Successive Governments In Nigeria Research Articles

A REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF WOMEN LITERACY AND POVERTY REDUCTION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Despite the potential of the strategies put in place by successive governments in Nigeria, women's literacy and poverty reduction for sustainable development, Nigeria continue to grapple with persistent challenges in realizing the full transformative impact of educated and empowered women in the country. This paper examined the effects of women literacy and poverty alleviation on sustainable development in Nigeria. The paper relied on documentary sources of data obtained from textbooks, journal articles, official gazettes, conference papers and the internet. The paper deployed the Liberal Feminism theory to provide a theoretical guide for the study. The paper observed that the relationship between women's literacy, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development in Nigeria is complex and multifaceted and emphasized that empowering women is not only a matter of social justice but a catalyst for sustainable development. It recommends a conscious implementation of policies and programs that should aim to eliminate barriers to education for girls and women, including addressing financial constraints, cultural norms, and discriminatory practices as well as the development and implementation of targeted economic empowerment initiatives, such as vocational training and entrepreneurship programs, to enhance women's skills and make them job creators rather than job seekers, thereby increasing their participation in the formal economy.

Fuel subsidy removal and welfare of the working class in Nigeria: Policy options for the state

Subsidy provisioning has been a feature of market economies around the World since the end of the Second World War. In Nigeria, and other Third World countries, subsidy provision is a major instrument by which Government attempts to enhance the welfare of the masses. Over the years, successive governments in Nigeria have attempted to keep the prices of certain commodities affordable by providing one form of subsidy or the other. The Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as Petrol in Nigeria is one of the commodities covered by subsidy until 29th May, 2023 when the newly inaugurated President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in his inaugural speech declared an end to it. A major consequence of the removal of the fuel subsidy is the cut-throat pricing of PMS throughout the country. This paper attempts to interrogate the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the welfare of the working class in Nigeria with a view to ascertaining available policy options for the State. The paper adopts the neo-classical economic theory of government policy and argues that a fundamental responsibility of the State is the protection of the welfare of the citizenry through its various policy decisions. Relying on documentary evidence, the paper found that the removal of fuel subsidy has worsened the living conditions of the working class as not only do workers now have to pay more for fuel; the multiplier effect of a continuous rise in prices of PMS on other basic necessities has made life unbearable. Consequently, the paper suggests a novel approach to the conundrum where in the Federal Government would ensure domestic refining of crude oil for local consumption or reach an understanding with other countries for a non-commercial refining of crude oil for the country.

Rethinking Federal Airports Remodeling for Passenger Safety and Security in Achieving the Millennium Goal of the Industry

The 9/11 episode set the ball roiling for security in aviation industry in the world. The study looks at the remodeling of federal airport in Nigeria for passenger safety and security in achieving the millennium goal of the industry. Structural functionalism was adopted as the theoretical framework of the study. To carry out the task, the paper employed quantitative method of data analysis with the aid of questionnaire to elicit information. The study found that successive governments in Nigeria have made significant financial investments in the aviation industry in an effort to enhance travel conditions, passenger safety, employment opportunities, efficiency, and passenger confidence. However, the effectiveness of the remodeling task is been hinder by a number of factors amongst human capital deficiency, inappropriate funding, uncoordinated effort and infrastructural deficit. The paper concluded by suggesting the need for effective human capital development, provision of adequate and appropriate fund, unity of purpose among the airport staff and provision of modern and critical needed infrastructural facilities. Well-organized and efficient safety supervision process ensures both the immediate user advantages and the broader economic benefits of Air Transport International (ATI) investments.

An Assessment of Solid Waste Management in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria

Background: Sanitation has remained an important and long standing global public health challenge, especially in middle and low income countries. Efforts have been made, and are still being made at finding a total solution to the problems of waste management by successive governments in Nigeria, but none has been fruitful. This study assessed solid waste management in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Methodology: For the purpose of this research, a qualitative approach was adopted. This approach employed the use of a Key Informant Interview (KII) and a Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The study was carried out in Ikenne Local Government Area, one of the existing local council areas in Ogun State, the Southwestern part of the country. Twelve personnel of the Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) department of Ikenne Local Government Area were interviewed for the purpose of this study. The sample consists of the director, deputy director, three chief environmental officers, two senior environmental officers, and five field workers. Results: The respondents stated that there are just two collection trucks servicing the entire five communities. The stress placed on these vehicles would only last for a short while as they are liable to break down. The department also lacks personal protective equipment for health attendants, which ought to help them prevent infectious diseases in the course of performing their duties. Households from the three different communities have shown their dissatisfaction towards the services rendered to the communities by the WES department. They voiced out their displeasures during the focused group discussions where most of them said they are rarely served, even on environmental sanitation days. These options revolve around seeking a redress to institutional constraints. Lack of reliable funding system has affected a lot of functions that ought to be carried out by environmental officers. It all comes down to a single factor – fund. The provision of official vans for inspection purposes, collection trucks, manpower (skilled and unskilled) and other tools are all determined by availability of funds. Conclusion: The study was able to establish that institutional constraint is the major factor militating against solid waste management systems in Ikenne Local Government Area. Every finger points towards this direction and so also the institution admits to this fact. When there is no collection vehicle to carry wastes, the available ones can only serve a few of the population. This is not to say that manpower to collect wastes from households is less important, as they are needed to transfer the wastes into the trucks and also dispose of them, as the services rendered to the people.

Reflections on Policy Reforms in Nigeria’s Primary Education, 1882-2020

Primary education, as the basic foundation for all subsequent levels of educational system, has been considered worldwide as the key towards development of any modern nation. Over sixty years after national political independence, Nigerian’s elementary education is still grappling with the problem of evolving a sustainable policy for national development. Successive governments in Nigeria have made several attempts to address the problems through policy reforms. The latest of such reform agenda is the Universal Basic Education (UBE) introduced in 1999. Thus this paper, undertakes a survey of policies instituted to guide the Nigeria’s primary education and the series of adjustments to the policies with the hope of providing sustainable policy framework for Nigerian children education in order to fulfill the national aspirations in the twenty-first century. The paper argues that a realistic policy for our basic education should be based on adequate and well informed data and an honest commitment on the part of the policy makers ,implementers’ and managers.

Fuel subsidy protests in Nigeria: The promise and mirage of empowerment

Attempts to abolish fuel subsidy by successive governments in Nigeria have provoked serious backlash in the form of protests and violence. What maybe said to be the use of such public protests? The literature draw attention to the link between fuel subsidies and protests, but it is still unclear whether or how protests empower protesters to shape the forces that dominate their lives. This paper applies Gaventa's ‘power cube’ as an analytical device to explore the interactions between government and protesters as power relations, and to understand power as both domination and its resistance. This approach introduces a fresh angle to the subject, opening up the terms of the debate, which seems to have stalemated in claims and counter-claims over the nexus between protests and empowerment, often addressed in essentialist terms. Data, specifically related to the January 2012 fuel price increase and protest, from key informant interviews and secondary sources are employed to explore the question.

Nigerian State, Leadership Deficiency and the Challenges of Good Governance in the Fourth Republic.

State is essentially created to provide and sustain good governance for its citizenry. The ability of the state to fulfill this fundamental responsibility is greatly depended on the physical, social and political capacity of the leaders entrusted with the management of the affairs of the state. Significantly, the nature and quality of leadership and governance in any state determines to a large extent how such state will be socially described, politically evaluated and economically rated among the comity of nations within the global community. Consequently, every state strives to ensure that its leadership recruitment processes is jealously guided and protected by the essential qualities capable of engendering good governance and ensuring effective service delivery system. Nigerian state has been battling with leadership and governance crisis since independence without any strong hope of surmounting these unending challenges as poverty, insecurity, corruption and the like continued unabated. With this ugly and unceasing situation, one is forced to ask the following questions; one, despite various policy attempts and ceaseless use of resources at ensuring good governance by successive governments in Nigeria, why has it been so difficult to achieve? to what has been responsible for this never-ending leadership debacle in Nigeria in spite of series of implemented reforms on leadership recruitment? Based on the foregoing, the study examined critically leadership recruitment and governance processes in Nigeria with the intention of identifying the various factors that are strongly responsible for leadership deficiency and the apparent failure of governance in the last decades. The study adopted Elite theory for its analysis. The study employed the use of existing data from texts, journals, magazines, conference proceedings, newspapers, bulletins, published and unpublished theses and the internet to source its information. The study observed that leadership deficiency has been responsible for governance crisis in Nigeria, and therefore recommended cultivation of public interest, constitutionalism, integrity, accountability and transparency as panacea to good leadership and governance.

The Contagion of Misgovernance in Nigeria: Reflections on the Influence of Non-Administrative Criteria

Successive governments in Nigeria have failed to curtail the downward spiral of the sectors of her economy. The deepening socio-economic and political crises are assessed as occasioned by the dysfunctionality of the arms of government that jeopardizes essential service delivery to the detriment of the polity at whose behest they occupy the public offices. Despite the changes and institution of new administrative leadership through democratic processes, the quality of governance continues to dwindle. Poor policy formulation, implementing non-target-specific measures to deal with the malaises bedeviling the economy, and/or outright government inaction define the practical realities of Nigeria’s sociopolitical landscape. These plausible facts have driven wedges between the elected representatives in government and the polity who bear the brunt of the leadership failures in all spheres. The study determined whether a contagion effect birthed by non-administrative criteria underlies the transcendently perpetual misgovernance pervading the sectors of Nigeria’s economy. The study evaluates the influences of these criteria on the individuals, the potency of ‘group’ membership and sentiments, the contexts of leadership, and the implications for the trajectory of governance. With prioritization over the desired state of affairs in the country despite leadership changes and successive governments, these group memberships and sentiments remain inimically parallel to target-specific policy-making and de-emphasize national growth and development. The paper relies on the postulations of the social contagion theory of collective behavior and Riggs' assertions on non-administrative criteria in prismatic societies in assessing the misgovernance in Nigeria. A semi-structured Contagion in Leadership (CiL) e-questionnaire was designed to evaluate the influence of social contagion on the members of the arms of government and, consequently, on the quality of governance and service delivery in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It was disseminated on two social media platforms - WhatsApp and Twitter, for a wider reach. Two hundred ten (210) responses were recorded across an age range of 18 and 65+ years, with a mean age of 42. Strategies for enhancing the quality of governance, including entrenching constitutionalism, and engendering the responsibility of political officeholders toward policy actions, are proffered.

An Examination of the Effectiveness of Economic Recovery and Growth Plan in Nigeria

Right from the independence and especially since the return to democratic governance in 1999, the successive governments in Nigeria have made concerted efforts in economic and development planning. Nigeria’s quest for a sustainable development roadmap has been a torturous one since independence with various plans and policies developed to fast-track the economy. However, no meaningful change has been witnessed thus making all successive governments come up with different development blueprints on how to rejig the economy. The Buhari Administration has come up with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), a Medium-Term Plan for 2017-2020 which was built on the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) to restore economic growth while leveraging the ingenuity and resilience of the Nigerian people. It is sufficient to say that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) was a medium-term, all-around developmental initiative that focused on restoring growth, investing in people, and building a globally competitive economy. The main objective of this paper is to examine the performance of the plan as a developmental state paradigm for “Nigeria's economic recovery”. Data were generated from secondary sources. The study revealed that, even though ERGP was implemented properly, its expected positive impact on GDP growth, reduction of inflation, and unemployment is not satisfactory. Accordingly, restructuring of the economy through diversification needs to be seriously sustained in Nigeria.
 Keywords: Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), Nigerian Populace, Strategic Implementation Plan, Nigerian Economy, Development Planning

Fighting Poverty in Nigeria Using the Libyan Experience During The Era of Muammar Gaddafi

This paper discusses the concept of poverty and relates it to Nigerian situation and looks at various poverty reduction strategies by successive governments in Nigeria and agrees that such strategies did not yield the desired results as more than half of the country’s population still wallows in poverty. The paper looks at the experience of the Libyan government under the administration of Muammar Gaddafi in fighting poverty as an example that can be replicated in fighting poverty in Nigeria. The paper concludes by recommending ways in which the Nigerian Government can adopt in tackling poverty in the country.

Comparative Exposition of Judicial Interventionism in the Enforcement of the Healthcare Right in Nigeria and India

The significance of health to national life has made successive governments in Nigeria and India design certain fundamental policies to regulate, control and guide healthcare service delivery. Since the incorporation of fundamental human rights into the two countries’ constitutions, the healthcare right has appeared as one of the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy. This requires governments to put in place policies geared towards implementing these obligations. However, regarding economic and social rights, the Nigerian judiciary has generally played a restrictive or a rather passive role in their enforcement. In contrast, Indian courts have employed a much more pragmatic approach to implementing economic and social rights. The problem with these rights is that judicial intervention resulting from a violation of the healthcare right remains a challenge because section 6(6)(c) and article 35 of the Nigerian and Indian constitutions, respectively, make economic and social rights non-justiciable. The article makes a comparative analysis of the practice in Indian and other jurisdictions in order to justify the possibility of embracing the enforceability of the rights, having regard to the link between economic and social rights and civil and political rights in Nigeria. By drawing on judicial synergy, this article suggests a legislative intercession to bring health rights within the enforceable rights by taking advantage of section 13 and item 60 of the Nigerian Exclusive Legislative List. In addition, the author recommends that the relevant international conventions signed by the country should be domesticated.

Effect of Entrepreneurship policies on industrialization in Selected states in South-East, Nigeria

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and enormously endowed with huge mineral resources which if properly harnessed can transform the country to one of the most economically developed countries in the world. However, the formulation and implementation of development policies by successive governments in Nigeria, had not resulted in the industrialization of the country and attainment of economic development. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in analysis of data. The study found that entrepreneurship policies F (1, 133)=2.003, Adj.R 2 = .007, P >0.05 have no significant effect on industrialization in Abia state. It also reveals that entrepreneurship policies F (1, 120)=.082, Adj. R 2 =-.008, P >0.05 have no significant effect on industrialization in Imo state. However, entrepreneurship policies F (1, 140)=30.062, Adj. R 2 =.172, P <0.05 was found to have significant effect on industrialization in Anambra state. The study recommends among others that effective implementation and constant monitoring entrepreneurship to ensure attainment of industrialization. Keywords : Entrepreneurship policies, economic development, industrialization, SMEs DOI : 10.7176/JPID/52-06 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

THEORISING THE TREASURY SINGLE ACCOUNT (TSA) IN NIGERIA

Successive governments in Nigeria have continued to operate multiple accounts for the collection and disbursing of government revenues in flagrant disregard to the provision of the constitution which requires that all government revenues be remitted into a single account. Treasury Single Account (TSA) came as a quick fix to regulating the level of accountability and transparency in the financial resources of the government of the country. Treasury Single Account (TSA) is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilization of government cash resources. Through this bank account or set of linked bank accounts, the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time. However, this paper theoretically examined Treasury Single Account in Nigeria with a view to providing the way forward for the country. In this paper, we proposed that government should engage in massive public enlightenment about the importance of the policy at all levels. Also, government should adhere to the provisions of Section 162(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) for the maintenance of Federation accounts and avoid using private contractors (SystemSpecs-Remita). Though Section 162(1) has made provisions for maintenance of Federation accounts, the legislature should look inwards and address the operational details. Furthermore, government should overhaul the capacity of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN to cope with challenges associated with enforcement of the provisions of the TSA.

Poverty among Women in Nigeria–Psychological and Economic Perspective: A Study Based On South West, Nigeria

The aim of this study is to provide an evidenced-based psychological and economic perspective on the rising level of poverty among women in Nigeria. The rationale for the study is anchored on the latest reports by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that Nigeria is now home to the largest number of poorest people in the world. Women constitute over 60% of the poorest people in Nigeria and going by the IMF statistics that Nigeria has over 87 million people in extreme poverty translates to approximately 52 million women on the clutches of extreme poverty. Although there have been efforts by successive governments in Nigeria to improve the livelihood of women in Nigeria and lift them out from poverty, the facts on the ground are not encouraging as a large number of women continues to wallow in extreme poverty. With the benefits of inter-disciplinary research that intersects at the boundaries of finance and psychology, this study investigated possible psychological factors such as job involvement, self-efficacy and goal orientation that could be implicated in this scenario. The study used survey design in two states in South Western Nigeria namely: Lagos and Ogun. 600 women (400 in Lagos and 200 in Ogun) were sampled. The sampling was cross-sectional and respondents were selected through a multi-stage purposive sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was scaled and a step-wise multiple regression was used for testing the hypothesis. Results of the analysis showed that all the explanatory variables namely: self-efficacy, goal orientation and job involvement were significant predictors of women pre-disposition to engaging in productive activities. The result showed that women who are cognitively goal oriented strives to develop skills and are more disposed to take up productive investments (job oriented). Based on these findings, the study recommended, amongst others, that efforts should be made to re-tool the approach to women development in Nigeria through skill acquisition and value reorientation.

National Urban Development Policy and the Unanswered Development Question of Slum in Nigeria

Urbanization itself is not a curse if positively managed. This is due to the current fact that there is a fundamental debate that the mobilization of human resources is critical and unavoidable for the political, socio-economic and technological transformation of any nation. Though successive governments in Nigeria have initiated the National Urban Development Policy however, the reverse is the case because the swelled urban towns and cities’ government have not made decisive efforts to meet the development demands of the city overflow which is referred to as “urban slum” that has created a sharp gap between the urban wealthy and urban poor. This paper, therefore, adopted the content analysis and Poverty-Focused Intervention Approach to analyze its major arguments. Hence, through primary and secondary data, the study presented some findings and recommendations. The research concluded with campaigns for efficient, inclusive and sustainable development of all settings of the urban sector in Nigeria.

Gender mainstreaming and attainment of sustainable development goals: does Nigeria have the political will to successfully work the talk?

Since the 1995 Beijing conference, gender mainstreaming has become a topical issue internationally. The philosophy entails bringing gender issues at the centre of societal endeavors to ensure gender equality. Nigeria, among other nations, ratified the convention that gave rise to gender mainstreaming as a veritable strategy in societal development. At the end of 2015, the UN scored Nigeria low in the attainment of the eight core Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Attainment of gender equality was one of the core goals of the MDG which supposed to make women beneficiaries of the policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the same extent as men. Successive governments in Nigeria have articulated excellent programmes such as Better Life for Rural Women and Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) to drive the process, yet none has significantly addressed the yawning gap of inequality between men and women in every sphere of life in the country. Women, compared to men, are significantly underrepresented in decision-making positions, access to education and economic resources. The paper is concerned that no sustainable development stride can be achieved in the face of the enormous gender challenge in the country. Using secondary data, the authors observe that strong political will, monitoring and evaluation, among other factors, are lacking in the implementation of gender mainstreaming in Nigeria.

Effects of trust fund model credit intervention on welfare of farmers’ households in Oyo State

Over the years, successive governments in Nigeria prioritized agricultural sector in credit policies by establishing numerous agricultural credit programmes including Trust Fund Model (TFM). Several years on, TFM production cycles have been completed and its benefits on welfare of farmers is expected to be obvious. This study therefore investigated the effects of TFM on farmers’ households’ welfare in Oyo state. Simple random sampling was used to sample 40% of the beneficiaries resulting in selection of 134 beneficiaries. Using interview schedule, data was collected on beneficiaries’ socioeconomic characteristics, level of awareness of the TFM components, constraints in accessing TFM funds and beneficiaries’ households’ welfare status. Data were analysed using descriptive (frequency, percentages and mean) and inferential (Chi square and PPMC) statistics at p=0.05. Results reveal that beneficiaries were aged 53±11.0 years, mostly male (85.2%), married (95.1%) and with household size of 6±3.0 persons. Amount of TFM funds received by beneficiaries was N295,655±154,149. Less than half (41.8%) of the respondents were highly aware of the components of TFM and were severely constrained by delay in processing of Interest Draw Back (0.74±0.88) and in release of disbursed funds (0.71±0.77). Per Capita Expenditures (PCE) of N504, 816±420,330.00k suggest that 63.9% of the respondents belonged to core poor category. It is concluded that the TFM had not impacted positively on the beneficiaries. It is therefore recommended that the administrative bottlenecks associated with fund release and processing of interest drawback be addressed. Also, amount loanable should be increased, while condition of collateral counterpart funding be relaxed. Keywords : Agricultural credit, Per capital expenditure, Core poor, Household welfare

ICT as Alternative Model for Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: An Appraisal of the Telecom Revolution

The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of ICT, particularly, the telecommunications revolution on poverty reduction in Nigeria. Using historical approach spiced with empirical observation, the paper argues that previous poverty reduction initiatives adopted by successive governments in Nigeria failed to yield the desired result because the ICT was neglected as a critical and strategic component. The paper contends that with the massive impact of the telecom revolution on the Nigerian economy as well as its remarkable contributions to poverty reduction in terms of employment generation and creation of value chains within a relatively short-time frame in Nigeria, the ICT appears to offer more viable and sustainable option to poverty reduction than previous approach. The paper concludes that to sustain the gains of the telecom revolution in Nigeria particularly in the face of increasing globalization, there must be concerted efforts by the government, development partners and indeed all stakeholders to deploy the use of ICT in all sectors of the national economy in order to enhance productivity and reduce poverty.

A Dynamic Analysis of Oil Revenue and the Performance of the Agricultural Sector in Nigeria

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The main objective of the research is to empirically investigate the relevance of oil revenue to agricultural development in Nigeria. This is important because despite the numerous efforts by successive governments to diversify the economy, the level of agricultural output still remains abysmally low. The fallen oil price in the international market also makes this research to be timely. The research covered the period between 1981 and 2014. The cointegration technique and the granger causality tests were used for the study. The result indicates that oil revenue is not statistically significant in explaining the level of economic growth. The result of the granger causality test indicates that oil revenue does not granger cause agricultural output. The result is symptomatic since it casts some doubts on the diversification policies of successive governments in Nigeria. The result recommends, amongst others concerted efforts to revamp the agricultural sector through judicious use of the dwindling oil revenue and foreign investors should be encouraged to go into the agricultural sector in Nigeria.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Human Capability and Entrepreneurial Development in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

The paper sets out to explore the link existing between the entrepreneurial interventions and human capital development in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. In order to address the major problem of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, many successive governments in Nigeria have embarked on one entrepreneurship developmental program or the other. Unfortunately, all these government efforts have failed to yield a fruitful sustainable entrepreneurial development particularly among the Niger Delta region that are mainly the target of the programs. Past studies have attributed such failure to a range of factors such as infrastructure decay and deficiency leading to poor human development, lack of proper implementation of the master plan, lack of funds, inadequacy of the master plan etc. Although, the efforts of the past studies as well as that of the developmental agencies are commendable, however, they have failed to address one important issue which is the human capability aspect of the developmental program. Therefore, this paper explores the role of human capability approach on the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship development programs within the Niger Delta region context and the political influence with a view to proposing a framework to examine the relationship between human capability and effective entrepreneurship development programs.