The contributions of fire disaster to the varying degrees of students’, staff and schools’ property and/or lives lost in secondary schools in Nigeria is recently alarming. The study assessed causes of fire disaster in public and private secondary schools in Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria. The objectives were to identify latent causes of fire disaster, use the fishbone diagram to illustrate and analyze the root-causes of fire disaster in secondary schools. The exploratory research strategy was used. The target population was 18 senior public and private secondary schools, Ilorin having 18 principals, 965 teachers and 3765 senior secondary 2 students. From the target population, simple random sampling technique through a pick and not-return balloting was employed to sample 72.22% of the principals, 14.8% each of the teachers and students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, questionnaire, participatory observation, and were analyzed using cause-and-effects-analysis. The findings reveal fire disasters in public and private secondary schools in Ilorin metropolis are primarily caused by bush/waste burning, electrical fault/wiring, arson, carelessness, and alcohol, smoking. Results also showed that the root-causes of fire phenomenon from the classic categories were setting undergrowth on fire, non-insulated wiring system and sparks from wrong connections, emotional induced from cultism rivalry among male teachers and students over a girl and superiority within and outside the school, mishandling of chemicals in various laboratories during experimentation, and lack of proper fencing of school compound. The study recommends that schools in the metropolis should prepare and anticipate future fire tragedy. Consequently, since there are several factors responsible for fire incidents, further studies could be conducted to clarify the sequence or magnitude of each cause of the fire outbreak.
This paper aimed at examining local peoples’ perceptions on climate variability and change and strategies adopted in combating the impacts of the changes in Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area of Katsina State. A total of 242 questionnaires were administered to households’ heads in the eleven wards of the Local Government Area. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentage and mean scores were used in data analysis. The result revealed that majority of the local people have a very good knowledge of climate variability and change in terms of higher temperature, higher rainfall intensity and variability, and the occurrence of extreme weather events such as flood and drought. Findings also revealed that community disobeying God, deforestation, bush burning, combustion of fossil fuel and pollution were the major causes of climate variability and change as perceived by the respondents. The most significant impacts of climate variability and change as perceived by the local people were decline in crop yields, decline in forest resources, water shortages and decrease in soil fertility. These impacts have resulted to rural-urban migration in the area. Sustainable adaptation strategies adopted by the local people are water harvesting, the use of fertilizer/animals dung to improve crop yield, irrigation agriculture, planting of crop varieties and drought resistant crops. It is recommended that strategies for combating impacts of climate variability and change should take into account the traditional and religious beliefs of the people; and there is need to educate the local people to appreciate the scientific basis of climate variability and change.
Aim and Objectives:The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of El -Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on rainfall variation in Kaduna metropolis from the year 1973-2013. Study Design: Precipitation data was sourced from NIMET (Kaduna airport) while Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly and Southern Oscillation Index data was acquired from the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate prediction centre's website. Methodology: These were analyzed to determine the extent of variation between ENSO and Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly (SSTA) and pattern of change in precipitation during El -Niño and non El -Niño years. Furthermore, the significant difference between rainfall amount of El -Niño and non El -Niño years was also determined. Results: Results indicated that rainfall within the study area was highly varied during the period Original Research Article
This study assessed the effects of cement dust pollution on cultivated crops in Obajana, Kogi State, Nigeria. Plant samples used were obtained directly from cultivated lands in Obajana closed and far away from the cement industry within the community. The 12 plant samples collected were analyzed at Soil Science Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. Mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variability and T-test were used in analyzing the data. The results revealed that except in the case of potassium concentration (2.21) the maize controls site nitrogen (1.01) and phosphorus (0.23) concentrations are higher than the polluted site (0.21 and 0.15 for nitrogen and phosphorus respectively). Results also showed that the 3 element (nitrogen (0.784), phosphorus (0.38), and potassium (2.42) concentrations studied in the cassava plant of the polluted site were higher than those obtained in the control site with 0.31, 0.36 and 1.83 for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It was concluded that there was significant difference in the elemental properties of maize potassium only but in other elements and in cassava plant there was no significant difference. Dusts emitted from the factory have affected the elemental properties of maize and cassava farm lands that are proximate to the cement factory in the study area. The study recommends that the propone 5th plant by the cement company operating in the study area should be diverted to another settlement in order to boost agricultural produce from Obajana community.
Climate change has become the dominant topic of discourse among scientists and other stakeholders in climate science in this century. Several researches have been conducted to assess its magnitude, causes, adverse impacts and possible solution to its challenges at various scales; where adaptation and mitigation were the fundamental recommendations. While public awareness and perception of the change, are the necessary pre-requisites to achieve true adaptation and mitigation, in the context of sustainable development. However, most of the negotiations were made at international level (making it Top-Down affair) with little regard to national dynamics of individual countries. The aim of this research was to assess the level of awareness and risk perception of climate change, among rural people in Funtua Local Government Area, Katsina State, Nigeria. A household questionnaire survey method was used in collecting the primary data from 384 randomly selected respondents, in which 97.7% response rate was recorded. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage distribution, mean score and tables were used in analyzing and presenting the data. While Binomial Logistic Regression Analysis was used to ascertain the effect of some socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, on their likelihood of been aware of climate change and perceiving it as a risk. The study revealed that climate change awareness was impressively high (78% of the respondents) were aware of it, though with poor knowledge of its causes among the respondents. While majority (73%) of the respondents agreed that climate change is a great risk to their individual lives and the society. The study further revealed that, sex, level of educational attainment, and main occupation of the respondents (p<.005) significantly predicts their level of climate change awareness. But, only level of education and main occupation (p<.005) significantly predicts risk perception of the adverse change among the respondents. The study then recommended that, the Governments should tailored their climate change policy and programmes, toward educating the rural people, so as to enhance their level of awareness of the scenario for better participation in adaptation and mitigation programmes; the Government (at both federal and state levels) through their relevant agencies, should double their effort in public awareness campaign, especially on causes and the risk associated with climate change to the rural people; that, extension agencies should double their efforts in public awareness campaign about climate change and adaptation techniques to especially those engaged in climate-sensitive activities; and that further study should be conducted to assess adaptive capacity and adaptation strategies adopted among the rural people.
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