Research
Proverbs and Gender Equalities and Equities in African Cultueres: Yoruba Culture as A case Study
Proverbs in Yoruba culture recognize the natural dichotomy that exists between male and female. But while it recognizes their co-existence, it as well underlines the fact that the relationship between women and men should be founded on equality. It is part of human nature to want to dominate one another. When this happens, both the oppressed and oppressor invent a proverb to back his or her position. And so while the oppressor would event one to justify his or her position, the oppressed would also think deeply and invent one that would show that the oppressor is oppressing him or her. To invent a proverb one must be intelligent and have vast human experience of sociocultural activity of his or her environment. It is not enough to be intelligent it has to be combined with age steeped in wide and vast experience. It is this that makes a good proverb stands the test of time.
Trafficking In Women and Children in Yorubaland: The Pre- Colonial, Colonial and Post Colonial Situations Compared
Trafficking in human beings is today a global phenomenon with global consequences. Within trafficking in human beings are specifics such as women trafficking, children trafficking and women and children trafficking. Although trafficking in women and children is going to be the subject matter of this paper, trafficking in human being generally is an old phenomenon with a positive effect, until it became abused from the pre-colonial days to now. Culturally, some aspects of Yoruba people‟s culture are consistent with it. Unlike the position of the United Nations which prohibits extracting labor from women and children under certain age, the Yoruba culture encourages it. A Yoruba proverb “atikekere laa ti pee kan iroko, to ba dagba tan apa ko nii kaa mo†(children are better caught and molded when they are young, or else it would be difficult to do so when they are grown up), tells us why. The Yoruba believe in the virtue of training children from tender ages in some forms of trade and craft However, the noble cultural intention of catching and molding children at tender age has been given a dehumanizing tar by modern day trafficking in women and children, locally and internationally. This paper intends to examine trafficking in women and children in the pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial periods with the aim of establishing and understanding the motivational (?) nexus of the operators of these illegal trades across the ages.
Historical Epochs of Local Government Administration in Nigeria: Women and the Poor
Local Government administration and development in Nigeria has, historically, undergone a number of epochs: Native Authority or Indirect Rule system; Local Administration system; Democratization of the system and the separation of traditional/ emirate council from democratic Local government system. The last of these epochs is the most spectacular in the way it deepened and still deeps democracy at local government level. To date, this last epoch has had not less than nine reforms: The 1976 Guidelines for Local Government Reform; The 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; The 1984 Dasuki Report on the Nigerian Local Government system; The 1988 Civil Service Reforms in the Local Government system; The 1989 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; The 1992 Handbook on Local Government Administration; The 1989 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 2003 Review of Local Government Councils in Nigeria. What this paper sets out to examine is the changing nature of Local government system in Nigeria right from the days of Native Authority s system to the present democratic one and their impacts on women and the poor.
Myth, Broken: Female Emirs Found in The Northern Parts of Nigeria
Contrary to long held erroneous notion that women leadership in Muslim society is anathema, it has been conclusively proved that this is false. Women leadership, particularly in traditional society, has been in existence in northern part of the country from time immemorial. As a result of our more than five years intensive research into this area, we can now prove with exactitude that female emirs exist in the north like their Obas and Obis counterparts in the Southern parts of the country. The concern of this paper is to shed light on the nature and character of female emirs found in the north.
The Development of Awqaf Institutions in Nigeria for Sustainable Community Development and Poverty Eradication: The Case Study of Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy
In the whole of black Africa, South Africa is the only country known to be practicing Awqaf institutions. However, seven years ago Muslim community at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria commenced the practice. Nigeria is a huge Muslim population country. More than half of the entire population of the country is Muslim. However, 90 percent of this Muslim population is located in the Northern and Western parts of the country. This explains why Awqaf institutions are mostly located in these two out of three regions of the country. Just as there are national Awqaf institutions so are there state and local variants of them. In fact, institutional Awqaf institutions e.g. Universities and other tertiary institutions, also exist. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, as an educational institution with active Awqaf institutions has the following granite Islamic bodies or organizations that operate Awqaf: Obafemi Awolowo University Muslim Community (OAUMC); Vanguard of Islam (V I); Association of Muslim Professional (AMP); University of Ife Muslim Graduate Association (UNIFEMGA); Federation of Muslim Women’s Association in Nigeria (FOMWAN); Obafemi Awolowo University Trust Cooperatives (OAUTC), Kudiratulai (KL), Muslim Family Forum (MFF), and Muslim Student Society of Nigeria OAU branch (MSS). It is part of the mission of these bodies to embark on community development projects as well as eradicating poverty within the University community and outside it as well1. Some of these bodies are local branches of the national bodies, UNIFEMGA for example has national head quarter in Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria and states branches in the following states: Lagos (Lagos State), Ibadan (Oyo State), Ife (Osun State, Osogbo (Osun State), Ilorin (Kwara State) and Port-Harcourt (Rivers State) (Visit the website: www.unifemga.com and click the branches column). Its tentacles have also been spread to other continents outside Africa. It (UNIFEMGA) has international branches in Un
