Nigerian Politics and Politics in Nigeria: A Contemplation of Islamic Political Thought in Nigeria

Democracy in Nigeria is characterised by corruption, irregularities and injustice. The level of political hostility in the country has resulted in loss of lives and properties and as a result, there have been hindrances to peace and national development to prevail in Nigeria. Hence, the ugly political developments have generated a lot of concerns and questions such as what are the causes of the political unrest in Nigeria? Is democracy really paying off as a political system in Nigeria?  What has been the result of democracy in Nigeria?  Can there be a better political system in Nigeria? If so, can Islamic political system fulfil the longing of Nigerians? Answers to these questions shall form the body of this research. The research discovers the absence of fairness in the electoral process and bad governance in Nigeria. This research reveals the flaws in effectiveness of democracy as a system of government in Nigeria. It proposes adopting an alternative model of governance. Lastly, this research contemplates the Islamic political model for a better Nigeria.

Population Based Case-Control Asthma Association Studies of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Chromosome 17 Potential Genomic Regions

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on 17q21 are known to be associated with asthma disease in multiple populations. This study was designed to know whether this region is associated with asthma in Lahore region population or not. A total of 200 asthma patients and 100 healthy controls were enrolled from different hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. Twenty five SNPs from chromosomal region 17q21 were selected for analysis in cases and controls by single base extension method and capillary based genetic analyzers. Associations with asthma were analyzed using basic allelic model, genotypic model and results were adjusted for various cofactors by logistic regression analysis using PLINK v1.9. Pair wise Linkage disequilibrium among the SNPs was analyzed and LD map from healthy controls was constructed using Haploview software. Five of the SNPs (rs3816470, rs1011082, rs6503525 rs11078928 and rs1008723) are suggestive of quite significant association with asthma under genotypic model. Five of the remaining SNPs (rs2290400, rs12603332, rs4065275, rs12603332and rs3894194) showed significant associations in the presence of cofactors like gender, smoke exposure in early years and urban or rural environment. Haplotype “TTGTACC” for rs11078928, rs2290400, rs1008723, rs7219923, rs4065275, rs12603332 and rs4795405, appears to be a significant risk factor for predisposition to asthma. The association of genomic region 17q21 with asthma in Lahori population is reported in this study.