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

On the divine in Husserl

The paper deals with the ways in which Edmund Husserl develops the question of God. Six ways to reach God are shown as present in Husserl’s writings, some of them seem to be very close to the traditional philosophical ways to go as far as God (the objective and the subjective ways) others are very original, in particular the way that starts from the analysis of the hyletic sphere of the human being, a sphere which is present in all the reality too. At last it is possible to notice Husserl’s interest in the mystical approach to God

Plausibility and Probability in Juridical Proof

This note discusses three issues that Allen and Pardo believe to be especially problematic for a probabilistic interpretation of standards of proof: (1) the subjectivity of probability assignments; (2) the conjunction paradox; and (3) the non-comparative nature of probabilistic standards. I offer a reading of probabilistic standards that avoids these criticisms

Analysis of Beef Marketing in Song Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study analyzed beef marketing in song local government area of Adamawa state Nigeria. Data for the study were primary generated from the respondents through structured questionnaire which spanned for six months (July, - December 2019). Descriptive statistics (frequency count and percentages) and Net Marketing Income (NMI) were used to analyzed the data. The results shows that beef marketing is dominated by males, middle aged, married, experienced and fairly educated people. It also shows that beef marketing is profitable, because, averagely beef marketers were generating N116.64 per kilogram of beef marketed and a marketing ratio of 0.35. This revealed that for any one naira invested in beef, marketers were making 35 kobo as profit. Identified problems affecting beef marketing in the area include credit recovery, sales on credit to bulk buyers and end users, poor access to credit, poor road network, high transportation cost, inadequate access to credit facilities, inadequate market information and in effective storage and preservation facilities which lead to beef spoilage and high risk of losses especially for unsold beef. The study concludes that, beef is marketed through simple but in effective channels in the area despite the fact that it is a profitable venture. The study therefore recommended that; rural –urban roads should be improved to minimize cost and ease movement of produce, credit facilities should be made available and affordable for beef marketers, to facilitate acquisition of storage/preservation and other modern marketing facilities

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

Counter-Terrorism Strategy Against Boko Haram and Human Rights in Nigeria

The activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group have drawn significant and tremendous attention and scrutiny, and this is looking increasingly likely to continue unabated, bearing in mind the in-fighting which has broken out inside the umbrella of the insurgent jihadists, and posing convoluted challenges with the death of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram faction. This thesis is interesting because it is considering the activities of the revolutionary group from the outlook or standpoint of Human Rights, an aspect that appears not to have drawn attention proportional to its significance. Majority of the existing studies on the subject considered the security dimensions, with minority concentrating on the impacts of the insurgency on domestic and regional economy. Without doubt, the savagery and viciousness of the group, were paramount and ostensible in all the studies, however, a very minority of the studies, at least yet, have addressed the subject at an in-depth or profound human rights breadth. In the light of this lacuna in literature, therefore, this thesis addresses a huge gap in literature. The activities of the Boko Haram insurgents have adversely affected the national security in Nigeria for over a decade. Boko Haram's operations have been ongoing with much sophistication, leading to loss of lives, property, and peaceful coexistence in Nigeria and its neighbouring states, particularly in Chad and Cameroon. International law has responded to the fight against terrorism through the United Nations Charter and a series of international law instruments. International human rights instruments have also been brought to the fore in the fight against the insurgency's continuous rise. The Nigerian government has employed policy strategies and legal frameworks such as the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 and 2013 and numerous countermeasures directed at addressing the insurgency of Boko Haram. Human rights appeared to be implicated in the process, either in the form of failure to protect citizens from Boko Haram operations or violations of human rights in the course of the implementation of measures to check insurgencies. The thesis addresses the counter terrorism strategy engaged against Boko Haram through the optic of human rights law, as well as international law connected with counterterrorism. Human rights are addressed in a binary form, in the sense that the thesis addresses human rights violations perpetrated by Boko Haram, a designated terrorist organisation, as well as human rights concerns that emanates from the Nigerian government efforts to deal with the organisation. This thesis makes an original contribution to academic studies through applying the law in the specific context of Nigeria. Through the doctrinal method and policy-oriented approach, the thesis investigated the measures put in place by the government to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 on counterterrorism. Thus, by the doctrine of erga omnes, states are obligated to protect human rights by preventing the spread of insurgency. Therefore, the thesis investigated the rights that are violated in the course of activities of terrorists; and how the government has used the law to address the challenges of the spread of the activities of Boko Haram. It gave an analysis of the extent to which Nigeria's counterterrorism strategies complies with the provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution 1373, international instruments on human rights, and Sections 33-46 of the 1999 Constitution on human rights. Therefore, the thesis proffered proposals on how best the measures addressing terrorism can be made to comply with human rights instruments