Establishment of the Nigerian Railway Corporation

Making use of previously unused Colonial Office records at the National Archives in Kew, including newspaper reports, interviews with staff of the Nigerian Railway, and debates in the Federal House of Representatives, this study examines the forces that dictated the establishment of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. It argues that the primary reason why the British colonial government established the corporation was to assist foreign interests in Nigeria by distancing itself from the direct management of labor relations between the Nigerian colonial state and the militant trade unions in the Nigerian Railway and other commercially oriented government departments. By placing the day-to-day management of these departments beyond the immediate reach of ambitious Nigerian nationalists who were anxious to quickly take over the control of the colonial state, the colonial government undermined the ability of local elite to build their weak economic base

Manipulative Use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) Text Messages by Nigerian Telecommunications Companies

This paper is an application of Relevance Theory for the interpretation of short messaging service (SMS) text messages emanating from Nigerian telecommunications companies to their subscribers. The aim of the research was to identify and describe the manipulative strategies employed by Nigerian telecommunications companies to induce subscribers to part with their money through sales promotion lotteries. 100 SMS texts were purposively extracted from the cell phones of randomly selected residents of Lagos Nigeria who had received promotional SMS text messages from three major Nigerian telecommunications companies. Using Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory (1995) as its theoretical framework, the paper described the manipulative use of SMS by Nigerian telecommunications companies. The analysis revealed that SMS text messages were encoded to achieve maximization of relevance through explicature and implicature; contextual implication and strengthening; and the reduction of processing effort through violating the maxim of truthfulness and the creative use of graphology. The paper concludes that SMS text-messages were used manipulatively by Nigerian telecommunications companies to earn indirect income from sales promotion lottery

Heavy metal concentrations in some organs of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) from Eko-Ende Dam, Ikirun, Nigeria

The contents of the heavy metals Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Pb, Cd and As were examined in the liver, heart, gills, kidney and muscles of the fish Clarias gariepinus from Eko-Ende dam in Ikirun, the capital of Ifelodun Local Government of Osun State, Nigeria. C. gariepinus is the fish of choice and the most demanded in the southwest of Nigeria. The highest metal concentrations were in the liver and the gills while the lowest was in the muscles. The general deceasing order of metal accumulation in the organs was Fe > Zn > Cu > Mn > Cd. Lead and arsenic were not detected in any organ. The values were of lower concentrations than found in many other dams and rivers in Nigeria and some other countries. The values were also lower than the FAO/WHO recommended maximum limits in fish samples, making the fish to be safe and not of any hazards for the consumers

The 'War' of Appropriate Pricing of Petroleum Products: The Discourse of Nigeria's Reform Agenda

This study focuses on the newspaper coverage of the debate on the pricing of petroleum products (petroleum, diesel, kerosene, etc.) in Nigeria. It seeks to examine, specifically, the discursive constructions of economic development with particular concern for the reform agenda in the country's petroleum sector. In doing this, the paper tries to analyze and characterize the debate on the increase in the prices of petroleum products in the country between 1999 and 2004; following on the heels of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)-driven reforms. It further situates the analysis of the debate within the history and politics of oil and development in the country with particular concern for the 'angles of telling' of the participants. Using the framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA), the paper attempts to show the ideological elements in the discourse of socio-political development in Nigeria as constructed by the different sociopolitical groups and concludes that the different angles of telling result from different underlying issues of identity and power

Optimization of enzymatic digestibility of sodium hydroxide- hydrogen peroxide oxidative pretreated siam weed for reducing sugar production

This study evaluated the enzymatic conversion of alkaline peroxide oxidative pretreatment of an invasive lignocellulosic biomass (siam weed) to reducing sugar, amenable to further microbial effects at the downstream processing. Using a statistical design of experiments approach (response surface methodology), optimum pretreatment conditions of 43.7 oC, 9.3 h, and 0.4% H2O2 , and enzymatic hydrolysis conditions of 25 FPU cellulase/g treated biomass, 50 oC hydrolysis temperature, 2% biomass loading, and 72 h hydrolysis period, 391.3 mg/g reducing sugar yield was achieved and validated. At the optimized pretreatment and enzymatic conditions, the conversion of treated biomass to untreated biomass was about a 6-fold increase

Effective Gravimetric Characterization for Lignocellulosic Biomass: Comparison of NaOH-H2O2 and Ca(OH)2-H2O2 Oxidation Pretreated Sugarcane Bagasse

In this study, alkaline peroxide oxidation pretreatment was evaluated for sugarcane bagasse, a lignocellulosic biomass. By comparing the effects of NaOHH2O2 and Ca(OH)2 on pretreatments at specified reaction time periods (3, 6, 9, and 12 h) and reaction temperatures (60, 70, 80, and 90 h), optimum responses in term of cellulose content, hemicellulose solubilization, and lignin removal were established. Optimum pretreatment conditions of 80 oC reaction temperature, 3 h reaction time, and 30 mL/L of water hydrogen peroxide concentration (1%H2O2) solubilized 69.5%(w/w) hemicellulose for the sodium hydroxide peroxide (SHP) pretreatments, 75.8%(w/w) lignin removal was also achieved with 59.2%(w/w) cellulose retained in the solid fraction. In addition, the responses for the optimum conditions for the calcium hydroxide peroxide (CHP) pretreatments, the cellulose content, hemicellulose solubilization, and lignin removal were 50.3%, 66.6%, and 65.4%(w/w) respectively. Pretreatments showed both NaOHH2O2 and Ca(OH)2-H2O2 to be useful pretreatment agents for the disruption of the polysaccharide complex. The study also revealed that NaOH-H2O2 pretreatment stands as a better choice to Ca(OH)2-H2O2 pretreatment

Mechanical and Structural Responses of Low Carbon Steel to Cold Rolling and Stress Relief Anneal Treatments

This study investigated the effect of deformation by cold rolling and stress relief anneal on the mechanical and structural properties of low carbon steel. The as-received steel samples were cold rolled at 20% – 40 % degrees of deformation using Buhler rolling machine in Metallurgical and Materials engineering department University of Lagos, Nigeria. Additionally, some of the cold rolled samples were annealed at a temperature of 650° C and soaked for 1 hour in a muffle furnace. The results revealed that the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), percent elongation, hardness and impact strength of the cold rolled low carbon steel improved significantly after stress relief anneal due to the elimination of induced strain hardening caused by cold rolling. The micrographs show that cold rolled + stress relief anneal caused significant recrystallization of ferrite-austenite phase to refine martensite with reduction of dislocations. Therefore, the low carbon steel can be used effectively for structural purposes in machines and equipment

Enhanced Biodegradation of Hydrocarbon Sludge Using Consortium of Microorganisms

In this work, the effects of consortium of Microorganisms, Pseudomonas purida, Pseudomonas aeuniguma, Pseudomonas florescence, and Bacillus megaterium, in degrading hydrocarbon sludge from refinery wastes, in Niger Delta area of Nigeria, have been studied. Focus is particularly on reduction of BOD, COD, TOC and ROC of the hydrocarbon sludge to comply with standard requirement for disposal. The organisms were maintained in nutrient agar plants and subculture on weekly basis throughout the period of investigation. Lab-assay method was used to carry out the experiment, i.e, Ex-Situ treatment. The sludge was inoculated with the consortium of Microorganisms and samples were taken for analysis at two week interval for a period of eight weeks. Result shows that, for the duration of investigation, there was 71.3% reduction of the initial BOD, 60.0% reduction of the initial COD, 78.4% reduction of the initial TOC and 78.1 % reduction of the initial ROC. It was noted that given enough time the consortium of Microorganisms has the potential to biodegrade the hydrocarbon sludge to an acceptable level of the Environmental Regulatory Body's standard. The sludge however requires more than eight weeks for the toxic level to be reduced to Regulatory Body's standard. It was also observed that the rate of biodegradation of the sludge by the Microorganisms declined with time

Place Attachment in Poor Residential Neighbourhoods of Akure Nigeria

This paper reports the findings of an attachment experiment in Nigeria's poor residential neighbourhoods. The study examined how residents were attached and the factors that predicted attachment to the neighbourhoods. Specifically, three ranges of attachment, the home, the area, and the city were investigated. In order to determine the degree of the attachment, it also explored the social and physical aspects of attachment. Statistics was collected from questionnaires distributed in the core of Akure, Nigeria, to a group of 532 household heads in four poor residential neighbourhoods. These have been evaluated using frequencies and models of categorical regression. Results indicate that the attachment rate varies across the three ranges. City attachment is the highest and social attachment has been found higher among residents of poor neighbourhoods than physical attachment.  Length of residency and household number are the strongest predictors in all three ranges