Psycho-Social Factors as Determinants of Utilization of Family Planning Services among the Non-Academic Workers of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State Nigeria.

Society is an aggregate of individual families and whatever affects the family affects the society. Over population today is a major problem in developing countries of the world.  A method of combating this ever increasing threat to the world peace is family limitation i.e. the voluntary spacing of birth of children. Family planning has significant advantages for the individual, families and society as a whole yet some individuals are still not ready to utilize the available family planning services around them hence this study examined some of the psychosocial factors that determine the utilization of family planning services among the non-academic workers of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria. Two hundred participants were conveniently and randomly selected from the Maternity and General Hospital Wings of the Teaching Hospital and printed questionnaires were distributed to the participants to elicit the needed information. Four hypotheses were used and tested at the probability level of 0.05 significance. Simple percentages and Partial Correlation Test were used. The results obtained from all the hypotheses showed that there’s a correlation between psychosocial factors and utilization of family planning services and that those psychosocial factors determine the utilization of family planning services. Keywords: Determinants, Family Planning, Psycho-social factors, Utilization

Haitian Children\u27s House-Tree-Person Drawings: Global Similarities and Cultural Differences

The issues of rising terrorism, violence, and scarcity of basic needs will increase in the coming decades, and children that need psychological services in disaster areas around the world will also increase (Alim, 2008). The study utilized the House-Tree-Person (HTP) projective test to examine the adaptation and maladaptation of Haitian children who lived in extreme urban poverty, broken infrastructure, and relocation camps in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. The 43 participants of the original archived data set provided 129 protocols of house, tree, and person drawings (Roysircar & Colvin, 2015). Out of that dataset, the present study used 39 HTP protocols from 13 Haitian child participants, ages 7 to 9 years old. The 39 HTP drawings protocols were coded using a Jungian Interpretative Design (Furth, 2002). These coded results were analyzed with a modified qualitative methodology of the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The Jungian Interpretative Design revealed adaptive (“tree has some fruits”) and maladaptive presentations (“the man is holding a machete in his left hand”), and an overall impression (“this person portrays a sense of agency and action”) of the drawings. Seven superordinate and subordinate clustered themes emerged from the IPA: Vulnerability and Powerlessness; Resiliency; Aggression; Well-Being; Sublimated idealization and Fantasy; Self-Efficacy and Agency; and Trauma. The superordinate and subordinate themes from the Haitian children’s drawings were compared with themes from two international HTP studies: an Israeli study (Nuttman-Shwartz, Huss, & Altman, 2010) of children who experienced forced re-settlement; and a Chinese study (Wang, Xu, & Wang, 2010) with children who experienced an earthquake (Wenchuan earthquake). The three studies’ participants and their stressful environment were comparable. Themes unique to Haitian participants included depiction of naked persons that indicated poverty and fruit-bearing trees in planters, indicating thriving despite insufficiency. The themes that the three studies had in common, called Common Global Factors (CGFs), were holes in the trunks of trees or damaged trees that indicated trauma. The implications of GCFs, culture-specific differences, and continuous trauma of children must be addressed in clinical assessment, treatment planning, and intervention of researchers/practitioners in international settings

Economic Potential of Irrigated Improved Citrus Seedlings in Nigeria

Sourcing of viable seeds from quality rootstocks had been the major constraints in profitable citrus seedling production in Nigeria. 250,000 rootstock seeds extracted from 17,500kg of rough lemon fruits, treated with benlate were planted on the field in February, 2014 with adequate watering for optimum germination. Surface irrigation system using indigenous pipes connected to 100m3 reservoir was adopted for water supply thrice weekly. The three month old seedlings were transplanted into the main nursery in May, 2014 at 30 cm by 30 cm spacing. Budding activities  using satsuma, sweet orange and tangelo budwoods were carried out  three months after transplanting, having attained a pencil size in July, 2014. Bud takes were evaluated six weeks after budding and found to have achieved more than 65% success, thereby confirming   rootstock / budwood compatibility with minimal deformation at the points of union.  Economic analysis and total energy consumption of the processes were determined.  Results indicated that 21,667kg of seedlings were produced at a value price of  $2.29/seedling,  gross value of production at$49505. 71; total cost of production at $7499. 13; Net Return of$82506. 66 in 5yr period and internal rate of returns (IRR) > 70%.  Energy use efficiency was 1.96; energy specific, 1.56; energy productivity, 0.64; net energy gain, 8630.51 with corresponding water and energy productivity of 0.51. Non-renewable energy constitutes more than 49% of the total energy input.  Overall result showed that improved irrigated citrus seedling production is a viable entrepreneurship with an IRR of higher value than the current interest rate

Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development

The dimension of the debate on the relation between the universal and the particular in African philosophy has been skewed in favour of the universalists who argued that the condition for the possibility of an African conception of philosophy cannot be achieved outside the “universal’ idea of the philosophical enterprise. In this sense, the ethnophilosophical project and its attempt to rescue the idea of an African past necessary for the reconstruction of an African postcolonial identity and development becomes a futile one. A recent commentator even argues that works concerning African identity are now totally irrelevant and misguided. In this essay, I will be arguing, on the contrary, that the universalist’s argument, much like its critique of ethnophilosophical reason, mistakes the nature, significance and necessity of such a resistance (rather than original) identity that the ethnophilosophical project promises. I will also argue that the fabrication of such an identity facilitates the avoidance of an uncritical submersion in the universal as well as a proper conception of an African development. This, furthermore, is the only avenue by which the imperialistic ontological space of universal humanism, in which most universalist claims are rooted, can be made more polygonal and mutually beneficial for alternative cultural particulars

We the People : An Anthropological Analysis of Property Rights Discourse and Practice

While the everyday rhetoric around property rights tends to focus on land and land rights, I assert that beneath that rhetoric is the set of ideas about what it means to be a person by normative American standards. I look to anthropology to specify what these standards are, as well as review the discipline\u27s other contributions to the concept of property rights. Following Bill Maurer (2003), I will suggest that property is an interesting topic for anthropology to study because of the duality of the concept: it is both ideology and jurisprudence.This dual role of property rights produces social categories of persons and shapes social relations between people

Civil society, popular culture and the crisis of democratic transitions in Nigeria, 1960-1993

SIXTH TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE ON "DEMOCRACY: POPULAR PRECEDENTS, POPULAR PRACTICE AND POPULAR CULTURE", UNIVERSITY OF WJTWATERSTRAND, SOUTH AFRICA, JULY 13-16, 1994.On the 12th of June 1993, Nigerians trooped to the polls to once again and for the third time since the country's independence, inaugurate yet another republic through the ballot box. In spite of mounting acrimonies, the election held and it was judged by virtually all domestic and international observers as the freest and the fairest Nigeria has ever had. As the results of the election began to trickle in. the military President. General Ibrahim Babaneida. suddenly announced the susoension of the announcement of the election results, eventuallv canceling the result outriuhl and susDcndinu the whole transition oroeram. This abortion of the transition of oaf am threw the countrv into a oeriod of urofbund crisis from which it is vet to recover. Usinu the 1993 election as a case sludv. this DaDer examines the crisis of democratic transition in Nigeria. The relevance of oooular culture, its deveiooment. ils use and abuse as well as its inmacl on ihe inlra-dite slniuttle and comoetition for oower and for dominance are enunciated and analyzed

Exploring Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) as a housing finance option in Nigeria

While traditional housing finance system in Nigeria could not stem the estimated shortage of 17 million, some identified modern sources had also made little impact on housing finance. Sustainable real estate financing requires a system which can be repackaged and traded for further creation of credit over time as fitting into the structure of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The paper examines literature for the nature and workings of REIT. It identifies REIT types and examples as well as its benefits across its operational world. In the applicability of REIT to Nigeria, some germane considerations are explored as related to ownership structure and institutional investors among others. The study finds out that the level of appreciation of REIT is low in Nigeria. The performance of the Stock Exchange (SE) too has not been very encouraging for REITs’ operation. For the few REIT companies listed on the SE, the share prices are low partly because of a recent crash of the Nigerian stock market, from which recovery is very slow. While the national housing policy in Nigeria absolves the government from direct construction of houses, private or quasi-public housing development institutions need to find sustainable means of housing finance. This paper contributes to the discussions on alternative means of housing finance as REIT could be subscribed to even by small investors. However, improved education on REIT could also ameliorate housing finance in Nigeria. Keywords: Housing finance, Housing market, REITs, Stock marke

Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development

The dimension of the debate on the relation between the universal and the particular in African philosophy has been skewed in favour of the universalists who argued that the condition for the possibility of an African conception of philosophy cannot be achieved outside the “universal’ idea of the philosophical enterprise. In this sense, the ethnophilosophical project and its attempt to rescue the idea of an African past necessary for the reconstruction of an African postcolonial identity and development becomes a futile one. A recent commentator even argues that works concerning African identity are now totally irrelevant and misguided. In this essay, I will be arguing, on the contrary, that the universalist’s argument, much like its critique of ethnophilosophical reason, mistakes the nature, significance and necessity of such a resistance (rather than original) identity that the ethnophilosophical project promises. I will also argue that the fabrication of such an identity facilitates the avoidance of an uncritical submersion in the universal as well as a proper conception of an African development. This, furthermore, is the only avenue by which the imperialistic ontological space of universal humanism, in which most universalist claims are rooted, can be made more polygonal and mutually beneficial for alternative cultural particulars

Rawls In The African Predicament: Some Theoretical Considerations

The colonial experience in Africa is an epochal phenomenon. This is because the postcolonial conditions became crippling enough to determine the direction that Africa would take. The colonial logic through series of socio-cultural, economic and political “pre-texts” ensured the disruption of the African psyche and societies. One of the ways in which the Africa is coming to term with its disrupted existence is the attempt to recreate a democratic community on demotic principles. The people are essential because they were crucial to the decolonisation process. However, because the colonial structures remained largely uninterrogated by the nationalists, the African state lost its legitimacy and the disenchanted Africans discovered meaningfulness in their ethnic enclaves. How then can African achieve a liberating democratic community? How does liberal democracy, and its arch-advocate Rawls, feature in this attempt at legitimating the postcolonial African state? How meaningful is the idea of an African liberal democracy? Journal of Philosophy and Culture Vol. 3 (1) 2006: pp. 22-5