Nigeria and the Dilemma of Global Relevance: Foreign Policy under Military Dictatorship (1993-1999)

This paper examines the metamorphosis of Nigeria’s foreign policy from its traditional posture of a responsible nation in the international community, to a reckless player under the military between 1993 and 1999. Nigeria’s reputation as a respectable state diminished under the Abacha regime, whose tyranny led to multiple violations of human rights and breaches of international moral and legal codes. This infamous posture eroded Nigeria’s track record of provision of regional and global leadership. Its mineral and oil wealth had naturally imposed extra burdens of leadership in the continent of Africa and the world. The paper critically a ppraises this significant transition and departure from traditional foreign policy posture and international image during the Abacha era; and using the decision-making model of analysis, it discovers that with the Abacha intervention, a new chapter of domestic travails (anti-democracy activities, state-sponsored terrorism, poor human rights records, large-scale corruption and financial crimes, and the creation of artificial insulation against the world), coupled with an unorthodox manner of dealing with the international community commenced, which clouded the good image of the past. Nigeria thus got alienated in the global system. This paper identifies the pacifist role of the successive Abubakar regime, but submits that despite that approach, the grey area s such as the sudden death of Chief MKO Abiola (winner of the June 12 presidential elections) in his (Abubakar’s custody), did not allow for a complete restoration of Nigeria’s golden era of internationalism. Both regimes had thus bequeathed to the nation an unorthodox foreign policy and an unusual image, a development that compels a curious enquiry. The paper adopts a theoretical approach and relies exclusively on secondary data for analysis

RECONCILING THE TWO WEST AFRICAS: MANAGING ETHNIC AND LINGUAL DIVERSITY FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION

In international politics, language is core in inter-state trust and relationship, and the West African region (or sub-region), which is multi-ethnic, culturally plural and bi- or multilingual in imported languages, may never evolve an integrated region if the diversity is not converted from source of disconnections to source of connections. At best, West Africans have regarded themselves as precolonial kinsmen but post-colonial strangers as a result of the factor of language barriers created in the years of colonial rule. The Yoruba, Ewe, Ashante, Mende, Temne and many more had similarities of languages and cultures and led a regular life of communal conflict and cooperation until the arrival of the French, English, Portuguese and Germans, who established sharp misunderstandings and divisions along the lines of European lingua franca. From a participation- observation experience and perspective, and having consulted literature and government records on futile integration efforts, the study, adopting a functionalist model for analysis, submits that the differences have led to alienation among West Africans since independence, and ECOWAS, despite its spirited commitment to regional integration by the protocol on free movement across the borders, has faced brick-walls from human and social forces engendered by language barriers. This paper looks beyond the artificial linguistic barriers inherent in the bilingual or multilingual character of West Africa, by exploring the richness of the linguistic diversity to advance the cause of regional integration. The paper strongly advocates that local languages spoken across most of the West African states such as Hausa, Mandingo, Peul and Yoruba be taught in primary and secondary schools, while ECOWAS leaders should agree on making English, French and Portuguese compulsory in all secondary schools and higher institutions in their respective countries. These will help demystify and dismantle the artificial linguistic barriers created by the accident of colonialism and make the formal and informal instruments, including ECOWAS towards integration, more functional

Biodegradable Luminescent Silicon Quantum Dots for Two Photon Imaging Applications

Cadmium- and lead-based quantum dots are normally coated for biological applications, because their degradation may result in the release of toxic heavy metal ions. Here, we synthesize silicon quantum dots that are expected to biodegrade to non-toxic products. A chitosan coating is used to render the silicon quantum dots stable in storage conditions and biodegradable at physiological conditions. The applications of these particles are demonstrated in cellular imaging with single and two-photon excitation. These results open the door for a new generation of silicon quantum dots that may have a wide variety of applications derived from the flexibility of chitosan

Production decline analysis of horizontal well in gas shale reservoirs

The major factor influencing the increase of natural gas use is the rise in its global demand. Due to the relentlessly increasing demand, there have been improvements in the techniques and technology used in recovering natural gas from shale gas reservoirs, including drilling a horizontal well and hydraulic fracturing. One of the significant challenges associated with gas shale production is that it is difficult to reliably predict ultimate recovery and estimate reserves, leading to great risk in exploitation of these resources. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the current decline curve analysis techniques and provide a more reliable method for production forecast and reserve estimate for hydraulically fractured horizontal wells producing from gas shale reservoirs.;When production data of low permeability reservoirs are analyzed using Arp\u27s equation, the decline exponent b which is supposed to range between 0 and 1 is usually greater than 1. The actual decline exponent b value is not easy to come by in the transient period during the life of the well, however, having a decline exponent b value greater than 1 will overestimate the remaining reserves of the well.;In this study, first, decline characteristics for shale gas wells are presented by simulating long-term production performance for a variety of well-reservoir systems, including Dimensionless fracture conductivity change, different fracture stages and fracture half-length; then different current decline analysis methods were evaluated in estimating reserves and predicting future performances. These methods are Conventional Decline Curve Analysis, the Backward Method and the Ilk Method. The evaluation task was done through quantitative comparison of production forecast results from current decline analysis with true simulated recovery.;Finally, the Backward & Ilk method was proposed and evaluated. This research work indicates that the Backward & Ilk method can provide the most suitable and accurate results in estimating reserves and analyzing production data

The Politics of International Visibility and Relevance: An Overview of Nigeria's Role Conceptions in World Politics

National Role Conception (NRC) is a fresh perspective in foreign policy analysis in Nigeria. It is however, not as new in western scholarship. Beginning with Holsti in 1970, and further explored by Walker in 1978, Wish in 1980, and Krotz in 2001, NRC has become an attractive prism by which the foreign and defence policies of nations are examined. Nations are viewed to be driven in international politics by roles they have domestically identified, which they wish to perform with the view to securing and furthering their national interest. National Role Conceptions (NRCs), the art of articulation by policymakers of the national roles for the external context, however, constitute the incubation stage of external policymaking, which involve a lot of calculations, strategizing, and rigorous analysis of cost implications of external roles to undertake. This paper examines the role conceptions of Nigeria since independence, arguing that the basic ingredients for conceiving strategic roles towards the realization of core national interest seemed lacking. It adopts the National Role Theory, and interrogates the policymaking process to determine the clarity and strategic importance of national or international roles. While the paper scooped data from oral interviews from the relevant research population and secondary sources; it concludes that Nigeria’s roles in the continent and world are motivated more by visibility and relevance, and not so much of a strategy for national development, which is the basic goal of foreign policy

Enhancing the yield and quality of supercoiled plasmid through Plasmid Engineering

There has been a rise in the interest of plasmid DNA as therapeutics. This is evident in the number of ongoing clinical trials involving the use of plasmid DNA. To be effective as therapeutics, high yield and high level of supercoiling are required from the bioprocessing point of view. We have approached meeting these requirements through plasmid engineering. Potentially, the level of supercoiling can have an impact on ease of downstream processing. A 7.2kb plasmid was developed by cloning of Bacteriophage-Mu Strong gyrase-binding sequence (Mu-SGS) into 6.8kb pSVβ-Gal. Four E. coli strains were transformed with both the modified pSVβ-Gal398 plasmid and pSVβ-Gal. Small scale fermentations and analysis were carried out in triplicate cultures to screen for best performing strains. Two of the four strains selected amplified the plasmids efficiently. There was over 20% increase in the total plasmid yield with pSVβ-Gal398 in both strains. The supercoiled topoisomer content was increased by 5% in both strains leading to a 27% increase in the overall yield. The two strains were investigated further in shake flasks. Increases in supercoiling and plasmid yield were also observed. The extent of supercoiling was examined by superhelical density quantification, with pSVβ-Gal398 maintaining a supercoil density of -0.022 and pSVβ-Gal -0.019 in both strains. The compactness of the plasmid DNA was also quantified by hydrodynamic diameter measurement using the Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) and it was observed that pSVβ-Gal398 was more compact with a Dh of 40-59nm compared to pSVβ-Gal with Dh of 70-90nm for both strains examined. The report of this study has shown that plasmid engineered to contain the Mu-phage SGS sequence has a beneficial effect on improving not only the yield of total plasmid but also the supercoiled topoisomer content of therapeutic plasmid DNA during bioprocessing. References: Hassan, S., Keshavarz‐Moore, E., & Ward, J. (2016). A cell engineering strategy to enhance supercoiled plasmid DNA production for gene therapy. Biotechnology and bioengineering, 113(9), 2064-2071. Yau, S. Y., Keshavarz‐Moore, E., & Ward, J. (2008). Host strain influences on supercoiled plasmid DNA production in Escherichia coli: Implications for efficient design of large‐scale processes. Biotechnology and bioengineering, 101(3), 529-544

DETERMINING THE INCIDENCE AND SEVERITY OF RICE STRIPE NECROSIS VIRUS ON RICE (Oryza Sativa L.) IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA, NIGERIA

A survey was conducted in September 2019 in Abuja, to assess the incidence and severity of rice virus diseaseacross 24 rice fields. The samples collected from the survey were used for molecular indexing. All data collectedwere subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 17 and mean separation was done using DuncanMultiple Range Test. Out of 360 leaf samples collected from the survey, Bwari Area Council had the highestincidence (35.5%), while Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) had the lowest (13.3%). Gwagwalada had thehighest severity (31.1%) and AMAC recorded the lowest (20%). After testing in the laboratory using PolymeraseChain Reaction (PCR), the samples did not test positive to the virus. This study is the first research on RSNV inthe FCT, Abuja and further survey is recommended for the FCT and other parts of Nigeria