Assessing the CSR and Community Development Programmes of Lafarge Africa Plc in Cross River State

There is a growing consciousness among the global business community that corporations or business organisations can no longer act independently of the individuals or key stakeholders in their business operations, especially members of the host communities. Part of the realisation stems from the fact that creating and maintaining mutually beneficial relationship with host communities is highly dependent on the extent to which firms contribute to the sustainable development of the community and its inhabitants. This study assesses the Corporate Social Responsibility and community development programmes of Lafarge Africa Plc in Cross River State, against the backdrop of sustainable community development. The survey research design was used to gather data for the study; and interview, group discussion and questionnaire were utilised as research instruments to obtain information for the study. This study was premised on the stakeholder theory, which states that companies or firms should be accountable to their stakeholders, which are the group of individuals that are affected by the firms’ activities. Findings revealed that proactive CSR is an essential mechanism for driving sustainable community development. This was evident by the contribution of Lafarge’s intervention in the advancement of the host communities at different levels. However, the company’s approaches to CSR still partly trail the path of philanthropic or charitable donation as most projects were selected and executed without due recourse to the people’s input. Based on the above discoveries, the researchers recommend that the company should adopt a more participatory approach in selecting the kind of development project to embark on based on needs priority of the people. Also, the researchers suggests that rather than relying on reactive or make-shift measures to manage its relationship with the people, the company should adopt a more proactive communication approach in order to avert potential altercations with members of the host communities

Stakeholders Advocacy and the Campaign against Malaria Epidemic in Cross River State: A Social Change Perspective

Stakeholders’ engagement, communication and management is germane to the success of any given social change campaign; most especially in campaigns that are aimed at influencing and changing people’s negative attitudes and behaviours. The task of changing negative health attitudes and practice cannot be left in the hands of the health practitioners/caregivers and the mass media alone. Consequently, the paper strongly makes a case for the need to involve stakeholders at the community levels – the Chiefs, Village Heads, Religious Leaders, Opinion Leaders and other well-meaning individuals – in the campaign against the scourge of malaria parasite. It is believed that while the mass media are popular in creating public health awareness and education; they can do just close to nothing in deciding how the people receive and react to the messages, especially in the area of attitude and behaviour change. Therefore, involving key stakeholders at the community level, who are highly respected by the people, in the campaign will help to consolidate the efforts of the campaign planners. The survey research method was used to gather data for the study and the interview and questionnaire were used as instruments for data collection. The study was premised on the stakeholder’s theory and Participatory Development 154 Theory. The findings revealed that certain cultural practices still militate against the success of the fight against malaria scourge in Cross Rive State, especially the campaign on the use of the Malaria Treated Bed Nets. It was also found out that the level of awareness on the availability of Insecticide Treated Bed Nets was very high as all the respondents affirmed that they were aware of the availability of the Nets. However, most of the people who said they have the nets do not use them based on one reason or the other. These include: general inconvenience associated with sleeping in the net like intense heat or offensive smell of the chemical used in treating the net as well as the general believe that Nets are either meant for babies of dead bodies. The researcher therefore recommends that Anti-malaria campaign planners should actively involve the leaders of every community in the programme planning and execution. This will make the work of the campaign planners easy because their opinions are well respected by the people.Keywords: Stakeholders Advocacy, MalariaEpidemic, Social Chang

The Nigerian Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and the Right to Know: Bridging the Gap between Principle and Practice

Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights adopted in 1948 declares that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Laudable as the declaration is said to be, the media and citizens of many countries are yet to fully enjoy privileges provided by this law. It is also factual that even in countries where the FOI laws exist; different institutional setbacks seem to have stalled its effective application. This paper therefore set out to examine the extent to which the FOI Act, signed into law in Nigeria in 2011, has facilitated free access to public information as well as guaranteed the public’s Right to Know. The survey research design was used to gather information from the respondents, who were mainly media practitioners and interview and questionnaire were used as instruments of data collection.  Findings revealed that although the passage of the Freedom of Information Act was regarded as a welcome development, information seekers have not been able to fully utilise the law to their advantage to hold public officials accountable to the people. Such challenges as ignorance, denial of access to public information by public officers, executive immunity, exclusion of the private sectors and rigid legal procedures were some of the factors respondents said have impeded accessing public information through the instrumentality of the Freedom of Information Act. And these impediments have made the existence of the FOI Act more in principle than in practice. The researchers therefore recommend that, among other things, information seekers should strive to know their rights within the ambit of the law and public officials should be made to comply with Section 2 of the FOI Act, which mandates them to properly keep public records in a manner that facilitates public access to such records. Also, the law should be amended to cover access to information held by the private sectors. Keywords: Right to know, FOI Law, Information Seekers, Public Official

Glucocorticoid Hormon Sensitivity of Regulatory T Cells in Mouse Modell and their Aberrations in Systemic Sclerosis

Regulatory T cells (Treg) are a specialized subpopulation of T cells that play a key role in maintaining tolerance to self-antigens and in suppression of excessive immune response after antigenic stimulation, thereby helping to keep immune homeostasis and lower the risk for developing autoimmune diseases and allergies. Some of the clinically important issues are their participation in prevention of organ rejection after transplantation and tolerance to a fetus by the mother. The thus far best described subsets of Treg cells are the naturally arising thymus-derived (tTreg) Treg cells and the induced Treg (iTreg) cells that arise in the periphery recently also called peripheral Treg cells (pTreg). Both tTregs and pTregs express the characteristic transcription factor Foxp3 (Forkhead box protein 3), CD25, and CD4. Foxp3 is a member of the forkhead transcription factor family, which is defined by a common DNA-binding domain, termed the forkhead box or winged helix domain. The expression of Foxp3 is sufficient to generate T cells with a suppressive phenotype. Lineage specification factors play an important role in cellular differentiation by modulating expression of a broad set of genes whose expression patterns define functional and phenotypic properties of a given cell type. Foxp3 represents a rare example of a lineage specification factor with a specialized role in supporting differentiation and function of a single cell type, namely the Treg cells. Therefore, Foxp3 is considered a “master regulator” of Tregs. There are, however, emerging data suggesting that Foxp3 expression per se may not be sufficient for stable maintenance of Treg suppressive function or reliably defining functional Tregs. For example, activated effector T cells (Teff) can also transiently express Foxp3 without acquiring Treg suppressive activity and even produce proinflammatory cytokines upon activation. As a transcription factor, Foxp3 interacts with multiple transcription factors known to be involved in activation, differentiation, and response of CD4+ T cells to T cell antigen receptor (TCR) stimulation. On the other hand, Foxp3 may also act as a transcriptional co-repressor because it inhibits the activity of NFκB, CREB, and RORα. Thus, Foxp3 functions as a transcription activator and repressor by interacting with other transcription factors, and programs T cells in a direction to promote immune tolerance. For example, Foxp3 transcriptionally represses IL-2 and maintains suppressor functions of Tregs by interacting with a transcription factor, NFAT. Reciprocally, some transcription factor partners of Foxp3 facilitate the gene expression of Foxp3

Culture, Film And The Nigerian Video Producer: Some Production Implications

At the very heart of Africa's entertainment ambience is a huge and thriving audio-visual culture popularly referred to as the video films. These are “dramatic features shot on video and marketed on cassettes (and even Cds), and some times also exhibited publicly with video projectors or TV monitors”. In Nigeria, this bourgeoning art has become a platform for social debate, a carrier of culture, a means of evangelizing and a veritable means of social entertainment. But this new audio-visual art form suffers from intense critical knocks especially from the academia and the media. Central to the debate about the video is how it misrepresents the people's culture and worldview. Producers/ directors are at the very center of these accusations. This paper examines these debates, casting it against a global canvas of film as a strong means of cultural showcasing. In the process, it provides a panacea for the Nigerian video producer/director as a way of improving his art. KEY WORDS: Culture, Video Film, Production, Producers, implications. Global Journal of Humanities Vol.3(1&2) 2004: 63-6

2-14 Rethinking Truth Commissions and the Restorative Justice Paradigm in Africa

Chair: Philippe Frowd, University of Ottawa Bonny Ibhawoh, McMaster University ([email protected]) Theorizing Truth Commissions in Africa: The Politics of Regime Legitimization and the Mandela Complex Mesut Yilmaz, McMaster University ([email protected]) & Melike Yilmaz, McMaster University ([email protected]) Land Restitution for Restorative Justice in Africa Serges Djoyou Kamga, Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute ([email protected]) The TRC: A Bridge to Advance Human Rights or to Denial Justice - Lessons from South Africa Paul Ugor, Illinois State University ([email protected]) Creative Imaginaries of Truth and Reconciliation: Nation and Narration in Antjie Krog\u27s Country of My Skull Meeting ID: 995 1938 531

Afro-Superheroes: Prepossessing the Future

In ‘Popular Arts in Africa’, published in 1987, Karin Barber made passing reference to the syncretic use made of Marvel Comic superheroes alongside figures from Twi folktales, in comics produced in Accra and Kumasi in the 1970s (1987). In these comics, Marvel superheroes and folklore figures, she wrote, have in common their special powers, and a past that stretches beyond the lives of everyday Ghanaians. In the explosion of these figures into the lives of ordinary people, their special powers offer political transformation and access to an otherworldly (sometimes, but not always, ancestrally supported) ability to change this world. The increasing visibility of African superheroes (or what Adilifu Nama has termed so memorably ‘Super Blacks’, 2011) might look, from a certain point of view, like evidence of the increasing infiltration of transnational consumerism into youth cultural forms in African contexts. The papers in this collection on Afro-superheroes argue the opposite: Afro-superheroes, the authors show in their analysis of their often arresting material, are embedded in contemporary political and social contexts and provide us with ways of understanding the emergent present