Teacher Attitude and Student Performance in Indigenous Language Learning in Lagos

When the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1987 introduced the educational policy that required study of one of the three national languages, i.e., Hausa, Igbo and Yorùbá, at the West African School Certificate / General Certificate in Education [WASC / GCE] level, Nigerians and especially advocates for the survival of the indigenous languages embraced the idea with great enthusiasm. The primary aim was to make more Nigerians speak indigenous languages in addition to the language of their immediate environment. However, this purpose was frustrated when students opted for, and indeed registered for, their mother tongues rather than a non-familiar indigenous language. If the policy had been actually followed, the country would have generated citizens, who not only speak their own indigenous languages, but also citizens who have a practical knowledge of all of their country’s traditional languages. But this did not happen. In this paper, we look at the attitudes of private school teachers to the teaching of the indigenous languages vis-a-vis the competence and performance of students in these indigenous languages. The study is not only comparative but also correlative. The methodological instruments included a questionnaire, interview, a quasi-test and examination of junior / senior secondary school leaving certificates. Our findings revealed that students’ performances, as reflected in their results, do not demonstrate their competence in the indigenous languages in question. Similarly, we observed that both the teachers and the learners are instrumentally and not integratively motivate

Experimental validation of multiphase flow models and testing of multiphase flow meters: A critical review of flow loops worldwide

Around the world, research into multiphase flow is performed by scientists with hugely diverse backgrounds: physicists, mathematicians and engineers from mechanical, nuclear, chemical, civil, petroleum, environmental and aerospace disciplines. Multiphase flow models are required to investigate the co-current or counter-current flow of different fluid phases under a wide range of pressure and temperature conditions and in several different configurations. To compliment this theoretical effort, measurements at controlled experimental conditions are required to verify multiphase flow models and assess their range of applicability, which has given rise to a large number of multiphase flow loops around the world. These flow loops are also used intensively to test and validate multiphase flow meters, which are devices for the in-line measurement of multiphase flow streams without separation of the phases. However, there are numerous multiphase flow varieties due to differences in pressure and temperature, fluids, flow regimes, pipe geometry, inclination and diameter, so a flow loop cannot represent all possible situations. Even when experiments in a given flow loop are believed to be sufficiently exhaustive for a specific study area, the real conditions encountered in the field tend to be very different from those recreated in the research facility. This paper presents a critical review of multiphase flow loops around the world, highlighting the pros and cons of each facility with regard to reproducing and monitoring different multiphase flow situations. The authors suggest a way forward for new developments in this area

The Dynamics of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry’s Environmental Regulation: Revealing/Storying Neglected Voices and Excluded Lives of Environmental Encounters and Affects

The complex interaction of politics, power, economics and ‘subjectivisation’ of the human in natural resource exploration and production has demonstrated their impacts on the environment and ecosystem in anthropogenic and Anthropocenic dimensions. In Nigeria’s Niger Delta, these impacts have constantly materialised in the conflicts in the oil communities. This reality underscores the basis for this research’s narrative/analytical approach: the need to find a different way of narrating and dealing with the decades-long cataclysmic effects of oil and gas exploration on the people, environment, and ecosystem. The methodological approach adopted, autoethnography, will be justified through the view that within the gamut of qualitative methodology, autoethnography presents the most veritable avenue to reflexively create a forum for sharing with the world, the untold stories, and narratives of the people of the Niger Delta who exist in zones I refer to as zones of ‘exclusion’. From these zones, I engage with the voice of an imagined character, ‘O’, whose journey’s narratives as first order observer, rouse my own memory of a difference between system and environment. The narrative’s reality, viewed from systems theory, is a fluctuation between the immersion in, and distance from, the observed, observing, and self-observation, yet with the increasing realisation of the interconnectedness and interaction between man and his natural environment. This folds into an affect that is immanent on the human psyche, particularly in ecological terms. It also results in the search of transcendent justice that will achieve relational and social interaction mechanisms among all stakeholders to minimise and manage environmental incidents that may imply degradation and severe damage to the ecosystem, the socio-economic linkages to the environment, and human health and life

Transition of hemoglobin between two tertiary conformations: The transition constant differs significantly for the major and minor hemoglobins of the Japanese quail (Cortunix cortunix japonica)

We demonstrate that 5,5′-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoate) – DTNB – reacts with only CysF9[93]β and CysB5[23]β among the multiple sulfhydryl groups of the major and minor hemoglobins of the Japanese quail (Cortunix cortunix japonica). Kequ, the equilibrium constant for the reaction, does not differ very significantly between the two hemoglobins. It decreases 430-fold between pH≈5.6 and pH≈9: from a mean of 7±1 to a mean of 0.016±0.003. Quantitative analyses of the Kequ data based on published X-ray and temperature-jump evidence for a tertiary structure transition in liganded hemoglobin enable the calculation of Krt, the equilibrium constant for the r←→t tertiary structure transition. Krt differs significantly between the two hemoglobins: 0.744±0.04 for the major, 0.401±0.01 for the minor hemoglobin. The mean pKas of the two groups whose ionizations are coupled to the DTNB reaction are about the same as previously reported for mammalian hemoglobins

Protein and amino acid requirements of warm-water fishes: a tool to efficient and low-cost fish feed production in Nigeria

Numerous investigations have utilized various semi-purified and purified diets to estimate the protein and amino acid requirements of several temperate fishes. The vast literature on the protein and amino acid requirements of fishes has continued to omit that of the tropical warm water species. The net effect is that fish feed formulation in Nigeria have relied on the requirement for temperate species. This paper attempts to review the state of knowledge on the protein amino acid requirements of fishes with emphasis on the warm water species, the methods of protein and amino acid requirement determinations and the influence of various factors on nutritional requirement studies. Finally evidence are presented with specific examples on how requirements of warm water fishes are different from the temperate species and used this to justify why fish feed formulation in Nigeria are far from being efficien

Film Tourism and Expectation: Using the Hallyu Wave to Model How Governments and Media Exports Influence National Image

Film tourism encompasses the interest, investment and influence that exported media products can contribute to cultural globalization, and subsequent visitation of a nation. The Korean Wave or Hallyu wave has been studied and commended for its rapid spread and growing popularity within Asia and more recently, on a more global scale. By comparing and contrasting the methods used by the Korean government to enhance Hallyu, with several trade deals made by the US government to support Hollywood, we can see how the effects of film tourism were directed towards modifying perspectives on Korean culture. A few consequences of making trade agreements with the US are also discussed, as these affected local film industries and global stereotyping through US cultural imperialism. Using peer-reviewed studies and primary sources, it can be said that the Korean Wave is a consequence of imitation of Hollywood practices. However, we can infer from similar successes in other nations, including New Zealand, that there are various reproducible methods to boost film tourism and influence national image.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1204/thumbnail.jp

Marketing of Information Resources in Nigeria: Strategies and Challenges

In a country where reading culture is poor, that is, where majority of the inhabitants do not find anything fascinating in reading, even for pleasure, marketing of Information or Information Resources is undoubtedly, a herculean task.  Marketing in this context, is the activity of presenting, advertising and selling Information or Information Resources (product) in the best possible way or ways to the people.  In marketing, the product you intend to sell must have, at least, potential buyers. Realizing the poor attitude of Nigerians towards reading, identifying the best way to marketing Information Resources to them is the primary focus of this paper.  The paper begins with the definitions of the key concepts, marketing, information and Information Resources.  It dwells more on discussing the processes of marketing viz-a-viz their potentials in creating interest in reading by the people.  The paper closes with, highlighting the best strategies by which people could be made to buy information Resources, both human and material

Information Needs and Source Preference of the Pastoral Nomads in Northern States of Nigeria

In an era in which government is gradually turning its attention to the disadvantageous groups, particularly those in the rural areas, there is a need for a study directed at bringing out some of the critical problems confronting some of these groups of disadvantaged people. Literature have indicated that one of such critical problems is understanding the information needs of some of the rural dwellers This will ultimately assist the government in designing functional information programs for the people. This study was therefore carried out to find out about the information needs and source preference of the postural nomads in Northern States of Nigeria. A methodological triangulation, involving a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodology (quan-qual, according to Creswell) was used for the study. In view of the fact that the population of the pastoral nomads in Northern States of Nigeria is undeterminable, large sample theory, proposed by Kerlinger was used to provide the subjects of the study. Questionnaire supplemented by interview and focus group discussions were the instruments used for data collection. Data collected were categorized and analyzed using simple percentages. The study discovered that the information sources preference of the pastoral nomads were radio (as a formal source) and such primordial sources, as family, friends, Ardos etc (as informal sources).It was recommended that libraries, especially, public libraries should form partnership with radio organizations as well as the pastoral NGOs in order to design functional information source programme for the Nomads