Unilag Journal of Humanities

Preliminaries and Content

2022-12-08T18:14:56+00:00

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ISSN: 2630-6891
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University of Lagos
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A Morpho-Semantic Study of Okun Names: Implications for Okun Linguistic Identity

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The commonest names among the Okun people are those typically borne by all Yoruba
groups (e.g. Olusọla, Ọlọrunfẹmi, Awoniyi, Ogungbemi, Faniyi, Adebayọ, Kayọde, etc.).
However, names (such as Ayinmiro, Alemika, Berida, Iyekolo, Melaye, Makele, etc.) which
are peculiar to the Okun groups and exclusively based on the linguistic structure of their
dialects are not as common as the general Yoruba names either as first names or as
surnames. Interestingly, many speakers of other Yoruba dialects in South West Nigeria are
hardly aware of the Yorubaness of such names as they often erroneously associate them
with other tribes in Nigeria. Furthermore, the use of Okun indigenous names is in recession
as many people, natives inclusive, no longer use them nor know what they mean. This
paper investigates the linguistic structures of Okun exclusive names with a view to
descriptively analyse how they are morpho-syntactically and semantically constructed,
and how these constructions demonstrate clear ancient affinity with other Yoruba groups.
Findings show that Okun indigenous names have well-known Yoruba culture and language
structures which range from frozen/lexicalized clauses (both simple and complex), noun
phrases, and nominalised VPs involving morphosyntactic and morphophonemic processes
such as prefixation, desententialisation, clipping, contraction, assimilation, and deletion.
All these combined tend to make the names culturally unique and interesting. Given the
overwhelming evidence from the morpho-syntax and semantics of the Okun indigenous
names investigated, which evidently align well with what obtains in Standard Yoruba and
other well studied dialects of the language, the study concludes that Okun lects are
linguistically integral to the Yoruba dialect continuum.

Impact of Sustainable Resource Governance on Resource Utilisation and Sustainable Development in Africa: The Natural Resource Charter in Perspective

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In economic and developmental terms, the general belief is that resource-rich countries
tend to be worse-off than those which are resource-deficient. This is because of the
disruptive phenomena of the resource curse, the Dutch disease and rent-seeking. This
belief is supported by overwhelming evidence from many countries across the world,
especially in Africa. This study found, however, that this result is not inevitable if
appropriate and sustainable natural resource governance mechanisms are put in place
and implemented by resource-rich countries. This argument appears to be validated in
this study based on a comparative study of selected countries that have been
implementing the Natural Resource Charter (NRC) framework and those not
implementing it across the world. This is in order to underline the importance and
benefits of having a sustainable resource governance framework in resource utilisation
and sustainable development in Africa. The NRC is a framework of twelve tried and
tested economic principles developed and drafted by world-class experts in economically
sustainable resource extraction law and practice with a view to helping resource-rich but
poor countries to harness and more effectively manage and utilise their natural
resources for the overall development and benefits of state and citizens. The NRC
framework speaks to the situation of many resource-rich countries in Africa who are
poor because of the absence of sustainable resource governance mechanisms. The study
finds that economies implementing the NRC framework in the management and
utilisation of their natural resources are faring much better economically and socially
than those not adopting it.

Artificial Intelligence and Literary Analyses: Challenges and Prospects

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Whilst contemporary trends and developments in the areas of web-based facilities and
artificial intelligence (AI) solutions have opened an interesting vista of a mechanised
world of literary analysis, there is need to ask whether they can also effectively and
creatively deliver useful insights on new ways to interpret literary texts. Beyond quantum
analyses of patterns and relationships between events, machinesmight not be accurately
configured and trained to match human cognition as well as behave like skilled analysts
in the understanding and interpretation of feelings, body-language, emotions and
atmosphere of literary texts. Using five excerpts from Chinua Achebe’sThings Fall Apart
and two Natural Language Processing tools (NLP), this paper explores the challenges
and prospects of AI. It focuses on how innovative literary digital aid can effectively and
successfully be applied and implemented in literary analysis without reducing the art of
creative imagination/reasoning to mere literary calculus. It posits that developing
specialised metrics for analyzing fiction—a unique package of automated computational
solution or programming that will be suited to qualitative assessment of fictional texts—
might be a risk the creative literary analyst may be willing to take by subjecting literary
texts to the power of machine interpretation(s). Hence, while AI may offer interesting
potential for assessing quantum data in some literary texts, however, acceding to
unrestricted digital solutions may undermine the human creative imagination, as analysis
might tend more towards calculus and algorithm-friendly systematic literary output.
Thus, for now, the full impact or significance of AI solutionsfor literary analysesis yet to
be detained.

A Stakeholders’ Assessment of Enhancement of the Competitiveness of the Nigerian Economy through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan*

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The Keynesian postulate on the importance of the state’s role in economic development
has propelled many governments across the world to enhance job creation and pursue
the reduction of income inequality. Addressing these issues has proven to be better
achieved within the context of globalisation and the focus of enhancing the
competitiveness of the domestic economy. In this regard, this study examines the
performance of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s medium-term Economic Recovery
and Growth Plan (ERGP) between 2017 and 2020, especially in relation to the objective
of building a globally competitive economy. The analysis was based on stakeholders'
perspectives on the subject using the case of Lagos State, a microcosm of Nigeria. The
survey method was employed, with respondents randomly selected from the five
administrative divisions (IBILE) in Lagos: Ikorodu, Badagry, Ikeja, Lagos, and Epe. The
results from descriptive and inferential analyses show that the ERGP’s focus on good
governance, through the fight against corruption did not produce the desired results. For
instance, in comparison to the Comoros Islands and Guinea, the country’s position
worsened on the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index, as it
moved from 136 in 2016 to 148 in 2017. Survey results indicate that only 42% of the
respondents perceived the business atmosphere as becoming friendlier and only 39.7%
reported that their business had the capacity to effectively compete with businesses in
other parts of Africa. Overall, as envisaged, the ERGP appeared weak in building a
globally competitive economy. Therefore, it is recommended that government should
focus on fostering a viable macroeconomic environment alongside institutional
frameworks that would enhance the competitiveness and efficiency of the economy.

Secondary School Students’ Perception of Online Counselling in Lagos Mainland, Nigeri

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Although technology is critical to the effectiveness of the Nigerian educational system, its
use in counselling among secondary school students remains limited. For instance,
secondary school students encounter several problems on a daily basis but are often too
shy to share them with counsellors through the conventional (face-to-face) method of
counselling. Inevitably, those issues end up taking a toll on their psychosocial well-being
and academic performance. Thus, students frequently fail to get appropriate and efficient
counselling through readily available conventional methods. In the bid to address this
issue, researchers have suggested the use of electronic counselling (e-counselling) to
complement the conventional method. To that end, this study investigated secondary
school students’ perception of online counselling in Lagos Mainland, Nigeria. The study
used a descriptive survey design in capturing the views of 200 secondary students in
Lagos Mainland Local Government who were randomly selected from four schools. The
data collection instrument was a questionnaire developed by the researchers and
validated by experts. Two hypotheses were tested at a .05 level of significance using an
independent t-test. The results found no gender difference in students’ perception of
online counselling. Students experiencing psychosocial distress - notably from bullying,
mood swings, academic pressure and sexual abuse - preferred online counselling. It is
therefore suggested that online counselling should be integrated into the counselling
methodology in Nigerian secondary schools, since the online medium permits more
eliciting of sensitive issues compared to purely educational ones

Incidence of Poverty among Small-Scale Business Workers in the University of Lagos

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This study contributes to the discourse on poverty from a micro perspective by measuring
poverty levels of business workers in the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Arguments by
development economists are divided along the micro and macro dimensions of poverty,
and evidence from countries like Nigeria shows that a growing economy does not
translate to low poverty rates. Therefore, this paper examines the prevalence, depth and
severity of poverty among small-scale business workers within the University of Lagos.
With a population size of about 1260, 303 respondents were sampled for the study using
a closed-ended questionnaire. Using the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke measurement
technique, the researchers found that 69% of the respondents fell below the poverty line,
while 40.84 and 5.51 were deemed to be in poverty depth and poverty severity
respectively. Their cost of basic needs was used as the approach in estimating the
poverty line and was ₦1,008.68. Many of the respondents were below 25 years, single
and still dependent on external sources for sustenance. Low income was a major reason
for the poverty in this environment, not necessarily access to basic needs like water and
accommodation. It is recommended that business workers acquire a skill that will make
them more marketable and productive.

The Structure of Evaluative Formations in Yoruba

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The issue of the processes involved in the derivation of the following sets of Yoruba words:
(a) beẹrẹrẹ/bẹẹrẹbẹ ‘very many’, tààràrà/tààràtà ‘straight on’, etc.; and (b) kóńkóló
‘minutely small’, tínńtínní ‘very small portion’, etc.; is far from being rested. Are they
products of partial reduplication or unique examples of suffixation in the language? Added
to the puzzle is the fact that though natural languages tend to be economical by disallowing
redundancy, the two sets, with their different forms, appear to target the same semantic
niche, which is intensification. This study investigates the structure and semantic
interpretations of these sets of words with insights from evaluative morphology (Stump,
1993; Štekauer, 2015; Aronoff, 2016, 2019; etc.). It argues that the two sets are evaluative
formations in which the language subtly divides its intensification features into diminution
and augmentation. Therefore, the two sets and their subs co-exist without redundancy as
each targets separate linguistic niches within the intensification grading in the language.
The paper argues in favour of a combination of progressive reduplication and
morphophonemic assimilation of features of the root/base as the processes employed in
the evaluative formations.

The Impact of Unemployment on Corporate Debt Policy of Quoted Nigerian Firms

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The impact of labour market friction on corporate debt policy remains an underexplored
area in corporate finance. Unemployment risk is a considerable issue for workers but,
despite this, workers’ unemployment costs are largely absent from corporate financial
theories, which typically do not emphasise labour market friction. This study
investigates the interaction of labour unemployment risk with corporate borrowing in
Nigeria. The population of study comprises all non-financial corporations quoted on the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the period 1999-2014 out of which 50 companies that
met the minimum data criteria were selected. Using panel data regression, the research
documents its findings, providing new evidence that financing decisions interact with
non-financial stakeholders. Specifically, the results support use of the capital structure as
a weak bargaining tool for companies but also as a possible bargaining variable for
workers. Employee bargaining increases with leverage. In other words, highly levered
firms exert pressure on themselves to treat employees decently. Unemployment exerts a
downward pressure on corporate borrowing. Thus, unemployment risk provides a partial
explanation for the conservative financial policies of quoted Nigerian firms, thereby
partly accounting for the low leverage puzzle for some firms. Given the significant
unemployment problem in Nigeria, compounded by a weak social safety net for workers,
the study recommends promotion of corporate policies that strengthen conservative debt
usage in industries where human capital risk is concentrated.