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AbstractThe activism towards increased engagement of women participation in peacebuilding process dates back to 1975, from the UN Women conference in Mexico, the 1980 Women Conference in Copenhagen, to the unanimous passage of the UNSCR1325. The fact that women are the most vulnerable in times of war earns them the right to be included in counter-insurgency management and the post-conflict peace process. In North-eastern Nigeria, women suffer from Boko-haram insurgencies and despicable acts, including forced marriages, rapes, displacement, destruction of livelihood and widowed. The study argues that by domesticating the UNSCR1325, the strategies for mitigating the human suffering inflicted on the people by the insurgency would be sufficiently engendered to address the needs of women who are mostly impacted by the insurgencies as mothers, wives’ sisters and daughters.

AbstractThe Cretaceous was punctuated by episodic flooding of continental margins forming epicontinental seas. The Trans‐Sahara Seaway was one of these epicontinental seas, connecting the Gulf of Guinea with the Tethys Ocean. In this study, data including microplankton abundances, stable carbon isotopes of organic material and elemental geochemistry were integrated with traditional sedimentological analyses from the Trans‐Sahara Seaway. The carbon isotopic data provide the first evidence that oceanic anoxic event 2 was present in the Trans‐Sahara Seaway, and palynology shows it was associated with an increase in peridinioid dinocyst abundance. A combined study of microplankton assemblages and sedimentology reveals palaeoenvironmental trends linked to sea‐level change. Lowstand system tracts were characterised by increased siliciclastic grain size, low microplankton diversity, and were dominated by Chlorophyceae. Transgressive system tracts were associated with diversity increases during rising sea level, with open marine gonyaulacoid dinocysts dominating the assemblages. Maximum flooding surfaces were recognised by the highest increase in biological diversity in argillaceous deposits. As sea level started to fall, the peridinioid dinocysts became dominant, with decreased microplankton diversity during highstand systems tracts. This combination of sedimentology and interpretation of dinocyst assemblages allows the identification of shallow to deeper marine depositional sequences of Cenomanian–Santonian strata within the Yola Sub‐basin. This approach could be used to delineate marine depositional sequences where using conventional sedimentological methods alone is very challenging.

AbstractStories are a function of violent conflicts. Stories provide reasons for and can serve to instigate conflicts, they make conflicts readable, and they provide narrative closure, i.e., a sense of finality, and thus potentially restore trust between conflict parties. This study focuses on a specific form of storytelling used in a conflict setting, namely docudrama and re-enactment of traumatic experiences of conflict. The study posits that, in the absence of other forms of effective civic dissent to force better outcomes in governance and particularly the provision of security through the state, docudrama and the re-enactment of personal experiences of violence can lead to conscientization and healing, even as the stories expressed in re-enactment lay the groundwork for post-conflict narrative closure. The location of study is in Benue and Plateau States, Nigeria. Because of climate change and migratory pressures in the wake of the drying up of Lake Chad these states are prone to violent land disputes. The target population of the study are refugees affected by conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, who are currently estimated at over 100,000. The study offers an opportunity to be active participants and to acquire skills and training in storytelling and re-enactment primarily to women, children and youths. Interviews, focus group discussions (FGD s), and participatory observation are used to collect data. A pilot study in Daudu camp in GumaLGA(Local Government Area) and later in 2023, a Theatre for Development and a feature film was carried out in Adeke, Ogondu and Asyoko community of Benue State and a Theatre for Development Drama and Feature Film production carried out in MikangLGAof Plateau State illustrate the methods and aims of the study. Anchored in “Reflective African Theory” the study uses Brecht’s “Forum Theatre” technique to show how docudrama can be used to explore the motives of the violent conflict and contribute to the rebuilding of trust in situations of conflict. The study, which results from a collaboration between the authors in the framework of the World Academy of Sciences, aims to contribute to the corpus of African studies and offer new perspectives for peace and conflict studies.

Abstract Considering the literary response to the environmental crisis in the Niger Delta, it is observable that most critics of the literary arts on the Niger Delta homogenise the effects of the environmental problem, rather than focusing on particular groups of ecological subjects. These critics universalise environmental discourse, thereby overlooking more silenced and marginalised ecological subjects and subverting environmental justice. Using Helon Habila’s Oil on Water and Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow, this study responds to the need to individualise the effect of environmental degradation by focusing on Niger Delta women who are both culturally and environmentally constrained. It combines border theories and ecofeminism to pay detailed attention to the literary representation of women’s precarious positionality, a situation of both spatial and symbolic vulnerability. It also explores women’s reception of and interaction with the polluted environment, given that the locations of degradation (the farms and freshwater), according to African culture, are gender-sensitive spaces and that African rural women mostly depend on farming and water for household work. Lastly, this paper examines women’s response to the violence of environmental pollution, thereby underscoring agency and visibility for women in connection with environment.

Abstract Geographical considerations continue to manifest in and influence the narratives surrounding non-heteronormative sexualities. Within this context, borders become central to the politics of inclusion-exclusion. In this study, we engage Jude Dibia’s Walking with Shadows, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Shivering,” and Uzondinma Iweala’s Speak No Evil in view of their engagement of the tripodal issues of homosexuality, home and migration. We interrogate the depictions and counterbalances evoked by the juxtaposition of the artistic motifs of ‘home’ versus migration; and argue that this dichotomy is wielded firstly as a form of escape from a judgmental ‘home’ and then as a means of providing a contrastive engagement of the perception of homosexuality within different territorial borders. Such transnational enactments of mobilities, we believe, also constitute platforms though which these authors channel energies and support on the way to soliciting acknowledgement and acceptance for people of alternative sexualities.

AbstractThis research work examines the government intervention policies and how helpful they have been in achieving herder–farmer peaceful coexistence in the North Central part of Nigeria, with a focus on Kogi and Benue States. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a descriptive design with a sample size of 759 respondents, and both univariate analyses, i.e. descriptive statistics, such as frequency distribution in percentage and bivariate Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and regression analysis, were adopted. The results show that the various intervention programmes or policies have not been helpful in improving the coexistence of the herders and farmers in the North Central region and Nigeria at a large scale as perceived by the respondents. The findings of the study show that people perceived the government intervention programme in their locality as not helpful in achieving the goal of herder–farmer peaceful coexistence. The findings also show that the policies of the government have not addressed the root cause of the conflict, making it difficult to have an expected effect on the two conflicting parties. Therefore, the study recommends implementing proper and prompt monitoring and evaluation of policies to determine their impact on the targeted population while conducting more orientation programmes about the intention of the government intervention programmes and policies, with particular emphasis on reaching out to the rural communities and not just focusing on the activities in the media only.

AbstractThis study examines compound stress in Igbo and Yoruba accents of Nigerian English and juxtaposes their patterns with Standard British English (SBE). Speech recorded from 60 educated Igbo and Yoruba speakers of Nigerian English and three Britons served as data and control respectively. These recordings were analysed perceptually and acoustically. Using simple percentage and chi-square, occurrence of tokens and levels of significance were checked between the compound stress patterns of educated Igbo and Yoruba speakers of English and SBE at 0.05 (p ≤ .05). Optimality theory serves as the theoretical framework. The findings indicate that educated Igbo and Yoruba speakers of Nigerian English, though share certain patterns with SBE, have significant patterns of variations in compound stress assignment. There was a systematic attempt by the Nigerian participants to align left, while SBE aligns right. This showed the propensity of the participants to analogically accentuate the constituent of the compounds that carry significant information. This pattern was supported by the higher pitch and durational values recorded by speakers of educated Igbo and Yoruba accents of Nigerian English. Even in cases where there were similarities in the patterns, the acoustic features vary. This is common to both accents of Nigerian English.

This article examines Nigeria’s interventions in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Relying on data from key ranking bodies, memoirs of retired career ambassadors, general library materials and thematic data analysis, the study observes that Nigeria’s interventions in ECOWAS have not only been remarkable, they have also allowed the country to consolidate its position as the undisputed leader in West Africa. While the platform of ECOWAS has allowed Nigeria to pursue some noble objectives, there are some inconveniences associated with this policy orientation. These contradictions, which have sometimes constrained Nigeria’s diplomacy in West Africa and contracted the returns, include the anti-Nigerian sentiments from some Francophone members of ECOWAS, occasional unfriendly attitude of some small West African countries, and Nigeria’s worsening security challenges that are now spilling into neighbouring countries. Appropriate policy measures are also provided to counteract these contradictions.