Challenges of Electoral Processes in Nigeria’s Quest for Democratic Governance in the Fourth Republic

Election as one of the most essential ingredients of democracy, its conduct has remained a challenge to democratic governance not only in Nigeria but also almost all over the world. Nigeria’s electoral process has since the first one in 1922 during colonialism to the last in 2015 has been characterized with fraud such as imposition of candidates, rigging, stuffing ballots, violence etcetera. This paper reviews the features of what is and what is not democratic governance as well as election process. An attempt is also made to describe the dimensions as well as challenges of electoral malpractice in Nigeria’s quest for democratic governance in the fourth republic. The paper argues violence, legitimacy crises, corruption and other vices cannot be unrelated with electoral fraud. It concludes by recommending and suggesting strategies that would tackle challenges of electoral process thereby having viable democratic governance in the country

Morphological and molecular diversity of eggplant accessions (Solanum melongena L) using simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers

The evaluation of various desirable traits in eggplant genotypes has facilitated the efficient process of selecting and improving them. Morphological parameters have proven to be valuable in assessing the similarities or differences among different accessions, while molecular data have been used to support the conclusions drawn from the morphological analysis. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of 42 eggplant genotypes collected from Malaysia, China, and Thailand. The characteristics under investigation were shown to be highly significant (p < 0.01) by analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was noted that the plants TV17 (5.59 kg) and MV18 (5.97 kg) produced large yields per plant. The SSR markers used exhibited moderate average values for the number of alleles (2.53). The major allele frequency displayed a high average value (0.53) and a moderate average number of effective alleles (2.31). Additionally, the observed Shannon’s information index, expected heterozygosity, and PIC were high (0.84, 0.54, and 0.45, respectively). Using the unweighted pair-group approach with arithmetic averages based on similarity matrices (UPGMA) Dendrogram, 42 accessions were sorted into five primary groups based on similarities. The findings of this study indicate that the use of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers can effectively estimate genetic diversity and analyze phylogenetic relationships. Moreover, these markers can assist eggplant breeders in selecting desirable quantitative traits within their breeding program

Morphological and molecular diversity of eggplant accessions (Solanum melongena L) using simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers

The evaluation of various desirable traits in eggplant genotypes has facilitated the efficient process of selecting and improving them. Morphological parameters have proven to be valuable in assessing the similarities or differences among different accessions, while molecular data have been used to support the conclusions drawn from the morphological analysis. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of 42 eggplant genotypes collected from Malaysia, China, and Thailand. The characteristics under investigation were shown to be highly significant (p < 0.01) by analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was noted that the plants TV17 (5.59 kg) and MV18 (5.97 kg) produced large yields per plant. The SSR markers used exhibited moderate average values for the number of alleles (2.53). The major allele frequency displayed a high average value (0.53) and a moderate average number of effective alleles (2.31). Additionally, the observed Shannon’s information index, expected heterozygosity, and PIC were high (0.84, 0.54, and 0.45, respectively). Using the unweighted pair-group approach with arithmetic averages based on similarity matrices (UPGMA) Dendrogram, 42 accessions were sorted into five primary groups based on similarities. The findings of this study indicate that the use of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers can effectively estimate genetic diversity and analyze phylogenetic relationships. Moreover, these markers can assist eggplant breeders in selecting desirable quantitative traits within their breeding program