The Question of Conscience in Why am I Doing This?

Greatly concerned and obsessed with the state of affairs in the country, literary artists more often than not, call to conscience the sensibilities of their audience, politicians inclusive. Against the prebendal nature of politics which is characterized by different anarchist tendencies in Nigeria, literary artists find justification for their craft as they seek ultimately to re-organize the society and confront its perils. This is the crux of this study. My concern is to rationalize Abubakar Gimba’s Why am I Doing This? banking on the interrogative undertone of the title, a variation from the norm. This interrogative undertone as will be explicated herein questions the rationalities – of the author and the actors in his observations as documented. Four essays from the collection were purposively sampled to demonstrate this. Deploying the literary tool of postcolonialism, this study a critical qualitative analysis submits that Abubakar Gimba laments the anathema and apathy that pervades the Nigerian society despite the professed democratic system of governance. He unveils the hidden and sad truths of modern Nigeria in its raw and naked form. These truths contradict her democracy. It is against this that Gimba hopes for a change in the status-quo and modus operandi of statecraft.

Nature of Land

Contemporary happenings in Nigeria especially in the areas of governance, security and religious interactions call for deep reflections and basic questions. There are concerns about religious insurgency, kidnappings for ransoms, ritual killings and so on. How does one reconcile the happenings with God’s divine will and love for humans? Using critical analytic method, the paper tries to bring the problem of God and human experience of evil in Nigeria into dialogue with the science of anthropology. The paper concludes that lawlessness and human arrogance and choices escalates most of the challenges in Nigeria.

A Comparative Exploration of some Structures of English Language and Idoma Sentences

This paper centers on a comparative exploration of some structures of English language and Idoma sentences. The Phrase Structure PS Rules of Transformational Generative Grammar is the analytical framework of the study. This paper draws data from different domains of language usage, using the purposive sampling technique to select viable sentences that are analysed. The findings reveal, among other things, that unlike the English language, nouns in Idoma could come before adjectives and suffixes could be added to sentences to give complete thought. A notable similarity between English language and Idoma is that they have the same placement of sentential elements except determiners and adjectives that come after the nouns. Both English language and Idoma (Agila dialect) are capable of being represented on the tree diagram. Through the deployment of the analytical framework for this study, the paper shows that the PS rules enables the identification of the uniqueness of some simple sentences in Agila in order to categorise them into various structures and to show that Transformative Generative Grammar is a viable tool for exploring the linguistic structures of Agila. The study further reveals that Idoma can be analysed side by side with the English language, especially in drawing out their similarities and differences. The study recommends the teaching of Agila language in Ado Local Government Area to acquaint the learners with the rudiments of analysing their native language using English language as a guide. This will bring the errors committed by students to a barest minimum. Consequent upon these, the study concludes that Agila dialect is unique and should be given more attention by linguists.

The Doctrine of Trinity and its Implications for Contemporary African Society

The doctrine of Trinity is key to human understanding of the character and nature of God. A proper understanding of this doctrine has the potential of deepening one’s rela-tionship with God and with other human beings. This doctrine embodies the biblical sto-ry and also informs Christian soteriology. In spite of its relevance, the doctrine of Trini-ty remains one of the most complex and misunderstood doctrines in Christianity. The challenge is how to reconcile the affirmation that “there are three distinctly fully divine Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)” with the fact that “there is only one true God.” The paper briefly examines this doctrine from the perspective of biblical and historical theology and explores how its teaching should inform relationships within the African society. This is a literature-based study that uses data from books, theses, journal arti-cles, Bible commentaries, among others as its sources. The methodology used comprises qualitative analysis of biblical data on the subject of Trinity and the African worldview of human society. The study revealed that the divine Trinity underscores unity in diver-sity and therefore that contradicts any form of egotistic individualism that leads to the destruction of communion and of life. Therefore, Christians must develop and promote a communal worldview of life through an appreciation of their diversity. The main con-clusion is that human society will be improved if people appreciate human diversity and then learn to live in peace and harmony in spite of their differences. The paper contrib-utes to scholarship by contextualizing the doctrine of the Trinity for the needs of the Af-rican society which shows diverse cultural traditions.

A Comparative Exploration of some Structures of English Language and Idoma Sentences

This paper centers on a comparative exploration of some structures of English language and Idoma sentences. The Phrase Structure PS Rules of Transformational Generative Grammar is the analytical framework of the study. This paper draws data from different domains of language usage, using the purposive sampling technique to select viable sentences that are analysed. The findings reveal, among other things, that unlike the English language, nouns in Idoma could come before adjectives and suffixes could be added to sentences to give complete thought. A notable similarity between English language and Idoma is that they have the same placement of sentential elements except determiners and adjectives that come after the nouns. Both English language and Idoma (Agila dialect) are capable of being represented on the tree diagram. Through the deployment of the analytical framework for this study, the paper shows that the PS rules enables the identification of the uniqueness of some simple sentences in Agila in order to categorise them into various structures and to show that Transformative Generative Grammar is a viable tool for exploring the linguistic structures of Agila. The study further reveals that Idoma can be analysed side by side with the English language, especially in drawing out their similarities and differences. The study recommends the teaching of Agila language in Ado Local Government Area to acquaint the learners with the rudiments of analysing their native language using English language as a guide. This will bring the errors committed by students to a barest minimum. Consequent upon these, the study concludes that Agila dialect is unique and should be given more attention by linguists.

A Comparative Exploration of some Structures of English Language and Idoma Sentences

This paper centers on a comparative exploration of some structures of English language and Idoma sentences. The Phrase Structure PS Rules of Transformational Generative Grammar is the analytical framework of the study. This paper draws data from different domains of language usage, using the purposive sampling technique to select viable sentences that are analysed. The findings reveal, among other things, that unlike the English language, nouns in Idoma could come before adjectives and suffixes could be added to sentences to give complete thought. A notable similarity between English language and Idoma is that they have the same placement of sentential elements except determiners and adjectives that come after the nouns. Both English language and Idoma (Agila dialect) are capable of being represented on the tree diagram. Through the deployment of the analytical framework for this study, the paper shows that the PS rules enables the identification of the uniqueness of some simple sentences in Agila in order to categorise them into various structures and to show that Transformative Generative Grammar is a viable tool for exploring the linguistic structures of Agila. The study further reveals that Idoma can be analysed side by side with the English language, especially in drawing out their similarities and differences. The study recommends the teaching of Agila language in Ado Local Government Area to acquaint the learners with the rudiments of analysing their native language using English language as a guide. This will bring the errors committed by students to a barest minimum. Consequent upon these, the study concludes that Agila dialect is unique and should be given more attention by linguists.

A Clinical Approach to the Assessment of Selected Three-Year-Old Pupils’ Renditions

Sound perception is pivotal to language acquisition and usage, and it is the bedrock for the display of linguistic knowledge in every individual. However, misperception of sounds and sound production anomalies can be language-based or cognitive oriented. The aim of this study was to assess the utterances of selected three-year-old pupils from a clinical perspective. The study basically adopts a survey research approach. Using the purposive sampling technique and the participatory observation method, twenty utterances of kindergarten pupils were recorded, transcribed and analysed both perceptually and acoustically. This study adapted a blend of the clinical phonological and clinical psycholinguistic approaches for the analysis of the selected pupils’ utterances. The results of the assessment were that even though speech disturbance characterise the language of the pupils, gender difference plays a role in cognitive and linguistic development. The female pupils are found to be less deficient than their male counterparts as their word-realisations are more appropriate and correspond more with the superstrate transcriptions. Also, in spite of the differences in the cognitive abilities of the pupils, they unconsciously adopt simplification procedures to cover up their speech deficiencies. It has been recommended that teachers have a key role to play to facilitate learning by both genders of learners in the classroom by varying their teaching methods and selecting instructional materials carefully.

The Role of Exhibitions in ART Education in some Selected Senior High Schools in the Bono Ahafo Region of Ghana

This study examines the impact of art exhibitions on the teaching, learning, and practice of Art Education in selected Senior High Schools in the Bono Region of Ghana. The study posed two major questions: What is the state of art exhibition practice in the selected schools? What are the emerging roles of art exhibitions in Art Education? The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research designs. The study used a sample size of eighty-one (81) participants from a population of 161 Visual Art students and teachers from three selected schools using the simple random and purposive sampling techniques respectively. On research question one, the study established that the present state of art exhibition practice in the Senior High Schools was constrained due to the uncooperative attitude of school leadership resulting in irregular organization of such events. In relation to research question two, it was found that exhibitions play diverse roles in art education. Among others, art exhibitions serve as lenses through which learning objectives in art education are measured; and that the use of artefacts for exhibitions results in the appreciation of cultural diversity among students; they also harness and develop exhibitors’ research skills and critical thinking. Recommendations for exhibitors, schools, and the Government made include encouraging exhibitors to explore the use of other non-conventional materials in producing art works; setting aside non-academic days such as Saturdays and Sundays for exhibitions; and encouraging art students to inculcate artists’ statement during exhibition of their artworks to enhance their writing skills and self-reflection respectively.

Divine Will and Human Experience of Evil in Contemporary Nigerian Society:A Theological Reflection

Contemporary happenings in Nigeria especially in the areas of governance, security and religious interactions call for deep reflections and basic questions. There are concerns about religious insurgency, kidnappings for ransoms, ritual killings and so on. How does one reconcile the happenings with God’s divine will and love for humans? Using critical analytic method, the paper tries to bring the problem of God and human experience of evil in Nigeria into dialogue with the science of anthropology. The paper concludes that lawlessness and human arrogance and choices escalates most of the challenges in Nigeria.

COVID-19 Response in Ghana: A Conceptual Framework of Missed Preventive Behavioral Opportunities and Lessons through Relevant Behavioral or Attitudinal Change.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the global community in ways unimaginable. The Ghanaian COVID-19 response has been touted as effective to a large extent from the viewpoint that the government provided leadership based on scientific data with collaboration from traditional leaders, faith based, civil societies etc. This article discusses inadvertent “omissions and commissions'' on the part of the government and the people of Ghana defined as “missed preventive health and behavioural opportunities'' that would possibly have reduced the current morbidities and mortalities. Important lessons are drawn and recommendations made for future national responses to epi-and pandemics. Using secondary data, extant relevant publications (peer – reviewed articles, online blogs etc.) on the subject were retrieved, critically appraised to complement the authors’ ideas in this special article. The study found among others, some missed preventive opportunities included delayed mandatory quarantine, border closures, too flexible partial lockdown, facemasks wearing as an afterthought of COVID-19 protocol, and non-enforcement of executive instruments on the part of government. Moreover, a significant proportion of the citizenry has remained non-compliant with the President’s instituted protocols to date. The study recommends that Governments should strengthen their nations’ disease surveillance systems, be willing to initiate stringent, unpopular but effective and uncompromising public protection protocols to mitigate such outbreaks. These may include closing borders and entry ports promptly (or a more regulated one), imposing lockdowns, instituting aggressive public education in collaboration with relevant bodies. On the part of the citizenry, executive instruments must be enforced to the latter with commensurate understandable education. Finally, traditional leaders, faith based and civil societies, should embark on mass education, national drives for necessary PPE’s and food for the poor and vulnerable as they collaborate with the authorities on other relevant fronts.