ANALYSIS OF THE COST OF GOVERNANCE AND OPTIONS FOR ITS REDUCTION IN NIGERIA

Government at any given level and over a defined territory can be treated as a typical example of a natural monopoly in the sense that only one can exist at any particular time. Thus, the traditional theories of costs and monopoly can be very useful in the analysis of the cost structure of government. Like any other unchecked private monopoly, government and by extension governance, can produce sub-optimal units of public good in which it has comparative advantage. Depending on the resources at its disposal and the tax-elasticity of public goods, massive deadweight costs, among others, often result from a high cost governance structure. This paper explores the effects of destructive political competition. It suggests constitutional provisions that will guarantee true separation of powers, restructure the mechanism of governance to, among other measures, limit the size of the cabinet to reduce the high cost of governance in Nigeria

Labour Market Outcome of 1976 Universal Primary Education in Nigeria

In this study attempt to estimate the impact of schooling attainment on an important indicator of labour market performance: wealth. OLS and IV regressions produced economically and statistically significant estimates, with OLS estimate of about 18 percent and IV estimate of about 30 percent when pooled DHS is used and about 56 percent when HNLSS data are employed. We have no evidence that OLS estimates are an artifact of the way the dependent variable is constructed or influential observations are driving observed outcome. In our IV regression specification, econometric tests prove that instrument is strong. Indicative and formal tests of instrument validity such as addition of new relevant variables, falsification tests, plausibly exogenous test and over-identification test are proofs of instrument validity. A number of econometric strategies implemented indicate that influential observations and selective migration are not biasing our results

POLITICAL SELECTION METHOD FOR AFRICAN DEMOCRACIES

This essay, having identified the failure of political leadership as the bane of economic development and democracy in Africa, has outlined mechanisms for selecting high quality leaders into public office. In the first stage of the screening process, certain elements of costs are imposed on the intending politicians so as to deter the entry of dishonest politicians into politics. This is accomplished via the inverse relationship between the degree of honest and the costs of participation. The unique thing is that separating equilibrium that makes participation costs zero for honest individuals and heavy for their dishonest counterparts could in principle be obtained. Interestingly the mechanisms that generate information about the past of intending politicians also impose heavy costs on groups which supply this information

LONG RUN LEADERSHIP PRODUCTION AND SELECTION MODEL FOR DEMOCRACIES IN AFRICA

Within the broad agenda of economic development, we suggest a model of leadership production and selection which shows how the optimal number of people required to bridge the gap between actual and potential economic performance could be raised and selected into public office. The honesty and competence of those selected helps to overcome the considerable inertial against take-off of economic development by inculcating common values in peoples from across diverse groups. By imbibing common norms through the school system, we generate economics of scale which otherwise would not be available in scattered, self-governing and well-run communities. The selection process uses the school system to make social progress an important leadership concern and economic advancement an important part of individual utility function. In generating this special breed through the school system, the incompetent individuals are screened out from the competent individuals as well as the honest from the dishonest ones. The honest individuals are sorted into three ability categories for public governance for the three tiers of government in democratic societies. The ultimate aim is to motivate every family towards producing individuals whose characters and competences are compatible with the requirements of developmental states