1,720,955 research outputs found
Scrutinising Nigeria's Electoral Trajectory: The Electoral Act 2022, The 2023 Polls, and the Judiciary's Verdict
Full text linkThe Consistent scheduling of elections remains a cornerstone of Nigeria's democratic development. The 2023 general elections, marking the seventh consecutive electoral cycle since the 1999 democratic transition, significantly tested the nation's democratic infrastructure, particularly in light of electoral reforms encapsulated in the highly anticipated Electoral Act 2022. This paper critically examines the influence of this Act on the 2023 general elections and explores the ramifications of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal's (PEPT) judgment for the future of elections in Nigeria. It scrutinises the deployment of technological innovations, such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), for voter accreditation and results transmission, alongside the attendant operational difficulties. The analysis also highlights persistent challenges that cast doubt on the Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) capacity to deliver transparent, free, and equitable elections in 2023. Employing a qualitative methodology, this study draws upon an extensive review of desktop literature, including official documents, academic books, journal articles, media reports, and legal instruments. Key findings indicate that several provisions within the Electoral Act 2022 suffer from ambiguity, with certain sections being overly broad or allowing excessive latitude for subjective interpretation. To bolster the credibility of future electoral contests, the study advocates for the safeguarding of voter interests through enhanced legal certainty across all electoral stages, necessitating the elimination of ambiguities within the Electoral Act and associated INEC guidelines. Such clarity is crucial to mitigate the risk of conflicting interpretations and foster greater public trust
THE INTRACTABILITY OF VIOLENT CONFLICT IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF PLATEAU STATE
Full text linkNigeria grapples with a number of longstanding conflicts across regions. Plateau State is volatile and suffers episodic violent conflict. The state is trapped in a vicious cycle of violence which has escalated with great intensity especially in the last decade leading to great loss of lives and properties, displacements of individuals from their homes as well as a deeply divided society. All efforts by state and non-state actors to address the lingering conflict appears inadequate. Previous studies relate the conflict to ethno-religious crises, violent intercommunal, sectarian and resource-based conflicts yet, understanding and addressing the complexity of the conflict remains daunting. Hence, this study attempts to address this puzzle by explaining the intractability of the violent conflict in Plateau State. To achieve this, the study examines the dynamics and actors, to the recurring conflict. A case study approach has been applied is carrying out the study using broad sources of data including Key Informant Interview (KII), observation, and secondary sources such as journals, books and official reports. The study suggests that the crises in Plateau State evolved through five phases which are influenced by competing citizens claim, mutual feeling of victimisation and the activities of violent entrepreneurs. It identifies media, ethnic groups, political actors, youth group, arm dealers, security agencies, and government agencies as the major actors in the conflict who are mostly motivated by identity, human needs and, profiteering interests. The Study concludes by advocating for a short, medium and long terms solutions anchored on multi-stakeholder approach
New Trajectory of Islamic Extremism in Northern Nigeria: A Threat-Import Analysis of Shiite’s Uprising
Full text linkSince the division of the Muslim Brotherhood in Nigeria during the 80s, Nigerian Muslims experiences series of infighting. Such internal disputes culminate into the birth of several sects that either accepts or oppose the Nigerian state. More so, the two main divisions of the Muslim Brotherhood are the Saudi Arabia sponsored Izala (Movement for the removal of innovation and re-establishment of Sunna in Islam) Sunnist movement and the Shiite’s Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) which is backed by Iran. Between 1979 and 1999 the IMN engaged in series of armed clashes with the Nigerian forces. In this article, we analyse how the December 2015 faceoff and the simultaneous crackdown on the IMN could trigger the movement into the campaign of violence against the Nigerian state. We used the framing theory to explain how the Shiites may perceive the Sunni/Shiite divide as well as the actions of the Nigerian state against it. Framing theory is inadequately examined in explaining group violence. Hence, this study adopts the IMN as a case evidence to underscore the relevance of framing in explaining why groups adopt violence. Keywords: Shiite, Sunni, Nigeria, Framing, Radicalisation Violenc
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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