Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of Nigeria, 2013: A Still Birth?

The Same Sex Prohibition Act of Nigeria, 2013,(hereinafter referred to as the Act) a prohibiting any marriage contract or civil union entered into between persons of same sex, solemnization of the same; and for related matters was signed into Law on the 7th day of January, 2014 by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. The passage instantly generated a plethora of reactions. Does the Same Sex Prohibition Act, 2013 infringe on fundamental human rights? Does the Same Sex Prohibition Act, 2013 breach the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended? How far can the principle of cultural relativism protect this Act?. Is this law really current or needed at all? Are there germane issues that are far from the contemplation of this law which may have created lacunas? This work seeks to find answers to these questions. Keywords: Same sex, Marriage, Human right

Social Capital Influence on the Financial Health of Micro and Small Businesses Operated by Graduate Students in South-Western Nigeria

The study investigated social capital influence on the financial health of micro and small businesses operated by graduate students in South-Western Nigeria. Four research questions and two hypotheses were answered and tested in the study. Mixed method approach was adopted in the study. Population of the study was all students and entrepreneurship lecturers in Universities in South-Western, Nigeria out of which 309 respondents (300 graduate students and nine lecturers) were sampled for the study using multistage sampling technique. Questionnaire and Interview were used for gathering data. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics namely; frequency, percentage, mean, binary logistic regression, chi-square and t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed that the dimensions of social capital had positive effect on the financial health of the businesses operated by the students and the relationships were significant. It was revealed that the manufacturing and agriculture sector where underexplored by the students while the service sector had the higher proportion of entrepreneurs. The reforming of the curriculum was recommended to capture more of social capital development by the students

Legal Cartography: The Result of an Attempt to Formulate an Appropriate Legal Theory for Nigeria

The idea of what is law has eluded many jurists and legal philosophers, yet many have attempted to define law without arriving at a universally workable theory. The major cause of this fruitless effort is the attempt to generalize.  Many theories of law have been propounded over the years with one or two expressing the legal system of some of the societies for and out of which they were postulated. Nigerian law and legal system have defied most theories of law when clinically tested against the internal workings of the system and practical applicability. This work examines major theories of law in the light of the Nigerian legal system and finds them not apt and adequate to define or represent what law is in Nigeria. The scope of this work would become unmanageable if desperate attempt is not made to curb same. Our attraction to discussing theories of law is to drive home the point that the Nigerian legal system has defied almost all the theories of law, hence, the need for another look. The approach of this work is not to seek a totally infallible legal theory. That would be propounding an utopian theory. This work seeks to formulate an appropriate legal theory for Nigeria. This research adopts the style of the cartographer in its formulation. Keywords: Legal Theory, Legal system, Nigeria

Articulating Consumer’s Rights as Human Rights in Nigeria

Consumer protection is usually premised on contract, negligence or criminal provisions of our laws. However, the scope of consumer protection under contract and the tort of negligence is quite limited. Under contract, the doctrine of privity of contract constitutes an impediment. Under the tort of negligence, the scope is wider but the consumer (plaintiff) must prove the three key elements of tort of negligence (duty of care, breach of the duty and consequential damage) to stand any chance of success. Besides, the absence of a legal structure of consumer protection in terms of a general code leaves the consumer at the mercy of disjointed rules and the discretion of the judge. On another look, it appears the protection of the consumer in Nigeria, and even in international law does not give adequate consideration to the rights of the consumer. Where it does, it puts the peg at second generation rights which are usually cumbersome to redress. The belief of this research is that there is a necessary nexus between the protection of the consumer and human rights. While not shifting the gaze from the Contract and Tort approaches of the courts, this work suggests that the law should explore the nexus between human rights and consumerism in the protection of the consumer. That way, it is reasoned that the bottlenecks may be broken. This research is a jurisprudential examination of the true relationship between the consumer and the Producer or service provider.  It is a shift in paradigm from the con-tort approach to a rights based approach. This work intends to initiate a new era in consumer protection while engendering a new estate in human rights. It is the work of a human rights activist focusing on consumer protection. Keywords:             consumerism, human rights, consumer protection, consumer rights, rights based approach

Modeling and analytical simulation of a smouldering carbonaceous rod

Modeling of pyrolysis and combustion in a smouldering fuel bed requires the solution of flow, heat and mass transfer through porous media. This paper presents an analytical method for describing the smouldering of a porous carbonaceous rod. We assume that no local thermal equilibrium exist between the phases. Also, the initial temperatures are assumed to depend on space variable. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solution of the model by actual solution method. The coupled non-linear partial differential equations describing the phenomenon have been decoupled using parameter-expanding method and solved analytically using eigenfunction expansion technique. The results obtained were discussed. The study shows that the Frank-Kamenetskii number, Scaled thermal conductivity of gas and solid phases and Species diffusion coefficient have a significant effects on the slow burning process associated with porous carbonaceous rod.Keywords: Pyrolysis, smouldering, combustion, carbonaceous rod, pyrolysis reactions, analytical solutio

Effect of artemisinin alone and artemisinin with folic acid on the lipid profile of rat

Studies were carried out on the effect of artemisinin alone and with folic acid on total cholesterol, triacylglycerol and lipoprotein fractions in the serum of male Wistar rats. Different groups of rats (n=8) were orally given 0.75, 1.50, 3.00 and 6.00 mg/kg body weight of artemisinin, respectively. Each of these groups also was orally administered 1.50 mg/kg of folic acid concurrently. Analyses of results showed a significant (

Women Education and Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria

The paper focuses on the role of women education in ensuring sustainable economic development in Nigeria. The paper relied on the use of secondary source of data collection for data analysis. As such, qualitative method of data analysis was employed. The concept of womanhood was defined as well as the meaning of women education. The meaning of sustainable development was also highlighted. The factors that inhibit the education of women such as cultural beliefs, low self esteem among women and inadequate infrastructures were also highlighted. The role of women in ensuring sustainable economic development such as quality leadership, increase in GDP and reduction in dependency rate in the country were also identified. Ways of improving the education of women in the country such as provision of infrastructures, proper legislation and provision of education grant to female students were similarly suggested. It was therefore recommended that for women education to contribute to sustainable economic development in the country the government must make proper legislation to support women education and the various educational stakeholders must contribute immensely to the success of women education in the country. Key words: Women Education, Sustainable Development, Quality Leadership, Insecurity and Gender Equalit

HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF ALLOXAN-INDUCED DIABETIC RATS TREATED WITH ETHANOL EXTRACTS AND FRACTIONS OF NAUCLEA LAFILOIA LEAF

Hematological parameters which have been implicated in diabetes mellitus were investigated in this study. N-hexane, ethyl acetate, butanol and methanol fractions of the ethanolic leaf extract of Nauclea latifolia were orally administered once daily for 2 weeks to diabetic rats. The levels of RBC, Hb, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, PLT, PCT, MPV, PDW, WBC, lymphocyte and granulocyte were evaluated in blood. There was significant reduction (P < 0.05) in RBC and HCT levels in the treatment groups of ethyl acetate fraction (250 mg/kg) and ethanol extract (250 mg/kg) with significant increases (P < 0.05) in their MCV and MCH levels when compared with the diabetic control group. Significant increases (P < 0.05) in PLT levels of the treatment groups of ethanol extracts, n-hexane fractions and ethyl acetate fraction (100 mg/kg); PCT levels of ethanol extracts group and MPV levels of ethyl acetate fractions treatment groups was high. The treatment groups of glibenclamide, butanol, methanol, n-hexane, ethyl acetate fractions and ethanol extract (250 mg/kg) showed significant reduction (P < 0.05) in their WBC and lymphocyte levels while significant increase (P < 0.05) in granulocyte levels was noted in the treatment group of ethanol extract (100 mg/kg) when compared with diabetic control group. In conclusion, the ethanol extract proved to have anti-infective property. Some fractions, showed capabilities to boost the immune system

Synthesis and in vitro antidiabetic activity of some alkyl carbazole compounds

Purpose: To synthesize some alkyl derivatives of carbazole and evaluate their in vitro inhibitory effect on alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase.Methods: Synthesis of methylcarbazole, ethylcarbazole, propylcarbazole and butylcarbazole was carried out using acid-catalysed alkylation method while in vitro inhibitory assay on alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase enzymes on the  synthesized compounds was evaluated using standard procedures. Acarbose was used as the reference compound.Results: For carbazole, methylcarbazole, ethylcarbazole, propylcarbazole and butylcarbazole, the IC50 values of alpha amylase inhibitory assay were 87.47,  50.23, 47.20, 42.36 and 42.11 μg/mL respectively. IC50 values of alpha  glucosidase inhibitory assay for ethylcarbazole, propylcarbazole and butylcarbazole were 205.30, 153.93 and 152.90 μg/mL, respectively. Carbazole and  methylcarbazole had no inhibitory effect on this enzyme but the reference drug  (acarbose) had a better inhibitory effect towards the two enzymes than the synthesized products.Conclusion: Some alkyl-carbazoles with anti-diabetic effect have been successfully synthesised. Alkylation of carbazole increased the alpha amylase inhibitory effect of carbazole. The inhibitory effect is directly proportional to the chain length of the alkyl group.Keywords: Alkyl carbazole, alpha amylase, alpha glucosidase, synthesi

Test–Retest Reliability of Self-Reported Sexual Behavior History in Urbanized Nigerian Women

Background: Studies assessing risk of sexual behavior and disease are often plagued by questions about the reliability of self-reported sexual behavior. In this study, we evaluated the reliability of self-reported sexual history among urbanized women in a prospective study of cervical HPV infections in Nigeria. Methods: We examined test–retest reliability of sexual practices using questionnaires administered at study entry and at follow-up visits. We used the root mean squared approach to calculate within-person coefficient of variation (CVw) and calculated the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) using two way, mixed effects models for continuous variables and (Formula presented.) statistics for discrete variables. To evaluate the potential predictors of reliability, we used linear regression and log binomial regression models for the continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Results: We found that self-reported sexual history was generally reliable, with overall ICC ranging from 0.7 to 0.9; however, the reliability varied by nature of sexual behavior evaluated. Frequency reports of non-vaginal sex (agreement = 63.9%, 95% CI: 47.5–77.6%) were more reliable than those of vaginal sex (agreement = 59.1%, 95% CI: 55.2–62.8%). Reports of time-invariant behaviors were also more reliable than frequency reports. The CVw for age at sexual debut was 10.7 (95% CI: 10.6–10.7) compared with the CVw for lifetime number of vaginal sex partners, which was 35.2 (95% CI: 35.1–35.3). The test–retest interval was an important predictor of reliability of responses, with longer intervals resulting in increased inconsistency (average change in unreliability for each 1 month increase = 0.04, 95% CI = 0.07–0.38, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that overall, the self-reported sexual history among urbanized Nigeran women is reliable