OGIRISI: a New Journal of African Studies

Nigeria public policy making culture and historical research: A synergy for adequate distribution of values

Emmanuel Orihentare Eregare — 2021-11-23

The seeming uneven culture on distribution of resources in Nigerian polity to the various ethnic groups calls for adequate attention on the use of cause-and-effect tools. This inequity phenomenon has left the nation with the national question on how there could be equity in shared values among the citizenry. Hence, this study, appraises the effectiveness of public policy framing culture, its implementation and evaluation in 21st century Nigeria, devoid of historical research. I, therefore, argue that historical research is a viable resource for effective public policymaking, distribution of resources, and the need for sensible shared values to the Nigerian citizens. Secondary method of data collection is employed in this study as relevant literatures with selected internet sources were reviewed and Advocacy theory was adopted as framework of analysis. This paper suggests that historical research is one of the veritable tools for policymaking, implementation, and evaluation if explored adequately.

Nigeria democratic governance: Opium or potency?

Cyril Chibuzo Ezeani — 2021-11-22

Looking at the political landscape in Africa and Nigeria in particular, one easily observes a divide between the political elites and the masses both in terms of socio-political and economic powers. The masses are simply kept on the periphery. Yet this is a polity that claims to be a democracy which has been described as ‘Government by the people, of the people and for the people.’ It is a situation like this that has made a number of scholars to view democracy as simply illusion and opium of the people. The concern of the present work is to argue that democracy is not an illusion, neither is it an opium. While acknowledging the conceptual and operational difficulties surrounding the conceptualization of democracy, it also factors the reality of oligarchic stranglehold. Using the method of hermeneutics, the paper interprets politics in terms of Karl Marx history of struggle which is basically a struggle between inclusivity and exclusivity of the masses. While the iron law of oligarchy is a reality, it is for the people to struggle to thin down the circle of power of the oligarchy or at least to increase their own sphere of influence. I argue that democracy is more suitable for this struggle given the psychological force of ownership that it projects. It nevertheless factors atomization of the masses, apathy, ignorance among others as what keeps the masses from achieving this. It observes that in Nigeria the hydra-headed factors of ethnicity and religious bigotry further incapacitate a unified action from the masses.

Migrations in Africa: A focus on Mbano of Igboland, southeast Nigeria up to 190

Chinedu N. Mbalisi — 2021-11-22

Issues of origin, migration and settlement occupy a central place in the history of any human society. People understand their history by first understanding their roots, and the trajectories of their migration and settlements. Some preliterate societies in Africa suffer the historical problematic of struggling to reconstruct their history from the real origin. The history of the Igbo of southeast Nigeria is an example of such a society. The history of the Igbo is shrouded with the problem regarding their origin. The grim issues concerning the origin of the Igbo create a big question on the original identity of the Igbo race. Hence, over the years, scholars have made attempts at reconstructing the history of micro societies with a view to finding the missing historical links in their various societies. This work on the narratives surrounding the origins, migrations and settlements of the Mbano peoples of Igboland, southeast Nigeria is an attempt in that direction. This study interrogates the issues of internal and external migrations that shape the historical antecedents of the people and their proximate neighbours. It argues that the source of the people and migration to their present abode explains the common cultural affiliations between the people of the area.

Influences of John Locke and John Rawls in shaping Robert Nozick’s Entitlement theory of justice

Charles C. Nweke — 2021-11-23

Robert Nozick’s Entitlement Theory of Justice was captured in his book Anarchy, State and Utopia. This book became widely celebrated in 1975 and won for itself, the US National Book Award in the category of Philosophy and Religion. It has been translated into eleven different languages and named one of the hundred most influential books between 1945 and 1995. This theory of justice actually has a heritage, it has a stem, and what influenced it. For everything, there is a cause and effect, no one speaks from nowhere. Consequently, using analysis as a method in philosophy, this paper would break into its constituent parts, the various postulations by John Locke and John Rawls respectively which form the background for Robert Nozick’s Entitlement Theory of Justice. The paper found out that Robert’s theory is a property right based theory and has a heritage from John Locke’s defence of private property. It has another influence in the form of a reaction from John Rawls difference principle. These two thoughts from Locke and Rawls actually formed the spring board from which the Entitlement Theory of Justice Emanated. John Locke gave the premise on how to become entitled to a property while John Rawls demonstrated on the distribution of entitlement in his distributive justice.

Influence of the church in select indigenious Niger Delta music

Samuel Jackson Udo — 2021-11-23

This study analyses the performance techniques, instrumentation and songs of selected indigenized songs in Niger Delta region of Nigeria that are being influenced by the church. The aim of the study is to archive and document most of the rich indigenous music to increase the scanty ethno-musicological literatures existing in this ethnic group. The paper explores qualitative methodology to analyse the data collected from selected churches in Niger Delta ethnic group. It employs the ethnomusicology theory by Titon(2021), as its theoretical framework. This theory defines ethnomusicology as the study of people making music in their ethnic groups. People make sounds that are recognised as music, and people also make “music” into a cultural domain. The study employs the descriptive and analytical methods. It reveals that modernity and development have great influence on Christian church music performance techniques bringing about varieties of indigenous church songs; as well as the changes we see in instrumentations, songs, dance steps and contexts of performance. The study concludes that God is too vast to be contained within any one race of musical performance, even one gender, language, environment, culture, or ethnicity; or even within and by our individual or communal musical or artistic preferences.

A hermeneutic of Luther’s principle of nonviolence vis-à-vis the challenges of insecurity in Nigeria

Charles C. Nweke — 2021-11-23

Security of lives and property is a fundamental obligation the State owes her citizen. States are aware of this responsibility but sometimes renege against it or even take actions that result in insecurity. The citizens are also aware of this responsibility of the State. More importantly, they are aware that it is part of their civic duties to ensure the security of lives and property within the State. However, at times due to forces like poverty, unemployment, bad government policies, etc, citizens themselves indulge in activities that undermine the security of their country. They resort to violence as means of venting their frustration at their leaders. The result is anarchy, social, political and economic collapse. This article studies Martin Luther King Jr’s principle of nonviolence. It identifies Racism, poverty, and militarism, factors Luther described as the “Triple Evils that form violence,” as the predisposing factors catalyzing insecurity in Nigeria. It interprets the forces behind the insecurity challenges in Nigeria in the light of Luther’s postulations and posits Luther’s six principles of nonviolence as the path toward resolving the mounting security challenges in Nigeria. The article concludes that Nigerian State actors must favour dialogue against the use of excessive military might while dealing with internal security situations, provide employment and food security, and ensure regional equality and justice for all citizens at all times; if the country is to surmount her rising insecurity crises.

A philosophical reflection on the role of culture in international relation

Barnabas Obiora Idoko — 2021-11-23

Man is a social animal. As such, throughout the long history of mankind, men and women from different cultural backgrounds have had cause to interact, both on the level of individual and as cultural groups bringing about cultural crosspollinations. Sometimes, this intercultural encounter leads to the enrichment of the cultures involved or to a cultural hybridization birthing a new culture altogether. At other times, the encounter results in conflict or what has come to be described in international studies as the ‘clash of cultures’. No other time in history is this phenomenon of cultural conflict more prevalent than in our time and no area is it more emphasized than at the level of international relations where globalization has enhanced the meeting and interaction of people and nations from different cultures. This paper applies the philosophical method of analysis to investigate how inter-cultural dialogue can be deployed as a means of fostering international peace. The paper discovered that culture, though an under-emphasized element in mainstream international relations studies is a key determinant of how nations conduct their affairs internationally. To this end, it recommended that encouraging the respect of other people’s cultures and intercultural dialogue, especially at the level of the relations between states is one of the most effective ways of mitigating conflicts in this age of globalization and multiculturalism.

An appraisal of three select composers/arrangers of Ibibio vocal music

Precious Kufre Udoh — 2021-11-23

Tonal languages are common in Africa; the Ibibio language is no exception. Over the years, non-native speakers of the Ibibio language have shown interest in composing vocal music (solo songs and chorales) in the Ibibio language but fail to appreciate the lingual tone used in the language partly due to non-natural vocal configuration. This study seeks to appraise the extent of faulty linguistics structure by performers and composers of Ibibio songs that are not Ibibio, proffer basic guides on how to utilized tonal inflection of Ibibio culture for musical performance by non-native speakers. To achieve this, qualitative research method through nonparticipant observation was used in collecting data for the study. Results shows that Ibibio vocal music performance is characterized by extremely poor and faulty linguistic pronunciation, and this is as a result of lack of commitments to learning the Ibibio language. The paper, suggests that guides that will aid effective usage of Ibibio language for songs or other vocal performances and compositions should be provided and studied before any Ibibio vocal performance is embarked on.

Philosophy and the attitude of Nigerian Government to COVID-19 Pandemic

Nnamdi ThankGod Nwagbo — 2021-11-23

This research investigates government’s attitude in relation to Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria. It also accesses the policy and how the presidency that enacted Covid-19 laws was the one that bused it. The same government that made provisions for palliative to alleviate hunger and for empowerment in the heat of the ravaging pandemic were the one that hijacked it and converted the aforesaid palliative for their private us. A Hermeneutical Approach will be employed in accessing and interpreting how the attitude and policy of the presidency has so far encouraged despotism, corruption, selfcenteredness, mistrust, agitations for self-determination, militias, banditry, kidnapping and so on. This vicious element has hindered Nigeria from making any reasonable progress having the amalgamation of 1914 as its primary cause. This paper establishes that government attitude in relation to Covid-19 pandemic has both positive and negative effect on the economy and Health Sector in Nigeria. This study exposes the porosity and dilapidation of Nigeria’s Health sector (the urgent need for Nigerian government to fund and equip health sector which is presently synonymous with mortuary), it also suggests that the government of the Federation should make haste to reviving Nigeria’s economy which is at the verge of collapsing; the government should be transparent in their dealings and should treat any case of corruption without sentiment or bias; government should make plans to solving the problem of high rate of unemployment in Nigeria; every insecurity challenge should be addressed.

The imperative of national redefinition for sustainable development in Nigeria

Joseph Izundu Okonkwor — 2021-11-23

When the United Nations saw that most of their Millennium Development Goals did not succeed as expected in Africa, they changed to what is called Sustainable Development Goals which set certain standards that must be met from 2015 upward (Sarvajayakesavalu,1:7, 1-4. 2015). Most of these goals for me were not realized simply because development cannot take place in a vacuum. Development takes place inside a nation and then works for all the citizens in that nation. If there is no nation or haphazardnation, we get no development or haphazard development. This paper argues that countries in Africa, and Nigeria in particular must be nationalized for any sustainable development to take place in them.

On the concept of creation in African ontology

Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu — 2021-11-23

There is a general belief among the African people that the world was created by God. In fact, the creation of the universe is understood as being part of the natural attributes of God. Thus, he cannot be God and not be able to create. This explains why the African, during prayers, in songs and proverbs, refers to God as the maker or creator of the universe. This is also evident in the different titles that the African people give to God. The Akan call him as the Excavator who created all things; the Akamba speak of him as the Maker of all things; the Banyarwanda speak of him as the Potter of Life; the Tiv refer to him as the Great Carpenter; the Kiga call him the fashioner; the Yoruba and Igbo refer to him as the Maker and Owner of Life. For the purpose of this research, this piece would study five African myths bordering on creation to bring out the different dimensions of creation in African ontology. These dimensions would include: creation by delegation, creation ex nihilo, the enduring nature of divine creation and the sustenance of creation. The phenomenological approach would be employed in the collection and analysis of data on the African concept of creation. Contrary to the absence of the belief in the creation of the world by God in some western thoughts, this work argues that within the African parameter of belief, the world was created by God.

The study of the verb Jì> in Igbo: A morphosyntactic analysis

Christiana Ngozi Ikegwuonu — 2021-11-23

The Igbo language is one of the languages of the Benue Congo family chiefly spoken in the South-east part of Nigeria. The verb jì n Igbo language means hold/have. Although some works have been done on the classes of verbs in the language, no detailed study so far has been done on the verb jì. It is on this premise that this study sets out to examine the morpho-syntactic analysis of the verb jì with the objectives of exploring the different syntactic constructions in which It can be used to indicate different interpretations or meanings in the language, determine its morphological structures, syntactic patterns and characterizations in the constructions. The study adopts a descriptive approach in the analysis of the data. The data for the study was collected through the recording of the natural casual occurring speeches of the native speakers during conversations and discourses. A careful analysis of the data reveals that the verb jì can be used without attachment of any affix to express different semantic meanings such as present or past time meanings, to supply reasons for actions, show how certain actions are performed. It can inflect to indicate other semantic meanings such as: past time meaning, negation, preposition, imperative, and so on. The verb jì is a multiargument verb and can subcategorize for two or three arguments in the syntactic structures. It also has the potential to participate in different constructions with physical objects/entities, states and events to generate different interpretations. It is an inherently low tone verb but the tone can change depending on the syntactic constructions. We, therefore, recommend further research works to be done in the verbs of the Igbo language to help in throwing more light on their different characteristic features.