AFRICAN SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL

This study analyzes the implementation of adult education programme in empowering youths in Kano State. The specific objectives were to: assess the level of commitment of Kano State Government towards the realization of the National Policy on Adult Education; and identify the problems affecting the successful implementation of Adult Education programmes in Kano State. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population comprised 12,450 youths enrolled in adult education centers across the 3 senatorial zones of Kano State. Using Taro Yamane formula, 387 respondents were sampled through multi-stage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire measured on a 4-point Likert scale was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS v26. Descriptive statistics: frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation described respondents’ demographics and levels of implementation/empowerment. Inferential statistics: multiple regression tested the relationship between programme implementation on empowerment outcomes. Hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that implementation of adult education programmes was high with. The study concludes that effective implementation of adult education programmes significantly empowers youths in Kano State. It recommends increased funding, qualified facilitators, and demand-driven vocational training to maximize empowerment outcomes.

Adult education has increasingly been recognized as a transformative instrument for enhancing women’s socioeconomic outcomes, particularly within dynamic migration contexts. This paper examines adult education as a critical pathway to women’s employment, migration, and social integration, with specific evidence drawn from West African mobility corridors. In the West Africa region, migration is deeply embedded by regional frameworks such as free movement protocols that enable cross-border mobility for trade, employment, and education. This study adopts a qualitative and analytical approach to explore how adult education programmes particularly literacy, vocational training, and digital skills development equip women with relevant competencies and navigating migration processes. The paper reveals that adult education strengthens women’s human capital, improves their participation in both formal and informal labour market and enhances their capacity for self-reliance. It further highlights that education facilitates social integration by enabling migrant women to adapt to new cultural environments, access social services, and build supportive networks within host communities. Despite these benefits, challenges such as limited access to quality education, gender inequality and precarious employment conditions persist. The study concludes that promoting inclusive and gender-responsive adult education policies is essential for maximizing the developmental benefits of migration for women in West Africa. It recommends increased investment in adult education programmes tailored to the needs of migrant women to foster sustainable employment and social integration.

Literacy is a fundamental skill that plays a critical role in individuals' socio-economic development, particularly in today's knowledge-driven world. However, millions of adults in Nigeria, including those in Kogi State, still struggle with basic literacy skills, hindering their ability to fully participate in the country's development. Early literacy intervention has been identified as a crucial factor in improving reading comprehension among the adult learners. This study aims to investigate the impact of early literacy intervention on reading comprehension among adult learners in Kogi State and used mixed method approach. By exploring the effectiveness of targeted literacy programmes, this research seeks to contribute to the development of evidence-based policies and interventions that can enhance adult literacy rates and promote lifelong learning in the state. This evidence-based position research draws on a 12-week field study and used simple random sampling technique to select one Local Government Area (LGA) from three senatorial districts of the state. Two functional adult literacy centres each (6 centres) with high learners’ enrolment were selected from Okene, Dekina and Lokoja Local Government Areas. Twenty (20) adult learners were randomly selected from each literacy centres making a total of 120 adult learners. The study concludes that early literacy intervention significantly improves reading comprehension among adult learners in Kogi State. It recommends adoption of the 12-week module and inclusion of mother-tongue wordlists in the primer. 

Adult education has become increasingly important in promoting sustainable economic development in Africa, particularly in the areas of trade, investment, and industrialization. This paper examines how adult education contributes to human capital development by equipping adults with vocational, entrepreneurial, financial, and digital skills needed for productive economic participation. Using a conceptual approach based on relevant literature, the paper explains that adult education strengthens trade through improved business, financial, and digital competencies; promotes investment by enhancing entrepreneurial capacity and workforce quality; and supports industrialization through technical and vocational skills development. The paper also identifies major constraints affecting the effective use of adult education for economic transformation, including inadequate funding, weak policy implementation, poor access, and insufficient integration of market-relevant skills into adult learning programmes. It concludes that strengthening adult education systems in Africa is essential for improving productivity, attracting investment, supporting industrial growth, and achieving sustainable economic development.

Hybrid Museum theatre integrates a combination of live, physical performance and digital media in enhancing museum education for young audiences in Nigeria. It incorporates live performance into museum spaces to enhance cultural interpretation and visitor learning. By embodying historical figures, narratives, and artifacts through dramatic reenactments, it transforms passive observation into immersive, emotional experiences. This approach bridges cognitive gaps, fosters empathy, and deepens understanding of diverse cultures. Drawing on case studies from global institutions, this article explores hybrid museum theatre's methodologies, impacts on audience engagement, and challenges in implementation, arguing it as an essential strategy for modern museology in an increasingly interactive world.

This study examines the drivers, mechanisms, and impacts of irregular migration and human trafficking in Nigeria, with the aim of informing effective prevention strategies and policy interventions. The study is anchored on Migration Systems Theory, which explains migration as a dynamic process sustained by economic inequalities, social networks, institutional linkages, and intermediary actors across origin, transit, and destination areas. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study relies exclusively on secondary data from peer reviewed journals, books, government documents, and institutional reports. Data were analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns related to socio economic conditions, cultural norms, governance structures, migration networks, and trafficking practices. Findings reveal that irregular migration and human trafficking in Nigeria are primarily driven by chronic poverty, youth unemployment, limited access to education, and cultural expectations of migration success, gender inequality, weak law enforcement, corruption, and inadequate border management. The study further shows that migrants become vulnerable through deceptive recruitment, dependence on intermediaries, debt bondage, irregular legal status, social isolation, and exposure to violence along domestic and international migration routes. The effects of these processes are severe, including physical and psychological trauma, economic exploitation, family disintegration, community destabilization, and the entrenchment of transnational criminal networks. The study concludes that irregular migration and human trafficking are systemic problems rooted in structural and institutional failures. It recommends socio economic reforms, strengthened governance and enforcement, awareness campaigns, and victim centered reintegration policies.

This study investigates the implications of prioritising quality issues over security controls, focusing on how such decisions influence vulnerability exposure and overall system robustness. Adopting a conceptual and empirical software engineering approach, the study integrates case-based analysis, experimental testing, and risk trade-off modelling to evaluate the relationship between defect density, reliability metrics, and security vulnerabilities. Analytical tools, including code quality assessment and vulnerability scanning frameworks, are conceptually utilised to simulate development scenarios under varying prioritisation strategies. The findings reveal that while improvements in software quality such as enhanced reliability and reduced defect rates—contribute to mitigating certain categories of vulnerabilities, they do not comprehensively address security risks. A significant relationship between defect density and vulnerability exposure was established; however, critical security weaknesses, including access control flaws and configuration errors, were found to persist independently of quality improvements. Furthermore, prioritising quality over security was shown to enhance system performance and usability in the short term but increase exposure to high-impact risks, thereby undermining long-term system resilience. These outcomes underscore the inherent trade-off between quality and security and highlight the limitations of treating cybersecurity as a secondary consideration in software development. The study concludes that effective application development requires an integrated approach that simultaneously addresses both quality and security dimensions. It recommends the adoption of an integrated development approach that simultaneously addresses software quality and security rather than treating them as sequential or competing priorities.

This study investigates the impact of poor infrastructural facilities on the quality of Business Education in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Guided by three research questions and hypotheses, an ex post facto (causal-comparative) research design was adopted. The population comprised 18,740 lecturers and students of Business Education in Nigerian tertiary institutions, from which a sample of 392 respondents (72 lecturers and 320 students) was selected using Taro Yamane’s formula. Data were collected through a validated questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.82, and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed significant positive relationships between infrastructural facilities and the quality of Business Education: ICT facilities (r = 0.652, p < 0.05), electricity supply (r = 0.573, p < 0.05), and physical learning facilities (r = 0.601, p < 0.05). Regression results indicated that these variables jointly accounted for 53.6% of the variance (R² = 0.536) in Business Education quality, with ICT exerting the strongest influence (β = 0.412). The study concluded that inadequate infrastructural facilities significantly hinder teaching effectiveness, research productivity, and skill acquisition in Business Education. It recommended increased funding, stronger public–private partnerships, stable power supply, and the prioritization of ICT integration and facility maintenance to improve Business Education quality in Nigeria.

This study investigates how supporters of Nyesom Wike and Siminalayi Fubara employ stylistic and discourse strategies to construct political stances on social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok. Using a stylo-discourse approach combined with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Roman Jakobson’s Communication Function Theory, the study examines lexical choices, pronouns, modality, metaphors, and discourse markers to uncover underlying ideological positions, identity construction, and persuasive strategies. Findings reveal that supporters use evaluative language to legitimize their preferred candidate, pronoun polarization to signal in-group and out-group alignment, and high-modality and metaphorical intensification to dramatize political conflict and mobilize audiences. These strategies demonstrate that social media is a performative arena of ideological contestation. The study recommends that political actors and campaign strategists engage social media mindfully, employing persuasive yet ethical discourse to shape public perception responsibly.

This research investigated the impact of staff training on teachers’ productivity in public secondary schools (PSS) in Bayelsa State. Guided by three research questions and corresponding hypotheses, the study used a survey design deemed suitable for this context. Out of 4,015 teachers across the state, 401 (10%) were randomly selected for the study. Data were gathered using a twelve-item, researcher-designed questionnaire on staff training and teacher productivity. Content validity was ensured through expert review, and reliability testing showed a coefficient of 0.80. Data analysis involved calculating the mean, standard deviation, and performing an independent t-test. The main findings indicate that staff training has a significant impact on teachers’ performance. The study recommends the effective use of various training methods—on-the-job, on- and-off-the-job, and off-the-job—to enhance productivity in PSS in Bayelsa State.

This study examined the perceptions of academic and nonacademic staff on the role, effectiveness, and involvement in quality control mechanisms in university administration. Using a sample of 120 staff members (70 academic and 50 nonacademics), the study employed descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test to analyze differences in responses. Findings revealed that both staff groups recognized the significant role and effectiveness of quality control mechanisms in enhancing university operations. However, a significant difference was found in staff involvement, with academic staff reporting greater participation than nonacademic staff. The study concludes that while quality control mechanisms are valued, there is a need to increase inclusive participation across all staff categories. Recommendations include enhancing nonacademic staff engagement, strengthening communication, continuous evaluation, and capacity building to foster a sustainable quality culture in the university.

This study examines the impact of artisanal refining on environmental security in Rivers State. The population of the study was 196,780 households in Rivers State. A sample size of 384 was determined from this population using Krejcie and Morgan sampling technique. Questionnaire and interview were used in data collection and the collected data were analysed using descriptive statistic, the mean and standard deviation. The result revealed that artisanal refining affect environmental security in Rivers State. Hence the study concludes that artisanal refining is responsible for environmental security degradation in Rivers State. Therefore, the study recommended that Government should encourage oil companies to take responsibility by establishing environmental impacts and invest in community development programs for rapid response teams to address health emergencies related to pollution. They should develop disaster preparedness plans for communities affected by pollution from illegal refining. Invest in research to develop innovative solutions for pollution control and health improvement. Government and oil companies should establish local emergency response units specifically trained to handle explosions and fires from artisanal refineries, ensuring they have the necessary tools and resources to respond quickly and effectively to ensure environmental security in Rivers State.

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is transforming job landscapes across the globe, with particular implications for developing regions such as Africa. AI presents both opportunities and challenges for Africa’s labour markets, with significant risks of job displacement in key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and services. While AI-driven automation threatens to exacerbate unemployment and inequality, Africa’s ability to respond is hampered by weak political education systems, which leave citizens ill-equipped to engage with governance or advocate for policies that mitigate these disruptions. This article explores the intersection of functional political education and AI-induced job displacement, arguing that empowering citizens with digital literacy, policy awareness, and participatory governance skills is critical for an inclusive AI transition. The study therefore, highlights key challenges, including skills gaps, informal labour vulnerabilities, gender disparities, and foreign tech dominance, while examining case studies from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. It proposes policy solutions such as reskilling programmes, labour protections, and localized AI innovation to ensure equitable adaptation. One of the findings of the research revealed that 60% of Africa’s workforce are highly vulnerable to AI-driven automation, risking mass unemployment. Ultimately, the article underscores that functional political education is not just a civic necessity but a strategic imperative for Africa to navigate AI’s disruptive impact and demand accountable, inclusive policies. By prioritizing political literacy and inclusive policymaking, Africa can mitigate the negative impacts of AI-driven automation and harness its opportunities. On this basis, the research concludes that functional political education can empower Africans to address AI-driven job displacement by fostering critical thinking, civic engagement, and advocacy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to change how public services are delivered around the world, enabling unprecedented opportunities for both efficiency and citizen engagement, as well as governance innovations. AI adoption in the public sector is accelerating rapidly, particularly in developing economies and Sub-Saharan Africa yet major challenges concerning infrastructure, ethics, regulation and digital inclusion are poorly addressed. This paper reviews the need, benefits and challenges of leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for public service delivery across Nigeria and Africa, as well as implications for policymakers. Utilising a systematic conceptual review method, the study synthesizes peer-reviewed literature. The analysis found AI applications could be transformative in areas like e-governance, citizen engagement, service automation and fraud detection. Despite this, several long-standing challenges such as the digital divide, data biases in ML algorithms and inefficient regulatory frameworks severely inhibit effective AI adoption in the economy. The paper concludes that fulfilling the promise of AI in public service delivery will require policy coordination, an inclusive design orientation, and contextually relevant governance frameworks. It adds to management sciences literature and situates AI adoption in the domain of public administration within guidelines that can be followed by governments, administrators, and management practitioners.

This study explores the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing administrative efficiency in secondary schools. In an era of increasing educational demands and resource constraints, school administrators face growing pressure to streamline operations and improve management outcomes. The research investigates the types of ICT tools used in school administration, the impact of their application on administrative effectiveness, and the challenges hindering their adoption. Using an exploratory research design and a qualitative approach based on relevant literature review, the study identifies tools such as school management systems, financial software, digital communication platforms, and biometric systems as central to improving data management, communication, and decision-making processes. However, issues such as poor infrastructure, limited digital literacy, inadequate funding, and weak policy enforcement were identified as major barriers to ICT integration. The study shows that while ICT holds substantial potential for transforming school administration, its successful implementation requires targeted investment, staff training, and robust policy support. The study recommends a strategic approach to ICT adoption that includes infrastructural upgrades, continuous professional development, and stakeholder sensitization to maximize administrative efficiency in secondary schools.