The Quest For Development In Africa And The Dilemma Of Competing Cultural Paradigms

This essay reopens the debate among African politicians and intellectuals concerning which paradigm is the most suitable for achieving the goals of development in Africa at this present moment of her history. Since the early 70s, African intellectuals and politicians have reflected on this problem and the highpoint of the debate was that only a synthesis of our traditional cultural elements with other relevant areas of foreign culture holds the prospects for achieving this goal. This essay however indicts this latest position as encouraging the hegemonisation of western cultural values as well as the marginalisation of those African states for which this paradigm is meant to serve as blueprint for development. The essay then identifies the need for the debate to transcend the basic assumptions underlying the major paradigms by preferring an approach that will not only guide against the continued marginalisation of African states, but that will at the same time ensure their effective participation in the development process currently going on across the globe. Journal of Philosophy and Culture Vol. 3 (1) 2006: pp. 153-17

Beyond Basic Eductaion: Towards a pragmatarian justification for education as a human right

Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) confers on the human person, the right to free education in society. This implies that the human person is morally empowered and therefore justified to demand an access to education. By insisting that education be made free, Article 26 of the UDHR has made access to education a matter of right, since human rights are free conferment of nature. However, the education that Article 26 tried to justify here using the traditional moral rights arguments is the basic or elementary and fundamental stages of education. Postbasic education which includes technical and professional education and other advanced institutional learning, and which contributes more to a person’s socio-political, economic and technological development, would according to Article 26 “…be made generally available…and accessible to all on the basis of merit”. This caveat, the paper contends, places this level of education in need of further justification, so as to provide a moral basis for the citizens’ claim and indeed access to education generally, beyond the level of basic education. To achieve this, the essay deploys arguments from the pragmatic and utilitarian theories to philosophically justify professional and technical education, as well as advanced institutional learning, as a way of validating the citizens’ right to education in modern human society, beyond the level of basic education.Key words: Education, Justification, Right, Pragmatism, Utilitarianism

Determinants of marketing efficiency of yam market in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

The study analyzed the determinants of yam marketing in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. A two stage sampling technique was used to select yam marketers for the study. Stage one involved the purposive selection of two major yam markets due to the activities of yam marketing in the markets. The second stage involved the random selection of fifteen yam marketers from each of the two markets to give a total of thirty (30) yam marketers for the study. Data collected were analyzed using simple statistics such as mean, frequency and percentages. Profit function approach was used to realize objective one, marketing margin, and marketing efficiency formulas were used to achieve objectives two and three. Also a schematic diagram was used to show the flow of yam from the producers to the consumers. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the determinants of marketing efficiency while the constraints that militated against yam marketing were analyzed using mean, frequencies and percentages. The results show that yam business in the study area is profitable. A rate of return on investment of 1.23 was obtained and marketing margin and marketing efficiency of 25.5%and 23.16% respectively were obtained. The coefficient of educational level and marketing experience were significant and positively related to marketing efficiency. Transportation cost was significant, but negatively related to marketing efficiency. The most important constraints that militated against yam marketing include: high cost of transportation and inadequate credit facilities. The study therefore, recommends that the yam marketers should form cooperative societies to increase their access to credit facilities, and government should provide good road network system to reduce transportation cost.Keywords: cost, returns, yam marketing, Umuahia Nort

Synthesis of Cellulose Acetate From Cashew Nut Shell Cellulose

Cashew nut was divided into its three constituent parts viz: the kernel, the testa and the shell. The shell was grated, and extracted with n-hexane using Soxhlet extractor. The Soxhlet extraction lasted for 12 hrs. The relative percent of the shell, kernel and the testa to the cashew nut were 65.49, 29.02 and 1.80 % respectively. The Deffated cashew nut shell was weighed into a thimble and extracted with eighty percent (80 %) ethanol; the extraction process was done exhaustively until the solution was colorless to yield 17.9 and 82.10 % of alcohol extractives and cashew nut shell respectively. The defatted and alcohol extracted Cashew Nut Shell was de-lignified with 17.5 % sodium hydroxide. After drying, about 2 g of the de-lignified Cashew Nut Shell cellulose was reacted with acetic acid and acetic anhydride in the presence of sulfuric acid to yield cellulose acetate. The cellulose acetate obtained was found to be soluble in acetone

Effects of Citrus aurantifolia Linn and Xylopia aethopica (Dunal) A. Rich Extracts on Leaf Blight Disease of Taro (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott)

Phytophthora colocasiae Raciborski, an Oomycete phytopathogen, has been known for several decades as the causal agent of the most infectious and devastating disease of Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, known as taro leaf blight (TLB). Investigations were conducted in a screenhouse to determine the effects of fruit extracts of Citrus aurantifolia and Xylopia aethiopica on the incidence and severity of TLB. The experiment was set up in a completely randomized design with three replicates.  Healthy taro seedlings obtained from the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, were planted in plastic pots (5000 cm3) containing sterilized soil enriched with poultry manure. The plant extracts were applied as foliar spray on taro leaves with manually operated hand sprayer at 7 weeks after planting and continued at four days intervals for a period of 28 days. Positive check was maintained with the fungicide Ridomil (a.i. mefenoxam) applied at the rate of 0.67 mg.ml-1 while zero concentration in distilled water served as negative control. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance and means were separated using F-LSD.  Results showed very high reduction of disease with plant extracts (P < 0.05) and Ridomil compared to the control. Citrus aurantifolia juice was more efficient in reducing the incidence and severity of TLB compared to X. aethiopica extracts and was highly significant (P< 0.05). The overwhelmingly fungitoxic effects of  C. aurantifolia and X. aethiopica extracts on P. colocasiae as expressed in the reduction of disease suggests that these extracts can serve as alternative bio-fungicide for  the control of TLB. Hence, further studies under field conditions are required to reestablish their efficacy

Measurement and Comparison of Total Electron Content for Assessment of Ionospheric Models during April 7, 2000 Geomagnetic Storms

Ionospheric modelling is a major approach to predicting the behavior of the ionosphere particularly in regions where Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are not readily available. Hence, the objective of this paper is to measure and compare Total Electron Content (TEC) for Assessment of Ionospheric Models during April 7, 2000 Geomagnetic Storms. Measured Total Electron Content (TEC) from experimental records (April 5 - 9, 2000) were compared with those predicted by the improved versions of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI-2012 and IRI-Plas2015) and the NeQuick models. The mean values of TEC in five days of the months were plotted against the hours of the same day and the root mean square error of the models which shows their deviations from the GPS data were used to observe the diurnal variations in TEC and the performances of the ionospheric models respectively. The data obtained confirmed that TEC has their highest values during the midnight period and lowest values during the sunset period at the Australian stations and we also confirmed that European stations had their highest TEC values during the daytime and their lowest values during the night time. We affirmed that the North American station in USA had its highest TEC values during the night time and lowest values during day time. The Asian station had its highest TEC values during the day time and lowest values during the midnight period. However, NeQuick, IRIPlas2015, and NeQ-IRI produced better estimate of TEC than the IRI-2001 and IRI-2001COR at all locations during the phases of the geomagnetic storm

Moralism and the Hobbesian quest for social peace: the role of the self

In his political theory, Hobbes presented a pathetic picture of a „state of nature‟ (devoid of all the restraints of morality), from where the people came to some form of rational calculations on the necessity for a political society that would guarantee social peace. Although, Hobbes‟ goal was not primarily to evolve a moral theory, but because the socio-political situation that precipitated his theorising was such that was beginning to defile all known rules of morality, it becomes imperative to extrapolate his views on morality from his general philosophical construct. The main attraction here, that justifies questing into Hobbes‟ moral suppositions, is his detailed analysis of how the state evolved out of the desire to stamp out anarchy, and in its place, entrench morality, rules, justice and eventually, a stable social order or some semblance of social peace. The essay however finds that Hobbes‟ central arguments upon which he built his idea of morality betray some inconsistency in terms of coordination, systematisation and methodology, and presents these as justifying reasons while his quest for social peace may not have been fully realised in the society of his days.Key words: Thomas Hobbes, State of nature, Political society, Morality, Social peace

Subjective Welfarism, Communitarian Paternalism and the Aristotelian Quest for the Good Society

In this essay, we examine the philosophical debate between advocates of liberal welfarism and communitarian paternalism on the role of the individual and the state in actualising the Aristotelian quest for the good society. The paternalistic implications of a state imposing a general conception of the good on individuals’ personal and subjective inclinations were examined, against the welfarist’s exaltation of the private preferences of individual citizens as the only justifiable platform for the legitimacy of government decisions, legislations and policies. While admitting with the subjective welfarists that each individual has his/her own autonomous vision of a good society and the good life, the essay contends that such autonomy can only be formulated within the ambit of state protectionism and that this provides the basis for government’s regulation and intervention in the processes of preference formation. Resolving the controversy between subjective welfarism and communitarian paternalism on the role of the individual and the state, in the quest for the good life and the good society would, the essay concludes, require more empirical arguments than what both the subjective liberal welfarists and the communitarian paternalists have so far felt disposed to provide.Key Words: Ethics, Politics, The good society, Paternalism, Subjective welfarism