INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus, is a predominantly respiratory tract infection with the capacity to affect multiple organ systems. Abnormal liver tests, mainly transaminase elevations, have been reported in hospitalized patients. We describe a syndrome of cholangiopathy in patients recovering from severe COVID-19 characterized by marked elevation in serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) accompanied by evidence of bile duct injury on imaging. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of COVID-19 patients admitted to our institution from March 1, 2020, to August 15, 2020, on whom the hepatology service was consulted for abnormal liver tests. Bile duct injury was identified by abnormal liver tests with serum ALP > 3x upper limit of normal and abnormal findings on magnetic resonance cholangiopacreatography. Clinical, laboratory, radiological, and histological findings were recorded in a Research Electronic Data Capture database. RESULTS: Twelve patients were identified, 11 men and 1 woman, with a mean age of 58 years. Mean time from COVID-19 diagnosis to diagnosis of cholangiopathy was 118 days. Peak median serum alanine aminotransferase was 661 U/L and peak median serum ALP was 1855 U/L. Marked elevations of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and D-dimers were common. Magnetic resonance cholangiopacreatography findings included beading of intrahepatic ducts (11/12, 92%), bile duct wall thickening with enhancement (7/12, 58%), and peribiliary diffusion high signal (10/12, 83%). Liver biopsy in 4 patients showed acute and/or chronic large duct obstruction without clear bile duct loss. Progressive biliary tract damage has been demonstrated radiographically. Five patients were referred for consideration of liver transplantation after experiencing persistent jaundice, hepatic insufficiency, and/or recurrent bacterial cholangitis. One patient underwent successful living donor liver transplantation. DISCUSSION: Cholangiopathy is a late complication of severe COVID-19 with the potential for progressive biliary injury and liver failure. Further studies are required to understand pathogenesis, natural history, and therapeutic interventions.

Purpose This paper aims to assess if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been effective in combating corruption in Nigeria from 2003-2012. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopted a documentary analytical approach. Findings The organization has not been effective in combating corruption in Nigeria. Research limitations/implications The study is between 2003-2012. Practical implications There is a need to correct those identified inhibitors that undermined the Commission’s capacity, such as intrusive government interference, lack of autonomy, poor funding and weak laws, among others, to mitigate corruption. Social implications Eliminating those identified constraints will remove the incentive to be corrupt, thereby curbing the desire to be corrupt. Originality/value This paper is an original assessment of the EFCC's effectiveness in combating corruption in Nigeria during the specified period.

It is important to state right from the beginning, that this paper is a call for a revolutionary transformation, restructuring and re-positioning the local government system in Nigeria for a more effective relevance to the realization of the country's 20:20:20 project.This paper therefore borders on Decentralization. In other words, the appropriate structural configuration a local government will take inorder to be efficient, effective and result-oriented is the challenge of service delivery at the grassroots level.

The main thesis of this paper is that the apparent failures of bureaucracies in the new and developing states of Africa, far from being concomitants of dismaying negligence and outright incompetence, are, in fact, glaring manifestations of the dilemma of premature bureaucratization. It is impossible to speak of bureaucratization in African states without reference to those gradual, often times painful, but sustained and systematic separations of administrative processes from the Royal Households and personal loyalties of the nineteenth century Western Europe consequent upon tremendous societal changes that were occurring at the time. It was a process of injecting rationality and efficiency into administrative activities (Bendix, 1968: 208). This process was accentuated with the advent of the Scientific Management School of Organizational Theory, which appeared early in the twentieth century. From then onward, the prescriptions for modern administrative organizations have been oriented toward a classical conception of rationality. The scientific management school, led by Frederick W. Taylor (1911), was concerned among other things with the motivations of workers, whereas the administrative management school, led by Luther Gulick and L. Urwick (1937), made organization structure their central theme. Following the examples of these two schools of organizational theory, the literature on organization management has tended to emphasize a high degree of control and efficiency, achieved by means of an elaborate network of impersonal rules and order. Organization men are seen as possessing high instrumental capabilities for goal attainment. In other words, the organization men possess all the relevant information and knowledge as regards causes and effects. This element of perfect knowledge discounts possibilities of errors and uncertainties resulting from the indeterminate environment of the organization. Organizational rules, orders, and structures are both necessary and sufficient conditions for organizational efficiency.

This article deals with the relationship between peaceful coexistence and sustainable development. This is against the backdrop of the conflicts that arose as a result of the balkanization of Africa after the Berlin conference, which was done without due regard to traditional boundaries and consanguinity. Political independence provides a window of self-awareness and movements to counter the challenges of the partitioning. These movements manifest in border clashes and betrayals, rather than peace and development. Adopting the Border theory, we theorize that balkanization creates new borders which results in border competition for scarce economic resources or political opportunities that were not there before the partitioning. Land, water and minerals that were hitherto collectively owned before the balkanization became new sources of conflict along the new boundaries. Discourse analysis is the analytical method adopted for the study. We argue that peaceful co-existence rather than movements aimed at correcting the partitioning is a panacea for sustainable development along the boundaries. Specifically peaceful co-existence enhances sustainable development along the boundary corridor.