DEPENDENCY, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND LEAGUE OF ANAMBRA PROFESSIONALS (LAP) IN NIGERIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The goal of community development is the improvement of human well-being and the quality of life. This involves the eradication of poverty, and the fulfillment of basic needs of all people. Thus, it re- quires that governments apply active social and environmental policies and programmes that will ad- dress all this. federal centre for structural, physical and human development. The paper focuses on the League of Anambra Professionals, a body poised to catalyse the human capital in order to revolu- tionalise and re-engineer the contour and configuration of Anambra state so as to depend less on the federal centre. The paper, therefore, argues that, given the overarching and burgeoning responsibili- ties of the Nigeria’s federal centre, it finds it difficult to allocate sufficient revenues for state and local governments. Thus, the need to create a fourth tier government that should embark on community development projects and programmes. The paper further argues that community development project is not the preserve of the federal government and/or the states. It is also expected that interest groups and organised professional bodies can offer assistance, hence, the synergistic interplay of the 'League of Anambra professionals' and the Anambra state government towards the development of the com- munities in Anambra state

The Reign Of Terror In Democratic Nigeria: A Review Of Socio-Political And Psychological Implications

The unprecedented rate and currency at which the act of terrorism is ravaging so many societies across the globe is alarming, shocking and worrisome.  To be sure, Nigeria, in recent times has been marked as a terrorist zone as it records a high proportion of terrorist attacks such as political killing, assassination, hostage taking and abduction.  The cause of this is largely attributed to the inefficiency of the national security.  The paper, therefore, brings to focus some of the celebrated cases and finally advances ways to ameliorate the deplorable situation in the country.   &nbsp

TERRORISM, FOREIGN POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS IN NIGERIA

Confronting terrorism has become one of the most important fundamentals of national governments foreign policies The fight against the scourge has increasingly and generally gained legitimacy and justification among the international community particularly as many nation-states consider it to be their international obligation to support the global movement to ameliorate if not to eliminate the menace The paper sets out to examine the causes of terrorism and its effects on Nigeria s foreign policy It argues that the escalating rate of terrorist acts demonstrated in varying dimensions is not unconnected with frustration caused by high rate of unemployment particularly among the youth The paper also emphasises that terrorist acts are employed by political elites to fight their political opponents and also to gain relevance and popularity in the political marke

Between Magnanimity and Malevolence: Nigeria’s Commitment to South Africa’s Political Freedom in the Lens of Reciprocity

The history of South Africa’s long walk to political freedom is dotted with Nigeria’s undaunted commitment and involvement, propelled by Nigeria’s Afrocentric foreign policy stance. This study therefore, demonstrates Nigeria’s concern for Africa’s political liberation, and in particular, presents Nigeria’s commitment to South Africa’s struggle for political freedom during the colonial years. It adopts the secondary method of data collection, and borrows from the conceptual framework and doctrinal provisions of reciprocity to weigh South Africa’s attitude towards Nigeria’s commitment to her (South Africa’s) political emancipation. Passing Nigeria’s involvement in South Africa’s liberation struggle and South Africa’s treatments of Nigeria through the critical lens of historical and theoretical analysis, this study makes a finding that Nigeria’s magnanimity to South Africa is at variance with South Africa’s response to Nigeria. The study recommends that Nigeria’s relations with her African brothers, informed by her foreign policy of Afrocentrism, should reflect reciprocity. In sum, that in her foreign relations, Nigeria should treat as she is treated

Challenges of Nigeria’s foreign policy

Nigeria’s foreign policy like those of every other elsewhere, is hoped to achieve for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians, the aspired goals and articulated interests of the Nigerian state. This expectation, by the judgment of many informed Nigerians, is yet to be fully realized. Nigeria’s foreign policy inter alia, has failed to work out the transformation of Nigeria’s status and Nigerians’ lives from where it is, to where it should be. What possibly could answer for this foreign policy failure? In response to the puzzle, this paper excurses into the mixed and myriad challenges that have vexed Nigeria’s foreign policy from the formative years of her foreign policy formulation and implementation to the present. The finding is that the persistence of these challenges due to neglect, bad and irresponsible leadership is debilitating to Nigeria’s foreign policy output and has made foreign policy performance leave much to be desired. The paper concludes with a number of recommended suggestions as a panacea to the identified teething challenges

Ideological Battle in the Nigerian State: An interplay of democracy and plutocracy

It has been widely argued that democracy is an imperative for development in the 21st Century Nigeria Perhaps it is because the concept has been tested in some societies particularly in western societies and it worked The paper argues that one of the reasons democratic institution has not yet been properly rooted in Nigeria is that it has been choked off and smothered by plutocracy The attendant consequences include impoverishment of the citizenry gradual deterioration of established democratic institutions and agencies and high level of criminality militancy and terrorist-oriented activitie

CHALLENGES OF INTERNAL DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIAaS POLITICAL PARTIES: THE BANE OF INTRA-PARTY CONFLICTS IN THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF NIGERIA

Preparatory to the 2011 general elections in Nigeria there already exists public mass apathy and cynicism in town The attitude however suggests that as usual the elections will not be credible free and fair The people have become atrophied by cynicism and mistrust of government and people in government What may have informed this development is the abysmal collapse of internal democracy in Nigeria s political parties It is in the light of this the paper attempts to examine some of the basic challenges of internal democracy as it constitutes the main factor for the intra-party wrangling rocking the fabrics of the Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria In conclusion the paper advances few means of tackling the menace so as to pave way for smooth and free-flow elections in 201

A Paradigm Shift From Tradition To Modernity In Nollywoodas Projection Of African Narratives

The Nollywood movie industry since its inception in the early nineties has progressively projected the African cultural heritage to other parts of the world This encompasses both good and bad aspects of the culture Today many Africans in Diaspora tend to feel at home whenever they watch any of the Nollywood movies just like the Hollywood and Bollywood project the American and Indian weltanshuung respectively Interestingly there has been a consistent transformation of the Hollywood and Bollywood from the traditional to the postmodern stages This is not applicable to the Nollywood Industry The paper therefore argues that there should be a paradigmatic shift of Nollywood movies from tradition to modernity since virtually all the African Narratives being projected by the industry hitherto are not only pristine and anarchronistic but also fall short of the existing realities of the African way of life This has impacted negatively on the socio-cultural development of Africa and in particular portray some Nigerian ethnic groups as uncivilized and backwar

The Utilization of Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials in Chemical Engineering

Nanotechnology have witnessed application in almost all areas of chemical engineering from Quantum engineering to biosynthesis and biotechnology. It has improved the resonance properties of metals, semiconductors and quantum dots used for sensing and imaging applications. The greatest impact is in the area of biomedicals where neurodegenerative diseases such as cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and brain tumors are now addressed with great success. In filtration technology, nanomaterials are now used for onsite dictation and removal of heavy metals. Better performance have been discovered regarding nanomaterials for removing water vapor in the atmosphere as nano-hydroxyapatite can now replace silica gel for water vapour absorption. Even the processes leading up to production of nanomaterials are now modified with microorganisms to synthesize nanomaterials such as silver synthesized via H. Leucopus mediated bioreduction. Materials can now be synthesized down to atomic or molecular level through controlled deposition of the precursor material on the substrate. Size conversion of molecules, surface motif exchanges, ligand technology and polymer technology have witnessed turn around all because of nanotechnology. Organic pollutant known as non-biodegradables, can now be degraded excellently using TiO2 functionalized nanoporous anodized alumina in the presence of UV and visible light. Battery storage capacity have been greatly improved by doping of the electrodes with nanoparticles such that the volume changes during charge and discharge operations are reduced. In the end of this preview, a concise presentation of areas for further research was made to further accelerate research in this area. On battery technology and electrochemistry, a novel ternary composite of graphene, MoS2 nanosheets and a small amount (1wt %) of silver nanoclusters (NCs; MoS2/G/Ag) have been discovered with storage capacity as high as 1308 mAhg¬ 1 (at 5Ag-1 well above the traditional binary system with only MoS2/Ag. Other quantitative results of exploit of nanotechnology are littered in this review

Usefulness of X-Rays in the Evaluation of Patients with Pains of the Upper Limb

The conventional use of x-rays in radiodiagnosis is widelyobtainable in Nigeria. This study was intended, therefore todetermine the usefulness of x-rays to evaluate pains of theupper-limb in aspects of its contribution to diagnosis, cost,patient care and management and the views for detailedinformation. Adopting judgemental sampling, a nonprobabilitysampling, approach was used. A total of twohundred and forty seven (247) radiographs were handpickedusing the request forms and radiologist reports on theradiographs. The results obtained showed that the use of xraysto evaluate pain of the upper limb contributed 47.70% totherapeutic decision, cost, patient care and management.Oblique view had a positive outcome of 51.50% as againstposterior anterior and lateral views which had 27.14% and22.16% respectively. In comparison, computed tomography(CT) scans of 72 patients showed that 68.06% of the caseswere diagnosed as pain resulting trauma, spondylosis,ostemomyelitis and narrowing of disc spaces. The CT scanresult showed an improvement over conventional x-ray and anadded advantage to therapeutic decision making and patientcare/management. It was concluded that the use of otherimaging modalities in our hospitals should supplement the useof conventional x-rays on pains of the upper limb to removedoubt on therapeutic decisions in our health institutions