Afe Babalola University Based Journals
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Optimising Service Delivery with Data Visualisation and Dashboards: Evidence from Tanzania Railway Corporation Standard Gauge Railway Ticketing
Full text linkThis study evaluates a real-time, coach-level control loop that couples ticket intent with physical seat occupancy to strengthen Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) in the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) Standard Gauge Railway. Grounded in Systems Theory, Results-Based Management, and principles of technology adoption, the study aims to enhance existing systems by proposing a dashboard-enabled workflow that integrates manifest data with seat-weight signals to surface pre-departure blocking alerts. A convergent mixed-methods design combined with design-science research (DSR). Data were collected using structured questionnaires and observations with trip-level indicators: Overstay Rate (OSR), Mean Detection Latency (MDL), False Positive Rate (FPR), Seat-Turnover Efficiency (STE), and Reporting Throughput (RT). Purposive sampling engaged 36 passengers and 12 staff across 6 stations and 12 scheduled runs (May to December 2024). The proposed design must undergo expert review and pilot testing to achieve substantial qualitative reliability (κ = 0.78). Trip indicators were computed under explicit guardrails and audited logs. Results show a persistent in-journey visibility gap after boarding; the proposed control loop operationalises station-to-station verification and auditable resolution. In a pilot comparison, we observe directionally favourable movements in MDL, OSR, FPR, STE, and RT (reported as medians with interquartile ranges and bootstrap confidence intervals). The study concludes that dashboard-enabled seat–ticket coupling can measurably improve compliance, decision speed, and documentation under TRC’s connectivity and capacity constraints
Performing Sexuality in a Digital Environment: GenZee Culture, Technology and the Politics of Morality in Northern Nigeria
Full text linkIn a highly morally and religiously charged Northern Nigeria, how is the appropriation and performativity of sexuality negotiated and contested between older generations and the Gen Zees through digital technologies? The growing influence of social media platforms presents an unregulated public avenue for Gen Zee Nigerians to digitally express and perform their sexuality against cultural values. However, this digitally sponsored visibility has resulted in a near-crisis of nudity that conflicts with the region’s conservative and often guarded religious norms on bodily exposure, modesty, and moral decency. Using both primary and secondary historical sources, this study argues that social media platforms have created an intergenerational gulf that pitches the older generation against the Gen Zees’ unbridled public sexual self-expressions. This conflict has led to the state deployment of censorship, backlash, police arrest, and even physical violence on the Gen Zees. Through a qualitative analysis of selected cases of arrest and humiliations of Gen Zees, this paper finds that the tensions between inherent cultural value and the technologically-geared quest for self-expression and identity of the Gen Zees in Northern Nigeria stoke embers of irreconcilable intergenerational differences in conservative Islamic Northern Nigeria in a democratic state. Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze framework of assemblage is used alongside interviews and digital ethnography of selected case studies which are explored in the paper. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of youth, modernity, and technology in Africa as regards the performativity of sexuality
Politeness in Banker-Customer Interactions of Selected Banks in Nigeria’s Yenagoa Metropolis
Full text linkThis study investigates politeness expressions in banker–customer interactions within selected Nigerian banks, contributing to research in interactional pragmatics and politeness studies. It aims to explicate the nature of politeness behaviour in the banking domain, the factors motivating such behaviour, how co-interactants interpret these behaviours, and the extent to which context shapes politeness practices. The data comprise sixty purposively selected interactions between bankers and customers. Using a complementarist adaptation of Lim and Bowers’ Face Theory and Locher and Watts’ Relational Work Theory, the study adopts a descriptive analytical approach. Findings reveal that politeness constitutes a central component of banker–customer interactions, with bankers bearing a greater burden of conflict management and redirecting talk towards the polite end of the relational scale. Customers, in contrast, frequently display impoliteness, while retaliatory responses from bankers remain rare. Although politeness behaviour is cyclical, communication breakdown is uncommon, as the need to achieve interactional goals motivates participants to mitigate potential rifts induced by impoliteness. The study recommends expanded inquiry into the influence of familiarity among bank staff on politeness choices
The Nutritional Status and Diets of Preschool Children (2-5 Years) In Nigeria: A Scoping Review
Full text linkOptimal nutrition in formative years supports age-appropriate growth and development and promotes lifelong health. This work aimed at examining the diets and nutritional status of preschoolers in Nigeria through published nutritional studies in order to provide more information that can be leveraged for age-appropriate interventions. The review included 34 studies retrieved from Scopus, PubMed, the Web of Science, AJOL, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect on preschoolers' nutritional status and diet. The articles chosen used mixed techniques and quantitative approaches and were published between 2009 and 2025. The predominant criteria for article selection during screening were the study ideas, the phenomenon of interest, design, evaluation, and research type. The PRISMA-ScR Standards and SPIDER framework were used to screen the articles that met the selection criteria. These study findings revealed a high prevalence of both undernutrition and the increasing emergence of overweight and obesity. Zinc and iron deficiency anaemia were also widespread, and micronutrient powder supplementation provided only minor improvements. Furthermore, malaria, anaemia, diarrhoea, and gut parasitic infections continued to be significant health burdens that negatively affected the nutritional status of preschoolers. In studies also reviewed, the diets of undernourished preschoolers were characterised by high intakes of starch-based staples and low intakes of legumes, animal foods, fruits, and vegetables. In contrast, those of overweight or obese preschoolers were characterised by high intake of highly sweetened foods and drinks. Therefore, there is a need for more studies, particularly interventional studies focusing mainly on preschoolers, in order to close the nutrient gaps associated with their age
Feminism Misread: The Ideological Distortions Behind the Hostile Perceptions of a Good Cause
Full text linkHostile readings of feminism recast a movement for gender equality as a threat to cultural order. This article theorises ideological distortion as the systematic appropriation of feminist language while neutralising its transformative content. Using a comparative lens on Nigeria and India, it identifies three recurrent mechanisms: reframing (religious hermeneutics that substitute equality with complementarity), cooptation (state, public-health, and educational bureaucracies that deploy feminist vocabulary to extend surveillance and control), and filtration (platform, curricular, and media systems that permit circulation only when discourse aligns with dominant ideology). Empirically, Nigerian opposition concentrates among younger, educated urban men facing status anxiety who mobilise customary law and Islamic jurisprudence to delegitimise feminist demands, whereas Indian resistance is diffuse and institutional—Hindu-nationalist and bureaucratic actors accommodate feminist slogans while constraining embodied autonomy, especially around reproduction and maternal health. Across both sites, gender stereotypes, nationalist narratives, and religious authority operate as discursive gatekeepers that render feminism visible yet toothless. We propose a transferable analytic matrix - defence mechanisms, ideological justifications, institutional manifestations, public discourse effects, and impacts on women’s agency to explain how meaning itself becomes the battleground between liberation and control. The study links threat perception and hegemonic maintenance to sociotechnical infrastructures of discourse, clarifying why distortions persist despite expanded digital visibility. Normatively, it argues for counter-hermeneutics grounded in indigenous and subaltern epistemologies, intersectional coalition building that resists competitive victimhood, and accountability frameworks that audit state and platform practices for “appropriative compliance” (the use of feminist language to entrench patriarchy). By mapping how feminist claims are recoded within religious, nationalist, and bureaucratic grammars, the article reframes “feminism misread” as a predictable product of power rather than a misunderstanding and delineates strategic pathways to re-secure semantic autonomy, institutional leverage, and material gains for gender justice
Do African Legislatures Matter in Foreign Policy Decision-Making? Notes from Nigeria
No full textThis paper argues that, in Africa, despite the central role of legislatures in democratic governance, their influence in foreign policy decision-making has often been limited, even in countries with constitutional frameworks that specify shared responsibility with the executive. Drawing on observations from Nigeria, the paper establishes that, despite the chief executive’s tendency to neglect the legislature in foreign policy decision-making, the Nigerian National Assembly between 1999 and 2007 exerted considerable influence on foreign policy, to the point that it could not be ignored, despite its many challenges. These influences were most evident in areas such as budgetary approvals, the deployment of the military for combat missions abroad, the granting of asylum status to President Charles Taylor of Liberia, and external debt forgiveness, to mention just a few. The federal government’s attempt to undermine the House of Representatives on some issues had adverse repercussions for Nigeria’s foreign policy outcome. This paper recommends that Nigeria, and indeed African countries, should strive to strengthen the role of legislatures in foreign policy, not only as a safeguard of the hard-won democracy but also to make the government more accountable to the people
Social Interventions and Parental Responsibilities among Separated and Divorced Families in Ekiti State, Nigeria
No full textThe study examines the role of social interventions in enforcing parental responsibilities toward children of separated and divorced families in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Studies have established child care patterns amongst spouses, as well as parental responsibilities occasioned by divorce and separation. However, this study assesses the level of awareness of parental obligations towards children of separated and divorced marriages and explores the effect of existing government and NGO interventions using the social support theory. It investigates how institutional and community-based interventions provide support for children of divorced families, as well as enforce legal obligations on the parents to their wards. The study adopts mixed-methods descriptive research design, with data collected from 390 separated or divorced parents through structured questionnaires and interview. Hypotheses testing demonstrates significant positive correlations between awareness of social interventions and parental responsibility (r = 0.649, p < 0.01), as well as between access to interventions and improved parental engagement (r = 0.581, p < 0.01). Findings indicate a high level of awareness of parental obligations among respondents (78.5%), reflecting general recognition of responsibilities such as financial provision, emotional care and educational support. The study further reveals that social interventions have contributed positively to improving co-parenting practices and parental accountability. The study recommends intensified public awareness campaigns and expansion of NGO activities in rural communities
Protection of Expressions of Folklore in Nigeria: The Expediency of Legal Improvements
Full text linkRights of traditional communities to their expressions of folklore deserve to be effectively protectedthrough every legal means possible. Customary law governed expressions of folklore in the traditional sense but same is inadequate to ward-off intruders especially in the contemporary sense due to civilisation. Existing legal framework for protection through the intellectual property law systems seems inadequate. Review of these rights by the international community has indicated desire for more adequate protection in some jurisdictions. Hence, the move for sui generis measures and system to forestall abuse, misuse and misappropriation of folklore. Recent amendment of the copyright legislation of Nigeria did not cover the aspect of expressions of folklore. With the use of doctrinal method of research and an inductive content analysisof primary and secondary sources of information, this paper examines the legal regime of protection offolklore under contemporary intellectual property rights as provided under the Nigerian law with the aim of pinpointing the adequacy or otherwise of the protection so granted. The article discovers that being a multi-ethnic country and having transnational ethnic group, it is best that permission to make use of expressions of folklore resides in traditional communities where they are ascertainable than in the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC)where the source is uncertain or resides in more than one community and also recommends that the NCC rise to the task of performance of duties as the traditional custodians would have done
Beyond the Pandemic: A Review of the Persistent Impacts of COVID-19 on Nigeria's Socio-Economic, Political and Health Landscapes
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted Nigeria, affecting its socio-economic, political, and health landscapes with lasting repercussions. It has exposed weaknesses in the healthcare system, economy, and political structure, leading to severe consequences such as exacerbated poverty and unemployment, reduced economic growth, strained political relationships, increased healthcare burdens, and long-term health issues. The government's response measures have often worsened the situation, presented governance challenges and diminished citizens’ trust. The economic fallout includes decreased consumption, depreciating investments, declining net exports, and increased government expenditure. Politically, the pandemic has led to low political participation, erosion of public trust, and strained relationships between citizens and the government. The healthcare system's vulnerabilities are evident in the increased burden on healthcare services and the urgent need for improved health infrastructure. This review underscores the urgent need for proactive strategies to address these lingering impacts and for the enhancement of Nigeria's resilience against future pandemics. It calls for a multidisciplinary approach to develop and implement effective policies and programmes that mitigate the consequences of COVID-19 and strengthen the country's preparedness for future health crises
FinTech Solutions, Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Economic Growth in Developing Countries
Full text linkThis study examines how innovations in financial technology are changing financial services in developing nations. The study focuses on how FinTech can improve financial inclusion by giving underserved groups access to financial services, thereby fostering sustainable economic growth. Through a qualitative analysis of case studies from Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, the study investigates how platforms like Paystack, GCash, and M-Pesa have transformed financial access, and how they are encouraging entrepreneurship and raising living standards. However, it draws attention to issues like cybersecurity threats, regulatory gaps, and the digital divide, especially in rural areas. The results emphasise that strong policies, digital literacy initiatives, and infrastructure development are required to take full advantage of FinTech's potential for inclusive and sustainable growth. Policymakers, financial institutions, and FinTech entrepreneurs can learn from the study how to eliminate barriers to financial inclusion and promote sustainable economic growth in developing countries