Comparative study between Malaysian and Nigerian formal low cost housing policy issues

The current housing policies of Malaysia and Nigeria do not highlight on the af- fordability of formal low cost houses (FLCH). Low income earners do not have sufficient income to buy food and meet basic necessities like clothing, rent, fuel, utilities, transport, communications, medical expenses, education, and on a broader sense, housing. The objectives of this study were (i) to investigate FLCH afforda- bility elements in the current housing policies of Malaysia and Nigeria; (ii) to com- pare the FLCH affordability elements in Malaysia and Nigeria; (iii) to study the re- lationship among the FLCH affordability elements in Malaysia and Nigeria; and (iv) to accomplish a sustainable FLCH affordability policy for the LIGs. The meth- odologies employed include descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and the t-test. The study found that there are no laws, rules or guidelines regulating the affairs of FLCH. The design does not reflect user need; it did not conform to their culture, family background and size. No provisions for public participation are provided in the policy documents. FLCH are located in the same neighbourhood with medium and high cost houses in Batu Pahat Malaysia and enjoy all facilities, utilities and services there. The situation is not the same in Bauchi town, where FLCH are lo- cated separately at the peripheries outside of the town trekking distances which re- pel beneficiaries because of the awkward location. Residents in Batu Pahat have higher earnings, less number of dependants than those at Bauchi who have higher number of dependants and lower income level. This study recommends that design, location, participation, highlight on affordability and family issues have prominent impact on affordability and hence be incorporated in policy documents. It can therefore be resolve that FLCH in Batu Pahat, are affordable while those in Bauchi are not affordable. Conclusively, these affordability elements should be upheld to ensure sustainable FLCH affordability policy for the low income groups. The physical and socio-economic elements are the catalyst in the housing provision as- pect. These elements can bridge the wide fissure being the basic features, essentials and the fundamentals of a good policy

Ebibliographical compilation of PhD theses produced at The faculty of science, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria between 2004 – 2014

Theses are one of the information sources that users are not aware of their existence talk less of having  access  to them. Bibliographies helps researchers keep track of the sources they consulted or cited for their written material and gives readers a framework of how the writers' arguments were formed. This paper  attempts to provide a systematic list of Ph.D theses produced by the Faculty of Science, Bayero University,  Kano from 2004 to 2014. Aim was to enable the researchers and students to know and access the scientific research products of the Faculty of Science Bayero University, Kano Nigeria. The theses were arranged  alphabetically under the author surname followed by the title of the work, institutional affiliation and then the year of publication respectively.Keywords: Bibliography, Ph.D., Theses

Outcome of focused training on tuberculosis and air-borne infection control for third-year undergraduate medical students

Background: Though health care personnel are at particularly high risk of contracting air-borne infections, including tuberculosis, the current undergraduate health science curriculum does not have a course devoted to training on airborne infection control and universal biosafety precautions in the pre-clinical stage.Methods: This before-and-after type of educational interventional study (without controls) was conducted on third-year medical students (n=55) in state of Maharashtra, Western India. After completing curriculum-based traditional didactic lectures on tuberculosis and air-borne infection control, a pre-test was conducted. After focused training on tuberculosis and air-borne infection control the post-test was administered. The outcome studied was the difference in cognitive domain scores after attending traditional didactic lectures (by a pre-test) and focused training (by a post-test).Results: The differences between correct responses in pre-and post-tests were statistically significant in 12 out of 15 questions with an overall increase in median correct responses in the post-test with increase in minimum and first quartile.Conclusions: The study results reflect the superiority of focused training using videos and practical demonstration over traditional didactic lectures. This study highlights the focus areas in teaching infection control measures and the importance of focused training in the curriculum for undergraduate medical students. It is necessary to review the curriculum so that knowledge on infection prevention and control is imparted during the pre-clinical first year before medical students enter clinical settings

President Trump Peace Strategy: Emerging Conflict Between Israel and Palestine

When Donald Trump was elected as US President in November 2016, he initially signaled some real hope for the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some analysts argued that he may actually manage to deliver what he calls "the deal of the century" and bring peace to Israel and Palestine. These assumptions were based on the fact that  President Trump is the type of person that could wake up one morning, say "enough", and pressure Israeli and Palestinian leaders to sign a peace deal on his terms. Early on in his presidency, Trump made the conflict a strategic priority and unconventionally chose to go to the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine) on his first trip abroad as President. During a press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, he said that "if Israel and the Palestinians can make peace, it will begin a process of peace all throughout the Middle East." This was in line with Europe's standard inside-out approach (Israeli-Palestinian peace first, Israeli-Arab normalization later). But on December 2019, Trump made it clear that his much-anticipated peace deal will favour Israel when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and promised to move the US embassy there. This led Abbas to brand Trump's peace efforts as "the slap of the century" and say the US could no longer play any role in the Middle East peace process following the move. This paper has general objective of appraising the Trump peace deal in Middle East, and evaluate it to see does the process would bring real peace or escalation of crisis in the Middle East. The paper has argued that for peace to be guaranteed in the Middle East, justice, fair play and inclusiveness must be demonstrated by any third party who want intervene and bring peace in the Middle East. Keywords: Conflict, Middle East, Peace Deal, US intervention DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/82-04 Publication date:May 31st 202

An Assessment of the Partition and Scramble of Africa and the Effect of Slave Trade in the Continent

The scramble and Partition of African countries began in earnest with the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, and this was the cause of the most of Africa’s borders today. The conference was called by German Chancellor Bismarck to settle how European countries would claim colonial land in Africa and to avoid a war among European nations over African territory.  All the major European States were invited to the conference which includes the Germany, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain were all considered to have a future role in the imperial partition of Africa.  The United States was invited because of its interest in Liberia but did not attend the conference because it had no desire to build a colonial empire in Africa. Also invited were Austria–Hungary, Sweden–Norway, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, and Russia who all were considered minor players in the quest for colonizing Africa, though Italy has claim some colonial possessions in Northeast Africa. Most notably there were no Africans present at that conference, nor were any Europeans present to ensure that native Africans had any say in the proceedings. This paper has adopted secondary source of data in the process of data collection. The findings of the paper have revealed that partition in Africa has led to emergence of colonialism, slave trade and other related contemporary imbalance that led to for present African underdevelopment. The paper recommended that African countries needs to be allowed to run its affairs as an independent sovereign countries  to manage both their mineral and human resource to compete with every continent of the world interterms of development dynamism and African countries should develop an approach that will help them to fight social menace of poverty, corruption, insecurity and unemployment

John Locke’s Political Philosophy and It’s Relevance to the Sustenance of Peace and Good Governance in Nigeria

Philosophers are the mirror of the society where they use their glass to critically view and analyses certain human problems in order to propose a certain solution to that problem. The political philosophy of John Locke on the sustenance of peace and the conduct of good governance have given direction to any true democratic leaders who are in power to serve humanity and making lives better for his peoples. This paper was of the opinion that leaders in Nigeria since the return to democracy in 1999 in to the country the system has fail to meets the desired dividend for peaceful society and provision of functional government; this led to emerging problems of insecurity and pockets of conflicts in different parts of the country. This paper has uses secondary data source through reviewing relevant secondary information on the subject matter. This paper was of views that if leaders in Nigeria would be serious on the process of operating good governance they should provide   an enabling environment that would promote peace and security among the citizens by ensuring welfare and the need of the peoples are the priority agenda that can drive the nation out of these menace of insecurity and conflicts through respecting rule of law, fighting corruption, separation of power and tolerance. Keywords: Peace, Good Governance. Philosophy and Human needs. DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-5-06 Publication date:May 31st 202

Trump Administration and the Politics of Visa Denial to Nigerian Citizens

President Trump on January 31st 2020 has added six countries to his list of nations facing stringent travel restrictions, a move that will virtually block immigration from Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, and from Myanmar, where the Muslim minority is fleeing genocide. Beside Nigeria, three other African countries, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania, will face varying degrees of restrictions, as will one former Soviet state, Kyrgyzstan,  Myanmar’s.  All six countries have substantial Muslim populations. The total number of countries now on the restricted travel list stands at 13. Immigrant visas, issued to those seeking to live in the United States, will be banned from Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan. The ban will also prevent immigrants from Sudan and Tanzania from moving to the United States through the diversity visa lottery, which grants green cards to as many as 50,000 people a year. The paper would uses secondary source of data from relevant publications. The researcher was of the view that most of these countries with US Visa restriction have issues of security problems and are mainly Muslim countries. The paper was of the view that   if these countries need to have respect and international recognition the government of these countries must take the issue of insecurity and fighting terrorism as a priority agenda so that they cannot be isolated as unsecured countries among countries of the world. Keywords: Immigrant, Visa, Terrorism and Insecurity. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/97-11 Publication date:May 31st 202

Western Exploitations and the Nexus of African Underdevelopment

This paper examines Walter Rodney’s argument of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa and its justification years after political independence. The paper has   adapted Dependency Theory. The paper has reveals that widening gap between Developed and Underdeveloped States is as a result of both external and internal factors especially the colonial integration of African economies in the World Capitalist System and its exploitative institutions and programmes and internal factors of both systemic and institutional corruption, political instability, colonial mentality of consumption and other factors are responsible for underdevelopment of Africa with attendant effects of poverty, inequality, unemployment, disease and infrastructural decay etc. on basis of conclusion. The paper recommended that visionary and purposeful leadership that surrounds itself with experts will initiate and sustain revolutionary development in Africa. Also proper planning and continuity in developmental policies and programmes and united front against corruption be strictly adhered to for the continent to develop. Keywords: Development, Underdevelopment, Exploitations and Good Governance. DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/64-06 Publication date:May 31st 202

Financial and Accounting Entrepreneurial Competences Needed by Vocational Technical Teacher Education Students in North Eastern Nigeria

Nascent and potential entrepreneurs need some pecuniary advantages that are acquired through knowledge and practice. The knowledge of financial accounting is vital in start-up and transacting businesses. The purpose of this study was to determine the financial entrepreneurial competences needed by vocational technical teachers’ education students. A research question and one null hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. A draft of the instrument was subjected to content validation by two experts from the department of vocational Education, Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola. A pilot test was conducted and the data obtained thereafter was run on split half reliability method. The reliability coefficient of the full test was 0.90. The population of the study was 294. The statistical tools used in the study were mean, standard deviation and student t-test of difference between means. Fifteen financial entrepreneurial competences were found to be desirable for vocational technical teacher education (VTTE) students. It was recommended that these financial and accounting entrepreneurial competences should be infused into VTTE curriculum. Keywords: Financial and accounting, Entrepreneurial competences and Intrapreneurs