Education
VC Assures Establishment Of Forensic Linguistics
Vice Chancellor (VC)
of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Professor Joseph Ajienka, has assured that the institution will establish a Department of Forensic Linguistics.
He gave the assurance last Thursday, at the 112th inaugural lecture given by Professor Ozomekuri Ndimele at the Ebitimi Banigo Hall, UNIPORT.
Professor Ajienka’s assurance was in response to a request by Professor Ndimele in his lecture for the establishment of the department, which he said is currently of global interest.
In his inaugural lecture titled, “Nigerian Core Grammars in Global Communication: Any Glimmer of Hope in this Looming Armageddon?”, Professor Ndimele noted the importance of Forensic Linguistics by current global standard.
According to him, Forensic Linguistics, also referred to as “Legal Linguistics” or “Language and the Law,” is “an interdisciplinary study which involves the application of linguistics knowledge, methods, and insights to the forensic context of law, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure.
“Our knowledge of human language has revealed that each human being has his/her peculiar/unique linguistic finger print similar to the popular finger print.
“In other words, each human being uses language differently, and that these differences between people involve a collection of markers which stamps a speaker or writer as a unique creature”, Ndimele explained.
He continued that forensic linguistics had proven to be very useful during investigation of various crimes in the society.
Such crimes, he said, include kidnapping, ransome and hoax calls or texts, suicide notes, plagiarism, anonymous mails, hate mails, cyber bulling, weakness statement fabrication and suspicious deaths.
Others are murder, terrorism, defamation, slander, fraud and forgery, robbery and assault.
Ndimele, a Professor of Comparative Grammar and Communications, in the Department of Linguistic and Communication Studies, UNIPORT, explained the benefits accruable to the university and the society at large from the establishment of a Forensic Linguistics Department.
Noting two key areas in which Forensic Linguistics is applied in judicial procedure: authorship determination and voice identification, he stated that establishing a department of Forensic Linguistics will make the institution the first in Africa.
According to Professor Ndimele, Authorship Determination involves “checking an individual’s word length average, average number of syllables per word, article frequency, type-token ratio, use of punctuation marks, particularly, in terms of overall density, and evaluation of hapas legomena (unique words in a text), etc.
On the other hand, voice identification/forensic phonetics, he said, “can reveal information about a speaker’s social and regional background. It can determine similarities between the speakers of two or more separate recordings.”
Stories by Sogbeba Dokubo
Cross Section of graduands during the 3rd Bloombread High School graduation, recently. Photo: Nwiueh Donatus Ken
The Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board has released the names of 5,600 newly recruited primary school teachers and 80 caregivers in the State.
The SUBEB Chairman, Nureni Adeniran, who announced this in Ibadan, the state capital, on Friday, explained that the list had been duly approved by the state Governor, Seyi Makinde.
“The newly appointed teachers and caregivers are the first batch of successful applicants from the recent recruitment exercise carried out by the board,” he said.
“The list will be uploaded on the portal and will be available for candidates to check their names from the portal.
A Professor of Accountancy in the Department of Accounting , Faculty of Administration and Management, Rivers State University, Prof Lawyer Chukwumah Obara has advocated the adoption of African traditional values as a managerial tool to eradicate systemic corruption and mismanagement of public funds in governance.
According to him , the use of such African traditional methods like shrine oath-taking by public servants will deter such public officials from misappropriation of public funds while in office. He said accounting system is evolutionary science that recognises the practice of some pragmatic ideological practices such as African norms and values to fight corruption and mismanagement of funds that is predominantly noticed in both public and private governance.
Prof Obara stated this while delivering his inaugural lecture at the 106th inaugural lecture series of the state university with the topic, “Pragmatic Ideologies and Visionary Accounting: Reinforcing the Helmet, “ held at the Senate auditorium,last Wednesday.
He noted that all the 36 States including the Federal Capital Territory in the country can convinently survive without any federal allocation if they embrace pragmatic ideological accounting systems that are visionary accounting methods.
“Every State must adopt pragmatic approaches in their accounting system,there should be accountability and transparency, ,we must be flexible in our Constitution as constitutional rigidity is bane of the growth of the nation and we must go back to our root , traditional values and that will promote wonderful accounting system and the world will celebrate us,”he stated.
The erudite scholar noted that Accounting science helmet provides a safety umbrella to shade RAIR from shady accounting practices and can serve as both protective measure and forward looking.
Mr Vice Chancellor,in the foregoing senses, reinforcement can increase the probability that the accounting’ behaviour will occur again in similar situations.This implies that reinforcing the helmet is a powerful tool in shaping accountants behaviour, learning and development and this can lead to more effective strategies in accounting therapy and everyday interactions”,he stated.
The lecture examined the evolution of philosophical thought in accounting, notion of pragmatic ideologies in accounting, visionary accounting paradigm , transparency , differences and similarities,the helmet metaphor : balancing protection progress.
He posisted that accounting plays vital role in the socio-economic development of nations , stressing that Accounting is the instrument for financial management , transparency, and resource allocation.
“Over the years ,the accounting system has undergone significant transformations influenced by historical developments , regulatory reforms, and the adoption of global standards which serve as the helmet reinforcing and protecting socio_economic development.”
Reinforcement is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology and learning theory, particularly in the context of operant conditioning. it refers to any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated in the future.It can be understood as a mechanism that encourages certain behaviors through rewards or consequences,”he stated.
In concluding, Prof Obara stated that Nigeria’s economic landscape demands an accounting profession that is both pragmatic and visionary .
Earlier in his speech,the Vice Chancellor of the university Prof Nlerum Sunday Okogbule represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration, Prof Victor Akujuru the lecture said is valuable and is capable to advancing the growth and development of any society if adopted, even as he commended the lecturer for a thoughtful and impacted inaugural lecture.
By: Akujobi Amadi
A team of board members and directors of the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board led by Member in charge of Supervision / Monitoring, Chief Nwuke Anucha visited Ogboloma,a riverine community in Abua/Odual Local Government Area of the State to inspect a six classroom block built single handedly by the community recently.
Speaking at the King’s palace shortly after inspecting the building and facilities in the school, Chief Anucha, who represented the board chairman, Alabo David Briggs, commended the people of Ogboloma for remaining united and working in synergy for the good of the community and the younger generation.
While assuring them that the board chairman would surely be briefed on the effort so far made by the community in encouraging education in the area, Anucha expressed optimism that he (Briggs) will not hesitate to give his approval for the school to kick off and called on the people to see education as the responsibility of all.
He used the medium to thank the King of Ogboloma His Highness Micah Brother, the councilor, Hon. Thomas Carlson; CDC Chairman, Lucky Brave Egba, Chiefs and elders and youths for working in synergy for the progress of community.
Also speaking, the board member in charge of projects Dr. Walson Ominini lauded the people for promoting education in the area, assuring them that their effort will not be in vain.
Earlier in his speech, the King of Ogboloma, His King Micah Brother thanked the bfor finding time to visit the community, pointing out that the six classroom block was the singular effort of the community and appealed to the board chairman to give approval for the school to kick off.
The King who spoke through the councillor representing the area, Hon. Thomas Carlson narrated how children in the community are trekking long distances to neighbouring communities in search of quality education and sometimes would be bitten by snakes called on the board to come to their aid as government presence is not in any way felt in the community.
The chiefs also spoke, thanking the board officers for coming to see things for themselves.
By: Akujobi Amadi