The nephrotoxic effects of Strophantus hispidus stem bark (aqueous and ethanol) in normal rats were assessed. Male rats (Wistar strain) numbering 45 were randomly selected into nine groups of five rats each. Four groups were given 100, 200, 500 and 800 mg/kg body weight aqueous extract, while another four groups received similar doses of ethanol extract. One group served as untreated normal control. After 28 days of daily administration of the extracts and water, animals were sacrificed. Urea, creatinine and some electrolytes (Na⁺, K⁺, Cl^- & HCO₃^-) were assessed. Both extracts produced significant increases (p<0.05) in urea concentration at 800 mg/kg when compared with the control group. At the same dose, significant increase (p<0.05) were observed in creatinine concentration for the aqueous and ethanol extracts treated groups while the ethanol extract treated groups at 500 mg/kg body weight also showed significant increases (p<0.05) in creatinine. Similarly, K⁺ significantly increased at 800 mg/kg body weight for both extracts while Na⁺ produced a significant increase at the same dose for the aqueous extract treated groups. However, a significant increase in Na+ was observed in the ethanol treated groups at the doses of 500 and 800 mg/kg. Interestingly, no significant effects (p>0.05) were observed in the levels of Cl^- and HCO₃^- at all the doses of aqueous extract administered. The ethanol extract treated groups however showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in Cl^- content and a significant decrease (p<0.05) in HCO₃^- content at the highest dose administered when compared with the control. The findings from this study suggest that higher doses of S. hispidus are inimical to kidney function. It also indicates that the extract may be deleterious to the nephrons than aqueous extract.

Abstract
Transformation has been likened to growth and uplift-ment. Transformation is also a long term plan for stimulating economic and community growth in a society onto a path of sustained and rapid development. Sustained development in a community is a call for all individual in the community to stand firmly on the path of sustainable growth, designed to reflect accurately the collective interests of the people of the community. The infrastructural development of any community is anchored on the determination of the people to mobilize and call on relevant agencies to improve the lives of its people, through the provision of social amenities and to respond appropriately to the growing challenges of an increasingly smaller, mutually dependent, and interconnected society. This paper seeks to promote infrastructural developmental effort within the context of the objective set out for a proper community transformation and its imperative for community participation in the provision of social amenities. The paper looked at the transformation of any community from the bottom-up approach. The paper submits that without adequate response from governmental agencies, transformation of any community would be a mirage.

Nomads constitute about 6 per cent of the African population and are found in at least 20 different countries across the continent. In Nigeria, the nomads who constitute about 6.6 per cent (9.3 million) of the country’s population were, before the establishment of National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) in 1989, excluded from all formal educational arrangements. The establishment of this Commission saw the introduction of a special educational system to take care of the once educationally deprived nomads in accessing some level of schooling since they could not fit into the conventional school system. Many strategies were consequently developed to this effect. The Radio Distance Learning (RDL) strategy designed in 1996 is one of such strategies which the Commission claimed got better in 2010. But the effectiveness of this seemingly- improved strategy in raising the literacy level of these nomads who are always on transit has been called to question by some dissenting communication scholars and professional tutors. This study, therefore, evaluated the effectiveness of this strategy in growing the knowledge level of these nomads in line with the core mandates of the Commission. In executing this study, the researcher used explanatory mixed design which combined survey and ethnography research methods. Australian National Statistical Service (NSS) Online Calculator was used to draw a manageable sample size from the population of this study which comprised all nomadic RDL students and teachers/facilitators in North-Western Nigeria (1262). The three measuring instruments- questionnaire, interview and observation were used to generate both quantitative and qualitative data. The five research questions and two hypotheses used in the study gave the study a direction. Findings revealed that 77.24 per cent of the nomadic pastoralists in North-Western Nigeria were frequently exposed to the improved radio distance learning programme. It was equally found that the timing of the radio programme, Don Makiyaya a Ruga, was appropriate, but the strategy did not have an effective feedback technique. The study also revealed that the culture of the nomads did not influence their participation in the scheme and as such, the knowledge level of 83.97 per cent of the nomadic RDL students has increased because of their participation in the programme. Based on these findings, it was recommended that more professional hands should be engaged so as to make the scheme more effective, viable and result-oriented, while government at all levels were urged to increase funding to NCNE through grants and subventions.

The Nigerian state celebrated its official fiftieth birthday on October 1, 2010. The drums were rolled out for the celebration, but we must pause to ask ourselves, what and why did Nigerian state celebrate? Is it in fulfillment of self rule which began in 1960 or jubilation in terms of national development? The paper is a discussion on the nature of Nigerian politics as it affects the emergence of credible political leadership in the post-colonial era. The paper argued that the dangerous and unproductive temperament of post-colonial Nigerian politics since 1960 has made it possible for weak and primitive accumulative class of leadership to impose itself on the Nigerian state for the past fifty years, thus leading to national underdevelopment in almost all facets. The recently conducted 2011 general elections in Nigeria, though adjudged as one of the best ever conducted in the country, also displayed some variables that have come to historically define electioneering in the country. The paper therefore concluded that for Nigerians to get it right and elect credible political leaders, the various institutions responsible for the sustenance of democracy such as the electoral body, judicial system and security forces should be empowered to perform their duties without any form of government interferences.

This paper analysed the lexical features used by online commenters on the alleged national assembly fuel subsidy bribery scandal. The study employed both primary and secondary sources. The primary source included 120 purposively selected readers’ comments. The secondary source included books, journal, articles and the Internet. The results showed that lexical set, antonyms, lexical repetitions, Nigerian English compounds, name calling, collocations and lexical borrowings were the notable lexical features used by the commenters.

The Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 ended with the then military government of Gen. Gowon maintaining the “No Victor, No Vanquished” posture. This was despite the fact that the defunct Biafra, as it were, clearly lost out with millions of casualties, mostly women and children. This posture, with all its criticisms from those who insisted that Biafrans should be treated as prisoners of war, was maintained by the then Head of State who believed it was a reconciliatory take off point. Ever since, several policies, and programmes have been put in place to reduce the hostility between the then Biafrans (now mainly South- Easterners and a few South-
Southerners) and the rest of the country. At the point when available evidence was suggesting that the hostility was reducing, late Prof. Chinua Achebe published a controversial book, “There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra,” in 2012. This book, with a detailed account of the war, analysts argue, has reengineered  hostility, “thereby bringing to naught all reconciliatory moves made in the last forty-two years.” Considering Achebe’s intellectual capacity, world status and what he represented, especially to the Igbo nation, one is tempted to agree with these analysts. However, such conclusion could be hasty without empirical proof. Therefore, the obvious questions are: has the book in any way influenced Nigerians to construct or reconstruct their memories of the war? Is it leading to fresh hostility, considering the fact that he accused prominent Nigerians of genocide? Qualitative and quantitative data generated through interview, questionnaire and focus group discussion revealed that the book has influenced Nigerians to construct and reconstruct negative memories of the war.

Women entrepreneurs have become a topical issue due to their influence in global economies and business today, their impact has been felt in most developing countries including Nigeria. Despite these contributions women entrepreneurs still suffer a lot of set back and constraints in exploiting their potentials unlike their male counterparts. There are wide ranges of factors limiting the progress of women entrepreneurs. The objective of this study is to examine the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs that inhibit full utilization of their creativity in Igueben Local government of Edo State, Nigeria. Primary data was used for this study which was generated through structured questionnaires and direct interview from entrepreneurs within Igueben Local Government. ANOVA was employed to test the research hypothesis. Recommendations were made on how to strengthen women entrepreneurs in the Local government and Nigeria at large.

The paper opines that the underdevelopment of the communities of Contemporary Africa is due mainly to the crisis of governance and poor leadership. Drawing from the case of Ughievwen Social and Political institutions in the pre-colonial times using the methodology of counterfactual approach, the paper explains the importance of history in charting a new direction for the continent. The discussion is six parts. The first section introduces the discussion by showing the gap between the potentials and the in-roads of the continent since the end of colonialism. The second part examines briefly the geographical and historical background of Ughievwen while the third section examines pre-colonial Ughievwen social and political institutions up to the first half of the twentieth century to show the insights that could be drawn from it with regards to policy-making. The fourth section examines the evolution from kinship to kingship political system in Ughievwen land to demonstrate the
internal dynamics of pre-colonial socities. The fifth part discusses aspects of the colonial policies of the British and how it influenced the course of Africa’s history. The concluding section of this paper challenges African historians to re-focus their attention on how to make history relevant in proffering solutions to African developmental challenges.

As with other parts of Africa, British colonial administration stifled the indigenous
technological instincts of Nigerian peoples. Before the introduction of colonization to Africa, the people had their own ways of providing for their needs. The advent of colonialism disrupted this ingenuity. The colonial economy of most African states was structured to improve the economies of the colonizers. It is against this background that this paper seeks to show how the introduction of foreign drinks (spirits) dampened the indigenous technological instincts of the Ughievwen people and consequently led to the decline of indigenous gin production which came to be regarded as “illicit”. The paper concludes that because of the influence and exploitative interests of colonial administrative officers who were out to advance the development of their employer’s economy, indigenous technological instincts of the Ughievwen people nose-dived. Colonialism thus impacted in major ways on the lives of those whose lands were colonized. This may affect people’s lives, even in the near future.

This study investigates how selected Nigerian newspapers reported the Chibok school girls’ abduction in Government Secondary School, Chibok Borno State on April 14 2014. The research focuses on how the abduction is framed in the news stories of two Southern and Northern Nigerian based newspapers (The Guardian, The Sun, The Trust and Leadership Newspapers) and how such frames influenced the audience. In conducting this study, two research methods- content analysis and survey methods, were used to generate quantitative data for analysis. Content analytical method was used to study seven news frames as used in the selected dailies while survey was used to establish the influence such frames have on the news audience. After a thorough analysis, it was found that the selected papers used rescue efforts frame, hopelessness frame, political frame, religious frame, ethnic frame, conspiracy frame and
economic frame. It was equally found that hopelessness frame was used more in news report more than others. Finally, it was established that mass media audience believed that the way the abduction was framed in the media has made them to think less of any rescue put by the government.

The Nigerian press has always been accused of manipulating political crisis to the gains of their owners or the opposition. This accusation was repeated during the long 78 days (November 23 2009 – February 9 2010) that Nigerian late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was incapacitated due to ill-health. In fact, observers believed that the kind of media war, power play and intrigue that hailed the period almost cost Nigeria her hard-earned unity and democracy. Eventually, Yar’Adua and his handlers irrefragably lost to ill-health and public opinion. However, the late President’s ‘kitchen cabinet’ believed that he lost ultimately to public opinion manipulated by the press. How true was this? How far can we agree with the kitchen cabinet bearing in mind that this type of accusation came up during the scandals of President Nixon of the United States and the ill health of late President John Attah-Mills of Ghana. Based on these complexities, the researchers embarked on this study to investigate the kind of coverage newspapers in Nigeria gave the power vacuum crisis during Yar’ Adua’s tenure in order to establish whether they (newspapers), indeed, manipulated events during those long 78 days. In carrying out this study, four national dailies (The Guardian, The Sun, New Nigerian and Daily Trust Newspapers), were used. Using five units of analysis (news, features, editorials, cartoons and opinion articles) and seven content categories, findings revealed that Nigerian newspapers gave the presidential power vacuum crisis prominence. The results also showed that the issue was adequately covered and took a positive direction. However, it was, also, discovered that Nigerian newspapers frequently covered the power lacuna in their reports which were influenced by regional and ownership factors. Based on these, it was recommended that ownership and regional affiliations should not impact on media reports. And that the media should provide leadership in times of national conflict by setting and consolidating agenda.

This study examines the influence of child spacing campaigns on the knowledge, attitude and practices of South- East rural women. Using behavioural change theory as the framework, the study adopted survey method as its research design. A total of 384 respondents drawn from the South-East responded to the copies of the questionnaire designed from six research questions raised in the study. After a thorough analysis, it was found that while the mass media campaigns on child spacing have created serious awareness about child spacing in South-East rural communities, the practice is still very low. Some of the problems found to be associated with this low practice include lack of adequate community health facilitators, lack of information on improved child
spacing techniques, urban oriented messages, lack of integration of the rural people in messages/communication meant for their consumption, etc. Based on these findings, it was recommended that, health workers, media researchers, communicators, social workers, guidance counselors and those in the helping profession should take cognizance of those variables that have been found to influence birth spacing practices among couples with the view to correcting them for an informed and healthy society.

This study examined the impact of capital market operations on the Nigeria’s economic growth between 1981 and 2014. The prevailing challenges in the World financial markets; especially the capital market, justifies the various forms of reforms going on around the world, Nigeria inclusive. Some capital market variables such as market capitalization, volume of transactions and number of deals served as independent variables while real Gross Domestic Product represented the dependent variable. Secondary data sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical bulletin, were utilized in the study. The study adopted the OLS long run estimation and Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) as the method of analysis and it was built on Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test and residual based co-integration test. E-views 8
package of the econometrics was used to estimate the data. The results showed that capital market operations positively impacted the growth of the Nigerian economy for the period covered by the study. The study recommends among others that government should periodically
and objectively evaluate activities and reform agenda of the capital market in a manner that will enhance economic growth and development.

The focus of this paper is on managerial approach to conflict management in an organization.
The objectives of this study is to ascertain what constitute conflict, sources of conflict, views
of conflict, consequences of conflict in an organization and the strategies for dealing with
organizational conflict etc. To effectively examine how conflict management will improve
organizational performance, the study relies mainly on secondary data from textbook,
internet, journals etc. The study reveals that conflict is endemic in human life’s and cannot not
totally be eradicated rather its effect can be minimized so as to ensure that it does not hinder
the activities of the organization by way of reducing performance. The paper recommends
amongst others that managers at all levels should acquaint themselves with potential causes of
conflict in their organization and address them early enough to forestall activities that will
hamper the smooth running of the organization.

At present, the exercise of professional judgement is left with individual accountants in enterprises. Since there are no rules or guidelines governing the exercise of such judgement, it then means that there will be as many outcomes as the number of enterorises and the accountants exercising the judgement. this should be expected as characteristics and personalities of the enterprises and accountants differ a lot. Qualities like skill acquisitions, training, past experiences and morality vary from individual to individual and so their influence on exercise of professional judgement.

This study examined the factors influencing transition from organizational employment to self-employment among high school teachers in Southwestern Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was carried out and questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents who were randomly selected. The Statistical Package for Social Scientists was used to analyze the data. The study revealed the significance of parent’s involvement in business and entrepreneurial training in the development of entrepreneurial intention among respondents. Data analyses revealed associations between father’s involvement in business and the propensity of offspring to engage in self-employment. The study concluded that the influence that parents’ involvement in business will have on offspring’s entrepreneurial intention should be a motivating factor to policy makers to formulate policies that will provide enabling environment for such businesses. Also, entrepreneurial training should be intensified for the youths to foster the development of entrepreneurship in the country.  

This paper examines the issue of corruption in Nigeria and the wars that have been waged on it since independence. It was observed that all the wars aimed at combating corruption so far are punishmentfocused. Even at that, there is inconsistency in the award and execution of the. punishments. Seized properties front people accused of corrupt practices are later returned to owners. The paper recommends a system approach to executing the war against corruption. Such a system should comprise change, monitoring and investigating agencies. Punishment or rewards for oflenders and honest citizens respectively, must be one way of discouraging corrupt practices in the country.

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the findings from an investigation into the question whether a social network is a blessing or a curse. We used a sample population of 320 students at Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi in Edo Sate Nigeria as our case study. This investigation was borne out of the ever-increasing interest that a lot of people are expressing in their fraternity with the various social networks and the obvious opportunities and prospects as well as the virtues and vices these social networks portend. Social networks are like legal tenders; on their own, they are neither good nor bad. What defines them and gives them their characteristics are what a user does with them. A lot of unsavory activities (ranging from fraud, identity theft to outright blackmail) have been known to be carried out using social networks as a platform but in retrospect, varying degrees of positive achievements (such as building of mutually beneficial relationships and ties, reestablishment of lost contacts and effective communication) has also been recorded using social networks. From the investigation that we carried out, it was observe that social network can serve as a blessing and it can also serve as a curse depending on how and what a user use it for.

Whenever Africa is mentioned in the international arena, the name seems to conjure pity, poverty, diseases, corruption, conflicts, maladministration, abuse of human rights and other trappings of vices associated with underdevelopment. This thinking may have influenced Tony Blair’s (former British Prime Minister) comments that Africa is a “scar on the conscience of the world”. This paper therefore argues that the various degrees of developmental challenges confronting contemporary African states were created in the era of colonial administration of the continent. Using the concepts of fundamentalist structuralism to critically analyse the contemporary African developmental challenges, the paper concludes that Africa appears to lack the capacity to deconstruct the philosophical foundation on which colonial structures were erected, and without a radical overture, the African continent may remain in its crawling developmental posture even in the 21st century.

ABSTRACT
There is a growing consensus that terrorism/terrorist activities have taken root in the northern part of Nigeria. The incessant bombings, maiming and sporadic killings of innocent lives, perpetrated by a religious sect Boko Haram–(which means western education is evil) has put the security agencies in a precarious situation. Religious differences in the world have often been used for ―stereotyping and demolishing opponents,‖ which has provided a ―legitimate framework for violence that would otherwise be considered unacceptable‖. Recent occurrence in northern Nigeria clearly shows that the state of insecurity in the north has assumed a frightening dimension, as the ideology of the Muslim fanatics is set to Islamize the north. This paper seeks to evaluate the challenges faced by Nigeria internal security agencies against the sect and the continued hostility against Christians in the north. The question often asked is ―is holy war or Jihad imminent in Nigeria‖? A brief historical trajectory in a tabulated form was cited as a way of narrating and describing the situation. While it may be posited that insecurity is a global problem, what looks rather strange in the Nigeria situation is the seeming inability of the government to tackle the challenges head-long. The paper submits that there is an ample need to reposition internal security in Nigeria and Africa in general, taking into cognizance the need for effective policing of the nations‘ borders. It also advocated for administrative policies; with regards to Nigerian immigration laws, to curb illegal entry.

Health and safety management is about commitment to and providing conducive
working environment to employees. Human resources department plays a
prominent role in ensuring employee’s health and safety as they discharge their
duties in the workplace. This study examines the importance of health and safety
in workplace, safety and health hazard, stress and its causes, consequences of
stress at workplace, strategies for making the workplace safer, risk assessment,
managing health and safety among others. The objective of this study is to ascertain
the essence of health and safety in the work environment. It is a truism that a
healthy man is a wealthy man and for an organisation to achieve its goals its
workforce must be fit physically and mentally to carry out their tasks. The study
observes that the health of the workforce is an immense valuable asset to the
organization and should not only be preserved but should be fostered. The
findings of this research reveal that for organisations to be productive and
profitable, adequate attention must be given to the wellbeing of the work force.
Hence, it is recommended among many others that management should carryout
periodic written safety inspections of the workplace, including follow-up entries
explaining what was done to mitigate all deficiencies.

Abstract: This paper examines the approaches of Nigerian enterprises to triple bottom line reporting with a view to
assessing the adequacy of such practices, particularly the reporting on the elements of people and planet vis-à-vis
reporting on profits. The secondary data source was used to obtain data for the study about the practices. The major
findings of the study: are reporting on the bottom line of people is very poor, only based on quantitative numbers of
volume which are not monetized as is done for profit; and reporting on the bottom line of the planet is even worse, it is
mostly based on mere descriptive narration of policies and practices. It is therefore recommended that: government
should legislate on triple bottom line reporting; and accounting standard(s) be developed to help guide the enterprises on
triple bottom line reporting.

An early warning system examining the capital adequacy of Nigerian banks was undertaken. For this purpose, a simple capital-asset ratio of 5.5% was used to pre- classify the banks into capital adequate and capital inadequate banks. Some 33 variables drawn from financial and economic data were gathered for this study. As a first step, univariate test was done on the variables to remove the variables that were not observable. The remaining ones were subjected to stepwise regression analysis to select the variables (eight in number) for the logistic regression. The logistic analysis revealed seven variables that can correctly classify the banks into capital adequate and capital inadequate banks 100% in sample. Applying the same variables to subsequent year data, they were reduced to five and the variables were able to classify the banks into capital adequate and capital inadequate banks 100%. This means that that the derived variables can correctly classify banks into capital adequate and capital inadequate banks one year ahead of the time when capital inadequacysets in.