Abuja

The now widespread Igbo belief in a Jewish ancestry goes back to the 18th century. However, it was during and after the Nigerian civil war (1967–1970), in which at least one million Igbo died in the failed bid for Biafran independence, that Igbo identification with and as Jews concretized. Igbo saw themselves as sufferers of genocide, like the Jews of World War II in Europe, and as inhabitants of a beleaguered plot of land surrounded by hostile forces, similar to the state of Israel. The civil war and its disastrous consequences initiated a still ongoing period of intense questioning among the Igbo concerning their history, present predicaments, and future prospects. A small number of Igbo began to question why, if they were in fact Jews, they should continue practising Christianity.
Their community now numbers between 2,000 and 5,000 people throughout Nigeria. There are three established Nigerian synagogues in Abuja, the federal capital, most of whose members are Igbo. The significance of Biafra, the centrality of the state of Israel, pride in Jewish ancestry and practice, and questions surrounding the range of Jewish skin colour, predominate in Igbo Jews' discussions of their identity. In contrast to the vast majority of Igbo who, if they maintain a sense of Jewish identity, do so while practising Christianity, Igbo Jews have severed themselves from the now dominant religion. Understanding themselves to be part of the global Jewish community of the diaspora and the state of Israel, the Igbo practising Judaism in Nigeria are eager for religious and political recognition from world Jewry and the Jewish state. However, self-identifying Jewish groups without documented historical connections to more established Jewish communities face considerable challenges in gaining such recognition, particularly as genealogical Jews.

The continued growth of urban population in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa has brought along with it, a myriad of challenges. Exacerbated by high birth rate and a continued increase in the level of rural-urban migration, the economic, infrastructural, and social conditions in these urban centres have been incapable of providing a good standard of living for its inhabitants. With a population of about 188 million and a HDI of 152 in 188 ranked countries, urban centres in Nigeria are plagued with poor security, epileptic power and water supply, poor sanitation, health challenges, high cost of construction amongst other challenges (NPC, 2017). This qualitative study expands on current knowledge with regards to the current challenges facing Nigeria's urban environment with focus on Abuja, the Federal Capital of Nigeria as a primary case. This paper also analyses some of these long standing challenges, their interrelatedness and how they exacerbate the inability of the Nigerian government to solving them. Furthermore, the conclusion lays a response to these challenges with recommendation on the process of unravelling the complex conglomerate issues.

For those with an interest in Nigerian claims to Jewish and Judaic traditions, Professor Fatai Ayisa Olasupo’s “Black African Jews, the Nigerian Question and the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel: A Comparison of Igbo and Yoruba Claims to Jewish and Judaic Traditions” (Vol. 7, No. 4, 2014, pp. 49-62) is intriguing.
As it is possible scholars attentive to the topic of Yoruba, Igbo, and smaller Nigerian ethnic groups tracing their roots or origins to the people of Israel may make use of Professor Olasupo’s article, it is useful here to address three errors and misconceptions contained therein, as well as offer some additional comments particularly related to Igbo Jewry.
The first of these misconceptions has to do with the relevance of the Queen of Sheba/Bilikisu Sungbo to Nigerian Jewish identity. It would be a grave misconstruction to interpret the state of Israel’s lack of interest in her supposed burial places as a “bias against blacks.” It is simply that she and the myth of Ethiopia’s Solomonic dynasty are largely outside the purview of Judaism and Jewish national identity. In fact, when the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef, declared in 1973 that the Jews of Ethiopia (the Beta Israel/House of Israel) should be brought to the state of Israel — thus paving the way for the community’s mass immigration to the Jewish state — he did so without any reference to King Solomon or the Queen of Sheba. Rather, the Chief Rabbi affirmed that the Beta Israel were “from the Tribe of Dan.”
A second error surrounds Professor Olasupo’s claim that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sent a team to Nigeria to search for the “Lost Tribes” in 1995, but that the outcome of the search has not been made public. In fact, no past or present Israeli governments have undertaken a search for the “Lost Tribes” in Nigeria and there is no search outcome to be made public by Israel’s government.
A third misconception in Professor Olasupo’s article concerns literature produced by Igbo Jews, which actually extends far beyond only one book on Igbo Jewish identity.
In such discussions there is good reason to be wary of “Lost Tribes” fetishists, and there is danger in politicizing Jewish identify. Mutual honesty — between Nigerians and World Jewry — is most important in this matter.

Sub-Sahara Africa is characterized with land ownership which bestows no particular wealth on the holder because substantial portion of land is transacted in an informal market. Manual system of land titling registration is not only time consuming, prone to corruption and cost intensive but also robs the land-owners the full enjoyment of the potential value of their properties and erodes the government revenue generation through tax avoidance as reveals by this paper. Adoption of GIS/LIS tools in land titling registration will not only bring effectiveness in land administration and management but will go a long way in ensuring the reaping of maximum benefit from land by individual owners and boosting the real estate revenue base of the various tiers of government. This paper focuses on the operation of Abuja Geographic Information System AGIS and other major stakeholders while utilizes extensively the World Bank data on Doing Business. For easy presentation, the paper is divided into five sections covering introduction, literature review, data presentation/analysis, recommendations and conclusions. The paper recommends the establishment of National Land Commission and reviewing of Land Use Act as major ways for the effective operation of GIS/LIS in our land administration system in order to achieve urgent economic transformation being needed in Nigeria.

Human existence is dependent on the use of material resources which eventually become waste. Every individual generates waste as such Public participation in the management of solid waste can be national in scope and would involve everyone in the country. Such participation may be the population as a whole, or specific interest groups such as: waste generators; waste pickers; recycling industries; waste collection contractors; among others. This study therefore aimed at examining the level of Public Participation in the management of solid waste in relation to the challenges and prospects for future management. The survey research design was adopted and the stratified sampling technique was used in the study. A set of 384 copies of the questionnaire was used. The data was analysed with the aid of SPSS version 16, and presented in tables and charts. The results revealed that 57.3% of the respondents were males while 42.7% are females, and most of them are within the age group of 30-49 years constituting the work force. Analysis also revealed that most of the respondents are literates and most of them have one form of work or the other. Their major waste generated are food remain (43%), polythene (25%) and papers (22.5%). It was discovered that 43% of them used plastics bins, while 25% used nylon in storing their waste etc.  Results also shows that 52.8% of the respondents have their waste collected by AEPB, 36% by commercial Cart/wheel barrow pusher and 7% by the Private Firms. Results revealed that the residents have lackadaisical attitude toward participating in waste management, there is no modern Knowledge of waste management strategies; there is also inadequate and inefficient facilities and human resource for waste management. No waste sorting of any form and there is low rate of waste evacuation. The study therefore, recommended that there should be public enlightenment and the need for re-introduction of sanitary inspectors to enforce hygienic occupancy in our societies.
Keywords: Household waste; Solid waste management; Public participation; Abuja Municipal Area Council.

Radiation originates from anthropogenic, primordial, and cosmogenic sources.
The impact of radiation through anthropogenic and cosmogenic sources is negligible
to the environment while the primordial radioactivity is widely distributed in the earth
and its environs. This radioactive material and its Byproducts are found mainly in
diverse geological formations around us. Inadequate access to public water supply in
Abuja has forced more than 80 percent of the population of about 5 million to drill
private boreholes. Nigerian drillers are unaware of high concentrations of
radioactivity present in granitic rocks which vary with depth. The radioactivity of
226Ra as well as 232Th decay chains for the lithological rock samples could be at
equilibrium considering the age as well as the isotopic mass proportion which is
assumed to be equal to its natural isotope. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is
adopted for this study with the aim of minimizing sample size as well as less counting
rate in order to estimate the radioactivity concentration in rock samples. Two
boreholes are drilled in Abuja in order to randomly collect the rock samples from
three different layers of each site. All the samples were duplicated for each
radionuclide examination, resulting to twelve samples in all. The results showed that
the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the two sites were in the order
232Th > 226Ra > 40K. 226Ra and 232Th possess activity concentration greater

This Paper assessed the Water Quality used for Irrigation farming in Gada-biyu, Kwali Area Council. It also examined the famers’ perception of the soil fertility of the irrigation farming, and their associated problems. The study made use of both primary and secondary data. The Primary data include water samples collected and the questionnaire administered, while the secondary data are the documented materials obtained from journals and FAO. Water samples were collected using thoroughly washed and rinsed plastics containers with the water to be sampled from. Three well water samples in the farms and three surface water samples at their pumping source in the river were collected, a total of six water samples were collected and analyzed at AEPB laboratory for pH, EC, Na, Ca, NO3, SO4, K, CO3 and HCO3. The farmers who are practicing the irrigation farming were about 46 persons on the average and all of them were considered and been served with the questionnaire. The statistical methods used was descriptive analysis (tables, charts) and inferential statistics such as Analysis of Variance and Student t-test were used with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results show that there is low variation in the occurrences of all parameters except EC and NO3 that are moderate and high respectively. Results show that all except TDS are higher in ground water. All the parameters fall below the FAO permissible limit. Majority of the farmers constitutes an active age, out of which 51.5% have no formal education, while 20% attended primary school and 9% have Junior School certificate. Tomatoes and Maize are the major crops produced in the area and 50% of them earned above N40, 000. About 50% indicated that there is decrease on their yield and 30.1% attributed it to low soil fertility, followed by pest and diseases and poor seeds. Statistics shows that there is no significant variation in the distribution of the analysed parameters, but there is significant difference between the surface and ground water, and the FAO standard. The soil generally is of low soil fertility with very low values of N and P, and in some cases K. However continuous use of the water especially the sub-surface, in dry season may lead to sodicification of the soil. It is therefore recommended that use of inorganic and organic fertilizers might help to increase its productivity. Above all, extension workers are needed to in order to educate the farmers on the modern irrigation practices.
Keywords: Water quality, Irrigation, Perception, Soil fertility and Gada-biyu

Radiation originates from anthropogenic, primordial, and cosmogenic sources.
The impact of radiation through anthropogenic and cosmogenic sources is negligible
to the environment while the primordial radioactivity is widely distributed in the earth
and its environs. This radioactive material and its Byproducts are found mainly in
diverse geological formations around us. Inadequate access to public water supply in
Abuja has forced more than 80 percent of the population of about 5 million to drill
private boreholes. Nigerian drillers are unaware of high concentrations of
radioactivity present in granitic rocks which vary with depth. The radioactivity of
226Ra as well as 232Th decay chains for the lithological rock samples could be at
equilibrium considering the age as well as the isotopic mass proportion which is
assumed to be equal to its natural isotope. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is
adopted for this study with the aim of minimizing sample size as well as less counting
rate in order to estimate the radioactivity concentration in rock samples. Two
boreholes are drilled in Abuja in order to randomly collect the rock samples from
three different layers of each site. All the samples were duplicated for each
radionuclide examination, resulting to twelve samples in all. The results showed that
the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the two sites were in the order
232Th > 226Ra > 40K. 226Ra and 232Th possess activity concentration greater

Urbanization possesses the power to transform the physical and socioeconomic structure of cities globally. In developing countries, transformative urbanization requires employing suitable tools that can address contemporary challenges such as rapid population growth, housing and basic infrastructure provision, as well as inadequate financial and technical resources. Despite some criticism, public-private partnership (PPP) is increasingly being applied to tackle these challenges and to foster sustainable urbanization. Yet, limited studies have investigated PPP applications in providing housing and infrastructure in Nigerian cities. Using desktop study, this chapter analyzes the potentials and challenges of PPP in housing and infrastructure delivery in Abuja, Nigeria. It specifically reviews the modes of housing and infrastructure provision, highlights the concept and models of PPP, and examines the potentials and challenges of PPP in housing and infrastructure delivery in Abuja. It t...

Distributional pattern and level of patronage of parks and gardens in Phase 2, Abuja, Nigeria Ukpere, V. N. Abstract The study examined the distribution and patronage of parks and gardens in Phase 2 of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja Nigeria. Structured questionnaire copies were administered to 377 customers that patronized parks and gardens in Phase 2. Point data of existing parks and gardens were collected with the aid of GPS and transferred into GIS software to determine the location and distribution pattern of parks and garden. Data were statistically analyzed using simple percentages, Nearest Neigbhour Analysis (NNA) and principal components analysis (PCA). Results showed that parks and gardens in Phase 2 showed a clsutering pattern tending toward the west and central. Customers patronized parks and gardens in Phase 2 daily and weekly implying that the parks and gardens were frequently utilized by customers from different works of life and locations. Customers spent different time in the various parks and gardens in the area with majority spending <1 hour to 3-4 hours; and the visitations were made alone as well as in the company of friends. Customers in Phase 2 traveled less than 5km or made shorter trips and majority lived within the catchment areas of the available park and garden. Service quality/available facilities, existence of security, availability of parking facilities/proximity of parks and cost of transportation/distance were identified as essential factors influencing the patronage of parks and gardens in Phase 2. It is suggested that more parks and gardens should be established in Phase 2 to make accessibility much easier.

Radiation originates from anthropogenic, primordial, and cosmogenic sources.
The impact of radiation through anthropogenic and cosmogenic sources is negligible
to the environment while the primordial radioactivity is widely distributed in the earth
and its environs. This radioactive material and its Byproducts are found mainly in
diverse geological formations around us. Inadequate access to public water supply in
Abuja has forced more than 80 percent of the population of about 5 million to drill
private boreholes. Nigerian drillers are unaware of high concentrations of
radioactivity present in granitic rocks which vary with depth. The radioactivity of
226Ra as well as 232Th decay chains for the lithological rock samples could be at
equilibrium considering the age as well as the isotopic mass proportion which is
assumed to be equal to its natural isotope. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is
adopted for this study with the aim of minimizing sample size as well as less counting
rate in order to estimate the radioactivity concentration in rock samples. Two
boreholes are drilled in Abuja in order to randomly collect the rock samples from
three different layers of each site. All the samples were duplicated for each
radionuclide examination, resulting to twelve samples in all. The results showed that
the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the two sites were in the order
232Th > 226Ra > 40K. 226Ra and 232Th possess activity concentration greater than

Hepatitis B and C viruses are growing worldwide public health issue today. Their pathology is responsible for considerable increase in healthcare expenses despite the widely recognized public health authority to keep them under control. Aim: The present study was done to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C (HCV) antibody amongst 1650 respondents residing in Abuja Municipal Area council comprising the eleven wards Method: The CTK Biotech HBV /HCV rapid test kits were used. The media age was 34 years. Working class people constituted 31.0% of those sampled. Result: Of the 1650 blood samples tested, 63 respondents were positive to both HCV and HBV with 32.3% and 67.6% male and female respectively giving a cumulative percentage of 3.8 out of which 3.1% and 0.7% were for hepatitis B and C respectively. Conclusion: No mixed infection of both viruses was observed in the residents of Abuja municipal Area council tested. No significant relationship was seen between HBV and HCV sero-positivity and demographic factors. The prevalence of Hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C Virus is moderate among the resident of Abuja municipal Area council, FCT-North central geopolitical zone of Nigeria health issue today. The five viruses that cause infections of the liver are responsible for a widely prevalent and growing disease burden. No country, rich or poor, is spared. These viruses are important as they cause infectious diseases in their own right [5]. In particular, types B and C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and, together, are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer [6]. Hepatitis B is a DNA virus; hepatitis C is an RNA virus. These viruses invade liver cells in their attempt to replicate. The hepatitis C virus hijacks the cell and reprograms the cell's RNA and DNA, causing the liver cells to begin reproducing more viruses. Hepatitis A and E viruses otherwise called infectious hepatitis are major foodborne and waterborne infections. Hepatitis A and E are typically caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water, which cause millions of cases of acute illness every year, with several months sometimes needed for full recovery. Hepatitis B, C and D also known as serum hepatitis, usually occur as a result of parenteral contact with infected body fluids, also make a substantial contribution to the burden of chronic diseases and the premature mortality they cause. Serum hepatitis (hepatitis B and C) is present in the blood, saliva, semen, vaginal secretions, and menstrual blood and to a lesser extent perspiration, breast milk, tears and urine of infected individuals [7].

Nigeria has been in a state of war since 1966. Following 21 years of democracy, most aspects of Nigerian life remain militarised. I wish to grapple with the militarisation of the Nigerian society, wrestle with political change, and combat the problem of Nigeria given the #Endsars protests. I aim to convince you that the problem of Nigeria is the militarization of critical domains of social life. I support the claim that this situation is premeditated. It is an instrument of colonial control that has been hijacked by Nigeria’s ‘elite class’. I am instigating political change by countering this mechanism of domination. First, I have to explain to you how the militarization of Nigeria functions, and how the #EndSars protests have once again, exposed the dystopian nature of the Nigerian society.

This research was designed to identify and critically examine social-economic conditions of IDPs in 10 informal settlements in Abuja, Nigeria. Data were collected mainly in the face-to face interviews, observations and informal discussion group. The results show that IDPs in informal settlements are vulnerable and live in very poor conditions. The most alarming data is that some of them have not received any kind support from the Government in years. For this reason, it is important to fill the gap of knowledge in this field in order to provide authorities and other actors (NGOs and international organization) updated data