Editorial

I am delighted to announce the publication of Volume 27 (2021) of our esteemed journal, Lagos Notes and Records. The volume contains twelve (12) well-researched articles in the various disciplines of the Humanities such as communication studies, history, language studies, linguistics, literature, and other related disciplines.

The first article by Abimbola Adesoji, “Newspapers and the Sharia Debate in Nigeria: Contexts, Issues and Trend”, examines some selected newspapers’ and magazines’ coverage of the Sharia debate in Nigeria with focus on bringing out their different dimensions and patterns of the issues and the contexts in which they discussed them. The newspapers and magazines are Daily Times, Nigerian Tribune, New Nigerian, National Concord, The Guardian, Newswatch, Tell, as well as New York Times, London Times, and the Global Mail of Canada. Using the historical and comparative research methods, the author concludes that the positions taken by the various newspapers were influenced by the way they assessed how Nigerians perceive religion and allow it to influence their decisions and actions in their relationship with one another.

In the second article, “Ananse/Èşù Rising: Trickster Figures andShakespeare in Davlin Thomas’s Lear Ananci, a Caribbean King Lear”, Lekan Balogun analyses how Thomas appropriates both Shakespeare’s King Lear and Ananci in order to provide forceful and penetrating insights about the failure of postcolonial realities in the English-speaking Caribbean country of the author. He argues that Thomas’ Lear Ananci uses Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Yoruba (diasporic) tradition about the trickster Ananci, who assumes the personality of Esu, to address the post-colonial political failures in Trinidad and Tobago in particular and the Caribbean as a whole. The third article by Faruq Idowu Boge, “Water Challenges in Post-colonial Ikorodu Area of Lags State, 1967-1999”, examines the history of water infrastructure and challenges in Ikorodu area of Lagos from 1967 to 1999. It employs the qualitative method and historical research approaches to discuss the issues of water challenges, such as inadequate water supply and poor infrastructure, and their impact on the socio-economic development of Ikorodu and its environs during the post-colonial period. The article closes with the recommendation that the government should partner with the private sector to address the problems associated with water supply in the area.

Ademola Fayemi and Abiola Azeez, in the fourth article, “Epistemic Unfairness in Barry Hallen’s Account of Agency in Yoruba Moral Epistemology”, examine the problem of unfair treatment and discrimination against epistemic agents in knowledge production, knowledge sharing, and consensus practices in Hallen’s account of Yoruba epistemic thought. The authors are of the view that understanding epistemic agency is essential to examining the depth of epistemic harm and the conclusion inherent in Yoruba epistemology.

In the fifth article, “Perspectives on Cultural and National Development as Reflected in Two Igbo Poems”, Ujubonu Okide discusses some cultural and national development initiatives and strategies that can be derived from some Igbo poems. The author uses the theory of inference and implication to scrutinize issues such as the attributes of a good citizen and the portrayal of leadership as contained in Maduekwe’s “Ezi onye obodo” and Ekechukwu’s “Obodo anyi” selected from Akpa Uche’s (1979) An Anthology of Igbo Poems. She concluded that the attainment of national unity and progress should be seen as the outcome of a mutual sacrifice consciously undertaken by cultured citizens and leaders.

The sixth article, Clement Odoje’s “Confluence of Interests in the Translations of Ake: the Years of Childhood and Aké: ní Ìgbà Èwe: An Appraisal of Language Retrieval and Translation”, investigates the interests behind the literary translation of Wole Soyinka and Akinwumi Iṣọla’s translations of Ake with the view to establish the necessary features of translation and language retrieval employed in the process. The author argues that, although both writers employed the same strategies such as language transposition and equivalence, there are certain features that distinguish one from the other. Arising from the above, the author concludes that translation exhibits two different cultures and languages while language retrieval exhibits the same culture but different languages in the source and target texts.

Ayọdele Oyewale’s “The Ethos of Homage-paying and the Assessment of Ethical Issues in Yoruba Verbal Arts” is the seventh article. It examines the moral issues involved in Yoruba homagepaying using seven explicit Yoruba proverbial sayings on homage, selected Ifa verses, and two oral genres as case studies. Based on the ethical determinism approach, the author concludes that while early Yoruba professional artistes had clear understanding on how germane the Yoruba concept of homage was in their society, their contemporary counterparts appear to have deviated from the norm.

John Olubunmi Faloju and Eniayo Sobola in the next article, “The Meaning, Function, and Contextual Usage of Metaphors on Women in Russian and Yoruba”, employ the theory of context by Bronislaw Malinowski to investigate the meaning, function, and contextual usage of metaphors on women in Russian and Yoruba cultures. They argue that metaphors are used to project the worldview of people in different speech communities on social issues and women generally, and that metaphors in the two societies portray women both positively and negatively, especially in terms of their social functions and speech acts.

The ninth article by Raheem Oluwafunminiyi, “Writing on Marginal Muslim Figures: The Religious Career of a Community Mu’adhdhin in FESTAC-Town, Lagos, Nigeria”, discusses the activities of some of the “marginal” Muslim figures in FESTAC Town, who played significant roles in the historical progression of Islam in the area. The author also addresses some of the misconceptions associated with the Mu’adhdhin in a typical Yoruba Muslim community and recommends the need for the Muslim community to accord the Mu’adhdhin the recognition specified by the Shariah.

Folorunso Adebayo’s “Comparative Literature in Nigeria: A Thematic Examination of Gogol’s The Government Inspector and Osofisan’s Who’s Afraid of Solarin?, which is the tenth article of the volume, discusses the relevance of comparative literature, intertextuality, and modern drama in Nigeria with focus on the distinction between literary adaptation and translation in Femi Osofisan’s Who’s Afraid of Solarin and Nicolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector. The author concludes that for countries to address some of the social, economic and political crises plaguing them, they need to dramatise important literary texts for their sociopolitical re-orientation, and that Nigeria needs to incorporate such texts in the school curriculum at the primary and secondary school levels.

In the eleventh article, “Undressing to Confront the Bullet: Nigeria’s Niger-Delta Women Mobilizing against Malpractices and Violence in the 2019 Rivers State Gubernatorial Elections”, Olasupo Thompson examines how some women in Rivers State during the 2019 gubernatorial election in the state deployed nudity as a form of non-violent protests against the crisis that trailed the election. Based on the qualitative method of research, the frustration-aggression, and the J. Curve theories employed, the author argues that the use of the unconventional method of nudity by the women in Rivers State to press home their demands succeeded in thwarting electoral malpractices in the affected areas of the state.

In the concluding article, “The Impact of ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ Returnees on the Agricultural and Community Development of Ghana”, Paul Njemanze and Omon Osiki investigate the impact of Ghana’s returnees, who were victims of the 1983 mass expulsion exercises in Nigeria, on the agricultural and community development of Ghana. They argue that the activities of the returnees assisted in great measures in reducing the humanitarian crisis and food scarcity associated with the expulsion exercises, and that this assisted in no small measure in their reintegration into the Ghanaian society.

Finally, I want to sincerely thank and congratulate the Editorial Team and the Advisory Board for their efforts and hard work in ensuring the timely completion of this volume. I also congratulate the authors for the success of getting their papers published in our journal. It is my sincere hope that the academic community will find the articles therein interesting and meaningful in their quest to expand the frontier of knowledge in the humanities and allied disciplines.


Professor Olufunkẹ Adeboye

Dean, Faculty of Arts

Editor-in-Chief

Editorial

This Volume 25 of Lagos Notes and Records presents another round of well-researched scholarly contributions from established and middle-level career researchers spread across key disciplines in the humanities namely language, literature, communication studies, history, linguistics, conflict resolution and crisis management, and music. Articles received from authors outside the traditional base of the journal continue to confirm the transdisciplinary reputation this journal has acquired over the years and its increasing national and international appeal.

The first article by Takehiko Ochiai examines the Sandline Affair and the United Kingdom’s interference in the Sierra Leonean polity in the 1990s, which led to violations of the United Nations sanctions against Sierra Leone during the country’s civil war. The author argues that the role played by the UK, coupled with the complexity of the relationship that existed among the various actors in the conflict, complicated the war situation in the country.

Albert Oikelome, in the second article, examines the issue of compositional elements in the music of Fela Kuti, focusing on selected songs of the Afrobeat legend and the key to understanding his creative resourcefulness. The author analyses the techniques employed by the musician to achieve his enviable feats in music and concludes that Fela Kuti’s vocal elements were exceptional.

The third article by Lọla Akande offers a new approach to our understanding of city life by confronting the rural bias which tends to privilege the countryside over the urban space. Based on a close-reading technique that engages the city as a living space, Akande argues that neither the village nor the city is a haven, but that each demands choices that are both personal and public for inhabitants to survive the various obstacles in life.

In the fourth article, Eric Mensah examines Nkrumah’s rhetorical urgency as an argumentative tool for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). He demonstrates ways through which major rhetorical constraints could inhibit a successful rhetorical performance and how effectively a rhetorician can deploy relevant tools in addressing a composite audience using the example of Kwame Nkrumah.

Akinmade Akande, Kofo Adedeji, and Anjola Robbin on their part examine how stand-up comedy has impacted the linguistic order in Nigeria. They employed recorded performances of seven popular Nigerian stand-up comedians to illustrate the importance of the profession to the development of Nigerian pidgin. The authors argue that Nigerian stand-up comedians are social critics and communicators whose purpose of condemning immoral acts of political leaders is driven by their desire to change the society for the better.

Sunday Ofuani, in the sixth article, examines the compositional utility and rationale of figurative-sounds in the vocal music of some eminent Nigerian composers. He argues that sonic idioms creatively permeate sonic-imagery, sonic-reference, and sonic-allusion of replicated phenomenon. He concludes that Nigerian contemporary composers in their search for indigenous sonic materials stylistically indulge in utilizing figurative sounds in their vocal music.    

Ayọdeji Adedara, in an ecoparadox based article, examines some gubernatorial speeches of Babatunde Fashola selected across his eight-year tenure as governor of Lagos State, Nigeria. He identifies the extent to which the Fashola administration was ecocentric both in policy formulation and programme implementation, noting that the speeches show that the former governor was an earth-friendly leader. However, the fact that some aspects of the speeches portrayed instances in which economic considerations got primacy over environmentalism contra the expectation that political leaders should value the environment the same way they value economic interests. The paper concludes that the framing of climate change in governmental discourse needs to transcend valuing the nonhuman world only extrinsically.

In the eight article, Abosede Babatunde emphasises the need to rethink the Eurocentric conflict management strategies often adopted to manage conflicts in Africa given their inherent inadequacies. Consequently, she makes a case for more creative, contextual, and innovative approaches to conflict resolution in Africa that would combine both African and Western conflict management strategies.

Carol Anyagwa’s article investigates the dominant linguistic pattern of Catholic liturgy in Lagos based on data elicited from seven out of the fifteen deaneries of the Church in Lagos. It opines that there is a subsisting case of unconscious linguicism resulting in a tendency towards mono-lingualism and the domination of English over Latin and indigenous Nigerian languages. It concludes by recommending the need to reverse the trend.

The tenth article by Adeyẹmi Adegoju and Bukunmi Adetunji is concerned with the use of linguistic resources to thread ideology in selected political teachings of Pastor Bakare. The authors focus on the pastor’s elucidation of leadership-citizenship responsiveness required for building an enduring and participatory democratic culture in Nigeria. They observe that the pastor is ideologically radical in his texts‘ structuring with the intention to ignite nationalism in his audiences in order to consolidate democracy in Nigeria.   

Lastly, Adewale Tiamiyu examines the significances of the romantic period in two romantic plays through the analysis of their actions based on the dichotomy of the classics and the romantics. The author applies the Greïmas’ theory in three different dimensions to illustrate the conflict between the classics and the romantics and concludes that while men grow classical in marriage, women often desire to retain their degree of romanticism in courtship.

Finally, it is my desire and hope that the academic community will find the articles in this volume interesting, meaningful, and useful in their quest to expand the frontiers of knowledge.

Prof. Olufunkẹ Adeboye

Dean, Faculty of Arts

Editor-in-Chief

Editorial

I am delighted to announce the successful publication of Volume 26, 2020 of our esteemed journal, Lagos Notes and Records. This current edition is made up of thirteen well-researched articles across the various disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences namely History, Philosophy, Creative Arts, Language Studies, Literature, Communication Studies, and Linguistics.

Lynn Schler in the first article, ‘The Local and the Global in African Studies: An Essay in Honour of Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju @ 60’, argues that in every geographic context, African studies evolved as an intersection between local and global flows of ideas, politics and capital. She concludes that the future of African studies requires scholars to view Africa as both a singular idea and a conglomeration of vastly diverse cultural contexts. Scholars must be aware of what is distinctive in local contexts and also take cognizance of global solutions. 

In the second article, ‘Identity and Ideological Positioning in Popular Nigerian Ethnic Jokes’, ’Rotimi Taiwo and David Dontele examine the discursive constructions of selected jokes to determine their expression of attitudinal and ideological dispositions of the ethnic groups within the multilingual/multicultural context of Nigeria. They argue that ethnic jokes in Nigeria construct stereotypes about linguo-cultural signs, and that the jokes have been stripped of their stigmatizing effects owing to the ability of Nigerians to laugh collectively at their perceived prejudices and stereotypes. In a related article, ‘Impression Management and Face Sensitivities in Delta State Courtroom Interactions’, Olasimbo Takpor and Felix Ogoanah investigate impression management and courtroom interactions in High Court proceedings in Delta State of Nigeria within the theoretical framework of Rapport Management Model (Spencer Oatey). They conclude that to manage face sensitivities, courtroom interactants create diverse impressions of themselves or others by deploying impression management strategies such as self-promotion, intimidation, apologies, ingratiation and conformity as determined by the peculiarities of legal procedures and cultural norms, which mediate judicial proceedings, interpretations and decisions.

Felix Ajiola’s ‘Colonial Capitalism and the Structure of the Nigerian Cocoa Marketing Board, 1947-1960’ examines the origin, structure and impact of the Nigerian Cocoa Marketing Board (NCMB) from its inauguration in 1947 up to 1960. The author argues that the NCMB served various interests and purposes, which hardly benefitted cocoa producers, but rather exploited them through intolerable taxes, harmful price regulations and unfavourable grading policies. In another article, ‘The Language Factor and Internet Penetration in Nigeria: A Practical Assessment’, Olushola Are examines all the unstated assumptions behind quests for more language options on the internet with specific reference to Nigeria. The author concludes that the provision of Nigerian language options online would not significantly enhance internet penetration in the country without broader adjustments to the roles and status of indigenous languages as well as greater socio-economic and political reforms to fight general social exclusion for which linguistic exclusion of any form may be merely symptomatic. 

In the sixth article, ‘Theatrical Intervention towards “Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness”’, Oluwatoyin Olokodana-James examines Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPCR) strategies. She argues that BPCR reduces the risks of complications in that it helps health practitioners to detect danger signs from both mother and the newborn early enough. Using qualitative research approach, the author employs theatre and dance as interventionist tools to educate women within Ifako-Ijaye LGA in Lagos State on the usefulness of BPCR. In a different article on ‘Stress Patterning in Polysyllabic Words among Educated Yoruba Speakers of English in Lagos’, Emmanuel Osifeso investigates one hundred (100) undergraduate and post-graduate students across Lagos State to underscore the role of stress patterning of polysyllabic words among educated Yoruba speakers of English in Lagos (EYSEL). He concludes that EYSEL have a propensity for shifting the main stress in English polysyllabic words rightward.

Victor Ariole’s article, ‘Peul (Fulani) Worldview as seen in Ba’s Work: A Critique’, identifies the cultural integration constraints in Africa using Ba’s discussion of the Peul/Fulani as a case study. He concludes that Ba’s thought patterns are quite relevant in understanding the Peul’s worldview which sees probity and constituents’ responsibilities as inalienable with peaceful living or existence. Babatunji Adepoju in the ninth article, ‘Cohesion in English Biblical Narratives: A Study of “The Prodigal Son”’, examines the different methods that writers/speakers employ in making English narratives coherent. He discusses the reasons why many texts are considered disjointed/disorganised thereby making such texts lose the desired radiance. He concludes that the unity of a text is enhanced by adherence to the appropriate usage of grammatical and lexical ties in English narratives. 

Ayọdele Shotunde in ‘A Discourse on the Nature of Crime and Punishment in the Administration of Social Justice in an African Culture’ evaluates the nature of crime and punishment among the Yoruba of Nigeria. Adopting the critical and prescriptive methodology, he concludes that it is important to take an insightful look at the traditional Yoruba conception of crime and punishment given its embedded spirit of forgiveness because such has the potential of fostering better social ethics in contemporary Nigeria. In the next article, ‘China-Hong Kong Dual System: Twenty-Three Years of Uncertainty and Broken Promises’, Henry Ogunjewo argues that the relationship between China and Hong Kong in the last twenty-three years has been characterised by broken promises, failed covenants, unnecessary political meddling, judicial undercutting, press gagging and restrictions on freedom of expressions, leading to protests and political tension in Hong Kong. He concludes that the United Kingdom, former colonial administrator of Hong Kong, needed to bring international pressure on China to protect the interests of Hong Kong.

Bisoye Eleshin’s ‘High-Toned Vowel Prefix in Yoruba’ examines prefixation as it relates to gerund derivation in Yoruba. He uses the morpho-syntactic approach to establish the claim that there actually exists a high-toned vowel prefix i- in Yoruba and that the class of noun it derives is gerund.

The last paper by Mosunmola Ogunmolaji and Oyinade Adekunle ‘‘Madam Due Process’: The Public Life of Obiageli Ezekwesili’ is a biography of Obiageli Ezekwesili. The authors analyse the public life of Obiageli Ezekwesili providing insights into her lifestyle, especially the major forces that spurred her interest in politics and public administration. They conclude that Ezekwesili is an intellectual who has broken gender barriers in Nigeria. She possesses pragmatic understanding of the yearnings of Nigerians through deliberate identification of their problems, acquisition of necessary problem-solving tools, and swift responses to the problems whether or not she stepped on toes in the process.

I hereby warmly recommend these articles to the academic community with the hope that scholars will find them interesting and useful. I congratulate the Editorial Team for a job well done despite the constraints of the COVID era!

Professor Olufunkẹ Adeboye

Dean, Faculty of Arts

Editor-in-Chief