Social Studies

Democracy needs to be clearly understood before we can appreciate the roles of the judiciary in its sustenance. It is a form of government that is responsive, responsible and guarantees to the citizens, the inalienable rights of freedom of choice, freedom of association, right to shelter, freedom from discrimination, right to clothing and unqualified respect for the rule of law. This is a form of government that connotes collective participation and despotism, tyranny and totalitarianism. On the whole, democracy according to Abraham Lincoln is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. For effective administration of justice in a democracy, courts have definite and decisive roles to play. Courts are Government institutions that settle legal disputes and administer justice. The judiciary arm of government, resolves conflicts involving individuals, organizations, government and political parties. It also has the power to review the actions of both the executives and the legislature. Although, lack of judicial independence affects the performance of the judges in Nigeria, when it comes to judicial review and delivering justice. Nevertheless, with numerous constraints facing the institution, it manages to provide fair justice to poor people and powerless individuals. The judiciary arm of government now remains the faith of Nigerians in bringing justice to reign in Nigeria, due to its numerous landmark achievements recorded so far. This paper seeks to examine the role of judiciary in entrenching democratic values in the present day Nigeria. Our focus, however, shall be on the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

The topic “Fuel subsidy removal and Nigeria economy” was selected from the verities of topic due to the inspiration the research felt forms the topic. Petroleum is the major source of income of Nigeria and it determines most of other aspect of lifes and sectors of the economy. He researcher examines how Nigerians reacted towards the fuel subsidy removal, the strikes, violent demonstrations, high cost of fuel and transportation, high cost of food items and so on. This motivated the research to carry out this research. The research tries to find out how the subsidy removal on fuel has affected the economy and the lifes of the people, he developed so theories (3) which he used to explain the topic and from the research he discovered that majority of Nigerian did not benefit from the fuel subsidy removal as it was mainly enjoyed by rich fuel importers. Also it was discovered that the removal of fuel subsidy lead to an imbalance in the economic sector as prices of goods and services rise drastically leading to protest, strikes, low standard of living in inflation. Finally, the researcher discovered that the fuel subsidy regime is very corrupt, this is because good sum of money were missing and misused and cannot be accounted for. The money gotten from the subsidy removal was supposed to be channeled into other aspect of the economy but this was not the case because there was low impact in Agricultural sector, infrastructures and provision of basic social amenities. Therefore, he discovered that if the other sectors of the economy are in a very good shape, it will go a long way in sustaining and reviving the economy and promote growth and development in Nigeria.

Cultural resources are pivoted to the development of heritage industry, tourism and economic fortune of a nation. Nigeria has a diverse and rich heritage consisting of natural and cultural sites of universal importance. Economy and cultural imperatives are recognized as the most powerful forces shaping human development. This paper looks at how preserving and promoting cultural heritage is fundamental to the eradication of poverty and usher in peace and harmony and the importance of community participation in implementing such measures. The paper examines federal government policy and the practical challenges of empowering people to harness the economic potentials of their cultural heritage for their material benefits. And there fore recommend the need for the federal , State and Local Government to put in place measures by which youths amongst others are empowered thereby reduction of poverty through the exploitation of our cultural heritage.

This article examines the historical development of ethnicity in the Nigerian political terrain. It posits that the distinguishing feature of Nigerian politics is the role played by ethnicity in staunting the task of national development. It argues that federalism in Nigeria is a farce, as the major ethnic nationalities monopolize political power for self interest. This ethnic consciousness heightened political competition at the centre resulting in the social, political, administrative and cultural maladies that bedevil Nigeria. it concludes that elites crude accumulation for personal wealth field crisis, instability and violence which affected national development efforts.

The aim of the study was to assess the anxiety, social skills and coping skills of underprivileged children. The objective was to undergo transformation for better adaptability with self and environment by integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior through art. These children were in the age of M- 10.6 years, SD-0.5 and education M-15.06 years, SD- 0.45, from a village in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Intellectual functioning of these children was below average in vernacular system of education in their area. Gestalt therapy was applied through art and creative activities to reduce anxiety of children and increase their social and coping skills. In the Experimental group 15 boys and girls were exposed to Gestalt therapy for three months thrice a week. The control group was seen once in a week for the same period which also consisted of 15 boys and girls. Pre and post measures were assessed on Paediatric Anxiety Rating Scale, Social Skills Form and Children’s Coping Behaviour Questionnaire for the assessment of their, anxiety, social and coping skills respectively. Parents and teachers were also involved in the process of assessment and evaluation. Intellectual functioning was assessed through Standard Progressive Matrices. Outcome variables of Paediatric Anxiety Rating Scale suggested reduction in their anxiety and increase in verbal pragmatics and social behaviour following diminution of fear and avoidance as per findings on Social Skills Form. Children’s ameliorative coping augmented than destructive coping in their day to day life. The results showed an improvement in the level of severity of anxiety symptoms and coping strategies – problem solving. The severity of anxiety symptoms showed a decrease by 35%.The coping skills – problem solving improved by 25%.

Islamic finance is currently the fastest growing segment in the world economy. Apart from providing funds for investment activities and eventually promoting economic development, it is interesting to understand the implication of Islamic finance development on the development of institutional quality of host country. With Islamic finance is based on Islamic values of no oppression, profit and loss sharing and helping-hand concept, it is expected that the rapid growth of Islamic finance will help to promote good institutions. Hence, focusing on several OIC countries with Islamic banking sector, this study examines the role of Islamic banking on institutional quality for the period between 2001 and 2015. The result shows the institutional quality depends on economic growth and Islamic finance development. Policy makers are encouraged to spur economic activity and the growth of Islamic banking in promoting good institutions.

This study aims to examine the effects of macroeconomic variables on non-oil exports in Iran, for the period of 1965-2010. The paper employs the ordinary least square (OLS), unit root tests and co-integration technique of Johansen as analytical tools. Result found indicates that the positive significant effects of real gross domestic product and free market exchange rate on non-oil exports. While, the effect of inflation rate on non-oil exports have been found insignificant with unexpected positive sign.

War is the greatest catastrophe that brings death and destruction, merciless slaughter and butchery, disease and starvation, poverty and ruin in its wake. A disturbing side of modern wars is that they tend to have global implications. The psychological and economic impact of war on their belligerent societies is huge. Terrorism is driven by politics even when the justifications given for the killing of innocents and the recruiting tools of terrorist groups are cast in religious, ethnic, linguistic or moral terms. The war in Syria is a befitting example. The image of Aylan Kurdi, the small Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach, was so heart wrenching that the European politicians and the public opened their arms and their hearts to these refugees. It is high time that the regimes should realize that there are other choices to violence and its attendant terror to gain what they want. The paper seeks to explore the reasons behind the Syrian War and to analyze the deplorable condition of the Refugees. 

Women empowerment is a multi-dimensional nature of power suggest that empowerment strategies for women must build on „the power within? as a necessary adjunct to improving their ability to control resources, to determine agendas and make decisions. Though the Garowe II Principles agreed in February 2012 stipulated that women will get a minimum 30% representation in Federal Parliament, they only secured 38 out of 275 (14%). Somali women lack equal participation and representation both in politics and private sector despite the fact of transforming gender role in Somali where more women become household heads and making up over 60% of the country. In addition, Somali is one of the countries with the highest level of Gender inequality and it is ranked fourth with the Gender Inequality Index of 0.776. To respond to these challenges there have been international and local efforts made for country?s gender empowerment and among the gender sensitive programs activities included; offering technical advice and capacity building support to the government and civil societies in the review of existing gender policies and legislation, building up the organizational capacity of women?s groups and networks to mobilize and advocate for gender equality across the public and private sectors, improving skills of key stakeholders such as traditional and religious leaders to promote gender equality and women empowerment. More specifically, in 2011, US African Development Foundation (USADF) has established a gender sensitive program in Somalia with the primary goal of improving the standard of living June 2013 through addressing a youth job and enterprise placement program preceded by on-the-job training. But there was knowledge gap about the role of gender sensitive programs on women empowerment and gender inequality in Somalia. This study therefore aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the role of gender sensitive programs on gender empowerment in Somalia and more specially, the objective of this study is to investigate the role of gender sensitive programs on women empowerment in Somalia case study USADF training and placement program.

This paper titled “ethical evaluation of the impacts of mining in Ebonyi State, Nigeria” was carried out to find the extent to which mining operations in Ebonyi State were consistent with named ethical principles. It was geared toward unearthing the history of mining in Ebonyi State, examining the impacts of mining in Ebonyi State and evaluating the impacts of mining in the light of some ethical principles. Data were collected through oral interviews and use of available data in printed records, reports journals, text books and so on. The following were the findings of this research:In the early 30’s, local miners in Ebonyi State (the villagers) engaged in artisanal quarrying/ mining of lead employing local methods before the coming of expatriate miners in the early 40’s. Mining has impacted positively in various dimensions to the development of the State; the negative impacts are however severe and include habitat modification, deforestation, contamination of air, land pollution, underground and surface water pollution, destruction of roof tops through fly-rocks, soil erosion, crack effect on houses resulting from blasting, noise pollution, socio-political impacts and so on. The impacts were found to be a negation to the ethical principles of justice, human rights and sustainability. The viable means of ameliorating the impacts were found to include: value re-orientation and education of miners to appreciate the above ethical principles; organizing awareness campaigns and sensitization programme for people living in mine areas; diversification of the economy of Ebonyi State through prioritizing agriculture in order to shift emphasis from mining; organizing artisanal miners into groups and co-operative societies for easy training and monitoring; enforcement of mine closure, revegetation and resettlement of fauna.