Primary Healthcare and Maternal Mortality in Selected Areas in Rivers State, Nigeria

The study focused on the effectiveness of Primary Health Care to reduce maternal mortality in selected areas in Rivers State from 2001-2010. The work observed that primary Health Care is an attempt to address health challenges of low income majority. Given this government did not only establish more health centers but introduced free medicals services among other instruments. In spite of these, most pregnant women patronize Traditional Birth Attendants during delivery. The work is guarded by three hypotheses, system theory was adopted for the work, Survey research design was used. A sample of 400 was drawn from a population of 2,039,040 using Taro Yamane formula but 365 questionnaires were retrieved, this became the sample size. Primary sources and secondary sources of data were used. The hypotheses were analyzed using Chi-Square and student T-Test. Deductions from the analysis shows a rejection of the null hypotheses but maternal mortality reduced due to pregnant women high patronage of antenatal and post natal services in the health centres among other reasons. The work recommended integrative approach involving home base health workers from primary health care centres and Traditional Birth Attendants, women empowerment, compulsory primary and secondary education with bias in health education and maternal education, more employment of health personnel, among others. Keywords: Primary Health Care, Maternal Mortality

Economic relations between turkey and Africa: challenges and prospects

African affairs occupied a secondary status in Turkish foreign policy until very recently. However, following the adoption of the Action Plan for Opening up to Africa in the late 1990s, Turkish politicians started to assign a higher priority to relations with African countries. The incumbent Turkish government now attaches great importance to developing long-term relations with those countries. We can also see that Africa’s image in Turkey is changing with journalists presenting new narratives about the continent and supporting Turkish involvement in African affairs. There is also an increasing interest in African studies in the academia, although scholarly work produced on African issues remains limited. This study explores the evolution of Turkish-African relations and concentrates mostly on Turkey’s economic engagement in African countries. It also seeks to analyse recent Turkish initiatives in Africa’s energy sector. The article argues, among other things, that although the low level of attention paid to African issues has changed, the pace of the development of relations with Africa is still slow and more steps have to be taken to further improve relations with African countries.Keywords: Turkey, Africa, Sustainable Developmen

Crisis and Crisis Management in the Legislature: the Rivers State House of Assembly Experience, 2011 - 2015

The legislature is an assemblage of the representatives of the people, elected under a legal framework to make laws for the good governance of the State. The Legislature like every other institution of the State hardly functions without crisis. Crisis is a change, which may be sudden or which may take some time to evolve, that results in an urgent problem that must be addressed immediately. Although crisis events are unpredictable, they are not always unexpected. Crisis management is the process of identifying a potential issue or crisis and coordinating organisational or inter-organisational response as necessary to resolve the crisis. The methodology for this study is qualitative, using documentary evidence and the ex-post-facto research design in terms of reviewing necessary literature. The scope of this study is the Rivers State House of Assembly, 2011-2015. Furthermore, we utilized the Frustration – Aggression Theory (F- A) as a framework of analysis. The study revealed two paradigms in the crisis that engulf the Rivers State House of Assembly in the period under review. The study recommends full autonomy of the Legislature, respect for rule of law and House Rules, continuous training, reorientation of Members and Staff, making parliamentary offices as part - time and less attractive as well as institutional strengthening as the prospects for political stability in the Legislature

Interrogating Security Agencies: The Role of the Police Force in the 2015 General Elections in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

The problem of insecurity in elections in Nigeria and the role of security agencies have continued to occupy the minds of public policy analysts and academics for quite some time now. Despite these concerns, the problem has continued to persist. As a result, this paper examined the issue of security agencies focusing on the role of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in the 2015 general elections in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. To achieve this broad objective, data were collected from a sample of 370 police officers made up of Three Hundred and Sixty (360) questionnaire respondents and ten (10) key informants. Relying on the systems theory, descriptive statistics as well as thematic analysis for the data analysis, the study found among others that although the Nigerian Police Force played a significant role in providing security during the 2015 general elections, training and funding were major challenges that undermined their capacity to be efficient in this regard. In light of this, the study concludes that inadequate training and insufficient funding of security agencies such as the Nigerian Police Force are strong challenges to security enforcement during election periods in the country. As a result, the study recommends among other things that, security agents should be well trained and equipped to better manage the insecurity situations associated with conducting elections in the country. This is in addition to improving on the funding of the security outfits to ensure effective delivery of their security duties. Keywords: Security agencies, police force, 2015 general elections, Bayelsa, Nigeria

Mutagenic effects of sodium azide on the survival and morphological characters of tomato varieties

Sodium Azide (SA)-induced mutagenic variability was studied on four tomato varieties namely Roma vf, Roma savannah, Tropimech and Tima. The SA concentrations used were 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5% and 0.7%, with 0.0% as control to determine the percentage emergence and growth parameters of the tomato varieties. The plant seeds were pretreated with the various concentrations of the mutagen before planting. The seedlings were raised in the nursery and transplanted after 30 days of planting into the field in polythene bags filled with 70g of a mixture of soil and farm yard manure. The experiment was carried out in randomised complete block design with three replicates. Increase in SA concentration caused a remarkable decrease in the percentage emergence and all other growth parameters evaluated. The effect of the interaction between variety and SA concentration revealed that the interaction was not significantly different from the control at P≤0.05 on the number of leaves, number of branches and leaf length, but the difference was significant for plant height. Formation of two stems was observed at 0.3% Sodium Azide for Roma vf. variety. The 0.1% and 0.3% concentrations of Sodium Azide seem to be promising treatments under the experimental conditions and thus could be used to induce variations for tomato crop improvement. Tima and Roma savannah performed better and were resistant to the mutagen than other varieties, hence they can be recommended as good varieties for further breeding purposes; also Sodium Azide could be a good mutagen for the improvement of tomato plants. Keywords: Tomato, growth characters, mutagenic, Sodium Azide, morphological variability

Application of ground magnetics and geoelectrical methods in delineating sulphide deposit in oshiri area, southeastern nigeria

The Asu River Group Shale in the Oshiri area was evaluated using ground magnetic and geoelectrical methods within existing mine. Some exploration programs in the area have resulted to failure due to the fact that project managers have not fully understood the use and importance of geophysics in enhancing the search for mineral deposits. The aim of the study was to delineate the sulphide deposits using ground magnetics and geoelectrical methods. Result of the ground magnetic survey delineated some shallow tectonic structures like fractures and faults which are capable of hosting metallic sulphide deposits. The residual magnetic intensity of the study area indicates very low magnetic field intensities around the central and southern portions of the study area. These low values indicate absence of magnetite in the near surface materials as suggested by previous studies in the area, but could be referred to as zones with shallow tectonic structures which could be faults and/or fractures capable of housing sulphide deposits. The ore-bearing veins within the sedimentary rocks have susceptibilities of ≤ -1.8 nT. The low, negative residual susceptibility zone in the southeastern portion of the study area was targeted for the induced polarization IP and electrical resistivity tomography. Four traverses of induced polarization IP and resistivity surveys were carried out with all the profile lines were in the NE-SW direction. Isolated chargeable bodies with values greater than 340msec and a correspondingly low resistivity values (10Ωm-50Ωm), were encountered across some of these profiles. This zone may represent zones with sulphide mineralization. These identified chargeable bodies occur at approximate depth and width range of between 25-30m and 50-70m respectively. The 1D stratigraphic models reveal an average thickness estimate of 11.0m. Using scalar geometric approach, an estimate of 103,513.75tonnes was obtained, representing a relatively economically viable quantity and a worthy target for investors. &nbsp

Introduction Turkey and Africa: Motivations, Challenges and Future Prospects

Turkey's presence in Africa has experienced significant growth over the last two decades. In recent years, Turkey's expanding African outreach has transformed media narratives and generated a surge of scholarly studies on Turkey's involvement in Africa. Turkey's renewed focus on the continent and its commitment to establishing an equal partnership with African nations came after years of neglect. Previously, Turkey's relationship with African countries followed a cycle of ups and downs. The interest in Africa was largely driven by short-term foreign policy considerations, such as breaking Turkey's international isolation and securing diplomatic support from African nations. Understanding how Turkey's carefully crafted discourses resonate with African countries in the face of competition from other external actors is a challenging task. Despite the existence of a rich and extensive literature on how external players engage with Africa, Turkey's role and the long-term impact of its involvement have often been overlooked. This special issue aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring different dimensions of Turkey's multifaceted Africa policy, including its engagement in the security landscape, the African arms market, humanitarian efforts, and public diplomacy initiatives