Dynamic relationship among CO2 emission, agricultural productivity and food security in Nigeria

The study analyzed the dynamic relationship among CO2 emission (CE), agricultural productivity (AGP), and food security (FS) in Nigeria. The study used annual time series data spanning from 1961 to 2010. Results based on Augmented Dickey and Fuller and Phillip and Perron tests showed that the series are integrated of order one, I(1). Johansen cointegration test was employed to examine the long run relationship. Results show there is no long run relationship among the three variables. evidence based on the VAR estimates and the impulse response functions shows that there is a negative and significant short run relationship between CO2 and AGP and between CO2 and FS. Also the variance decomposition analyses showed that over time, CE contributed about 23 and 22 percent to the variation in AGP and FS, respectively. Further, analysis based on Granger causality test indicated that there was a unidirectional causality from CE to AGP and also from CE to FS. Policies that will assist in the mitigation of CE including investment in research and development, cap and trade system, carbon tax policy, adoption of clean power plan, and other regulatory measures are recommended

Investigation into the Meaning and Meaning Extension of Non- Nominalized and Nominalized Verbs in Selected Pentecostal Churches

This paper examines the meaning of some selected common verbs and when they are subject to nominalization in the context of Pentecostal churches. Data for this study were collected from three selected Pentecostal churches and televised Pentecostal church services accessed through YouTube. The findings of the study reveal that most verbs which are found in other non-religious contexts are subject to semantic change or expansion   when used in the church context. These verbs when they are nominalized, they acquire new meaning which may be very far related to their original meaning. Some nominalized verbs which may be unique in Pentecostalism include mpenyo/upenyo ‘breakthough’, uwepo ‘presence’ and uweza ‘(Gods) ability’ The paper concludes that affixes responsible for nominalization of verbs used in the context of Pentecostalism are in most cases idiosyncratic, inconsistent, unsystematic and unpredictable. &nbsp

HIFASS-LOPIN-3 Empowerment Programs and the Wellbeing of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Southern Senatorial District of Cross River State, Nigeria

This study examined the various empowerment programs carried out by Health Initiatives for Safety and Stability in Africa – Local OVC Partner in Nigeria – Region 3 (HIFASS-LOPIN-3) as they affect the wellbeing of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Three objectives were outlined to include investigating the relationship between HIFASS-LOPIN-3 educational empowerment program and OVC’s school enrolment; HIFASS-LOPIN-3 provision of health services and OVC’s accessibility to quality healthcare facilities; HIFASS-LOPIN-3 skills acquisition training/financial empowerment program and the income level of OVC/caregivers. An Ex-post facto research design was employed in this study and a sample size of three hundred and eighty (380) respondents was drawn using multi-stage, simple random, stratified and snowball sampling techniques. The reliability test of the instrument was done using the test-retest reliability method. Primary data was obtained using a questionnaire and in-depth interview schedule, while secondary data was sourced from journals, texts, newspapers, internet, unpublished papers. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) and Chi-Square statistical techniques, together with frequency/percentage analysis. The study revealed among others that HIFASS-LOPIN-3 educational empowerment has significantly improved OVC’s school enrolment; HIFASS-LOPIN-3 skills acquisition training/financial empowerment program has significantly improved the income level of OVC/caregivers, nevertheless, almost all the OVC who reported having income-generating skills experienced challenges like insufficient start-up capital, insecurity, and crippling economic policies. It was recommended that government should make provision for OVC’s subsidized medical bills and adequate provision for start-up capital/equipment or materials should be made for older OVC/caregivers who receive skills acquisition training.     Cite this paper: Okon, Goodness J. (2022). "HIFASS-LOPIN-3 Empowerment Programs and the Wellbeing of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Southern Senatorial District of Cross River State, Nigeria" Journal of Social Sciences: Transformations & Transitions (JOSSTT) 1(02):09. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52459/josstt1290122 

Ubuntombi – a Zulu religio-cultural heritage and identity: a path to adulthood and sex education practices.

Doctoral Degree. School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2018.In view of diminishing indigenous knowledge of most cultural practices this study sought to investigate the ways in which ubuntombi as an indigenous practice can be emancipated and retrieved as a Zulu religio-cultural heritage and identity and a path to adulthood and sex education practices. This qualitative empirical research study used interviews and focus group discussions to collect data. In addition, participant-observation was also used as the researcher observed and recorded cultural activities of izintombi (Zulu girls). The study worked with postcolonial theory, and African feminist cultural hermeneutics framework. This was to assess how ubuntombi has evolved and how colonialism and the patriarchal cultural context of the Zulu ethnic group contributed to the way in which the practice of ubuntombi was understood. Thus, the study required a critical lens of the oppressive and life denying issues to women. The study also encompassed indigenous knowledge systems as a perspective because ubuntombi is an indigenous cultural practice that like many others was despised and demonised by the colonial and western mindset. Some of the significant findings of this study were that ubuntombi was one of the critical stages of development in the cycle of human development among the Zulus. While a girl child was welcomed as intombi from birth into the Zulu family, she only became fully recognised as intombi (young virgin) during puberty as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Therefore, this was a critical time for sex education, which was regarded as an essential part of her maturing process to adulthood. There were particular social structures (such as amaqhikiza and grandmothers) that provided sex education to the maturing young women and were dismantled by the invading colonists. Constructive aspects of ubuntombi as a traditional cultural practice (such as sex education) were eroded during the colonial invasion. This study found that it is no longer practical for young women to go back to the traditional practice of ubuntombi as a cultural practice even though there are those who currently live as izintombi in a hostile environment and require social support. This study concluded that there are positive aspects of ubuntombi that can be retrieved that were summed up in the RCLC model which proposed ubuntombi as an indigenous sex educational tool. If effectively used, this tool can provide sex education to the current group of izintombi and others. This might restore indigenous sex education that has been lost during colonialism and never replaced to date

Who Is to Blame? African Feminism, Human Rights, and Sexual Violence against Izintombi (Virgins) in South Africa

This article highlights the intensifying prevalence of sexual violence in South Africa, which affects women including izintombi (virgins, also known as Zulu maidens). Ubuntombi (virginity) traditionally represented a typical identity marker of young-womanhood in the indigenous lives of Zulus. As an aftermath of colonialism and imperialism, the cultural importance of women’s virginity faded into the past with only sporadic survival in some rural areas of South Africa. For some reasons, it was visibly revived together with virginity-testing as public events in the 1980s and 1990s. The practice of virginity-testing was criticized by some scholars, human rights and gender activists, who blamed it for promoting rape of the young women involved. The blame became an undeniably common phenomenon in the early 1990s due to the myth that having sex with a virgin cured HIV infection. However, this empirical study conducted in KwaZulu-Natal through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions found that izintombi (virgins) refuted the claim. Virgins felt that the 1990s myth could not still be the cause of sexual violence against them since South Africans received education concerning that myth. This study used a postcolonial feminist theoretical lens because the group under study were young women from a formerly colonized Zulu ethnic group. Controversies that surrounded the revival of ubuntombi (virginity) accompanied by virginity testing did not deter its rapid embrace by a number of contemporary izintombi (virgins) as their indigenous cultural practice, heritage, and identity. It is in the practice of this intended choice that izintombi face persistent threats of sexual violence against them. This is regardless of the guaranteed South African constitutional rights to equality and security stipulated in the Bill of Rights. Thus, this article also raises the question of who is to blame for the ubiquity of this violence and how it could be addressed without blaming the sufferers. It further underscores the need for intensified activism by African feminists, human rights activists, and gender activists against the pervasiveness of sexual violence that haunts izintombi

The leadership role of the school principals in bringing about improved learner performance in Mkhanyakude

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master Of Education in the Department of Foundations Of Education at the University Of Zululand, 2017This study examined the role of the principals in bringing about quality results in schools at UMkhanyakude District. I explored the topic by consulting the relevant literature on the Instructional role of the principals as leaders in schools to enhance academic performance. I followed a qualitative approach making use of observations and interviews conducted with both primary and secondary school principals in nine selected schools. The data collected were arranged under selected themes and critically analysed and interpreted. The objectives of the study were to investigate the principals’ influence on the learner achievement, to determine how principals practically embrace constitutional values in their leadership role and to identify the leadership styles principals employ to facilitate participation of stakeholders in decision making and to determine the principals’ role in improving the classroom instruction. The findings reveal that the success of the school depends on the leadership role of the school principal, in guiding and leading all the school stakeholders to work toward the achievement of the school vision and goals. This approach required the principals to take a quantum leap and change the way they think about their roles and responsibilities in school. The findings proved that school principals play the most influential role in bringing about quality results at school, the majority of principals still confuse instructional leadership with curriculum management, principals do not understand the power of their influence to direct school activities and fail to use invitational and emotional intelligent leadership styles to involve stakeholders from the community in solving community-related challenges. Principals must be empowered with relevant skills to enable them to perform their leadership roles as proposed by the Department of Basic Education

Sparse Format Conversion and Code Synthesis

Sparse computations are important in scientific computing. Many scientific applications compute on sparse data. Data is said to be sparse if it has a relatively small number of non-zeros. Sparse formats use auxiliary arrays to store non-zeros, as a result, the contents of auxiliary arrays are not known until run-time. The Inspector/Executor (I/E) paradigm uses run-time information for compiler optimizations. An inspector computes information at run-time to drive transformations. The executor---a compile-time transformation of the original code--- uses information computed by the inspector. The sparse polyhedral framework (SPF) encompasses a series of tools to support I/E run-time transformations. This work introduces a unified framework that wraps SPF tools while providing a holistic view of computation as an intermediate representation (IR). This work also introduces a method to automatically synthesize inspectors to transform between sparse formats and improvements to SPF to explore the performance of irregular applications

The dynamics of financial management in Swaziland : a case of selected primary schools.

Master of Education in Education Management, Leadership and Policy. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2016.This study analyses the findings of a survey of five primary schools in Swaziland; Hhohho region. The study explores the dynamics of financial management in Swaziland Primary schools through the interpretative paradigm employing the case study approach. It sets out as its framework, the formal model of educational management to explore the understanding of financial management and financial management roles school principals have, skills and competencies needed by principals in execution of their duties and challenges they encounter. A possible capacitation strategy for the school principal is also examined in this study. Five principals were interviewed to generate data. In addition to the interviews selected financial management documents, the minute books, analysis books, procurement files, cheque books and financial statements were analysed. It emerged that in order for a school principal to effectively execute his or her duties there are certain skills that he or she must possess. However, there are a myriad of challenges that the principal encounters in the execution of his duties including lack of capacity, lack of funds and lack of co-operation from school committee members. The findings revealed that principals had a good understanding of their financial management roles but they were not empowered to do so hence they were struggling in the execution of their duties. Findings also revealed a number of skills that principals needed to effectively execute their duties such as budgeting, accounting, reporting and record keeping. It is recommended that financial management should be covered in training of teachers as a course in colleges and universities and later coupled with workshops as in-service programmes. A possible capacitation strategy for the school principal is suggested at the end of the study

Workplace protection for informal workers with reference to waste pickers in the Durban Metro area: an exploration of section 24 of the South African Constitution of 1996.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This thesis explores the extent to which the environmental rights contained in section 24 of the South African Constitution of 1996 are potentially applicable to people who work informally in public spaces, in particular, waste pickers in the Durban Metro area. The extent to which environmental rights may be applicable to these workers is measured by first reviewing the current conditions under which waste pickers in Durban work. The study then argues that, in accordance with section 24(a), all human beings have a fundamental right to an environment that is safe and does not threaten their health or well-being. It concludes that waste pickers ought to enjoy protection in their work environment. The research further highlights deficiencies in waste pickers’ entitlement to have their work environment protected through legislative and other measures as provided for by section 24(b), by reviewing the extent in which current legislation and other measures provide for workplace protection for informal workers; who are the working poor. Finally, it gives recommendations on how these deficiencies could be addressed drawing lessons from foreign case law and international experiences which can be adapted to the South African context