Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa State, North -East Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study investigated the Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria, one of the three states bedeviled by the Boko Haram insurgency. Quantitative research methodology and Cross-sectional survey design was applied for the study. The population of the study comprised of One Thousand Four Hundred Members (1400) drawn from Nineteen (19) local governments areas in the state. Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) was used to draw (302) members as sample of the population, while Walpole’s (1982) formula for proportions was used in arriving at a sample for each stratum (i.e. each local government area). In collecting data, a total of Three Hundred and Two (302) copies of questionnaires were administered, and Two Hundred and Forty 240 copies (79.47%) were returned and found useful. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that the information needs of members were daily mainly work related and from informal sources, as there were no public libraries/information centers in 17 local governments’ areas of the state. The outcome of the research also revealed barriers to information access to include general lack of formal information infrastructure such as libraries/information centers, poor and unreliable informal information sources, as well as lack of training on information literacy skills for members of Vigilante. It is recommended that there is a need for those involved in vigilante information delivery to continuously examine and identify evolving information needs of members of vigilante in order to meet such needs. Government should resuscitate the dying public libraries in all the local government areas of Adamawa state to provide information services. Libraries should organize training on information literacy and other information use skills for members of vigilante, because if this is done, it will enhance and improve information access across communities in Adamawa state. Finally, information resources be repackaged in order to take care of challenges of proximity to sources of information, language barrier and other challenges faced by members of vigilante

Political Violence Amongst Youth Groups in Africa's Budding Democracies - An Explorative Studies of Concepts, Issues and Experiences

Democratic processes the world over have exhibited tremendous challenges of diverse dimensions especially in emerging African states that are struglling to enthrone this valuable approach to management and public governance

Forensic Accounting and Incidence of Fraud Detection: Evidence from Nigeria

The study described and explained forensic accounting and the incidence of fraud detection in Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to identify personal skills requirements and, assess the types of investigative techniques used in forensic accounting. A literature review was conducted to set up the conceptual and theoretical framework for the study. A quantitative approach was used by administering a structured questionnaire. A total of 101 investigators from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were used as sample for the study. We employed Jarque Bera statistics to conduct the analysis using the E views software. There is a significant relationship between forensic accounting personal skills; investigative techniques and fraud detection in Nigeria. The scope of the study was only in Nigeria and all samples were drawn from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The study concluded despite all fraudulent activities, forensic accounting is proffering solutions for fraud prevention and detection in Nigeria.  It was recommended for practitioners to engage in further training on forensic accounting personal skills and techniques

Mediation Role of Perceived Benefit in the Relationship between Perceived Government Support, Religiosity, Awareness and the Acceptance of Islamic Microfinancing in Nigeria

Social Exchange Theory highlights the possible mediating role perceived benefit in social and economic relationships, however, extent literature falls short is validating such theoretical insights in the context of Islamic microfinance. Following this theoretical insights the mediating role of perceived benefit on the relationship between perceived government support, religiosity, awareness and intention to accept Islamic micro-financing was examined. Quantitative research design through data collected from smallholder farmers in Jigawa state was employed; the data was analyzed using PLS-SEM. The finding revealed that perceived benefit mediates the relationship between perceived government support, religiosity, awareness and intention to accept Islamic micro-financing. It implied that perceiving the benefit is one of the mechanisms through which government support, religiosity and awareness influence intention to accept Islamic micro-financing. The study expands the understanding of TPB through the support of SET to explain the mediating effects of perceived benefits in the context of Islamic micro-financing. Thus, it will benefit policymakers in understanding that perceived benefit of Islamic micro-financing is a key to its acceptance, hence, the need for awareness campaigns, support services and religious preaching to that end. Implementing the finding will not only solve problem of access to finance among the smallholder farmers but also ease life through employment generation and poverty eradication. To the researchers’ knowledge, this work could be first to examine the mediating role of perceived benefit in the context of Islamic microfinance among the smallholder farmers with inferences from Social Exchange Theor

Parental Socio-Economic Status, Self-Concept and Gender Differences on Students’ Academic Performance in Borno State Colleges of Education: Implications for Counselling

This is a survey study, designed to determine gender differences and socio-economic status, self-concept on students’ academic performance in Colleges of Education, Borno State: Implications for counselling. The study set two research objectives, answered two research questions and tested two research hypotheses. The target population of this study comprises of all the students of Colleges of Education in Borno State during 2013/2014 academic sessions. This study used Purposive Sampling Technique to select two Colleges of Education; Krejcie and Morgan’s (2006)’s principle of determining sample size for research was used to select the sample and proportionate sampling procedure was also employed to draw 322 NCE III students. The instruments used in this study consisted of Socio-economic Status Questionnaire (SESQ), student’s self-concept scale (SSS) and Students’ Academic Performance Aptitude Tests (SAPAT) with reliability indices of 0.87, 0.62 and 0.62 respectively. Based on the obtained indices coefficients, both the instruments were reliable for use in this study. Descriptive startistic was used to answer the research questions and t-test was used to test the hypotheses The results obtained in this study indicated that, there was significant differences exist between gender and socio-economic status among the students in Colleges of Education in Borno State. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. Recommendations were made to government, College Authorities, parents, counsellors and other stakeholders in education, that College counsellors should use their techniques to counsel students to sustain and maintain the good relationship between the variables under study in Colleges of Education in Borno State.

Relationship between Audio-visual Materials and Environmental Factors on Students Academic Performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Borno State: Implications for Counselling

This is a survey study, designed to determine the relationship between audio-visual materials and environmental factors on students’ academic performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Borno State: Implications for Counselling. The study set two research objectives, and tested two research hypotheses. The population of this study is 1,987 students from three purposively selected Secondary Schools in Maiduguri. The sample size for this study was 110. The instruments used in this study consisted of Effect of Audio-visual and Environmental Influence on Student Academic Performance Questionnaire (EAEIAPQ) with reliability indices of 0.62. Based on the obtained indices coefficients, the instrument is reliable for use in this study. The data collected from students were tested using Pearson ‘r’ because Pearson correlates the relationship between two variables.  The results obtained in this study indicated that, that there was significant relationship between students’ academic performance and instructional materials, therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected and there was significant relationship between students’ academic performance and environmental factors. The null hypothesis was rejected. Recommendations were made to government, College Authorities and Counsellors since the relationship was good between the variables studied there is need for the school authorities to provide all the necessary instructional materials, government should also renovates the school building for better environment in all the Secondary School in Maiduguri Borno State

MARRIAGE, ITS CRITERIA IN ISLAM AND CHOICE OF HUSBANDS BY THE HAUSA PEOPLE OF SOKOTO

The institution of marriage has a significant place in the eyes of the Muslim Ummah as it is the only avenue that produces legitimate offspring and gives better moral training in the life of the Ummah. The paper examines the institution of marriage and its criteria in Islam. Choice of marriage partner, according to the criteria laid down by Islam. Then guardianship of a woman, dowry, witnesses, and the responsibility of women that Allah bestows on the men which is essential in Islamic marriage. The paper also highlights choice of husbands by women and the objectives of marriage in Islam. The four categories of prohibited marriages, like the Mutu’ah, marriage of a Mushrikha/ Mushrikh, marriage of women in waiting period, either from divorce or widowed. Choice of a marriage partner by educated Muslim women of Sokoto State. Literature base approach was adopted for the data used in the research. It concludes that the choice of marriage partner is very important for every Muslim as it give the family a sense of direction

A case of transverse vaginal septum causing obstructed labour

Transverse vaginal septum (TVS) is a congenital mullerian malformation resulting from failure of fusion or canalization of the urogenital sinus and the mullerian ducts. This results in amenorrhea, inability to consummate marriage and primary infertility if left untreated.  It is a rare finding in pregnancy and labor. However, due to ignorance, poor health seeking behavior and poverty in our setting the diagnosis of transverse vaginal septum may only be encountered in labor. We describe an 18 year old primigravida at term presented with history and findings of obstructed labor due to transverse vaginal septum (low-type) with a small central aperture first diagnosed in labor. This report is aimed at alerting clinicians that all primigravidae should have a routine pelvic examination during their antenatal visit to rule-out lower genital abnormalities

How to do things with speeches: a critical discourse analysis of military coup texts in Nigeria

Coup speeches that usher the military into political power in Nigeria are the central focus of this thesis. There are seven coup speeches that are notable in the changing of the political course in Nigeria and in enabling the military to rule Nigeria for 30 years, establishing another alternative political construct and party (Bangura 1991). The seven coup speeches along with two others, one a colonial proclamation of conquest and the other a counter coup speech (altogether making nine) constitute the data of this thesis. The analysis done here uses Critical Discourse Analysis, based on a combination of Fairclough (1989, 2001), Fairclough and Fairclough (2012), Thompson’s (1984, 1988 and 1990) works with complementary insights by Chilton (2004), to analyze the speeches in order to understand the ideologies, perceptions and arguments of the coup makers enshrined in the texts. I also employ a concordance analytic system in corpus linguistics to sort uses of important terms and lexical items. The analysis is divided into three broad parts, namely: an analysis of representation of social actors and their action, an analysis of the processes of interpellation and then an analysis of the premises of the arguments contained in the speeches. In the concluding part, there is a discussion of the dialectical nature of the coup speeches especially in the areas of mutual influences which aids in the gradual sedimentation of the political ideology of the military. In particular, there is a longitudinal intertextual analysis across all the speeches, from the earliest to the latest, to see how a coup speech genre is created. The contribution of this work to knowledge is in terms of combining discourse analysis and social theory to illuminate some aspects of Nigeria’s socio- political crises in depth and multifariously. This work helps in understanding the nature of Nigerian autocratic democracy, subservient followership by the citizenry and the supremacy of the military elite. The work employs a novel combination of representation, argumentation, interpellation and constitutive intertextuality in understanding military discourse. It looks at speaker intention, the exploitation of interpretation or reception and the formation of subjects in general and each with its importance and social context. The work as a whole reveals that the military try to build legitimacy by way of establishing authority through rhetorical arguments in varying degrees. These arguments are laid bare, and what they discern is that charges are decidedly trumped up by the military against their opponents and constructed to suit the spin of their moments. The coup makers in some instances construct strawmen of opponents and then go ahead to attack their constructed assumptions or they charge without substance using nominalizations, metaphorical constructions and presuppositions. They apply stipulative definitions and emotionally loaded words in evaluating their actions favourably and also in the negative evaluation of the actions of the opponents. At the level of interpellational analysis, the data reveals the use of language in gradually hailing the citizens as military subjects. The role of the audience changes here i.e. from those to be convinced in rhetorical evaluation of opponents to those to be firmly controlled. The persistent hailing and positioning of the citizens as military subjects help in concretizing their subjecthood. The reaction of the people in affirmation of support to the rule of the military is crucial and it completes the interpellation process. As observed by Clark (2007, 141) “many African societies are so inured to military intervention as not to regard it as aberrant”. This inuring of the societies has to do with hegemonic ideological practices in military discourses claiming legitimacy and the right to rule. At the reception level, this shows that most of the citizens have bought into the dominant ideology and are as such interpellated by it or have adopted what Hall (2015, 125) would call the ‘dominant-hegemonic position’. Aspects of argumentation, speech acts, and deontic modals used by the coup makers help in gradually solidifying the subservient nature of the citizens to the military junta. The diachronic and intertextual nature of the analysis also reveals that the colonial proclamation of conquest in Nigeria by Lord Fredrick Lugard possibly influenced the first coup speech in 1966 in terms of structure and genre. There are traces of the colonial proclamations found in the 1966 coup speech. In substance, the military appear to copy their colonial progenitors. Historically, the military were formed as an army of colonial conquest. There is a dialectical interplay between colonial discourse and military coup speeches. The first coup speech, for its part, influences other coup speeches and they in general impact on civilian political language. The work analyzes from the minute to the global and in this bid unties the layers of assumptions, constructions and points of views that underpin an otherwise objective presentation of reality. The study also engages social theory in illuminating aspects of discourse, social practice and political action. The works of post-structuralists like Foucault, Althusser, Bourdieu, Habermas, Laclau and Mouffe, Derrida etc. are employed in shedding light on the processes of social formation in the interpellation of subjects and in the construction of a new political authority by the military regimes

Municipal awareness as a tool for enhancing citizen satisfaction in municipal councils of Malaysia

This research study critically analysed the existing literatures on municipal awareness relevancy of LAs service delivery for the purpose of enhancing citizen satisfaction. The purpose of the study is the investigation of citizen satisfaction level of municipal services; analysis of the existing literatures on relationship between municipal awareness and citizen satisfaction. The Material and methods were carried out using secondary data and were meticulously and critically analysed to come up with reliable results. The study shows the relevancy of the public awareness, citizen satisfaction and municipal council performance in Malaysia. It is evidence in the research that citizen consent is importance before municipal services should be provided in the local community. The research study highlighted many discrepancies in many literatures related to the existing research study, evidence based analysis were carried out to buttress importance and significance of the related study to the research work. The literatures were reviewed to ascertain the current happening in the area of local government service delivery. The study shows that many municipal councils in Malaysia provide adequate and satisfactory services to their citizens’. The study also revealed that municipal council plays important role on citizen awareness of municipal service delivery. The study concludes that municipal service delivery can be enhanced through citizen awareness campaign, to sensitize the local community on various aspects of service delivery including maintenance of the facilities provided. The study also concludes that LAs lack of awareness section affects their performance in service delivery process. The study recommends that LAs need to consults the citizen for their needs and wants; awareness campaign need to be regularly carried out to maintain cordial relationship between LAs and their citizen; it is also recommended that municipal services should be delivered the needed services by the local inhabitants’ after duly consultatio