User talk:Kazeem2000

Introduction
"The democratization wave that swept across half of the world in the 1990s coincided with the negotiation and signing of numerous peace accords in war-torn countries in Africa. Many of those countries have made some progress. Kwesi W. Obeng questions the quality of this progress and how the search for the ideal governance system is complemented (or not) by an economic agenda that ensures fair and equitable access to basic necessities." AA Thanks to African Agenda for giving permission to repost. AfricaFiles encourages readers to subscribe directly at: From Angola to Sierra Leone, Rwanda to Guinea Bissau and Congo DR to Mozambique, two defining elements unite all peace agreements brokered after the Cold War to end civil wars in Africa. The trend runs round the world, from Bosnia to El Salvador and Afghanistan to East Timor. Liberal democracy and free market systems are two elements fastened to the heart of states recovering from violent conflicts, ostensibly to assist these countries make the transition to peace from a state of anarchy and bloodbath. Indeed, fundamental values of the global agenda in the last two decades have hinged on multi-party democracy and laissez faire capitalism. Weaving democracy and free market economy into peace agreements are based on a number of assumptions. Democracy, unlike other forms of governance, has inherent checks and balances to mitigate the inclination to resort to violence to resolve political differences. Central to the assumption underlining free market economy is that markets (and not states) are better guarantors of development (defined as material prosperity) for all because, adherents argue, the benefits will trickle down even to the weakest and most disadvantaged in society. But it is also the case that multi-party democracy and free market are the dominant political and economic models of development in the new world order, in which there’s substantively still only one global policeman.

Legitimacy
Historically, there have been many forms of legitimacy but surely in the 21st century, the only serious form of legitimacy is democracy. Thus, multi-party elections are today about the only internationally acceptable route to power. However, elections have turned out to be one of the ways to appease top echelons of feuding factions to a conflict in states rebuilding after long periods of civil war. In effect, elections may produce outcomes that may be described as ‘democratic’ but may not necessarily lead to peace or development. Many studies around the world have established links between development and democracy. However, the causal relationship, if any, between Africa’s marginally improved economic performance and the democratization wave that swept across Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century remain a hugely contested issue. Nevertheless, the value and significance of open, free and fair elections in countries transitioning from conflict to peace or consolidation of peace can hardly be underestimated. Successful political and governance transition is central to any post-conflict nation-building project. Rebuilding public institutions such as roads, hospitals, schools, law courts, prisons and regulatory agencies is fundamental to sustainability of the state.

Appeasement
True, the constitution-making process after violent conflict offers a distinct opportunity to create a sense of common vision of the future of the state and even a ‘road map’ on how to get there. Accordingly, the constitution of these troubled African countries, of which a good number are slowly recovering, were partly peace agreements and partly a framework setting out the rules by which the new form of governance, democracy, will hinge. Elections lend sought-after credibility to the leadership and institutions that emerge to replace structures imposed on the country and its population during the conflict and in the case of Africa, many of these wars span across decades and run deep. Angola’s war, fought over 27 years, ended in 2002, Mozambique’s 17-year-old war come to an end in 1992 with the Rome General Peace Accords and Liberia and Sierra Leone’s hot wars ended in 2001 and 2002 respectively. All were followed by multi-party elections. Elections serve more than one purpose especially in the post-conflict context. Aside providing legitimacy and international credibility to post-conflict administrations, they also encourage democratic values such as tolerance and inclusiveness. Elections also help mark formal end of conflicts and promote state-building after bitter conflicts. But in Liberia, as in Congo DR and Sierra Leone, an earlier general election in 1997 failed to end the conflict. The chief architect of the Liberian war, Charles Taylor, emerged president of the war-battered country after the 1997 elections. However, the ex-rebel leader’s presidency was short-lived as a new rebel faction, the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), militarily challenged President Taylor’s democratic dictatorship. Amos Sawyerr, the former President of Liberia’s Interim Government puts the 1997 election shenanigans and Taylor’s reign most succinctly when he said: ‘The state we produced turned out to be a criminal state, legitimized by elections’.

Conclusion
All Africa leader to take a look at all other countries in whole world and learn how they are practice democracy and in the favored of their citizen, because democracy is government of the people not government of group of one people.

'''== History and ethnic relations in Nigeria. =='''

Emergence of the Nation.
Every ethnic group in Nigeria has its own stories of where its ancestors came from. These vary from tales of people descending from the sky to stories of migration from far-off places. Archaeologists have found evidence of Neolithic humans who inhabited what is now Nigeria as far back as 12,000 B.C.E. The histories of the people in northern and southern Nigeria prior to colonization followed vastly different paths. The first recorded empire in present-day Nigeria was centered in the north at Kanem-Borno, near Lake Chad. This empire came to power during the eighth century C.E. By the thirteenth century, many Hausa states began to emerge in the region as well. Trans-Sahara trade with North Africans and Arabs began to transform these northern societies greatly. Increased contact with the Islamic world led to the conversion of the Kanem-Borno Empire to Islam in the eleventh century. This led to a ripple effect of conversions throughout the north. Islam brought with it changes in law, education, and politics. The trans-Sahara trade also brought with it revolutions in wealth and class structure. As the centuries went on, strict Islamists, many of whom were poor Fulani, began to tire of increasing corruption, excessive taxation, and unfair treatment of the poor. In 1804 the Fulani launched a jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the Hausa states in an attempt to cleanse them of these non-Muslim behaviors and to reintroduce proper Islamic ways. By 1807 the last Hausa state had fallen. The Fulani victors founded the Sokoto Caliphate, which grew to become the largest state in West Africa until its conquest by the British in 1903. In the south, the Oyo Empire grew to become the most powerful Yoruban society during the sixteenth century. Along the coast, the Edo people established the Benin Empire (not to be confused with the present-day country of Benin to the west), which reached its height of power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As in the north, outsiders heavily influenced the societies of southern Nigeria. Contact with Europeans began with the arrival of Portuguese ships in 1486. The British, French, and Dutch soon followed. Soon after their arrival, the trade in slaves replaced the original trade in goods. Many of the coastal communities began selling their neighbors, whom they had captured in wars and raids, to the Europeans in exchange for things such as guns, metal, jewelry, and liquor. The slave trade had major social consequences for the Africans. Violence and intertribal warfare increased as the search for slaves intensified. The increased wealth accompanying the slave trade began to change social structures in the area. Leadership, which had been based on tradition and ritual, soon became based on wealth and economic power. After more than 350 years of slave trading, the British decided that the slave trade was immoral and, in 1807, ordered it stopped. They began to force their newfound morality on the Nigerians. Many local leaders, however, continued to sell captives to illegal slave traders. This lead to confrontations with the British Navy, which took on the responsibility of enforcing the slave embargo. In 1851 the British attacked Lagos to try to stem the flow of slaves from the area. By 1861 the British government had annexed the city and established its first official colony in Nigeria. As the nonslave trade began to flourish, so, too, did the Nigerian economy. A new economy based on raw materials, agricultural products, and locally manufactured goods saw the growth of a new class of Nigerian merchants. These merchants were heavily influenced by Western ways. Many soon became involved in politics, often criticizing chiefs for keeping to their traditional ways. A new divide within the local communities began to develop, in terms of both wealth and politics. Because being a successful merchant was based on production and merit, not on traditional community standing, many former slaves and lower-class people soon found that they could advance quickly up the social ladder. It was not unusual to find a former slave transformed into the richest, most powerful man in the area. Christian missionaries brought Western-style education to Nigeria as Christianity quickly spread throughout the south. The mission schools created an educated African elite who also sought increased contact with Europe and a Westernization of Nigeria. In 1884, as European countries engaged in a race to consolidate their African territories, the British Army and local merchant militias set out to conquer the Africans who refused to recognize British rule. In 1914, after squelching the last of the indigenous opposition, Britain officially established the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.

National Identity.
The spread of overt colonial control led to the first and only time that the ethnic groups in modern Nigeria came together under a commonly felt sense of national identity. The Africans began to see themselves not as Hausas, Igbos, or Yorubas, but as Nigerians in a common struggle against their colonial rulers. The nationalistic movement grew out of some of the modernization the British had instituted in Nigeria. The educated elite became some of the most outspoken proponents of an independent Nigeria. This elite had grown weary of the harsh racism it faced in business and administrative jobs within the government. Both the elite and the uneducated also began to grow fearful of the increasing loss of traditional culture. They began movements to promote Nigerian foods, names, dress, languages, and religions. Increased urbanization and higher education brought large multiethnic groups together for the first time. As a result of this coming together, the Nigerians saw that they had more in common with each other than they had previously thought. This sparked unprecedented levels of interethnic teamwork. Nigerian political movements, media outlets, and trade unions whose purpose was the advancement of all Nigerians, not specific ethnic groups, became commonplace. As calls for self-determination and a transfer of power into the hands of Nigerians grew, Britain began to divest more power into the regional governments. As a result of early colonial policies of divide and conquer, the regional governments tended to be drawn along ethnic lines. With this move to greater regional autonomy, the idea of a unified Nigeria became to crumble. Regionally and ethnically based political parties sprang up as ethnic groups began to wrangle for political influence.

Ethnic Relations.
Nigeria gained full independence from Britain on 1 October 1960. Immediately following independence, vicious fighting between and among political parties created chaos within the fledgling democracy. On 15 January 1966 a group of army officers, most of whom were Igbo, staged a military coup, killing many of the government ministers from the western and northern tribes. Six months later, northern forces within the military staged a countercoup, killing most of the Igbo leaders. Anti-Igbo demonstrations broke out across the country, especially in the north. Hundreds of Igbos were killed, while the rest fled to the southeast. On 26 May 1967 the Igbo-dominated southeast declared it had broken away from Nigeria to form the independent Republic of Biafra. This touched off a bloody civil war that lasted for three years. In 1970, on the brink of widespread famine resulting from a Nigeria-imposed blockade, Biafra was forced to surrender. Between five hundred thousand and two million Biafran civilians were killed during the civil war, most dying from starvation, not combat. Following the war, the military rulers encouraged a national reconciliation, urging Nigerians to once again become a unified people. While this national reconciliation succeeded in reintegrating the Biafrans into Nigeria, it did not end the problems of ethnicity in the country. In the years that followed, Nigeria was continually threatened by disintegration due to ethnic fighting. These ethnic conflicts reached their height in the 1990s. After decades of military rule, elections for a new civilian president were finally held on 12 June 1993. A wealthy Yoruba Muslim named Moshood Abiola won the elections, beating the leading Hausa candidate. Abiola won support not only from his own people but from many non-Yorubas as well, including many Hausas. This marked the first time since Nigeria's independence that Nigerians broke from ethnically based voting practices. Two weeks later, however, the military regime had the election results annulled and Abiola imprisoned. Many commanders in the Hausa-dominated military feared losing control to a southerner. They played on the nation's old ethnic distrusts, hoping that a divided nation would be easier to control. This soon created a new ethnic crisis. The next five years saw violent protests and mass migrations as ethnic groups again retreated to their traditional homelands. The sudden death of Nigeria's last military dictator, General Suni Abacha, on 8 June 1998 opened the door for a transition back to civilian rule. Despite age-old ethnic rivalries, many Nigerians again crossed ethnic lines when they entered the voting booth. On 22 February 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba who ironically lacked support from his own people, won the presidential election. Obasanjo is seen as a nationalist who opposed ethnic divisions. However, some northern leaders believe he favors his own ethnic group. Unfortunately, violent ethnic fighting in Nigeria continues. In October 2000, clashes between Hausas and supporters of the Odua People's Congress (OPC), a militant Yoruba group, led to the deaths of nearly a hundred people in Lagos. Many also blame the OPC for sparking riots in 1999, which killed more than a hundred others, most of them Hausas.

(Kazeem2000 (talk) 20:17, 7 June 2009 (UTC))

Emergence of the Nation.
Every ethnic group in Nigeria has its own stories of where its ancestors came from. These vary from tales of people descending from the sky to stories of migration from far-off places. Archaeologists have found evidence of Neolithic humans who inhabited what is now Nigeria as far back as 12,000 B.C.E. The histories of the people in northern and southern Nigeria prior to colonization followed vastly different paths. The first recorded empire in present-day Nigeria was centered in the north at Kanem-Borno, near Lake Chad. This empire came to power during the eighth century C.E. By the thirteenth century, many Hausa states began to emerge in the region as well. Trans-Sahara trade with North Africans and Arabs began to transform these northern societies greatly. Increased contact with the Islamic world led to the conversion of the Kanem-Borno Empire to Islam in the eleventh century. This led to a ripple effect of conversions throughout the north. Islam brought with it changes in law, education, and politics. The trans-Sahara trade also brought with it revolutions in wealth and class structure. As the centuries went on, strict Islamists, many of whom were poor Fulani, began to tire of increasing corruption, excessive taxation, and unfair treatment of the poor. In 1804 the Fulani launched a jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the Hausa states in an attempt to cleanse them of these non-Muslim behaviors and to reintroduce proper Islamic ways. By 1807 the last Hausa state had fallen. The Fulani victors founded the Sokoto Caliphate, which grew to become the largest state in West Africa until its conquest by the British in 1903. In the south, the Oyo Empire grew to become the most powerful Yoruban society during the sixteenth century. Along the coast, the Edo people established the Benin Empire (not to be confused with the present-day country of Benin to the west), which reached its height of power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As in the north, outsiders heavily influenced the societies of southern Nigeria. Contact with Europeans began with the arrival of Portuguese ships in 1486. The British, French, and Dutch soon followed. Soon after their arrival, the trade in slaves replaced the original trade in goods. Many of the coastal communities began selling their neighbors, whom they had captured in wars and raids, to the Europeans in exchange for things such as guns, metal, jewelry, and liquor. The slave trade had major social consequences for the Africans. Violence and intertribal warfare increased as the search for slaves intensified. The increased wealth accompanying the slave trade began to change social structures in the area. Leadership, which had been based on tradition and ritual, soon became based on wealth and economic power. After more than 350 years of slave trading, the British decided that the slave trade was immoral and, in 1807, ordered it stopped. They began to force their newfound morality on the Nigerians. Many local leaders, however, continued to sell captives to illegal slave traders. This lead to confrontations with the British Navy, which took on the responsibility of enforcing the slave embargo. In 1851 the British attacked Lagos to try to stem the flow of slaves from the area. By 1861 the British government had annexed the city and established its first official colony in Nigeria. As the nonslave trade began to flourish, so, too, did the Nigerian economy. A new economy based on raw materials, agricultural products, and locally manufactured goods saw the growth of a new class of Nigerian merchants. These merchants were heavily influenced by Western ways. Many soon became involved in politics, often criticizing chiefs for keeping to their traditional ways. A new divide within the local communities began to develop, in terms of both wealth and politics. Because being a successful merchant was based on production and merit, not on traditional community standing, many former slaves and lower-class people soon found that they could advance quickly up the social ladder. It was not unusual to find a former slave transformed into the richest, most powerful man in the area. Christian missionaries brought Western-style education to Nigeria as Christianity quickly spread throughout the south. The mission schools created an educated African elite who also sought increased contact with Europe and a Westernization of Nigeria. In 1884, as European countries engaged in a race to consolidate their African territories, the British Army and local merchant militias set out to conquer the Africans who refused to recognize British rule. In 1914, after squelching the last of the indigenous opposition, Britain officially established the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.

National Identity.
The spread of overt colonial control led to the first and only time that the ethnic groups in modern Nigeria came together under a commonly felt sense of national identity. The Africans began to see themselves not as Hausas, Igbos, or Yorubas, but as Nigerians in a common struggle against their colonial rulers. The nationalistic movement grew out of some of the modernization the British had instituted in Nigeria. The educated elite became some of the most outspoken proponents of an independent Nigeria. This elite had grown weary of the harsh racism it faced in business and administrative jobs within the government. Both the elite and the uneducated also began to grow fearful of the increasing loss of traditional culture. They began movements to promote Nigerian foods, names, dress, languages, and religions. Increased urbanization and higher education brought large multiethnic groups together for the first time. As a result of this coming together, the Nigerians saw that they had more in common with each other than they had previously thought. This sparked unprecedented levels of interethnic teamwork. Nigerian political movements, media outlets, and trade unions whose purpose was the advancement of all Nigerians, not specific ethnic groups, became commonplace. As calls for self-determination and a transfer of power into the hands of Nigerians grew, Britain began to divest more power into the regional governments. As a result of early colonial policies of divide and conquer, the regional governments tended to be drawn along ethnic lines. With this move to greater regional autonomy, the idea of a unified Nigeria became to crumble. Regionally and ethnically based political parties sprang up as ethnic groups began to wrangle for political influence.

Ethnic Relations.
Nigeria gained full independence from Britain on 1 October 1960. Immediately following independence, vicious fighting between and among political parties created chaos within the fledgling democracy. On 15 January 1966 a group of army officers, most of whom were Igbo, staged a military coup, killing many of the government ministers from the western and northern tribes. Six months later, northern forces within the military staged a countercoup, killing most of the Igbo leaders. Anti-Igbo demonstrations broke out across the country, especially in the north. Hundreds of Igbos were killed, while the rest fled to the southeast. On 26 May 1967 the Igbo-dominated southeast declared it had broken away from Nigeria to form the independent Republic of Biafra. This touched off a bloody civil war that lasted for three years. In 1970, on the brink of widespread famine resulting from a Nigeria-imposed blockade, Biafra was forced to surrender. Between five hundred thousand and two million Biafran civilians were killed during the civil war, most dying from starvation, not combat. Following the war, the military rulers encouraged a national reconciliation, urging Nigerians to once again become a unified people. While this national reconciliation succeeded in reintegrating the Biafrans into Nigeria, it did not end the problems of ethnicity in the country. In the years that followed, Nigeria was continually threatened by disintegration due to ethnic fighting. These ethnic conflicts reached their height in the 1990s. After decades of military rule, elections for a new civilian president were finally held on 12 June 1993. A wealthy Yoruba Muslim named Moshood Abiola won the elections, beating the leading Hausa candidate. Abiola won support not only from his own people but from many non-Yorubas as well, including many Hausas. This marked the first time since Nigeria's independence that Nigerians broke from ethnically based voting practices. Two weeks later, however, the military regime had the election results annulled and Abiola imprisoned. Many commanders in the Hausa-dominated military feared losing control to a southerner. They played on the nation's old ethnic distrusts, hoping that a divided nation would be easier to control. This soon created a new ethnic crisis. The next five years saw violent protests and mass migrations as ethnic groups again retreated to their traditional homelands. The sudden death of Nigeria's last military dictator, General Suni Abacha, on 8 June 1998 opened the door for a transition back to civilian rule. Despite age-old ethnic rivalries, many Nigerians again crossed ethnic lines when they entered the voting booth. On 22 February 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba who ironically lacked support from his own people, won the presidential election. Obasanjo is seen as a nationalist who opposed ethnic divisions. However, some northern leaders believe he favors his own ethnic group. Unfortunately, violent ethnic fighting in Nigeria continues. In October 2000, clashes between Hausas and supporters of the Odua People's Congress (OPC), a militant Yoruba group, led to the deaths of nearly a hundred people in Lagos. Many also blame the OPC for sparking riots in 1999, which killed more than a hundred others, most of them Hausas.

(Kazeem2000 (talk) 20:22, 7 June 2009 (UTC))

Introduction
From the First to the Last Ash: The History, Economics & Hazards of Tobacco is a comprehensive tobacco education curriculum which integrates speaking, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills and focuses on cigarette smoking. It was funded in 1993 by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health grant to The Cambridge Tobacco Education Program, Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs. From the First to the Last Ash was written for native and non-native English speaking, adult populations reading at grade levels 6 through 12. It is comprised of six self-contained units. Individual units can be used in focus groups, adult and community education classes, and workshops or the whole sequence can be taught as an eight-week course. Each unit contains reading, writing, and speaking activities designed to teach content as well as to build written and verbal communication skills. The reading skills taught are as follows: locating important facts/details, distinguishing facts from opinions, finding the main idea of one or more paragraphs, learning new vocabulary through context clues, and drawing conclusions. There is a separate teachers’ guide complete with step by step lesson plans for each unit. The development of this curriculum dates back to February 1994 when over one hundred students at the Community Learning Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts were given a survey to assess their knowledge and interest in tobacco-related subjects. They were enrolled in English-as-a-second language, Adult Basic Education, and PreGED classes. The results of the survey were used to design a curriculum to meet students’ needs and interests. From the First to the Last Ash was written with three main objectives in mind. One was to increase the students’ understanding and awareness of the historical role of the tobacco industry in the U.S. economy and the health dangers of smoking to smokers and nonsmokers. Another was for students to develop strategies to protect themselves and others from cigarette smoke. The third objective was to encourage smokers to quit and to assist nonsmokers in their efforts to help family members and friends to quit. From the First to the Last Ash was piloted from August 1994 to April 1995 with over 200 adult education students at the Community Learning Center. The students come from a diversity of age and ethnic/linguistic groups. Among the groups represented were 18-55 year olds from Haiti, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Panama, Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, the United States, Portugal, Cape Verde Islands, Lebanon, Philippines, China, and Brazil. From the United States, there were African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and white participants. All students were low-income whether employed or on public assistance. At the end of the pilot, all students evaluated the curriculum. The course was rated as excellent by 99% of the participants. They felt that they had learned valuable knowledge and had also improved their reading, writing, thinking, and speaking skills. New materials were generated by the students through the various activities at the end of each unit. Several parents who smoke learned about ways to protect their children from second hand cigarette smoke. One woman in the early stages of pregnancy, who had been smoking for 15 years, quit smoking at the end of the course. Other students thought that they could now educate their children about the dangers of smoking and be supportive and influential in helping family members and close friends quit smoking. Final revisions were made to the curriculum in the fall of 1995 through the input of five, health education, community outreach workers from the Cambridge Tobacco Education Program and Cambridge United For Smoking Prevention. From the First to the Last Ash is currently being used by many tobacco education programs throughout the United States. Program personnel are using it as a resource to educate themselves and their staffs and to assist their target populations with tobacco education and cessation.

What is tobacco?
Tobacco is a green, leafy plant that is grown in warm climates. After it is picked, it is dried, ground up, and used in different ways. It can be smoked in a cigarette, pipe, or cigar. It can be chewed (called smokeless tobacco or chewing tobacco) or sniffed through the nose (called snuff). Nicotine is one of the more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes and its smoke. It is the chemical that makes tobacco addictive or habit forming. Once we smoke, chew, or sniff tobacco, nicotine goes into our bloodstream, and our body wants more. The nicotine in tobacco makes it a drug. This means that when we use tobacco, it changes our body in some way. Because nicotine is a stimulant, it speeds up the nervous system, so we feel like we have more energy. It also makes the heart beat faster and raises blood pressure.

History of tobacco
Tobacco has a long history in the Americas. The Mayan Indians of Mexico carved drawings in stone showing tobacco use. These drawings date back to somewhere between 600 to 900 A.D. Tobacco was grown by American Indians before the Europeans came from England, Spain, France, and Italy to North America. Native Americans smoked tobacco through a pipe for special religious and medical purposes. They did not smoke every day. Tobacco was the first crop grown for money in North America. In 1612 the settlers of the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia grew tobacco as a cash crop. It was their main source of money. Other cash crops were corn, cotton, wheat, sugar, and soya beans. Tobacco helped pay for the American Revolution against England. Also, the first President of the U.S. grew tobacco. By the 1800’s, many people had begun using small amounts of tobacco. Some chewed it. Others smoked it occasionally in a pipe, or they hand-rolled a cigarette or cigar. On the average, people smoked about 40 cigarettes a year. The first commercial cigarettes were made in 1865 by Washington Duke on his 300- acre farm in Raleigh, North Carolina. His hand-rolled cigarettes were sold to soldiers at the end of the Civil War. It was not until James Bonsack invented the cigarette-making machine in 1881 that cigarette smoking became widespread. Bonsack’s cigarette machine could make 120,000 cigarettes a day. He went into business with Washington Duke’s son, James “Buck” Duke. They built a factory and made 10 million cigarettes their first year and about one billion cigarettes five years later. The first brand of cigarettes were packaged in a box with baseball cards and were called Duke of Durham. Buck Duke and his father started the first tobacco company in the U.S. They named it the American Tobacco Company. The American Tobacco Company was the largest and most powerful tobacco company until the early 1900’s. Several companies were making cigarettes by the early 1900’s. In 1902 Philip Morris company came out with its Marlboro brand. They were selling their cigarettes mainly to men. Everything changed during World War I (1914-18) and World War II (1939-45). Soldiers overseas were given free cigarettes every day. At home production increased and cigarettes were being marketed to women too. More than any other war, World War II brought more independence for women. Many of them went to work and started smoking for the first time while their husbands were away. By 1944 cigarette production was up to 300 billion a year. Service men received about 75% of all cigarettes produced. The wars were good for the tobacco industry. Since WW II, there have been six giant cigarette companies in the U.S. They are Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, American Brands, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson, and Liggett & Myers (now called the Brooke Group). They make millions of dollars selling cigarettes in the U.S. and all over the world. In 1964 the Surgeon General of the U.S. ( the chief doctor for the country) wrote a report about the dangers of cigarette smoking. He said that the nicotine and tar in cigarettes cause lung cancer. In 1965 the Congress of the U.S. passed the Cigarette Labelling and Advertising Act. It said that every cigarette pack must have a warning label on its side stating “Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health.” By the 1980’s, the tobacco companies had come out with new brands of cigarettes with lower amounts of tar and nicotine and improved filters to keep their customers buying and to help reduce their fears. The early 1980’s were called the “tar wars” because tobacco companies competed aggressively to make over 100 low tar and “ultra” low tar cigarettes. Each company made and sold many different brands of cigarettes. In 1984 Congress passed another law called the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act. It said that the cigarette companies every three months had to change the warning labels on cigarette packs. It created four different labels for the companies to rotate.

--Kazeem2000 (talk) 20:30, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

KAZEEM BUSARI Id number:17969 BBA Program Nigerian Stock Exchange

Introduction
The Nigerian Stock Exchange was established in 1960 as the Lagos Stock Exchange. In December 1977 it became The Nigerian Stock Exchange, with branches established in some of the major commercial cities of the country. At present, there are six branches of The Nigerian Stock Exchange. Each branch has a trading floor. The branch in Lagos was opened in 1961; Kaduna, 1978; Port Harcourt, 1980; Kano, 1989; Onitsha, February 1990; and Ibadan August 1990; Abuja, October 1999 and Yola, April 2002. Lagos is the Head Office of The Exchange. An office has just been opened in Abuja. The Exchange started operations in 1961 with 19 securities listed for trading. Today there are 262 securities listed on The Exchange, made up of 11 Government Stocks, 49 Industrial Loan (Debenture/Preference) Stocks and 194 Equity / Ordinary Shares of Companies, all with a total market capitalization of approximately N287.0 billion, as at August 31, 1999. Most of the listed companies have foreign/multinational affiliations and represent a cross-section the economy, ranging from agriculture through manufacturing to services. The market has in place a tested network of Stockbrokerage Firms, Issuing Houses (Merchant Banks), practicing corporate law firms and over 50 quality firms of auditors and reporting accountants (most with international links). The Stock Exchange and most of the nation’s stock broking firms and issuing houses are staffed with creative financial engineers that can compete anywhere in the World. Therefore, the market has in place a network of intermediating organizations that can effectively and creditably meet the challenges and growing needs of investors in Nigerian.

Integrity
Market operators subscribe to the code “Our word is our bond”. Thus, public trust in the Nigerian stock market has grown tremendously, with about three million individual investors and hundreds of institutional investors (including foreigners who own about 47% of the quoted companies) using the facilities of The Exchange. The Stock Exchange’s 39-year history is devoid of any fraud, shocks, scandals or insider dealings.

Trading
The call over trading system was in April replaced with the Automated Trading System (ATS), with bids and offers now matched by stockbrokers on the Trading Floors of The Stock Exchange through a network of computers. This is done every business day from 11.00 a.m. till all bids and offers have been executed (about 1.30 p.m. on the average).

Pricing
Prices of new issues are determined by issuing houses/stockbrokers, while on the secondary market prices are made by stockbrokers only. The market/quote prices, along with the All-Share Index, are published daily in The Stock Exchange Daily Official List, The Nigerian Stock Exchange CAPNET (an intranet facility), The Nigerian Stock Exchange website (www.nigerianstockexchange.com), Newspapers and on the stock market page of the Reuters Electronic Contributor System. Our on-line code in the Reuters Network is NSXA-B. Pricing and other direct controls gave way to indirect controls by the regulatory bodies (Securities and Exchange Commission and The Stock Exchange) following the deregulation of the market in 1993. Deregulation has improved the competitiveness of the market, in addition to making it more investor-friendly.

The All-Share Index
The Exchange maintains an All-Share Index formulated in January 1984 (January 3, 1984 = 100). Only common stocks (ordinary shares) are included in the computation of the index. The index is value-relative and is computed daily.

Clearing, Delivery and Settlement
Clearing, Settlement and Delivery of transactions on The Exchange are done electronically by the Central Securities Clearing System Limited (CSCS), a subsidiary of The Stock Exchange. The CSCS Limited (“the Clearing House”) was incorporated in 1992 as part of the effort to make the Nigerian stock market more efficient and investor-friendly. Apart from clearing, settlement and delivery, the CSCS Limited offers custodian services. (See the write-up on the Central Securities Clearing System Limited for more about clearing, delivery and settlement on The Exchange.) Stock Market Legislations

Transactions in the stock market are guided by the following legislations, among others: ¨	Investments & Securities Decree No. 45, 1999. ¨	Companies and Allied Matters Decree 1990. ¨	Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Decree, 1995. ¨	Foreign Exchange (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree, 1995.

Regulation
Transactions on The Exchange are regulated by The Nigerian Stock Exchange, as a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which administers the Investments & Securities Decree 1999.

Internationalization of the Stock Market
Following the deregulation of the capital market in 1993, the Federal Government in 1995 internationalised the capital market, with the abrogation of laws that constrained foreign participation in the Nigerian capital market. Consequent upon the abrogation of the Exchange Control Act 1962 and the Nigerian Enterprise Promotion Decree 1989, foreigners can now participate in the Nigerian capital market both as operators and investors. Also, there are no limits any more to the percentage of foreign holding in any company registered in the country. Ahead of this development, The Exchange had since June 2, 1987, linked up with the Reuters Electronic Contributor System for online global dissemination of stock market information - trading statistics, All-Share Index, company investment ratios, and company news (financial statements and corporate actions). In November, 1996 The Exchange launched its Internet System (CAPNET) as one of the infrastructural support for meeting the challenges of internationalisation and achieving an enhanced service delivery. The Internet System facilitates communication among local and international participants in the market, as subscribers to the system include stockbrokers, quoted companies, issuing houses, etc, who now use the facility to receive and send e-mail, globally and locally. But more importantly, they can, through this medium, access key market information - trading statistics (current and historical), corporate trading results, etc.

--Kazeem2000 (talk) 20:37, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Introduction
The Nigerian Stock Exchange was established in 1960 as the Lagos Stock Exchange. In December 1977 it became The Nigerian Stock Exchange, with branches established in some of the major commercial cities of the country. At present, there are six branches of The Nigerian Stock Exchange. Each branch has a trading floor. The branch in Lagos was opened in 1961; Kaduna, 1978; Port Harcourt, 1980; Kano, 1989; Onitsha, February 1990; and Ibadan August 1990; Abuja, October 1999 and Yola, April 2002. Lagos is the Head Office of The Exchange. An office has just been opened in Abuja. The Exchange started operations in 1961 with 19 securities listed for trading. Today there are 262 securities listed on The Exchange, made up of 11 Government Stocks, 49 Industrial Loan (Debenture/Preference) Stocks and 194 Equity / Ordinary Shares of Companies, all with a total market capitalization of approximately N287.0 billion, as at August 31, 1999. Most of the listed companies have foreign/multinational affiliations and represent a cross-section the economy, ranging from agriculture through manufacturing to services. The market has in place a tested network of Stockbrokerage Firms, Issuing Houses (Merchant Banks), practicing corporate law firms and over 50 quality firms of auditors and reporting accountants (most with international links). The Stock Exchange and most of the nation’s stock broking firms and issuing houses are staffed with creative financial engineers that can compete anywhere in the World. Therefore, the market has in place a network of intermediating organizations that can effectively and creditably meet the challenges and growing needs of investors in Nigerian.

Integrity
Market operators subscribe to the code “Our word is our bond”. Thus, public trust in the Nigerian stock market has grown tremendously, with about three million individual investors and hundreds of institutional investors (including foreigners who own about 47% of the quoted companies) using the facilities of The Exchange. The Stock Exchange’s 39-year history is devoid of any fraud, shocks, scandals or insider dealings.

Trading
The call over trading system was in April replaced with the Automated Trading System (ATS), with bids and offers now matched by stockbrokers on the Trading Floors of The Stock Exchange through a network of computers. This is done every business day from 11.00 a.m. till all bids and offers have been executed (about 1.30 p.m. on the average).

Pricing
Prices of new issues are determined by issuing houses/stockbrokers, while on the secondary market prices are made by stockbrokers only. The market/quote prices, along with the All-Share Index, are published daily in The Stock Exchange Daily Official List, The Nigerian Stock Exchange CAPNET (an intranet facility), The Nigerian Stock Exchange website (www.nigerianstockexchange.com), Newspapers and on the stock market page of the Reuters Electronic Contributor System. Our on-line code in the Reuters Network is NSXA-B. Pricing and other direct controls gave way to indirect controls by the regulatory bodies (Securities and Exchange Commission and The Stock Exchange) following the deregulation of the market in 1993. Deregulation has improved the competitiveness of the market, in addition to making it more investor-friendly.

The All-Share Index
The Exchange maintains an All-Share Index formulated in January 1984 (January 3, 1984 = 100). Only common stocks (ordinary shares) are included in the computation of the index. The index is value-relative and is computed daily.

Clearing, Delivery and Settlement
Clearing, Settlement and Delivery of transactions on The Exchange are done electronically by the Central Securities Clearing System Limited (CSCS), a subsidiary of The Stock Exchange. The CSCS Limited (“the Clearing House”) was incorporated in 1992 as part of the effort to make the Nigerian stock market more efficient and investor-friendly. Apart from clearing, settlement and delivery, the CSCS Limited offers custodian services. (See the write-up on the Central Securities Clearing System Limited for more about clearing, delivery and settlement on The Exchange.) Stock Market Legislations

Transactions in the stock market are guided by the following legislations, among others: ¨	Investments & Securities Decree No. 45, 1999. ¨	Companies and Allied Matters Decree 1990. ¨	Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Decree, 1995. ¨	Foreign Exchange (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree, 1995.

Regulation
Transactions on The Exchange are regulated by The Nigerian Stock Exchange, as a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which administers the Investments & Securities Decree 1999.

Internationalization of the Stock Market
Following the deregulation of the capital market in 1993, the Federal Government in 1995 internationalised the capital market, with the abrogation of laws that constrained foreign participation in the Nigerian capital market. Consequent upon the abrogation of the Exchange Control Act 1962 and the Nigerian Enterprise Promotion Decree 1989, foreigners can now participate in the Nigerian capital market both as operators and investors. Also, there are no limits any more to the percentage of foreign holding in any company registered in the country. Ahead of this development, The Exchange had since June 2, 1987, linked up with the Reuters Electronic Contributor System for online global dissemination of stock market information - trading statistics, All-Share Index, company investment ratios, and company news (financial statements and corporate actions). In November, 1996 The Exchange launched its Internet System (CAPNET) as one of the infrastructural support for meeting the challenges of internationalisation and achieving an enhanced service delivery. The Internet System facilitates communication among local and international participants in the market, as subscribers to the system include stockbrokers, quoted companies, issuing houses, etc, who now use the facility to receive and send e-mail, globally and locally. But more importantly, they can, through this medium, access key market information - trading statistics (current and historical), corporate trading results, etc.

--Kazeem2000 (talk) 20:38, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Reasons Why People Study Abroad
On the face of it, it may seem strange that some people elect to go traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles to study in a different country when they could just as easily study a similar course in their own country. But there are many reasons why some people choose to study abroad, and they are all extremely valid ones.

More attractive courses
First of all there is the question of what courses are available where. While you may well be able to study art history in an American college or university for example, there may be a particularly well known and much revered course offered at an Australian university which appeals far more.

Qualities and experiences
Furthermore learning isn’t just about the course itself. It’s all about experiencing life in another country, whose values and way of living may be very different to your own. In this sense you continue learning even when you are not in the classroom, since you will be interacting with many different people and locations and taking in surroundings which will lead you to become a better rounded and well balanced person. Experiencing different cultures like this helps us to gain a better understanding of how the world works.

Personality exposure
Studying abroad also helps you to grow as a person. At an age where you are probably starting to feel like an adult for the first time, you can really stretch your legs and gain your own independence while planning and learning for the benefit of your future. Depending on the country you are visiting, there may also be an opportunity to learn a new language, or practice one you have already learned. Exploring a language in the comfort of a classroom and putting it into practice in the real world are very often two different things! It’s also worth bearing in mind the effect that a period of study in a foreign country will have on the rest of your career and life. This is perhaps the most profound effect you will notice, since it will have far reaching effects which last way beyond the length of the course you will be studying.

Conclusion
In all Africa today we believe that go abroad for someone to study is prior prestige and good exposure to handle some important post like political post or government parastatal in he or her particular country. Many people say that studying a course abroad, whether it’s for a few months or a year or more, has helped them to become a more rounded person who has been able to put their experiences to good use. There certainly tends to be more chance of trying new activities in a new country than you would at home, where there is a tendency to get into a rut. Some people also say that once they return home from an extended study trip abroad, they have a new appreciation of their life at home. It’s almost as if you are able to look at your everyday life at home in a whole new way; you can see possibilities and opportunities that didn’t seem to be there before. One thing is certain – studying abroad tends to be a big confidence builder, and can provide a great start to a new future career. --Kazeem2000 (talk) 20:49, 7 June 2009 (UTC)