Is Corona Fiction or Reality: A Critical Analysis of The Covid-19 Discourse In Tanzania
Albert Mogambi Moinani; Margaret Nasambu Barasa
DOI :
This paper analyses critically the political leaders and senior government officials’ Covid-19 public address discourse in Tanzania. This analysis, guided by the critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework, is geared towards examining the political leaders and senior government officers’ lexical choices and their implications for public attitude and behaviour towards the covid-19 pandemic. During times of crisis and uncertainty, the public looks up to those in power for guidance and protection. Therefore, the stance taken by those in authority during such periods occasioned by disease, war or natural catastrophe outbreaks is important in influencing and informing public behaviour and attitude. Public behaviour and attitude are thus vital components in risk and disaster reduction during periods of uncertainty. Studying language use by those in power is crucial since language is a powerful force that shapes people’s mind and society’s attitude and behaviour. The study analyzed 50 utterances by Tanzania’s top political leadership regarding the covid-19 outbreak in the country and their perceptions of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended prevention measures. The texts were extracted from the live briefings from the major audio-visual media in the region and world such as KTN, Citizen, BBC, Aljazeera, and NTV. The findings of the study indicate that leaders perceived the pandemic as non-existent and overtly expressed doubt over the effectiveness of the recommended prevention measures, thus increasing the risk of spreading the virus among their citizens. The finding of this study would be useful to the public, policy makers and government by shedding light on the role language plays in attitude and behaviour change during times of crisis and uncertainty occasioned pandemics such as the covid-19 disease.
Assessing History of Nigeria’s Presidential Elections Experiences From 1923-2019
Samuel Osaretin Uwaifo & Prof. Michael Abiodun Oni
DOI :
Nigeria’s electoral politics undermine the very lives of its citizenry and ultimately short changed the very people it’s sought to serve. It is characterized by electoral violence, mal-practices, greed, intimidation, fear, selfishness, deceit, ethnicity, nepotism, incompetence, manipulation, government interference, poor governance structure, and general mismanagement and misapplication of scarce resources, it is indeed a bad experience. Hence, the paper seek to explored historical assessment of Nigeria’s electoral politics experiences from colonial to post-colonial periods. It will cover parliamentary, and presidential elections experiences from 1923-2019, articulating the problematic and turbulent nature and characteristics inherent in the nation’s electoral and political experiences, this will also serve as the objective of the paper. The methodology adopted is qualitative method, and content analysis was also adopted to examine key variables and, secondary sources was also adopted in the paper. Hence, social contract theory, which is based on the idea of a contractual agreement between the individual and the state also serve as the theoretical framework. Hence, the findings reveals that, the problematic nature and characteristics of Nigeria’s electoral politics limits her capacity to freely interact and play a more role in global politics and also negatively and adversely on her foreign relations experiences (bilateral, multilateral, cultural international or regional cooperation and interactions as the case may) with other nations in the international community, especially in the area global trade, and security. Consequently, the paper concludes and recommends a proactive and systematic reformation of the nation’s electoral process and correspondent amendment of 2014 Electoral Act as amended, as a way to better a cordial foreign relations activities and interactions in the international community
Causes of Traffic Congestion; A Study of Owerri Municipal Area of Imo State
Sylvanus Iro & Edith Chinwe Pat-Mbano
DOI :
This research is concerned with the causes of road traffic congestion, a study of Owerri municipal. To achieve this, data was from primary and secondary sources. Primary data was from questionnaire while the secondary data was from journals and previous academic works of other researchers. The survey method of research was adopted for this study. Taro Yemane method of calculating sample size was used to arrive at the sample size used which were 400 respondents. The questionnaire was distributed in parts of Owerri municipal which include Imsu junction axis= 100, Wetheral =50, Ikenebu =50, Control post =50, Douglas =50 and Alvan axis =50. From the field survey and questionnaire, it was deduced that 66% of traffic in Owerri municipal are caused by drivers’ impatient behaviour, wrong parking, disobedience to traffic rules (human factor) while 34% are caused by bad roads (physical factor). Traffic congestion cannot be analyzed without time of occurrence which was analyzed using Simple percentage analysis. It was discovered that 31.75% of traffic jam occurs during morning hours, from 7am – 9am while 33.75% of traffic occurs from 5pm – 7pm. Inflow and outflow of traffic was also analysed to observe the vehicular activity of the city and it made us to understand the reasons for traffic congestion within Owerri municipal. This study recommended that an active traffic law enforcement agency be enacted to monitor reckless drivers and prosecute them accordingly and effective and efficient road maintenance culture.
