Paul Oluwatomipe Adekola

An Assessment of the State of Environmental Management in Nigerian Capital Cities

It has been observed that daily interaction of millions of Nigerian population estimated at 186.5 nmillion by Population Reference Bureau (PRB) with their immediate environment have serious nimplications on the landscape, environmental aesthetics and atmospheric well-being. Urban ndecadence, proliferation of slums, deforestation, congestion and all forms of pollution are some of nthe resultant effects of man’s interaction with his environment which results in adverse effects on nNigeria major cities. Increased industrial activities have engendered more carbon emission in the ncountry, which it is estimated at 26.1 million tons per annum, the fourth highest in Africa. This paper nexamines the state of environmental management in the state capital cities of Nigeria in the light of nfive research-proven indicators of environment-friendly cities. The paper applies qualitative method nusing the indicators to examine which state capital is really environment-friendly out of the thirty nseven (37) in Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Results show that only nfive (5) state capitals out of the thirty seven (37) in Nigeria can be referred to as being environmentfriendly. nThe study outlines notable recommendations capable of stimulating the attention and nenhancing the efforts of less environment sensitive cities in adopting global best practices.

Urban renewal in Nigeria: a slash and burn approach?

This research analyses the socio-economic implications of approaches to urban renewal on displaced populations in Ogun State, south-west Nigeria. In the last 5xa0years, massive renewal has been undertaken in five local government areas—Abeokuta North, Ado/Odo Ota, Sagamu, Yewa South and Ijebu Ode of the State from which two—Abeokuta North and Ado-Odo/Ota—were purposively selected to carry out this study. Primary data through administration of structured questionnaires to randomly selected 420 affected adults who either had their houses or shops demolished formed the source of data. However, 380 questionnaires were returned and cleaned upon which all were analyses based. Results from binary logistic regressions show that urban renewal has significant effects on the occupation (odds ratiou2009=u20093.0; pu2009<u20090.01) and income (pu2009<u20090.01) of those affected. Urban renewal also significantly affects the health status of the local residents because results show that persons whose houses or shops were demolished are twelve times more likely to lose sound sleep (odds ratiou2009=u200912.08; pu2009<u20090.01) and also have serious issues with loss of appetite (pu2009<u20090.01) and sadness (pu2009<u20090.01) all of which are symptoms of depression. These take place as a result of avoidable consequences like forced displacements and disregard for residents’ economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights all engendered by poorly planned and poorly executed urban renewal. We therefore recommended that urban renewal in Nigeria be more holistic and that compensation be commensurate with the value of property demolished so that incidence of depression which is significant here would not reoccur in subsequent similar endeavours.

Spousal desertion and coping strategies among women with cervical cancer in Nigeria: a schematic framework for wellbeing

Background: Women that are not in good health cannot contribute to sustainable development but effective coping during and after sickness could enhance their contributions to development. Objective: The study examined the coping strategies among women with cervical cancer in different marital context in Nigeria Methods: In-depth interview from eight women survivors and patients of cervical cancer in two distinct marital contexts characterised by the presence or absence of husband from two states of Nigeria. Data were analysed using content analytic procedures and premised upon relationship-focused coping strategy theory. Results: The study identified basic coping strategies as seeking support from religious organisations and adjustment of sexual lifestyle. Conclusion: The study concluded that women’s coping strategies on cervical cancer varied according to marital context. The authors recommend counselling, increasing cervical cancer risk awareness and husband-wife support, especially during life-threatening sicknesses to engender quick recovery and improved well-being for sustaining women contributions to development.

INTER-SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION AS A DETERMINANT OF CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN NIGERIA: A MIXED METHOD

The need for understanding the level of communication among couples is important in reproductive health. nAgreement by couples on contraceptive adoption is a major consideration if population growth will be nreduced. Therefore this paper tests the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between interspousal ncommunication and contraceptive use in Nigeria. The study employed both quantitative and nqualitative method of data collection. The quantitative data employed the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and nHealth Survey Couple recode dataset, while the qualitative data was collected using Focus Group nDiscussion. Data was analyzed using Stata13 and the qualitative data was analyzed using NVivo 11 nsoftware. The result of the logistic regression model showed that there is a significant relationship between ninter-spousal communication and contraceptive use (P<0.001). The result of the unadjusted model showed a nLog-likelihood ratio [LLR] = 2335.0875, R2 = 27.05% and Chi-square= 1731.32 on 29 degree of freedom nwhile, the adjusted model showed a [LLR] = 435.0011, R2 = 38.20%, Chi-square= 268.36 on 32 degrees of nfreedom, p<0.05. The reduction of 1296.3189 in the Log-likelihood ratio and an increase of 11.15 % in the R2 nindicate a very good fit. In the qualitative study the findings showed that majority of the couples using ncontraceptives discussed with their spouses and more than half of them received their husband’s maximum nsupport. We conclude that couples communication will improve the uptake of contraceptives and reduce the nincreasing population growth in Nigeria.

KNOWLEDGE OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS INFLUENCING HEALTH SERVICE USAGE AMONG PREGNANT MOTHERS IN NIGERIA

Poor knowledge of socio-demographic factors limit access and utilization of health care services among pregnant women. The objectives of this paper are to examine the factors which influence health care usage and to suggest policy guidelines to boost the use of healthcare particularly among antenatal women. The study covers five (5) rural political wards of Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. A stratified sampling technique was adopted in selecting the respondents who were ever married women in child bearing age (15-49) years who had at least one live-birth in the last three years preceding the survey.xa0 Stratified sampling technique was employed because the study was based on different political wards. It enabled more consistent responses within each political ward. This technique consists in taking random samples within each selected ward and combining it with samples proportionate to the size of each ward to ensure representative of the population for wider generalization of findings. On the whole, 260 female respondents were randomly selected from five wards out of the sixteen wards. Data were gathered through questionnaire instrument and analyzed statistically using statistical package for social sciences. Regression analysis showed that treatment decision and distance to health facility are negatively related to health program usage by pregnant mothers. Educational attainments, payment of treatment bills, respondent’s age and husband’s perception about pregnancy are positively associated to antennal care (ANC) use . Also, since the F- statistics calculated is greater than the F- tabulated thereby validating the hypothesis that the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents are significantly related to the health program usage by pregnant mothers. The above findings show that education, husband’s perception about pregnancy, treatment decision and payment of treatment cost weigh more on the use of modern health care services. Hence, Costs alleviation for women seeking antenatal care and delivery services should be put in place to encourage women to use health services and government should give priority to women education and empowerment. In addition, effort should be made to revitalize rural health facilities and establish mid-way service delivery points to reduce the problem of distance.