Nigeria's Cobweb of Corruption and the path to Underdevelopment

Corruption in Nigeria has grown slowly from the time of pre-independence and it has surely taken over Nigerians’ public and private spaces in the last five decades with compelling evidences to show first among the legislative, the executives and recently the judicial arms of government as well as the unexpected quarters in the private sectors such as the Stock Exchange. This paper highlights several factors and institutions in Nigerian society that have sustained and entrenched corrupt practices by government officials and high profile private sectors participants. The institutions identified here are regarded as eaters of corruption proceeds around which a cobweb of corruption has been weaved by the corrupt public/private individuals to create a network under the control of the grandfather- spider of corruption (The federal government); the father- spiders (the state government) and the children- spider ( the local governments spread across the Nigerian society). The paper concludes that corruption is a national thing in Nigeria and that the over centralization and the control of means of survival by the grandfather spider has weakened almost all major institutions in the Nigerian society; created a Master- Servant, Lordship and Serfs relationship, which if not re-structured will continue to sustain corruption and perpetuate further development of underdevelopment of the Nigeria Scale and Society. Therefore, Nigerians should shun corruption and see it as a major problem to development in Nigeria.Key Words: Corruption, underdevelopment, cobweb, leaders, masses, Nigeri

Spartan Daily, November 21, 1988

Volume 91, Issue 56https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7782/thumbnail.jp

The edge observed : island landscape for a marine biology facility

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Includes bibliographical references (p. 70).This thesis explores the concept of edges through observation and design. The intent of the observation/design is to understand and to illustrate possibilities for design that will enrich the experience of the built environment. For a building to start having reciprocal relationships with inside and outside territories, its structure and skin configurations must not be only one sided containments, but begin to engage in two-sided dialogues between interior and exterior spaces. The possibility of overlap between individual parts, between the relationship of inside and outside and between the object and the ground it occupies is observed through Japanese vernacular buildings and their gardens and through the buildings and canals of Venice. Plans, sections and photo images are used as a way to become conscious of the characteristics that help make these places a total assemblage, with pieces in a coherent relationship to one another and to their site. The design of a Marine Biology Facility on an island affords an opportunity to test out and explore the observation studies. The island exists in a landscape context that has clearly defined edge conditions. A harmony is sought that interprets the natural landscape and transforms it in such a way that there is a reciprocity and interaction with the built. Orientation, views and landscape considerations all provide generators for an architectural response that engages the built world and the natural world in a tensioned relationship that defines the edge zones.by Geraldine A. Stringer.M.Arch

Impaired consent to the splitting of superannuation contributions: Issues, impact and potential solutions

The Australian superannuation system seeks to ensure that individuals have income in retirement. The government implemented the superannuation contributions splitting scheme to allow spouses to share their superannuation with each other. The scheme was intended to provide low-income and non-working spouses with superannuation assets under their control. This was expected to benefit women in particular. However, there is a risk that the scheme will operate to the detriment of spouses and jeopardise their financial position in retirement. There is a lack of safeguards to protect spouses from applying to split their contributions where their decision is not free, informed or independent. Further, imposing the scheme’s application process into the superannuation system’s trust structure has caused a dissociation between the legal and practical decision maker under the scheme. These issues are particularly detrimental in light of the heightened risk of vitiated consent between spouses for financial decisions. This thesis seeks to examine these issues and their impact and propose potential solutions to prevent the scheme operating to spouses’ detriment and remedy the situation where it occurs. It is argued that the scheme does not sufficiently protect spouses’ interests. It is also argued that the dissociation between the legal and practical decision maker exposes trustees to potential liability and leaves spouses without a clear avenue of recourse where their contributions are transferred in circumstances of impaired consent. Thus, both the trustees and spouses are left in a difficult position under the scheme. As a result, despite the government’s intentions, the contributions splitting scheme may disadvantage, rather than benefit, vulnerable spouses

Window on Western, 2000, Volume 07, Issue 01

https://cedar.wwu.edu/window_on_western/1017/thumbnail.jp

Stochastic Modelling of the Banking Sector of the Nigerian Stock Market

We investigate empirical finance issues: stylized facts, market efficiency, anomaly, bubble and volatility, characterizing stock prices of sixteen (16) Nigerian banks in the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE) from June 1999 to December 2014, encompassing periods of financial and banking reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 2007-2009 global financial crisis witnessed by the Nigerian financial system. Both daily and monthly returns are examined and compared. Various financial and stochastic time series methods are applied to these series. These include a variety of initial plots, tests and models. The tests include: Jarque-Bera and a host of other normality tests; Ljung-Box (Q) test of autocorrelation; Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF), Phillip-Peron, and KPSS tests; variance ratio test, BDS tests, runs test for Random Walk, unit root and market efficiency tests; Duration dependent test and appropriate GARCH families of models. The results are compared to the existing literature for other countries and also other studies in Nigeria but at the market index level. The results largely reveal that while in some cases about 90% of the banks behave uniformly with respect to some of the concepts, in most other cases their behaviour differs significantly depending on the concepts investigated. Also, it is found that while the results of this study agree in a few cases with some of the outcomes of the overall market level - for example, the banking industry is largely weak-form inefficient in most other circumstances, there are marked differences. Specifically, unlike at the overall market level, bubbles were identified in some of the banks and only two anomalies such as January-holiday and turn-of the-month were found with most of the banks. Therefore, a good understanding of how each bank reacted to different scenarios is identified. This should form a basis upon which good investment decisions could be made. This also provides a good understanding of which bank is performing well or at risk, so that appropriate decisions that would enhance the performance of the banking market are made by market regulators

2010 Annual Report & Accounts

report detailing Wema\u27s recapitalizatio

Transitions in domestic architecture and home culture in twentieth century Iran

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 296-320).This dissertation explores the transformation of the Iranian home in twentieth century Iran. While surveying the socio political underpinnings and aesthetic ends of domesticity in Iranian culture from the early twentieth century through the first two decades of the revolution, this study also examines the impact of the Cold War on the daily life of Iranians. A showcase for the West's humanitarian efforts in the region, the "reform" of the Iranian home was first brought about by missionaries, architects, and other foreign parties. They engaged in a hybrid dialogue that helped bring about a reconfiguration of houses, home cultures, and behaviors and tastes in domestic life. The Point IV Program of the Truman administration exported American home life by establishing home economics schools for Iranian girls. Subsequently, the Iranian domestic market was flooded with a plethora of new home goods. The influx of new spaces and goods raised questions about the authenticity of Shiite daily life, indigenous taste, consumer culture, and gender relations. Since 1979 the focus on Iran's internal politics and its foreign relations has distracted attention from more subtle transformations, which took place prior to and in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. By looking at the roles and opinions of religious scholars, the Left, and the revolutionary elites this study can also be seen as one that re-examines the history of Iran's revolution through the lens of the everyday and private lives of people.(cont.) Subsequently, this dissertation details the ways in which new ideas regarding the relationship between public and private spaces were put forward by numerous architects, urban planners, and cultural critics both during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979) and in the two decades following the revolution. Finally, it shows how, since 1979, Iranians have contested the dichotomies of "public" and "private" as manifested in the Islamic Republic's texts, images, and actual physical spaces. Towards this end, this dissertation explores the interplay between foreign influences, religious rhetoric, gender roles, economic factors, and education as they intersect with taste, fashion, and architecture.by Z. Pamela Karimi.Ph.D