Social change and marriage structure in Nigeria

Marriage as a social institution has undergone changes in structure in contemporary Nigeria. Whether in simple or complex societies, social change is a universal phenomenon. In most cultural groups in indigenous Nigeria, marriage is usually an arrangement between two individuals. As a result there is pressure on the spouses to make the marriage a success bearing in mind the fact that any problem will usually affect both families and strain the otherwise cordial relationship between them. Again, polygyny commonly known as polygamy is the most practiced marriage system. However, the marriage structure in Nigeria today has not been the same. It is found in the name of modernization or civilization that a girl and a boy may decide to marry away from their parents’ place of residence and without their consent. Monogamous marriage is now increasingly encouraged and practiced. The paper thus examines the extent of social change in the Nigerian marriage structure

Towards understanding crime dynamics in a heterogeneous environment:A mathematical approach

Crime data provides information on the nature and location of the crime but, in general, does not include information on the number of criminals operating in a region. By contrast, many approaches to crime reduction necessarily involve working with criminals or individuals at risk of engaging in criminal activity and so the dynamics of the criminal population is important. With this in mind, we develop a mechanistic, mathematical model which combines the number of crimes and number of criminals to create a dynamical system. Analysis of the model highlights a threshold for criminal efficiency, below which criminal numbers will settle to an equilibrium level that can be exploited to reduce crime through prevention. This efficiency measure arises from the initiation of new criminals in response to observation of criminal activity; other initiation routes - via opportunism or peer pressure - do not exhibit such thresholds although they do impact on the level of criminal activity observed. We used data from Cape Town, South Africa, to obtain parameter estimates and predicted that the number of criminals in the region is tending towards an equilibrium point but in a heterogeneous manner - a drop in the number of criminals from low crime neighbourhoods is being offset by an increase from high crime neighbourhoods

Mother tongue disability and socio-cultural development in Nigeria

Mother tongue disability refers to some or total inadequacy in one’s native language. It implies a situation where individuals or groups of persons are unable to speak/ write their native language. This is a common phenomenon among Nigerian youths. As a result, research has shown there are over 450 indigenous languages in Nigeria, which may go extinct (Rotimi, 2012; Bankole, 2010). Colonization and the introduction of western civilization had often been blamed for mother tongue disability. However recent happenings indicate that factors such as the fast decreasing value for mother tongue and parental negative attitudes may be more responsible for mother tongue disability. The paper aims at explaining causes and effects of mother tongue disability in Nigeria and its consequences on socio-cultural development in the country.  It concludes that the speaking, writing, as well as the understanding of mother tongue is beneficial for social solidarity, peaceful co-existence (without which there cannot be meaningful development), the maintenance of cultural heritage and values, and for the growth of the tourism industry

Juvenile delinquency dimension of child labour: implications for human and capital development in Nigeria

Juvenile delinquency and child labour are related social problems that today plague Nigeria. They both affect young boys and girls, some of whom are children (juveniles). Among these juveniles are children who have been involved in criminal behavior like gangism, banditry, thuggery, drug sales and abuse behaviors which are sometimes developed from participation in child labour activities which have become severe in Nigeria. Majority of these activities take the form of street hawking in the Southern part of the country, and street begging in its northern part by children addressed as Almajirai. These problems if allowed to remain will compromise and jeopardize not only the future of the child, but also that of the nation, Nigeria. Thus this study investigates juvenile delinquency as predated by child labour with a view to explaining causality and effects. Particularly, as it relates to human and capital development, and to make suggestions towards finding solutions