Contemporary Nigeria Research Articles

Eco-Drama, Multinational Corporations, and Climate Change in Nigeria

Abstract Oil explorations by multinational corporations in Nigeria have grave consequences on the ecosystem. Gas flaring, oil spillage, and other forms of land and water pollution seriously degrade the natural environment as well as displace Nigerians from their homes and traditional occupations. Pollution has caused increased flooding, erosion, and dearth of both food and fishes, leading to poverty and hidden hunger, among other problems. More destructive is the reactionary disposition of the Nigerian state to climate change and ecological disasters. Beside the provision of make-shift structures and relief materials to flood victims, there are hardly any proactive efforts on the ground to check the activities of multinational corporations operating in the country. Greg Mbajiorgu’s eco-drama Wake Up Everyone (2011) depicts the challenges of the climate crisis in contemporary Nigeria. A close reading and critical analysis of the play, which is a microcosm of the country, illuminates the ways these challenges affect Nigerians and the need for action. Apart from displacing individuals from their homes, flooding takes a heavy toll on the agricultural sector, as most crops and livestock production systems in Nigeria are not yet fully technology-based and are, therefore, susceptible to environmental degradation. As a result, the flooding of farms and plantations, damaging crops and seedlings, leads to a corresponding degree of food scarcity/insecurity and indeed inflation in the cost of farm produce. This paper concludes that conscious efforts suggested in the play should be made to forestall multinational corporations from further pillaging the environment, and that government functionaries saddled with the task of forging active measures to stem the effects of climate change in the country should rise to their responsibilities.

Class Politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Myths and Realities

Mainstream and dominant global north-influenced social science scholarship in contemporary Nigeria dismisses the class factor in both socio-political engineering and scholarship as non-existent. While the chief priests of this brand of social science scholarship denies its liberal origins, undercurrents and ferments and claim to be neutral in its investigations, the dialectical-historical materialist method of social investigation prioritizes the class question. This study, an interrogation of the place of class in the politics of the Fourth Republic in Nigeria, examines the social forces which shape and direct current politics in the country, and why the country’s socio-economic, cultural and political development continue to fall into bouts of epilepsies and create a number of millions of citizens at the bottom level of society. But the study restates the fact that it may seemingly be unscientific for ultra-left thinking to centralize Nigerian politics mainly on class forces.

Corruption and Challenges of National Security in North Central Nigeria: An Appraisal

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out the major reasons for the existence of corruption in contemporary Nigeria, the existing relationship between corruption and Nigeria's national security and whether corruption has effects on Nigeria's national security. Methodology: The methodology adopted was descriptive survey carried out in North Central States region of Nigeria using primary method of data collection via random sampling technique and data was analyzed with the aid of SPSS software which percentages, mean and standard deviation were computed using one-way ANOVA to test the hypothesis in order to determine the relationship between variables. Results: The study found out that corruption significantly affects Nigerians national security and further revealed that lack of effective institutional checks was one of the major factors that gave rise to corruption, while corruption has impeded development in Nigeria by promoting poverty, inequality, unemployment, rising wave of crime and other social vices. The findings recommended strong institutional checks in the fight against corruption at all levels, depoliticization of anti-graft agencies, election of citizens with proven integrity into positions of authority and aggressive move by government at all levels to improve the welfare of citizens by poverty reduction, education and promoting equal opportunities to social and economic survival. Unique Contribution to Theory and Practice: The study has contributed in adding value to the existing pool of knowledge and policy makers in efforts to win the fight against corruption and insecurity in Nigeria particularly in North Central States which have been badly hit by corruption and insecurity as well as underdeveloped.

Jihad Discourse and Its Reception among Sermon Listeners in Northern Nigeria

In the past two decades, religious extremism and its consequences have assumed a wide-reaching dimension in northern Nigeria. Although this trend has been the object of many studies in recent years, many of the efforts have been spent on understanding the role of structural factors in relation to the crisis. While not downplaying the importance of structural factors to the issue, this study focuses on jihad discourse and its implications on religious extremism in the region. Using jihad sermons delivered by two prominent Sunni clerics in northern Nigeria (Shaykhs Jafar Mahmud Adam and Dahiru Usman Bauchi) as its database, the article shows that the sermons contain certain discursive strategies entangled in the religious politics of contemporary Nigeria. The research finds that in addition to preparing a manual on when and how to use violence to counter perceived religious violence from the "religious others in contemporary Nigeria," the discursive strategies in those sermons are also deemed capable of inviting their consumers to internalize violence and become potential recruits for violent religious groups, even though the speakers are not known as members of such groups.

Terrorism as the Quest for Justice in Contemporary Nigeria

In Nigeria today, the activities of terrorists are no longer new. This is what has characterized the Nigerian state. This hydra-headed monster with its attendant heinous crimes against humanity is the main focus of this paper. In this paper, the problem of terrorism has been discussed from a two dimensional continuum – of terrorist acts as the quest for justice in contemporary Nigeria, and on the other hand, the paper examines the phenomenon as an unjust, inhuman and wicked means implored by the jihadi movement to cause fear among Nigerians. The paper made use of content analysis for its research methodology. The paper leaned on the rational choice theory and the psychological approach. The paper concluded by maintaining the view that no matter the level of provocation or injustice in the social system, terrorist acts remain unfair and inhuman. The actions of terrorists therefore, can never be justified by any measure, human or otherwise.

The Nexus among Unemployment, Poverty and Crime in Contemporary Nigeria

Unemployment and poverty have been the major causes of crime in developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. The main objective of this paper was to show the connections among unemployment, poverty and crime in Nigeria. It also examined unemployment and poverty rates in Nigeria. The research design adopted for this paper is cross-sectional and explanatory. The paper adopted conceptual framework to show the nexus among the concepts. It used secondary sources of data collection and data analysis was based on content analysis. The study revealed that there is a strong link between unemployment, poverty and crime in Nigeria. The relationship among the concepts is bi-directional. Unemployment has adverse effect on poverty and crime rate. So also poverty negatively affects unemployment and crime rates. Increase in crime rates leads to increase in unemployment and poverty. The paper therefore recommended amongst others that the rate of unemployment must reduce if poverty and crime must reduce. Also the rate of unemployment can be reduced through provision of jobs which will consequently reduce the rate of poverty and also make crime unattractive on the long run.

Workplace Bullying and Its Associated Factors Among Medical Doctors in Residency Training in a Tertiary Health Institution in Plateau State Nigeria

BackgroundBullying is public health problem globally in workplaces with untold deleterious effects on the health and well-being of individuals at the receiving end. Bullying has been found to disrupt social interaction at workplace thereby creating an unhealthy and seemingly unproductive work environment. Studies have reported varying rates of workplace bullying as high as 83% in Europe, 65% in the Americas and 55% in Asia with very little documented in the contemporary African setting and Nigeria in particular. It therefore became imperative to assess the level of bullying and its associated factors among medical doctors in residency training in a tertiary health institution in Plateau state Nigeria.MethodologyThis was a cross sectional study conducted among resident doctors in Jos University Teaching Hospital between November 2019 and February 2020 using quantitative method of data collection and SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. Crude and adjusted odds ratios as well as 95% confidence interval were used in this study with a p-value of ≤0.05 considered statistically significant.ResultsThe mean age of the respondents was 32.3 ± 3.9 years with 78 (62.9%) being 31 years and above. Bullying was currently being experienced by 74 (59.7%) of the respondents with verbal aggression and threats as well as insult and use of derogatory remarks being the forms of bullying experienced by 85.1 and 74.3% of the respondents, respectively. Furthermore, witnessing a colleague being bullied was the sole factor found to be significantly associated with workplace bullying (AOR = 0.18; 95% CI = 0.068–0.449; p < 0.001).ConclusionWorkplace bullying has been found to be in existence and relatively high among medical doctors in residency training in this setting with witnessing someone being bullied as its sole associated factor.

The 3Cs of Colonisation and their Impacts on African Slavery: The Nigeria’s Experience

ABSTRACT This paper examines Christianisation, commerce and civilisation (3Cs) as strategies of European imperialist movements and considers the impact such endeavour made on Nigeria’s enslavement. Using the historical method, the paper argues that the methods of the 3Cs adopted by the colonial imperialist, though with some positive impacts, eroded Nigeria’s socio-cultural and politico-economic heritage and consequently breeds the foundation for socio-cultural and politico-economic slavery in contemporary Nigerian society. Specifically, the paper interrogates how the 3Cs fuel some forms of slavery in contemporary Nigeria. By so doing, this paper will contribute to African postcolonial studies.

Poetry, protest, and environment: human and nonhuman rights in Nigerian literature

ABSTRACT Since its inception, Nigerian poetry in English has always been characterized by protest in nature. Beyond its aesthetic scope, it has been critical of socio-political and environmental problems that have bedevilled the nation. This paper is concerned with such literary instrumentalism; the use of poetry by Nigerian writers, living in Nigeria, as an instrument against abuses of human and environmental rights. The theoretical framework that is employed is drawn from the notions of protest writing in Africa and ideas of postcolonial ecocriticism. This will provide a context that brings the fate of humans and nonhumans together under the weight of a failed home government and multinational capitalism in contemporary Nigeria. This study will trace the development of literary and political events in Nigeria, followed by a textual analysis of selected poems. Attention will also be paid to the growth of environmental legislation in Nigeria since the colonial period. This article concludes by arguing that in the absence of an effective or practical legal framework, poetry remains one of the most significant instruments for highlighting the violation of human and environmental rights. As such, the study benefits contemporary scholarship by drawing attention to the social dimension of poetry – and the arts generally – as well as the role literature plays in foregrounding environmental crises in postcolonial societies.

The Church as A Pathway to National Rebirth in Nigeria: A Reflection on Matthew 5:13

The work studied how the Church could serve as a pathway to national rebirth with emphasis on Matt 5: 13-16. Using analytical and descriptive methods, the paper discussed the theological implications of the Church being salt and light in the context of Nigeria. The metaphorical parlance and symbolic understanding of these elements of light and salt both in the Biblical and social world is not only significant but instructive. For instance, salt is a sign of covenant while light is a sign of orderliness and progress. In other words, salt preserves while light is a guide and could also be a warning light. In the face of endemic corruption, bad leadership, lack of value for human life, materialism, greed, covetousness, worldly pleasure, instant glory through rituals among young people and the likes that are prevalent in contemporary Nigeria, one then wonders what impact Churches are making in the country. Jesus enjoined his followers to “let their light shine before others, so that they may see their good works and give glory to the father in heaven (Matt. 5:16). The work therefore emphasized areas where the Church in Nigeria can make appreciable impacts and further explained that even though our society is corrupt and full of abominable things, the Church must be the salt and the light. This it maintains could be achieved if she retained her distinctiveness, stand for and speak out the truth, protest against folly, deceit and wickedness. The paper recommended that the Church should rise to the challenge of Matt 5:13-16 in order to achieve a successful national rebirth.

Contemporary Realities in the Selected Plays of Femi Osofisan, Sam Ukala and Tess Onwueme

It has often been said that a writer’s assumption, criticisms, and everything he or she writes about are a result of the society he or she has found himself or herself. Literature is a product of the society. No writer writes without reflecting the prevailing issues or problems bedeviling the society he or she comes from. This paper takes a look at the contemporary issues in the Nigerian (even African) polity that have received the attention of Femi Osofisan in <i>Who is Afraid of Solarin</i>? and <i>Women of Owu</i>; Sam Ukala in <i>Odour of Justice</i> and Tess Onwueme in <i>The Missing Face</i> and <i>Tell it to Women</i>. The major aim of this paper is to expose some of the prevailing issues in contemporary Nigeria. These issues have continued to cause major setbacks in the Nigerian polity. The paper has helped in opening the eyes of the readers and drawing their ears on the corruption and other vices perpetuated by the leaders, women and tricksters in our midst. The selected playwrights beam their critical lens on the contemporary realities in Nigeria through their adaptations of oral traditions in their works. It is concluded that the playwrights are very much at alert with their social realities and they expose these socio-political and cultural issues in Nigeria, especially, for positive change.

'I just drink to feel abnormal for some time': Reconfiguring heavy drinking and intoxication as pleasurable.

The sociocultural norms moderating alcohol consumption in Nigeria were more permissive for men than women in the traditional era. Alcohol use among young people was taboo, and intoxication among men who occupy drinking spaces was punished. In contemporary Nigeria, heavy drinking and the 'culture of intoxication' are reified features of some young people's leisure lives. Drawing on the intersections of pleasure and intoxication, this study explores the interplay between deliberate heavy drinking and the positioning of intoxication experiences as pleasurable. We conducted 53 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus groups (N=26) with 18-24-year-old youths in Benin City, Southern Nigeria. Participants deliberately pursued heavy drinking and intoxication to experience 'altered bodily effects', to know the feelings of intoxication, and to master extreme drinking levels. Other explanations given for 'determined drunkenness' included fun and excitement. Participants sought pleasurable experiences of drinking through repeated deliberate drunkenness or by taking large quantities of spirits. 'Loss of control' experiences were described as fun and exciting, and participants laughed when friends showed them videos of their 'passing out' experiences. Gendered alcohol 'providing' rituals in peer networks that facilitated intoxication and loss of consciousness were used to enact friendships. Providing drinks for friends and consuming large quantities conferred a higher status on the buyer and drinker, respectively. Friendship networks performed double-edged roles by instigating heavy drinking and providing care for inebriated members. The emerging drinking culture in Nigeria suggests that the cultural prohibitionist approach to young people's drinking should be reconsidered. Policymakers should implement public health interventions that promote low-risk drinking practices to mitigate the risks of heavy drinking and intoxication.

THE MORALITY OF PROPERTY ACQUISITION IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY: A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA

The belief that some behaviours are right and acceptable and that other behaviours are wrong concerning property acquisition in contemporary Nigeria society has been there over time, which in fact has socio-cultural and business undertone. Morality in this sense includes meta-ethics and abstract studies which questions individuals moral ontology, moral epistemology, normative ethics, and more concrete systems of moral decision-making such as deontological ethics and consequentialism. Property acquisition is obtained for the purpose of future business and also a source of passing inheritance to a person’s generation. The morality of property acquisition includes gaining of property through possession, prescription and agreement. This study therefore explored the morality of property acquisition done for investment purposes, embezzlement of fund, transfer of ownership and retirement purposes. It concluded therefore that, morality is an issue of societal values and ethics. It is of value that property acquisition such as land, building and other tangible assets be owned by an individual irrespective of age. It is recommended that property acquisition should be done under the morality of the society, property acquisition should not lead to unmoral characteristics of the society, government should satellite the political office holders and civil servants on property acquisition through whistle- blower through the public and appropriate punishment should be meant on the persons that breach the law because of property acquisition.

A Study of Pragmatic Acts and Hate Speech Strategies in Christian Sermons in Nigeria

Ideology loaded language may be used as instrument of control and for the production of hate speech and may be linked to the intensity of sectarian violence in contemporary Nigeria. This paper, therefore, evaluates the strategies for hate speech production in Christian sermons using Mey’s (1993) proposal on pragmatic acts, a modification of Austin (1962) and Searle (1969) speech act theories. Data, with two sermons from two well-known clerics and obtained from YouTube, has revealed that hate speech were produced through the pragmatic acts of innuendos and name-calling while set-up and co-option methods were deployed for audience participation. Whereas innuendos were linguistically realised as pronouns, name-calling takes the form of adjectives but function as nouns. Set-up and co-option were indirect linguistic strategies meant to empathise and attend to hearers’ face-needs. Pragmatic acts insulate preachers from backlash and highlight Nigeria’s social-political undercurrents. The enactment of hate speech in sermons justifies government initiatives in regulating religious activities.

Contemporary Nigeria and the Deficit of Deliberative Democracy: Exploring the Indigenous Value of Àgbájọ ọwọ́ as Collegiality

The paper advances three groups of interrelated claims. First, a fundamental deficit of democratic practice in contemporary Nigeria is that electoral choices/candidates are largely disconnected from the spirit of vibrant deliberation/consideration by the Nigerian demos. Second, candidates that emerge tend to be more parochially disposed to serving the interests of the political sponsors, rather than working towards the promotion of the common good. Third, to address the problem of the research, it is argued that well-meaning, democratically conscious Nigerians should practically embrace the indigenous value of àgbájọ ọwọ́as collegiality to resist electoral choices/candidates of the noted politically influential elites. As one of the socio-moral values of an ideal Yoruba persona, or ọmọlúwàbí, àgbájọ ọwọ́ underscores the critical point that the realty of the common good properly derives from a rational collaboration of the members of a political collectivity. Ultimately, this understanding of collegiality helps in the promotion of deliberative democracy and its benefits in Nigeria.

Fálétí’s Philosophical Sensibility

Fálétí’s Philosophical Sensibility

The Nigerian Girl Child and Reality of An Abusive Absurdity: A Reflection on Philosophy for Children in Higher Educational System

One of the social ills in contemporary Nigeria state is the abusive condition of the girl child. She has been abandoned, starved, beaten, enslaved and sexually molested by the society that ought to care about her but instead tames and guides her. Hence the paper attempts a social re-engineering process through philosophy for children dimension in higher education with a view to minimising, if not curbing, this ugly tragedy. The study employed both philosophical analysis and descriptive survey type. Philosophy for children is not an effort at teaching children the philosophical jargons but rather towards enablement of philosophical skills and its applications to questions of personal significance to the student. Findings revealed that the girl child abuse, though on the rise recently, but could be reversed where she is well trained in philosophical mindset at early age. Also, justice prevails when the abuse is timely reported to the law enforcement agents. Further, the establishment of victim-friendly court system would go a long way in facilitating quick dispensation of justice. Nevertheless, the vigorous pursue of ethical genuine poverty alleviation programmes would undoubtedly reduce the trend of the abuse in the society. The paper concluded that society should endeavour to nip the problem in the bud through conscientious philosophical guidance of Nigerian girl child at all time by all stakeholders. It is stated that the involvement of higher educational system will assist the parents, guardian, girl child, law enforcement agents, the law makers, the clinicians, the theoretician, the researcher and all other concerned with children’s welfare in such a way to shed light on a path of progress in decreasing and preventing this affront on our girl child in particular and children in general.

The Rule of Law and Democratic Governance in Contemporary Nigeria: Comparative Notes on Regimes, 1999-2015

The Rule of Law and Democratic Governance in Contemporary Nigeria: Comparative Notes on Regimes, 1999-2015

“The accident of the accent”: satiric reflections of contemporary Nigeria in Wole Soyinka’s Alapata Apata

The accident of the accent is the hilarious and artistic device Wole Soyinka employs to portray the societal failings and ways to ameliorate them in Alapata Apata as a writer of national consciousness and global realities. Previous critical studies on this text have focused on the avalanche of satirical elements and their societal manifests in the play with little or no consideration for the accentual mistake (the accident of the accent) and its satirical implications. This is the critical lacuna that this study attempts to fill. The primary text shall be Wole Soyinka’s Alapata Apata which will be subjected to critical textual analysis. Inspirations are drawn from Gerard Genette’s model of Narratology as the theoretical framework to allow for the investigation of the intrinsic visual and auditory images in the text and to undergird the analysis of the findings. It is discovered that there are three prominent strands of accentual representations and their corresponding interpretations of Alapata Apata: Alapata Apata (the butcher on the rock), Alapata Apata (rock spliter) and Alapata Apata (the ruler of the rock domain). This paper concludes that Soyinka’s artistic talent in the play lies largely in the presentation of Yoruba, his mother tongue accent marks to sift out the socio- political faults in his society and by extension in the entire nation of the world.

The Emergence of an “Intersecting Circle” in Kachru’s Three Concentric Circles of World Englishes: A Case of Ethno-linguistic Neutrality in Central Nigeria

There is evidence that contemporary Nigeria is drifting towards a society of monolingual English users a component of which could be defined as lacking in ethno-linguistic identity. This trend is found among a generation of young Nigerian urban dwellers (between the age bracket of (12 and 25) who can neither communicate in their parents’ native language(s) nor indeed in any other Nigerian indigenous language; their only medium of communication is English. Although based on their childhood exposure to the English language and their relative competence in it, English can be described as their ‘‘mother tongue’’ but the fact that they are not native speakers given the socio-geographical circumstances of their birth excludes them from Kachru’s (1988) Inner Circle classification of native speakers. Consequently, these Nigerians are left without a clearly defined ethno-linguistic affiliation. This paper interrogates this emerging sociolinguistic phenomenon in especially Central Nigeria, with the aim of stimulating scholarly consciousness on the ethno-linguistic identity of this category of Nigerians, and its implications for English usage among them. The submission of the paper is that another circle, “the intersecting circle”, be created for them since they bestride both the inner circle in having English as their “mother tongue” and yet they are not native speakers of the language