Socio-economic Development Of Nigeria Research Articles

Research, Technology Transfer and Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria: Some Lessons from the Asian Economies

Like most developing countries Nigeria had made various efforts at acquiring foreign technology to drive the development processes in the country. While technology transfer efforts have been very successful in the Asian economies, especially in China, South Korea, India and Malaysia, it has not been successful in Nigeria. The difference in the level of success in the technological advancement between the Asian economies and Nigeria is in the approach or method adopted by the economies. While the Asian economies adopt the cram, copy or “steal” and replicate through intensive research to achieve innovation and patent rights, Nigeria adopt the traditional method of negotiated agreement of technology transfer with owners of technologies. The result is that whereas the Asian economies are making significant progress in acquiring technologies, Nigeria suffers deprivation in the acquisition of technology. The paper argues that Nigeria cannot acquire foreign technologies through negotiated agreements; therefore, if Nigeria must acquire technologies she must tow the line of the Asian economies. Also, it asserts that Nigeria must deliberately establish high-tech research institutions and invest significantly in the development of her human capital/resources. This is what the Asian economies have done differently. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n8p119

A Critical Assessment of Port Privatization Policy and Port Productivity in Nigerian Maritime Industry

This paper “A Critical Assessment of Port privatization Policy and Port Productivity in Nigerian maritime Industry” highlights the role of seaports in the socio-economic development of Nigeria; and it further explained port privatization policy which is a globalized concept that involves private sector participation in the operation of the port. The work is aimed at evaluating the productivity of the Nigerian ports since the inception of port privatization policy in Nigeria, and the performance indicators which represents the cargo throughput in Nigeria between 1999 and 2009, which showed that the policy has not been a failure as cargo throughput has increased between 2006 and 2009 than before. Further findings using the Chi-square method of data analysis showed that there is a strong relationship between port privatization policy and port productivity and the revenue generated at the seaports which has increased also, since the inception of port privatization policy in Nigeria. The research findings also showed that, the port privatization policy has been effective in Nigeria but there is still a need for improvement. For this policy to be more effective therefore, there is a need for constant review of this policy from time to time and also the need to make the ports more user friendly by putting in place strategies that will have positive impact in the operation of the port, such as cost reduction strategy and time reduction strategy (which includes time of vessels in berth, and ship turn-round time. Therefore, effort shall be made in this study to review the benefits and challenges of the policy as it relates to ports operational performance and productivity within the confines of the ports-maritime industry at the end of the day.

Political Violence and Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria

This paper has established impacts of violence on socio-economic development in Nigeria, and recommended the way forward. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n7p41

The Social Problem of Kidnapping and its Implications on the Socio-Economic Development of Nigeria: A Study of Uyo Metropolis

The main thrust of this study was to investigate the problem of kidnapping and its consequences on Nigerians in general and Uyo dwellers in particular. To achieve this objective, the study elicited data through questionnaire from 260 randomly selected respondents comprising of policemen/women from various departments at the state police headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, Uyo, in Akwa Ibom State, lawyers from the state judiciary headquarters as well as clergymen and members of the public in the aforementioned study area. Chi-square analytical tool was used to analyze elicited data at 0.05 level of significance. The result from the test of hypothesis one shows that there is a significant relationship between the recurring rates of kidnapping and the people’s culture. Test of hypothesis two shows that there is no correlation between kidnapping and the disposition of government. Test of hypothesis three shows that kidnapping is significantly dependent on the provisions of the Nigerian constitution; while result from hypothesis four shows that there is no significant relationship between kidnapping and political activities. Findings from the study shows that, the prevalence of kidnapping in Nigeria is as a result of laxity in the law implementation process to prosecute offenders. Consequent upon this findings it is suggested that the issue of ransom payment by victim’s families/relatives to kidnappers should be seriously condemned. Government also should endeavour to create employment for the teaming population of youths as this will assist to check the proliferation of the kidnapping. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n6p531

Conflict and Crime in the Society: A Bane to Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria

Just like conflict, crime is functional and pervasive as no unit of society is totally free and spared of it woes and throes when it occurs. The way the polity is organized can create both root causes and conditions favourable to negative conflict with its attendants consequences. Societies like Nigeria and other developing countries; where corruption and corrupt practices are heralded, politicians are above the law and the unfit are preferred in positions cannot possibly escape intractable violence and destructive conflict which arguably can undo economic, political and social gains of country and scare potential investors. Two theories (conflict and functional) were considered to explain the phenomena of conflict and crime. The findings reveals that the primary beneficiaries in conflict situations are politicians (they provide arms and fund conflictants); and poverty was seen as another reason for the meteoric rise of conflict and crime in Nigeria. They study made some recommendations among which includes; the existing legislations on conflict and crime as provided in the criminal code should be implemented and culprit punished and vexed issues should be amicably redress through the court, council of chiefs and elders as it is done in African traditional setting. Key words: Conflict; Crime; Threat; Insecurity destruction

Cultural Impediments to Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria: Lessons from the Chinese Economy

This paper attempts to describe how human environment is an important determinant of socio-economic development. Over the past three decades, Nigeria has been confronted with deep-seated socio-economic crisis evident in high level of poverty, inflation, foreign debt overhang, closure of industries, epileptic power supply, budget deficit, absolute lack of good governance at the grass root, environmental degradation and high unemployment. In the early part of the 21st century, there was high hope among Nigerians that the emergence of democracy and the increasing global capitalist markets feasible in the oil and telecommunication sectors will result in high level of accelerated development. Elsewhere in Asia, globalization and world capitalist market have changed the faces of fundamental problems of underdevelopment. Studies have even confirmed that the successes recorded by China in the global markets confirm that a country’s economy does not grow in vacuum; it exists within the environment and thrives therein. The failure and crises experienced in Nigeria today have been linked with cultural factors such as corruption, leadership failure, lack of entrepreneurial skills, over dependence on western values and culture, insincerity and weak bureaucracies. Using quantitative data and content analysis, the paper concludes that Nigerian government at all levels must rise up to the challenges posed by the problems of underdevelopment in the 21st century.

The challenges and opportunities of implementing the integrity pact as a strategy for combating corruption in Nigeria's oil rich Niger Delta region

AbstractIn recent years, significant local and transnational concerted initiatives have been instituted to curb the incidence of corruption that has undermined socio‐economic development in Nigeria. Drawing on the critiques of such initiatives, and the experience from the process of implementing the Integrity Pact in the Niger Delta Development Commission, this article suggests that the Integrity Pact in principle offers real opportunities that can both reinforce and complement existing anti‐corruption initiatives in Nigeria's public sector. However, political instability, lack of continuity in civil service leadership and limited capacity are core challenges that confront the successful implementation and institutionalisation of the Integrity Pact as a means of fighting corruption and meeting sustainable development objectives in the Niger Delta. The article concludes by considering the implications of the findings for the fight against corruption in Nigeria. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Democracy and good governance: ingredients for socioeconomic development in Nigeria

This paper is a discourse on the state of the nation, Nigeria, in terms of its status on democracy, good governance and socio-economic development. Democracy is being embraced across the globe by most civilized and developing nations. Nigeria joined the trend with the inception of democratic rule in May 29, 1999. The paper aims at exploring these concepts in the context of Nigeria with a view to establishing the need for true democracy and good governance to prevail in Nigeria. The paper discusses the synergy of democracy and good governance while identifying them as basic ingredients for the actualization of socio-cultural and economic development of Nigeria. The paper ends with some recommendations and conclusion. Keywords: Democracy, Good governance, Ingredients, Socio-economic development.

Developmental Local Government as a Model for Grassroots Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria

In the past five decades of political independence in Nigeria, local government administration has moved from the colonial styled Local administration characterized by peculiar systems to the federating units to the present unified and standardized system that constitutionally recognizes local government as the third tier of government. As the third tier of government, local governments are entitled to a statutory allocation of national revenue and the carrying out of specific functions in response to local needs. The objective of the problem statement of this article is to show that the present system whereby, the Constitution gives the State governments the power to handle issues of organization and responsibility in the local governments places a strong limitation on local autonomy and governance at the local level. The abuse of these provisions in the Constitution by the State governments coupled with other issues such as low level of commitment to the people and lack of monitoring and evaluation are negatively affecting grassroots socio-economic development in the Country. Local economic growth and development is an imperative for overall socio-economic development of the Country (the local population presently faces high incidence of poverty, unemployment, lack of social infrastructure and low economic activities). It is in this context that the article prescribes a developmental local government model which has local economic development (LED) as ‘the mandate’ to address the concerns of poverty, unemployment and inadequate resources in the rural areas. The LED approach enables local governments to stimulate economic activities and improve the socioeconomic conditions of people in the localities by working in partnership with private and other non-governmental sectors.