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This paper assesses the impact of Nigeria's Technical Aid Corps (TAC) on the country's national interest from 1999 to 2023. TAC is a pivotal element of Nigeria's foreign policy, established to provide technical assistance to developing nations in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. This paper examines the program’s effectiveness in advancing Nigeria's diplomatic, economic, and socio-political objectives. The study adopted qualitative data from books, journals, official data, and the Internet, and the soft power theory was considered in advancing the essence of establishing TAC. Findings indicate that TAC significantly enhances Nigeria's diplomatic relations and international image, promotes trade and investment, and contributes to capacity building and regional stability. However, the program faces challenges such as logistical constraints, political instability, and economic limitations. The research provides practical recommendations for improving TAC's operational framework and strategic alignment with Nigeria's foreign policy goals. This assessment not only contributes to the academic discourse on international aid and national interest but also offers actionable insights for policymakers to optimize the impact of TAC in fostering sustainable development and enhancing Nigeria’s global influence.

The research study evaluated the role of African Union in resolving the Darfur crisis of Sudan. The study made used of only secondary source of data, exploring various literatures on the issue from scholars. The functionalism theory of international relations was adopted and argued that African Union intervened in the Darfur crisis because the nature of the crisis demanded international collaboration and support which the Sudanese Government did not had the capacity to manage the crisis. It was revealed that the Darfur crisis which lasted between 2004 and 2011 ensued as the result of political subjugation, economic exploitation and underdevelopment of the Darfur region of Sudan. The People Southern Sudanese considered these trends as injustice and as such they violently revolted against the Sudanese Government with the agitation for independence. The wanton destructive nature of the crisis necessitated the intervention of the international community. The study revealed that African Union was the first body to intervene in the crisis through mediation and sending of troops in July 2004 before the United Nations took over the mission in 31st December, 2007. The study showed that even after United Nations took over the Peace keeping operation, African Union still made significant contributions in terms of troops, finance, and humanitarian services. It was concluded that despite the weaknesses of African Union in managing the conflict, the success story of United Nations in Darfur region cannot be analyzed without taking into cognizes the effort of African Union put in the crisis. Therefore, it was recommended that African Union should be proactive and timely in intervening in conflict in the continent so as to avoid escalation.

Determining the extent and distribution of genetic diversity is an essential component of plant breeding. In the present study, we explored the genetic diversity and population structure of Vernonia amygdalina, a fodder, vegetable and medicinal species of Africa and some parts of Yemen. Most empirical studies demonstrate that populations that are separated by geographic or ecological factors may experience genetic differentiation resulting from restricted gene flow between populations. A total of 238 individuals were sampled from two populations: i) Lake Victoria crescent (LVC) and ii) Southern and Eastern Lake Kyoga basin (SEK) agroecological zones of Uganda and genotyped using DArT platform. Of the two populations, the overall mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) was low to medium (Ho = 0.07[silicoDArTs] and 0.2[SNPs]). Inbreeding levels were also very low (-0.04 to -0.08) suggesting the presence of random mating. Partitioning of genetic structure in the two populations indicated that SEK exhibited a higher genetic diversity than LVC. The principal coordinates analysis (PCA) showed no geographical structuring, consistent with the low genetic differentiation (Fst = 0.00) and the low Euclidean genetic distance (1.38-1.39) between the LVC and SEK populations. However, STRUCTURE analysis with admixture models revealed weak possible genetic clusters with very small genetic distance among them. Overall, the results suggest low genetic diversity and weak genetic differentiation between the two populations. One possible explanation of the results could be the presence of human assisted gene flow over long distances., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Nantongo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Establishing the genetic diversity and population structure of a species can guide the selection of appropriate conservation and sustainable utilization strategies. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches are increasingly being used to generate multi-locus data for genetic structure determination. This study presents the genetic structure of a fodder species -Trema orientalis based on two genome-wide high-throughput diversity array technology (DArT) markers; silicoDArT and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genotyping of 119 individuals generated 40,650 silicoDArT and 4767 SNP markers. Both marker types had a high average scoring reproducibility (>99%). Genetic relationships explored by principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) showed that the first principal coordinate axis explained most of the variation in both the SilicoDArT (34.2%) and SNP (89.6%) marker data. The average polymorphic information content did not highly differ between silicoDArT (0.22) and SNPs (0.17) suggesting minimal differences in informativeness in the two groups of markers. The, mean observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity were low and differed between the silicoDArT and SNPs respectively, estimated at Ho = 0.08 and He = 0.05 for silicoDArT and Ho = 0.23 and He = 0.19 for SNPs. The population of T. orientalis was moderately differentiated (FST  =  0.20-0.53) and formed 2 distinct clusters based on maximum likelihood and principal coordinates analysis. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that clusters contributed more to the variation (46.3-60.8%) than individuals (32.9-31.2%). Overall, the results suggest a high relatedness of the individuals sampled and a threatened genetic potential of T. orientalis in the wild. Therefore, genetic management activities such as ex-situ germplasm management are required for the sustainability of the species. Ex-situ conservation efforts should involve core collection of individuals from different populations to capture efficient diversity. This study demonstrates the importance of silicoDArT and SNP makers in population structure and genetic diversity analysis of Trema orientalis, useful for future genome wide studies in the species., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Objective: A sustainable way of providing essential nutrients from crops for the poor and undernourished is biofortification, through plant breeding. This study characterised the intraspecific variation of selected nutritional elements in the flakes and seeds of Ugandan jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) plus the phytochemical composition of leaves. The overall aim was to explore possibilities of selecting for varieties that are higher in selected essential nutrients. Selecting for nutrient dense crops has been mostly done for annual agricultural crops, and rarely for perennial fruit trees., Results: Uganda's Jackfruit has high macronutrients, especially magnesium and calcium. This study revealed that the amounts of these macronutrients were higher than those found in commonly consumed fruits, giving jackfruit a nutritional advantage with respect to these nutrients. The varieties sampled also differed significantly (p < 0.01) for some nutrients such as vitamin C, crude fat, crude fibre, total soluble solids and juice yield, highlighting the potential for selection for targeted nutritional gains. The seeds however, had less amounts of most of the quantified nutrients that also differed among the varieties. Significant intraspecific variation of the leaf total phenolics was also observed. With regard to the quantified nutritional elements in the flakes, the ethno-varieties were separated in space along PC1 (p < 0.001), PC2 (p < 0.001) and PC3 (p < 0.01) indicating their distinctness., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, present a serious threat to endangered wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) populations. In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, chimpanzee tracking is a popular tourism activity, offering visitors a chance to view apes in their natural habitats. Chimpanzee tourism is an important source of revenue and thus benefits conservation; however, chimpanzee tracking may also increase the risk of disease transmission from people to chimpanzees directly (e.g., via aerosol transmission) or indirectly (e.g., through the environment or via fomites). This study assessed how tourist behaviors might facilitate respiratory disease transmission at a chimpanzee tracking site in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We observed tourists, guides, and student interns from the time they entered the forest to view the chimpanzees until they left the forest and noted behaviors related to disease transmission. Common behaviors included coughing, sneezing, and urinating, which respectively occurred during 88.1%, 65.4%, and 36.6% of excursions. Per excursion, individuals touched their faces an average of 125.84 ± 34.45 times and touched large tree trunks or branches (which chimpanzees might subsequently touch) an average of 230.14 ± 108.66 times. These results show that many pathways exist by which pathogens might move from humans to chimpanzees in the context of tourism. Guidelines for minimizing the risk of such transmission should consider tourist behavior and the full range of modes by which pathogen transmission might occur between tourists and chimpanzees., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)