Traditions of fish utilisation for recipes in Nigeria

Some recipes for fish utilization in particular zones of Nigeria are assessed, giving details of their modes of preparation. The traditions of use of fish in the recipes shown appear to be based on the successful agricultural practices in particular zones and areas of Nigeria. This has helped to promote taste and values, since easily procured food items are cheaper for use in particular areas than others. The use of such fish items in the recipes are useful for promoting protein intake and stemming of malnutrition, especially in the rural areas, as well as helping to improve the incomes of women-in-agricultur

African Communalism and the Question of Individual Autonomy

There are some vital questions that continuously and constantly confront us as human beings in Africa. Such questions include, issues about their identity, culture, artistic prowess, language and appearance. Matters about leadership and the extent to which they can exert their authority are of equal concerns.  This give rise to the concern of whether African individuals have autonomy at all, their definition of autonomy as well as the importance of autonomy to life for the African man. This question is important in the view of the fact that many African writers have emphasised communalism as the nature and structure of the African society. This seems to be in conflict with individual freedom within the African socio-political set up and African cannot but ask “Are we really autonomous?”  Many African philosophers had one time or the other responded to such questions and this is what this article tries to answer using the method of critical evaluation. Keywords… Communalism, Collective rights, Individual rights, Individual autonom

Comparative Phytochemical Investigation of the Various Parts of Vitellaria Paradoxa

Percentage yield of leaf, bark and root of Vitellaria paradoxa was determined after extraction with different solvents (methanol, omidun, sterile omidun and water). Quantity of phytochemical constituents in each solvent extract was also determined. The yield range was found highest in methanol extract, followed by omidun extract, sterile omidun and water extracts also in bark extracts (9.33 to 28.80%) followed by root extracts (18.13 to 20.80%) and lowest in leaf extracts (12.00 to 15.46%). Phytochemical results revealed the presence of ten phytochemical constituents at varying quantities but with no significant difference (p< 0.05) among all the solvent extracts. Methanol extracts yielded slightly higher amount of phytochemicals followed by sterile omidun, omidun and sterile distilled water extracts respectively. Oxalate was found present in large amount; other classes were present in moderate quantities: tannin, saponin, flavonoid and anthraquinine. While alkaloid, steroid, terpene, phlobatannin and cardiac glycoside were present in small quantities. Though, methanol is a better solvent for extraction, the use of omidun as extraction solvent was neither a bad choice of solvent. Key words: Vitellaria paradoxa, percentage yield, sterile, yield

Excange Rate Fluctuation and Real Sector Performance in Nigeria: A Disaggregated Analysis

The Nigerian real sector is facing serious challenges due to exchange rate volatility. All the past efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria to make naira have high international competitiveness had not yielded much result. In view of this, this study investigates the relationship between exchange rate fluctuation and the performance of the real sector in Nigeria while looking at disaggregated components of agricultural, industrial, building and construction, wholesale and retail trade, and services with a scope spanning thirty-two years, covering the period from the commencement of SAP in 1986 up to 2017. The study adopts the modified Mundell-Fleming IS-LM framework using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. The bounds tests suggest that the variables of interest are bound together in the long run with the aggregate real output (the dependent variable). This same pattern exists between the sectoral outputs and their independent variables, with the exception of Agriculture Output. The study also reveals a long-term inverse and significant relationship between exchange rate and both aggregate output and the outputs of each of the five sectors of the Nigeria real economy. The study further establishes that the sectors of the economy responded heterogeneously to exchange rate change. However, the pattern of each sector’s response to exchange rate change is far from pure homogeneity, affirming the disparity in terms of size, magnitude. The major implication of the findings is that exchange rate strategies adopted by government could not spur the desired improvement in the performance of real sector in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommends that the monetary authorities should re-assess, monitor, and enforce the existing exchange rate policies in Nigeria with a view to stimulating increased performance of the real sector of the economy. The government should also develop an extensive programme of development of domestic industries to stimulate exports, cut non-productive imports, and create employment. There is also the need to put in place and implement coordinated macroeconomic policies that would attract foreign private investment, reduce poverty level, and stimulate exchange rate stability

BREAST IRONING: A RAPE OF THE GIRL-CHILD’S PERSONALITY INTEGRITY AND SEXUAL AUTONOMY

Breast ironing also known as breast flattening, has been considered as one of the most widespread and systematic violations of the universal human rights to personal integrity and sexual autonomy perpetuated against the girl child. This exhilarating practice which is typically carried out by the girl’s mother on the pretext of protecting the female child from teenage sexual harassment and rape, early pregnancy and dropping out of school is unfortunately done to protect family name. Employing the qualitative research approach and the expository analytic method, this research reveals that this practice has ensuring clinical, psychological and social consequences on the female victim. The paper considers this practice a rape based on the fact that the female victim’s consent is never sought. Natural sense of justice demands that the victim whose personality integrity and right to sexual autonomy was to be defiled and destroyed deserves to give an informed consent. Therefore, the paper concludes that this harmful practice is an abuse because it violently violates the girl child right full sexual autonomy and right to possess natural physiological endowment that adorns a woman. This paper therefore recommends that strict laws and penalties should be promulgated to totally abolish and eradicate this barbaric and horrific mutilation

Exchange Rate Regimes and Real Sector Performance in Nigeria

Exchange rates and the choice of the exchange rate regime have critical influence on the real sector performance and the behaviour of several other macroeconomic variables, especially in a high import dependent economy like Nigeria. Exchange rate reforms put in place by the Nigerian monetary authorities have not put the economy on the path of macroeconomic stability, recovery and sustainable development. Arising from this problem, this study investigates the relationship between exchange rate and the performance of Nigeria’s real sector with emphasis on the agricultural, industrial, building and construction, wholesale and retail trade and service sectors over the period of 1961-2017. The study adopts the modified Mundell-Fleming IS-LM framework. Autoregressive Distributed Lag and pairwise Granger Causality techniques were used to examine the relationship between exchange rate regime and real sector output performance. The results of the study reveals a long-term inverse and significant relationship between exchange rate and aggregate real output in regulated exchange rate regime but a long-term direct and significant relationship in the guided deregulated regime. The study therefore recommends that the monetary authorities should re-assess and adequately monitor the existing exchange rate policies in Nigeria with a view to stimulating increased performance of the real sector of the economy. The exchange rate system adopted should be aligned with the overall macroeconomic policy structure and also takes into consideration the integrity of the institutional arrangements on which the country’s development and stability prospects depend. The government should also develop a broad programme of development of domestic industries in both rural and urban areas to enhance domestic production, exports, create employment and reduce poverty. There is also the need to implement coordinated macroeconomic policies that would attract foreign private investment, impact inflation positively and stimulate exchange rate stability

Individual Autonomy and Development in Contemporary Africa

There are some vital questions that continuously and constantly confront us as human beings in Africa. Such questions include, who are we? How did we come to be called Africans? What about our culture, our language or our mode of dressing? What about our leadership and artistic prowess?  Do we even have autonomy at all? What is autonomy? Is autonomy all that is to life? To what extent can we say we are free as individuals? Are we really autonomous? Is it when the instinct tells someone that he is free that he can be said to be free? All these and many more questions readily comes to mind as Africans.  Lawrence Bamikole made it clear that in discussing the whole and its parts, the individual and the community should not neglect the fact that the individual makes the community. It is the ideas and formed values of the individuals that make the values and the ideas of the community.The values according to him, do not come from elsewhere as the community and its cultures are products of the individual’s brain (Bamikole 2004:104)1. For that reason, submission to the community is submission to oneself. Thus the question of individual losing their autonomy to what is communal does not arise, because what is communal is not accepted but also generated by individuals. As a result of this, conflict may not be said to arise in this regards when an individual come to realize his personality.This article talks about the individual autonomy and development in contemporary Africa. What do we mean by development? Or what is development? If there was individual autonomy in the traditional African system, how relevant is it in the contemporary world of today? Keywords: development, individual and autonomy DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/55-02 Publication date:May 31st 202

SEX, FEMINISM AND SEXUAL REVOLUTION

This paper is an expository analysis of sex, feminism and sexual revolution. The paper reveals that right from historic time, the society’s normative pedagogy has been overwhelmingly influenced by obsessive religious sexual morality. Fundamentalist sexual morality is arguably a morality and pedagogy that is economical with the truth about the nature, meaning and essence of sex. It was a regime that mystified and forged ossified myths that confounded the meaning and essence of sex. It was a regime that hid the truth or presented a narrow notion of the primary purpose of sex. Worse still, it denied children and impressionable adolescences the knowledge of sex for fear that they may be corrupted.  Consequently, children resorted to other ‘honest and open’ means for the knowledge of sex. Subsequently, armed with the true knowledge of sex when the children of yesterday grew into adolescence and adulthood, they revolted against the traditional order. The strict and dishonest traditional normative pedagogy inadvertently precipitated the sustained resentment that eventually snowballed into full scare sexual revolution in a free and liberated society fostered by the emergence of information technology. Based on the findings of the analysis, the paper argues that although, sex is a profoundly close and personal affair, yet, it is an act of man and human act and must be subjected to ethical reckoning based on the fact that it also has a social dimension arising from the rational and gregarious nature of humans. While we do not totally subscribe to the list of non-traditional sexual behaviours which include senseless and irrational pervasions, we also do not believe that morally accepted sexual behaviours should be limited to traditional sexual behaviours as classically delineated by society under repressive religious influence. The paper concludes that the notion that reproduction is the only primary purpose of sex is miss-guided. Individuals must be allowed significant deal of sexual freedom, however, with responsibility. The paper advocates for a sexual freedom that is necessarily accompanied by emotional intelligence, self-discipline and a conscious resolve not to harm significant others and the society

Accounting Software and Resolution to Financial Insolvency in Nigeria: A Meta Analysis

Financial insolvency is important for sustainable national growth. This can be resolved through liquidity management, which is very important in any organization in terms of the organization’s current assets, current liabilities, short-term borrowings, and management of shortfall or surplus cash for short-term periods, which affects the company’s profitability. Liquidity management should be the company’s goal of working capital management. Such idle cash can be used to invest in another company or diversifiable venture that are profitable. Accounting software or accounting information system is a resolution to financial insolvency in which it captures and records the financial effects of transactions. Accounting Information System (AIS) assists managers in four problem-solving stages, which are recognizing the problem, identifying alternatives, assessing the alternatives and taking managerial decision. The methodology employed for this study is Meta-analysis. The sample size employed was 30 literatures. The overall combined relationship had a P-value of .0000 indicating an overall significant level. Insolvency practice and its regulation is critical to economic development. This is especially true in the light of the unintended consequences of globalisation that may result in economic shock and business failures. Nigeria can benefit from reforms in financial insolvency by benchmarking the reform and practice initiatives of the more advanced countries within and outside Africa