John Hick’s Philosophy of Religious Pluralism in the Context of Traditional Yoruba Religion

This article is an interpretation of John Hick’s philosophy of religious pluralism in the context of traditional Yoruba religion. The ultimate goal of the article is pragmatic, viz. to provide a theoretical basis for peaceful coexistence among different religions in Nigeria. The methods adopted to achieve this objective are hermeneutical/analytical and comparative. Hick’s theory is interpreted and analysed before it is applied to traditional Yoruba theology. His concept of the Transcendent or Ultimate Reality is equated with the Yoruba concept of the Supreme Being or Olodumare. Both Hickean Ultimate Reality and Olodumare are conceived as transcategorial. However, Yoruba divinities are equated with Hick’s personae and impersonae of the Real: like the personae and impersonae of Hickean Ultimate Reality, the divinities are manifestations of Olodumare. This interpretative method can be used to account for differences in the conceptions of the Supreme Being among competing religions in Nigeria, especially Islam and Christianity in their conceptions of God. KeywordsJohn Hick, pluralism, Yoruba, Nigeria, Olodumare, divinitie

ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS TOWARDS VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OTA,OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Vocational education is a vital tool for economic development. The Federal Government, in 2011, launched the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC) which requires that all senior secondary school students be trained in one vocational subject. This study examines the attitudes of students and teachers towards vocational education in secondary schools in Ado-Odo Local Government, Ogun State, Nigeria. It aims to highlight the factors that affect and influence the attitudes of students and teachers towards vocational training as well as identify ways through which these attitudes can be improved. The study employs the use of questionnaires distributed to 200 students and 60 teachers in four secondary schools in Adodo-Ota LGA. The results show that students and teachers recognize the importance of vocational education. The study recommends that students be provided with modern day equipment to encourage students’ engagement in vocational subjects. The curriculum for the teaching of vocational subjects should be comprehensive, standardized and enforced in all secondary schools to ensure that students acquire all the skills they need to practice the vocation(s). These will improve vocational education and the attainment of its goals in secondary schools

ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS TOWARDS VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Vocational education is a vital tool for economic development. The Federal Government, in 2011,launched the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC) which requires that all senior secondary school students be trained in one vocational subject. This study examines the attitudes of students and teachers towards vocational education in secondary schools in Ado-Odo Local Government,Ogun State, Nigeria. It aims to highlight the factors that affect and influence the attitudes of students and teachers towards vocational training as well as identify ways through which these attitudes can be improved. The study employs the use of questionnaires distributed to 200 students and 60 teachers in four secondary schools in Adodo-Ota LGA. The results show that students and teachers recognize the importance of vocational education. The study recommends that students be provided with modern day equipment to encourage students’ engagement in vocational subjects. The curriculum for the teaching of vocational subjects should be comprehensive, standardized and enforced in all secondary schools to ensure that students acquire all the skills they need to practice the vocation(s). These will improve vocational education and the attainment of its goals in secondary schools

LIBRARIANS PERCEPTION OF BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE POLICIES: BENEFITS FOR UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an initiative that permits library staff to use a personally owned device to perform official tasks and access electronic library information. The most frequently used personally owned devices are mobile phones, tablets, iPad and laptops. The practice of encouraging personally owned computing devices within professional organizations is becoming more and more acceptable, as this practice enables the organisation to transfer the investment costs of desktop hardware into their employees (Pillay, 2013). The university libraries are faced with difficult economic times and university budget cuts (Tenopir & Kaufman, 2010). Hence, BYOD encourages library staff to use their personal devices to carry out official tasks, this will reduce the cost of hardware purchase and maintenance. Despite the fact that university libraries are faced with budget cuts and BYOD has been reported in many organisations as one of the ways to reduce the cost of hardware purchase. It has been observed that university libraries in Nigeria have not yet fully adopt BYOD policies. It is on this background that this study investigates librarians perception of BYOD policies; identify perceived benefits and shortcomings of BYOD to University libraries in Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study are to find out the knowledge of BYOD among librarians, establish the availability of BYOD policies and perceived benefit of BYOD to the university libraries in Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design will be adopted for this study and a self-structured questionnaire will be used as the major instrument for data collection. The questionnaire will be distributed to the respondents during the Annual Nigerian Library Association Conference that will be held in July 2018 in Abeokuta, Ogun State Nigeria. The choice of administrating the questionnaire at this venue is due to the fact that this conference draws many participants from all the libraries in Nigeria. The target population of this study comprises all 152 and a simple random sampling technique will be used for sample size. The data collected for this study will be subjected to inferential and descriptive statistical analysis using percentage, frequency count, standard deviations and means. The data will be analyzed using SPSS version 22.Covenant Universit

Use of Competitive Intelligence on Improvement of Registry Services in Nigerian Private University System

The university registry is one of the central support service departments in/he university providing support for the academic purposes of the university with a range of services known as academic administration .. The academic administration includes support for the admission process for students, record management for both current and past students and other records. award / degree ceremonies and career advice. As a regulator within the university, the registry assists in the inte1pretation and application of rules and regulations. For the university registry to succeed, quality infonnation delivery is velJ' essential, more so, in this age and time when competition has become serious and powerful among private universities. The increase ip the number of private universities established i.n Nigeria today compared to the number of availalble students that can aj]ord private university education and coupled with the fact that the students now have many options opened to the Tn, lias made private universities to start looking for ways to attract, retain and foszer stronger relationships with students. Seeking sources of revenue has become a constant pressure and identifying opportunities for growth and stl'ategic positioning is now essential to survival of these universities. Therefore, for private universities to sw·vive in this competitive environment, a hetter understanding of its competition and competitive forces which affects its success is needed One important approach that has helped organizations to succeed is Competitive Intelligence (CI) which the private r , universities could use to gain advantage over its competitors. This paper proposes that the private university registry could make use of the Keisser 2002 ten steps of CI process to identify it's strengths, and weaknesses and subsequently employ strategies to improve it's information service delive1y thereby gaining competitive advantage over its competitors.

FACTORS AFFECTING INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS AND INFORMATION USE BY LEGISLATORS IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA

The study looks at factors affecting information literacy skills and information use by Legislators in South West, Nigeria. In south West Nigeria, there are six states namely, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. For the purpose of this study, only three states were randomly selected for this study and they are: Ondo, Oyo and Ekiti. In all, there are seventy-eight Lawmakers cut across the states selected for the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study, the instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, it was administered to all the seventy-eight Lawmakers. Sixty-seven out of the seventy-eight questionnaire returned usable and this brings the response rate to 85.9%. The results from data gathered was analyzed using percentages. The result is presented in tables. The study found that Lawmakers in the selected States House of Assembly have acquired basic skills on information literacy which made information search and use easy for them. The study also revealed that there were some factors still affecting information use by these Lawmakers. It concluded that right information is a necessity when it comes to taking decisions

STRATEGIES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY STAFF IN NIGERIA

This study attempts an empirical investigation of strategies for the preservation of electronic records in university libraries in Nigeria. The main objective of this study is to ascertain the strategies used by the University libraries in Nigeria to preserve electronic records. The study employed descriptive research design. The population comprises one hundred and sixty nine (169) librarians from university libraries in Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used and the instrument for data collection is semistructured closed and open-ended questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, charts with simple percentages. Statistical Package for Social Science version 22 are used for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that (= 1.63±SD= 0.660) majority of university libraries in Nigeria do not have in place preservation strategies for electronic information records. 94.1% of librarians do not possess requites skills for preserving electronic information records. Lack of manpower and other infrastructure are identified as the major inhibiting factors (= 3.90±SD= 0.418). The study also found out that there is a significant relationship inhibiting factors of preservation and preservation strategies adopted by university library staff in Nigeria (r=-0.305, N= 169 and P< 0.01)

Lipid Peroxide Levels, Antioxidant Status, and Protein Changes in Nigerian Smokers

Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many diseases. We evaluated index of lipid peroxidation (Malondialdehyde), antioxidants (Uric Acid and Total antioxidant Status), Total Protein and Albumin level

Impact analysis of e-Databases’ job relevance, output quality and result demonstrability on faculty research motivation

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to ascertain whether or not faculty members would be motivated to use e-Databases for research considering the impact of the Technology Acceptance Model2 (TAM2) cognitive instrumental processes of job relevance, output quality and result demonstrability. Design/methodology/approach – The survey research design was applied. The selection of samples was based on a multistage sampling technique involving; purposive, simple/systematic random and total enumeration procedures. Five colleges and departments each were selected from the three universities that provided the setting for the conduct of this study, out of which a sample of 135 was drawn from the total population of 209. The questionnaire method was used for data gathering. Ninety-five percent return rate of the administered instrument was observed. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were employed for data analyses. Findings – Job relevance, output quality and result demonstrability are motivators of faculty use of e-Databases for research with result demonstrability wielding the strongest influence. Use of e-Databases for research is based on the usefulness level perceived of them. Faculty are highly predisposed to using the technology for research with the chances of getting published in reputable journal outlets ranked highest among other factors that influence faculty use of e-Databases. Originality/value – The conceptualization of TAM2 cognitive instrumental processes as system characteristics and motivators of e-Databases use among faculty towards research engagement advances the understanding of intention to use e-Databases for research

Production of Citric Acid from Solid State Fermentation of Sugarcane Waste using Aspergillus Niger and Indigenous Sugarcane Microflora

Aspergillus niger is the leading microorganism of choice for citric acid production. Sugarcane waste was used as substrate under solid state fermentation to comparatively evaluate the citric acid production capacity of Aspergillus niger isolates and the indigenous microflora in the sugarcane waste. Known optimal cultural parameters such as moisture content, particle size and sugar level were used. Aspergillus niger produced 30.54 g/L citric acid while the indigenous microflora produced 28.93 g/L citric acid after fermentation at 30°C for 8 days. The residual sugar concentration decreased from 11.35 g/L to 3.14 g/L in the Aspergillus niger fermentation medium and from 10.67 g/L to 5.99 g/L in the indigenous microflora fermentation medium. Keywords: Citric acid production; sugarcane waste; indigenous micro flora; fungus-specific fermentation extrac