Advancing Ocean Literacy and Citizen Science for Coastal Monitoring in North Central Nigerian Inland Waters

Ocean and freshwater literacy deficits, combined with the chronic under-resourcing of government monitoring networks for inland water bodies, create persistent knowledge gaps in the environmental management of Nigeria's inland coastal waterways in the North Central geopolitical zone. This dissertation develops, implements, and rigorously evaluates an ocean and water literacy programme integrated with a structured citizen science freshwater monitoring network across communities adjacent to six major water bodies (rivers Benue, Niger at Lokoja, Anambra, Kaduna, and lakes Kainji and Alau) in Kogi, Kwara, Niger, and Benue States. The research adopts a transformative mixed-methods design combining educational science, citizen science programme evaluation, and environmental data quality assessment. The literacy programme, co-designed with teachers, community leaders, and youth organisations, is delivered to 1,200 participants across twelve communities over two academic years. Pre-and post-programme assessments evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural intentions using validated instruments adapted from the Ocean Literacy Framework. A citizen science monitoring protocol trains 80 community monitors to collect bimonthly water quality (turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity), biological (macroinvertebrate sampling using kick nets), and physical (water level, rainfall) data using low-cost, durable instruments. Data quality assessment compares citizen-collected data with simultaneously collected professional reference measurements using paired t-tests, root mean square difference, and Bland-Altman plots. Theoretical contributions advance the conceptualisation of freshwater literacy as a driver of community environmental stewardship and propose an inclusive African freshwater citizen science framework applicable across the West African Sahel transition zone. Keywords: ocean literacy, citizen science, freshwater monitoring, North Central Nigeria, community environmental stewardship