, frequency and Mean while the hypotheses were tested using t-test. Findings revealed that single parenting had negative influence on parent-adolescent relationship and sibling-sibling relationship. The result of the hypotheses showed that there is a significant difference between family type and parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent-teacher relationship. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommend that irrespective of the family type, parents should build healthy relationship with their adolescents to curb anti-social behaviour. Keywords: Family type; Adolescents; Social Adjustment; parent-adolescent relationshi