Money Laundering and Trans-organised Financial Crime in Nigeria: Collaboration of the Local and Foreign Capitalist Elites

Nigeria loses US$600 million annually to money laundering. Between the mid-1980s and 1999, Nigeria lost US$100billion to money laundering. In the so acclaimed democratic era, between 2001 and 2004, the country lost an estimated US$25billion to money laundering. Nigerians who specialise in international money transfer have also extorted about US$357,142,857 from overseas victims. However, such illegal inflow and outflow of huge amount of money that has contributed to the impoverishment of the Nigerian economy cannot be easily perpetrated, without the cooperation, collaboration or at the very least, connivance of the professionals, particularly accountants. Yet, the various statutory provisions, companies’ and professional bodies’ Acts locally and internationally, all combined to place the responsibility on the accountants and auditors to detect and report cases of suspected money laundering and other financial crimes to the regulators. This paper develops theories of money laundering and the professions, particularly accountancy and utilizes archival documents to provide the evidence which suggests the role of the accountants in acting as the advisers and vectors of the ruling elites, politicians, public officials and their multinational corporations and other foreign capitalists’ collaborators in siphoning the collective wealth of Nigeria into the individual private bank accounts abroad. The paper further provides the evidence, which suggests that, the successive Nigerian governments, the ‘good governance’, ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency’-preaching Western economic powers, and the ‘ethical conduct’ and ‘transparency’-preaching accountancy bodies (local and foreign) have been reluctant to investigate or prosecute the culprits and erring members within their borders or associations in the face of the evidence of these local and trans-organized financial crimes in Nigeria

An exploration of the use of marketing public relations at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa

Text in English with abstracts in English and AfrikaansCultural tourism is one of the growth areas of the tourism industry globally. Cultural tourism refers to visits motivated by cultural offerings. Cultural offerings include museums, castles, cultural landscapes and historical sites. The Apartheid Museum is a non-profit organisation, which relies on generosity of government, private organisations and sales of gate tickets. It thus relies on building and sustaining a long-term mutual relationship with its visitors to earn their loyalty and support. Marketing public relations is a concept, which has been explored in commercial contexts by numerous studies. However, there is still limited literature on the adoption and the use of marketing public relations in the context of a non-profit organisation such as a museum. The aim of this study was to explore the use of marketing public relations at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. In order to explore the use of marketing public relations at the museum, a survey involving 384 visitors and in-depth interviews with six marketing staff members were conducted. The data from the questionnaire were analysed using the SPSS software. The data collected from the in-depth interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The study revealed that the museum does not deploy marketing public relations tools in an integrated manner. Its significance resides in that it provides marketing public relation guidelines to organisations like the Apartheid Museum for purposes of building long term and meaningful relations with their customer stakeholders.Kulturele toerisme neem wêreldwyd snel toe. Kuturele toerisme verwys na “besoeke gemotiveer deur kulturele aanbiedings”. Dit sluit besoeke aan museums, kastele, kulturele landskappe en historiese terreine in. Die Apartheid-museum is ’n organisasie sonder winsbejag wat op die vrygewendheid van die regering en private instansies asook kaartjieverkope by die toegangshek staatmaak. Dit reken dus op die aanknoop en instandhouding van langtermynverhoudings met sy besoekers om hulle lojaliteit en ondersteuning te verseker. Openbare betrekkinge-bemarking is ’n konsep wat in kommersiële konteks deur verskeie studies ondersoek is. Daar is egter nog min literatuur oor die aanvaarding en gebruikmaking hiervan in die konteks van ’n organisasie sonder winsbejag soos ’n museum beskikbaar. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die gebruike van openbare betrekkinge-bemarking by die Apartheidsmuseum in Johannesburg, Suid-Afrika te ondersoek. Om hierdie doel te bereik is ’n vraelys deur 384 besoekers voltooi en indiepte onderhoude met ses skakelbeamptes op die personeel gevoer. Die data van die vraelys is met behulp van SPSS-sagteware deur die gebruik van tematiese analise geëvalueer. Hierdie studie het getoon dat die museum nie op ’n geïntegreerde manier die bemarkingsgeleenthede vir openbare betrekkinge benut nie. Die belangrikheid van hierdie studie is geleë in die feit dat dit riglyne aan organisasies soos die Apartheidsmuseum voorsien met die doel om langtermyn- en betekenisvolle verhoudings met hulle kliëntedeelhebbers op te bou.Communication ScienceM.A. (Communication

An in vitro Study of the Effect of Some Commonly Used Antacids on the Release Profile of Paracetamol and Metronidazole Tablets

This study reports on the effect of magnesium oxide, magnesium trisilicate, aluminium hydroxide and bentonite antacids on the disintegration and dissolution characteristics of commercial paracetamol and metronidazole tablets. The effect of salt on the interaction between the drugs and the antacids was also studied. The disintegration times of the tablets were determined in the different antacid solutions while the effect of antacids on dissolution was studied by adding various amounts of the antacid powders to the dissolution medium. The presence of magnesium trisilicate, magnesium oxide and bentonite delayed disintegration of paracetamol tablets. Generally, the introduction of 7.5% w/w sodium chloride into each of the antacid resulted in a reduction in disintegration time of paracetamol tablets. Combination of the antacids resulted in a greater retardation of dissolution of the paracetamol and metronidazole tablets. The retardation of dissolution of metronidazole from the tablets followed the rank order: bentonite > magnesium trisilicate > magnesium oxide > aluminium hydroxide. The addition of salt to magnesium trisilicate and bentonite dissolution medium decreased T50 and T70 with 7.5% w/w sodium chloride causing a greater reduction than 5.0% w/w. The results suggest that concomitant administration of magnesium oxide, magnessium trisilicate, aluminium hydroxide and bentonite with paracetamol and metronidazole should be discouraged since the bioavailability of these drugs may be compromised.Keywords: Antacids, disintegration and dissolution times, paracetamol, metronidazoleEast and Central African Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Vol. 15 (2012) 10-1

Privatisation and accountability in a “crony capitalist” Nigerian state

Nigeria is richly endowed with oil and gas resources, but the country’s continued reliance on loans from international financial institutions raises questions about the transparency and accountability of its utilisation of the huge revenues resulting from these two resources. In order to attract international capital to bolster its revenues from sales of oil and gas, a huge proportion of which continues to be used corruptly, the World Bank has encouraged the Nigerian government to subscribe to neoliberal economic policies by enlisting accounting firms and privatising state-owned enterprises. Key justifications for this have included enhancing accountability, reducing public-sector corruption, promoting market efficiency and attracting international capital. However, this paper presents evidence of the role of accounting in the undervaluation of assets, concealment of possible malpractice, and subversion of the accountability that it should have delivered in the privatisation process. The assumption that accounting will enhance accountability, reduce public-sector corruption and promote market efficiency in privatisation, and ultimately attract investment into a crony capitalist Nigerian state, appears to be an illusion created partly through the apparent legitimacy of accounting

Viral Modulation of Host Translation and Implications for Vaccine Development

Translation of mRNAs into protein is an essential mechanism of regulating gene expression—and a step exploited by viruses for their own propagation. In this article, we review mechanisms that govern translation and provide an overview of the translation machinery, discuss some of the components involved in this process, and discuss how viruses modulate host translational controls and implications in vaccine design

The Effect of Polymer Blends on the Formulation of Sustained Release Ciprofloxacin Matrix Tablets

Background: The application of polymers to sustain drug release is increasingly becoming popular and the use of polymer blends provides an alternative method to developing new pharmaceutical raw materials.Objective: This work aims to study the effect of polymer blends of xanthan gum (X), hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC) and Chrysophyllum albidum gum (CAG) on the mechanical properties and release rate of ciprofloxacin tablet.Method: Ciprofloxacin tablets prepared by direct compression was evaluated for weight uniformity, friability and hardness. The time taken for 50 % (T50) and 75 % (T75) drug release were obtained and the in vitro release data were fitted into drug kinetics models to determine the mechanism of drug release.Result: The tablets showed satisfactory mechanical strength. The rank order of tablet strength for the various blends is CAG-HPMC > CAG-X-HPMC > CAG-X. All the formulations with polymer blends had higher values of T50 and T75 than formulations containing single polymers. An increase in the proportion of CAG in formulation containing CAG-X (in ratio 2:1) resulted in almost a two- fold sustained drug release with T50 and T75 values of 4.4 and 7.1 hrs respectively. Generally, a blend of the three polymers resulted in a slower drug release. The proportion of polymers in the blend had no significant (p>0.05) effect on drug release rate in formulations containing the three polymers. Higuchi model was the most prominent model while the mechanism for drug release was super case II transport.Conclusion: This study highlights the potentials of polymer blends in the design and formulation of sustained release ciprofloxacin matrix tablets.Keywords: Polymer blend, Sustained release, Ciprofloxacin, Xanthan gum, Chrysophyllum albidum gu

Nonlinear Mixing of Laser Generated Narrowband Rayleigh Surface Waves

This study presents the nonlinear mixing technique of two co-directionally travelling Rayleigh surface waves generated and detected using laser ultrasonics. The optical generation of Rayleigh waves on the specimen is obtained by shadow mask method. In conventional nonlinear measurements, the inherently small higher harmonics are greatly influenced by the nonlinearities caused by coupling variabilities and surface roughness between the transducer and specimen interface. The proposed technique is completely contactless and it should be possible to eliminate this problem. Moreover, the nonlinear mixing phenomenon yields not only the second harmonics, but also the sum and difference frequency components, which can be used to measure the acoustic nonlinearity of the specimen. In this paper, we will be addressing the experimental configurations for this technique and characterize the acoustic nonlinearity of the specimen through measuring the nonlinearity parameter ‘β’. The proposed technique is validated experimentally on Aluminum 7075 alloy specimen

COMPRESSIONAL PROPERTIES OF METRONIDAZOLE TABLET FORMULATIONS CONTAINING ALOE VERA AS BINDING AGENT

The purpose of the present work was to determine the compressional characteristics of metronidazole tablet containing Aloe vera as a binding agent. Metronidazole tablet formulations were prepared using Aloe vera mucilage as a binder at different concentrations (1-5%w/w) and this was compared with formulations containing polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a standard. The tablet properties were assessed using friability, crushing strength and disintegration time while compressional characteristics were analysed using density measurements, Heckel and Kawakita equations. The tablet properties conformed to the Pharmacopoeia standards. Tablets formulated with PVP were generally stronger than tablets made from Aloe Vera. All the batches passed the friability tests and the percentage friability decreased with increase in binder concentration. Formulations containing Aloe Vera disintegrated faster than those containing PVP. Tablets containing Aloe Vera exhibited a faster onset of plastic deformation during compression as indicated by the low Pyvalues and a lower degree of total plastic deformation. Results suggest that Aloe Vera could be a useful binding agent in pharmaceutical formulations