RETRACTED ARTICLE: Boko Haram “Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad” in North-eastern Nigeria: implications for Sub-Saharan African peace and security
The threat to the peace and security of Nigeria is the Boko Haram Islamist terrorism raging in the North-eastern region of Nigeria. This is a deadly campaign of terror attacks that have killed a large number of civilians and non-civilians alike, devastated infrastructure, and hindered military success in this region and beyond. In this region, high-ranking members of alQaeda may have been harbored. The terrorists are affiliated with various militant Islamic groups, who pose a threat to the wider Sub-Saharan African states, especially Nigeria, with a wider implication of discouraging girl-child education and social development. Tackling these regional terrorist networks is necessary to reverse the present destabilization of states and ensure Sub-Saharan African regional stability. Presently, the regional governments’ attempt to pacify this threat in its stronghold looks at the present situation of terrorist operations in Nigeria and their links with terrorist networks in the Sub-Saharan African region and its implications on regional peace and security.
The absence of the State in Northern Nigeria : the case of Boko Haram
The religious/sectarian crisis in the northern part of the country, though has been blamed on religion, some experts as well as politicians believe that the insurgency may have been fuelled by the government's apathy to the welfare of the citizens. According to Karl Marx religion is the opium of the masses. And this philosophy is gaining currency all over the world and Nigeria especially with recent happenings in some northern states of the country where a group of religious fundamentalists, Boko Haram, led attacks against the government and its agencies. With regards to the recent event where the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker tried to blow up an American Airbus, it seems that the young boys joining radical movements are not, as is commonly believed, poor and choice less.
Cognitive Correlaretes of Physics Achievement of Some Nigeria Senior Secondary Students
Some cognitive correlates of physics achievement of some Nigeria senior secondary students were considered in the study. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between measures of student’s field independency. Cognitive tasks, formal reasoning and their achievement in physics. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were employed to obtain a sample of 524 senior secondary two students from six education zones in Kogi State of Nigeria. Three instruments were used. They are science Reasoning Tasks (SRTs). Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and Physics Achievement Test (PAT). Data analysis using multiple regressions reveals that measures of students’ fields’ independency and cognitive tasks predicted student’s achievement in physics generally. However, only measure of field independency predicted students’ achievement in physics in the higher order cognitive demand questions. Measures of formal reasoning had no significant relationship with students’ achievements in physics generally or in higher order cognitive demand questions in physics. However, the overall relationships between measures of field independency, cognitive tasks, formal reasoning and students’ achievement in physics generally and in higher order cognitive demand questions in physics were both significant. Educational implications of these findings were discussed.