On Delimiting African Philosophy and the Equalization Scheme

The discourse on the meaningfulness of Africans has taken various dimensions over the decades, especially as it has to do with asserting that Africans had her civilizations, and so were inherently dignified people. One of these dimensions is African Philosophy where lots of African scholars have invested their time and mind on examining the African universe and bringing forth various descriptions of the African life. And in line with this, some schools of thought in African Philosophy have developed. It seems to me that these schools may not be thorough and principle-based; they appear to have been fuelled by sentiments and ego-protection principle. How valid and sound are these schools of thoughts? Do these schools exhaust all there is to African Philosophy in the present? In this paper, the researcher thinks that the various schools of African Philosophy were not well-founded, and that there still exists another school of thought deducible from the various contributions of contemporary scholars in African thought; it also demonstrates that even this school of thought is an exercise in contradiction to the aspirations of these scholars in particular and of Africans in general

Investigation of groundwater flow potential in Makurdi, North Central Nigeria, using surficial electrical resistivity method

Vertical electrical sounding (VES) employing Schlumberger electrode configuration was carried out in order to study the groundwater flow potential in Makurdi, north central Nigeria. This was done in thirty locations to determine the aquifer resistivity, thickness, longitudinal conductance, hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity. From the result, the averages and ranges of these parameters were determined. 2D contour maps of aquifer resistivity, aquifer thickness, longitudinal conductance, hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity were drawn. The distribution of thickness and transmissivity maps provided a means of identifying areas where aquiferous zone is prolific. The classification of the groundwater potential shows 3.3% very low, 26.7% low, 66.7% moderate and 3.3% high potentials. Knowledge of hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity is necessary for the determination of groundwater flow potential through an aquifer.Keywords: Aquifer resistivity, hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity, longitudinal conductance, vertical electrical sounding, thickness, Makurdi

News culture and routinisation of production processes in Vanguard newspapers

News production goes beyond the routine of accessing, selecting, processing and interpreting events considered as newsworthy. It involves consequences of journalistic practices that are capable of influencing the professional culture, knowledge and expectations of the given medium. Though news production processes may be influenced by the editorial policy of a newspaper organisation, they should be managed away from slanting which involves omission, differential placement or even burying of anti-policy stories in inside pages.  The study is an exploratory attempt that is designed on the methodology of participant observation or ethnography, and constitutes part of the author’s work experience in the editorial and news production desks of Vanguard newspapers spanning 26 years. Its theoretical underpinnings are the gatekeeping and the agenda setting theory of communication. The paper examines the routine news culture and production processes in Vanguard Media Limited, publishers of one of Nigeria’s leading national daily and weekly newspapers in Lagos. Results of these routine processes include balanced and in-depth reporting of events by the newspaper establishment. &nbsp

Aquifer Vulnerability Mapping in Katsina-Ala Area, Central Nigeria Using Integrated Electrical Conductivity (IEC)

The present demand for water are not only to detect and develop new groundwater systems to meet up with the millennium development goals, but also to protect existing water reservoirs against contaminants. This research work is aimed at mapping out aquifer vulnerability by integrated electrical conductivity (IEC) in Katsina-Ala area, Central Nigeria. With Schlumberger configuration, Twenty-Six (26) vertical electrical soundings (VES) were occupied in the present study using Abem terrameter SAS 300c at the peak of dry season (January to March) from which the VES data collected was interpreted for geo-electrical parameters. The parameters estimated for overburden was used to calculate the IEC and was indexed to generate a vulnerability map of the study area. The indexes revealed three strong regimes which include vulnerable ( , highly vulnerable (IEC  and extremely vulnerable (IEC from 0 to 1240脳10-3siesmens)"> . The result will aid in the design of modalities for monitoring and protection of aquifer front against contaminants in the study area. Keywords: Aquifer, Integrated electrical conductivity, Overburden, Vulnerability, Katsina-Al

The impact of blood covenation on development in Nigeria

Every human gathering is a function of various individuals but if such an assembled group must form a functionally cohesive unit, then the members of the group must be in a covenant/pact. The presence of pact distinguishes a society from other gathering of human beings. Some societies are more productive and progressive than others because of the treaty/covenant in operation. In 21st century Nigeria, it has been noticed that apart from the national document covenanting the various peoples of Nigeria, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, some alternative pact exists, namely blood covenant. The latter has come to the fore because of a version of it, namely blood covenant of the esoteric type. Being highly cryptic in nature, and seeing that it commands robust allegiance parallel to that demanded by the national covenanting document, can societal development be predicated upon it? In this paper, it is argued that this rival covenant has a tendency of forcing society into the pathway that eludes visibility, open assessment, and accountability, which characterizes open society. Nigeria and her leaders must move away from this cryptic pact if society must not be run aground by parallel allegiance

Multi-genomic analysis of the cation diffusion facilitator transporters from algae

Metal transport processes are relatively poorly understood in algae in comparison to higher plants and other eukaryotes. A screen of genomes from 33 taxonomically diverse algal species was conducted to identify members of the Cation Diffusion Facilitator (CDF) family of metal ion transporter. All algal genomes contained at least one CDF gene with four species having >10 CDF genes (median of 5 genes per genome), further confirming that this is a ubiquitous gene family. Phylogenetic analysis suggested a CDF gene organisation of five groups, which includes Zn-CDF, Fe/Zn-CDF and Mn-CDF groups, consistent with previous phylogenetic analyses, and two functionally undefined groups. One of these undefined groups was algal specific although excluded chlorophyte and rhodophyte sequences. The majority of sequences (22 out of 26 sequences) from this group had a putative ion binding site motif within transmembrane domain 2 and 5 that was distinct from other CDF proteins, such that alanine or serine replaced the conserved histidine residue. The phylogenetic grouping was supported by sequence cluster analysis. Yeast heterologous expression of CDF proteins from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii indicated Zn2+ and Co2+ transport function by CrMTP1, and Mn2+ transport function by CrMTP2, CrMTP3 and CrMTP4, which validated the phylogenetic prediction. However, the Mn-CDF protein CrMTP3 was also able to provide zinc and cobalt tolerance to the Zn- and Co-sensitive zrc1 cot1 yeast strain. There is wide diversity of CDF transporters within the algae lineage, and some of these genes may be attractive targets for future applications of metal content engineering in plants or microorganisms

Electrical geophysical evaluation of susceptibility to flooding in University of Nigeria, Nsukka main campus and its environs, Southeastern Nigeria

Flooding occurs when rainfall exceeds the absorption capacity of soil and causes significant environmental consequences. In this study, electrical resistivity techniques were employed to assess the flood susceptibility of the study area by examining variations in electrical properties. Prior to flooding, Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) profiles were conducted to determine the variations in resistivity within subsurface lithologies exposed to the injected current. The injected current penetrated the subsurface units characterised by resistivity ranging from 190.5 Ω·m to 6,775.7 Ω·m, 42.3 Ω·m to 7,297.4 Ω·m, and 320.2 Ω·m to 24,433.3 Ω·m in the first, second and third layers, respectively. These layers were identified as lateritic topsoil, medium-coarse brownish grained sand, and coarse pebbly blackish sand, respectively. The calculated reflection coefficients between layers 1, 2, and 3 reveal alternation in layers with values ranging from −0.04 to 0.66 and 0.36 to 0.95 for k1 and k2, respectively. The transverse resistivity, longitudinal resistivity and anisotropy ranged from 243.59 Ω·m to 24,115.42 Ω·m, 199.61 Ω·m to 14,950.76 Ω·m, and 1.02 to 2.14. Models derived from the ERT profiles reveal variations in resistivity, pinpointing areas of low resistivity which correspond to waterlogged and impermeable layers. The result of this study underscores the importance of integrated resistivity techniques in the study of floods, as it provides valuable insights into flood behaviour, and subsurface dynamics

Increased metal tolerance and bioaccumulation of zinc and cadmium in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii expressing a AtHMA4 C-terminal domain protein

The use of microalgal biomass for metal pollutant bioremediation might be improved by genetic engineering to modify the selectivity or capacity of metal biosorption. A plant cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) transporter (AtHMA4) was used as a transgene to increase the ability of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to tolerate 0.2 mM Cd and 0.3 mM Zn exposure. The transgenic cells showed increased accumulation and internalization of both metals compared to wild‐type. AtHMA4 was expressed either as the full‐length (FL) protein or just the C‐terminal (CT) tail, which is known to have metal‐binding sites. Similar Cd and Zn tolerance and accumulation was observed with expression of either the FL protein or CT domain, suggesting that enhanced metal tolerance was mainly due to increased metal binding rather than metal transport. The effectiveness of the transgenic cells was further examined by immobilization in calcium alginate to generate microalgal beads that could be added to a metal contaminated solution. Immobilization maintained metal tolerance, while AtHMA4‐expressing cells in alginate showed a concentration‐dependent increase in metal biosorption that was significantly greater than alginate beads composed of wild‐type cells. This demonstrates that expressing AtHMA4 FL or CT has great potential as a strategy for bioremediation using microalgal biomass