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.

Studies on Development of Corrosion Resistant Coatings for Preservation of Marine Installations With Emphasis to Karachi Coastal Area Conditons

Atmospheric corrosion near the coastal areas of Karachi is an active area of research. This research in this thesis aimed at studying Karachi’s coastal area conditions and the development of effective corrosion-resistant coatings. In the first step, atmospheric corrosivity was determined according to the ISO 9223 standard, which is a function of four factors: corrosion rate (rcorr), air salinity and SO2 pollution and time of wetness (TOW). For this purpose, mild steel and electrogalvanized mild steel test coupons were exposed over a period of 24 months from May 2014 to May 2016 at two atmospheric corrosion stations, located in National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and Karachi Port Trust (KPT) along the coastal line of Karachi, Pakistan. Characterization of the corrosion products after one-year and two-year was done by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Results showed that the corrosion rates of mild steel are high on both sites, but the corrosivity found at NIO is higher (C5) than in KPT (C4). It was also found that by using electrogalvanized mild steel the corrosivity obtained for NIO (C5+) and KPT (C5+) was not in agreement with the corrosivity category (C5) established by using the pollution category and TOW. The second part of this study focused on the development of corrosion-resistant coatings by the incorporation of titanium and aluminum metal powders to an epoxy resin. The film hardness measurement by pencil test, adhesion measurement by the cross hatch and tape test, chemical and heat resistance test, water sorption test, natural exposure and salt spray testing all demonstrated that developed titanium and aluminum metal powder based corrosion resistant coatings were better as compared to the commercially available epoxy coating. Failure analysis of the developed titanium and aluminum metal powder based corrosion resistant coatings was carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Gloss measurement for all the coated test coupons was done. It was found that titanium metal powder based epoxy coating was better than aluminum metal powder based and commercially available epoxy coatings. Present research can be extended for the modification of other resins.