CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: A STUDY OF ROGER MAKANJUOLA’S ‘WATER MUST FLOW UPHILL: ADVENTURES IN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION’

Conflict is a fact of life. The tongue-and-mouth dialectical discourse in Yoruba proverb typifies the inevitability of dissonance and dissension in a complex social system. Socialization, therefore, whether primary, anticipatory, professional or re-socialization, is fraught with conflicts. Ideological contestation over socioeconomic policies forms the basis of conflicts in the university in Nigeria. Conflicts in Nigeria has its antecedents in the colonial era (Bakare, K.A., 2021). A scenario of contest is ever constant, when the leadership is perceived as a comprador capitalist by the followership. At the basis of every trade union in Nigeria is the determination to rebuff exploitative capitalism. The university with its demographics, proxemics and vast municipal requirements is prone to conflict in an expansive proportion. Having noted that conflict is a constant variable, it is important to zero down on its management, its mismanagement and its resolution, situating it within a concrete context. In our attempt to show the nuances of conflict in the university estate, we have opted to study realistic episodes of conflicts as captured by a former Chief Medical Director cum Vice-Chancellor of a foremost university in Nigeria. The book, ‘Water must flow uphill’ is an experiential rendition of the abecedarian precepts of leadership and management in two complex organizations. It is a fluid and transparent expose on ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’ manage conflicts in large organizations. Its turbulence, wisdom, severity and chicaneries exemplify the coarse nature of leadership in Nigerian universities and allied estates, as experienced by a viciously honest personality. Militancy, mismanagement, honesty of purpose, leadership botherations; all form the themes of a book which stands out in its attempt to capture unbiased facts. It is a definitive statement on the need for moral and ethical re-alignment in the Nigerian workspace, and the larger society.  Article visualizations

VISION, MISSION AND THE 21ST CENTURY NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Marketing big organizations requires deep thinking and extraction of the essence in a nutshell fashion. It is an exercise in epiphany, that projects thinking and motivation as guides towards value-adding; what underlines the renowned ‘Yo shinai, Yo kangai’ Japanese philosophy, popularized by the Toyota Motor Company. The ‘good thinking, good product’ statement is a philosophy that is self-sustaining, needing the energy to drive the market, and sell its potentials to prospective clients. A new economic paradigm has emerged in the Nigerian university space as a result of recent proliferation of private universities. This development which encourages healthy rivalry and competitiveness calls for a compulsory revision and re-modelling of vision and mission statements for some universities, to project values and drive market orientation in an expansive client-based knowledge economy. In an economy harboring 43 Federal universities, 48 State universities, and 79 Private universities, the competition is getting stiffer by the day, and the contest between the traditional first generation universities and the avant-garde private universities is widening. The government-owned public universities have to catch up with the ideals of modernity and global competitiveness presented by the 21st century. A population of over 200 million people provides a vibrant market for university business. In this study, we shall probe the relevance of vision and mission as structuring principles in the Nigerian university space, and interrogate their perspectives on goals and objectives in a developing nation. We shall seek to know how realistic the statements are, given contextual challenges, and given that the statements in some instances, show obvious misunderstanding of basic meanings and expected functions of vision and mission statements. We shall posit that lack of proper setup of the structuring pattern is comparable to a derailed locomotive heading for oblivion. Drawing from a few number of concrete examples, we shall conclude by reiterating the importance of getting the foundation right to be able to revolutionize and reposition our universities. Article visualizations

RE-WRITING THE PARADIGMS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

From eutaxy to entropy. In recent times, it has become a consistent phenomenon not to expect to see a Nigerian University feature in the first one thousand position in the world ranking of universities. This is a red flag that should bother all stakeholders in the Nigeria’s education sector. History has it that in the 1960’s, through to early 80’s Nigerian universities were among the trailblazers in the world. It is a known fact that universities in this part of the world had exhibited unrivalled merits and scholarship at inception and had occupied the top echelon of academic practice in Africa and the world, producing world-class scholars and professionals. Our universities today struggle for recognition in Africa, especially in the public purview where they once excelled with seamless efforts. Could this be as a result of epistemic impasse caused by abject disregard for excellence which had suddenly set in on the part of those who were supposed to teach knowledge, research knowledge and market knowledge? Or as a result of other factors extrinsic to the universities that had wrought this pestilence and had brought about a pernicious decline both in academic and administrative activities? Whatever the case may be, it is obvious that urgent measures should be introduced to reverse this obnoxious trend. Article visualizations

Performance evaluation of 200W solar photovoltaic panel considering Bauchi microclimatic conditions

Measurement and modeling of broadband and spectral terrestrial solar radiation is important for the evaluation and deployment of solar renewable energy systems. This paper focuses on optimizing the performance of 200W solar module taking into consideration the local climatic conditions of Bauchi locality. The uncertainty in life cycle savings for solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) systems as linearly correlated with uncertainty in solar resource data. These uncertainties paved way for the need to conduct a critical assessment of the resource. Assessment of the solar resource for these technologies rely upon measured data, where available. In this paper, we present the development of mathematical model of photovoltaic solar cells based on their detailed single diode equivalent circuit representation. Pertinent simulation models for PV solar module both for an ideal weather situation and for taking into consideration the effects of microclimatic conditions that prevail in Bauchi as evaluated and compared with benchmarks available. The complete model of the PV system was implemented using MATLAB/Simulink platform. The standard characteristic curves for the 200W solar panel are as presented. The simulation of the ideal PV system made use of standard test conditions (STC) to facilitate comparison with the existing benchmark results in the literature. The analysis of the characteristics performance curves returned an average VOC = 42.9v and ISC = 4.21A. The simulation results further revealed that the power delivered by the 200W monocrystalline solar module of 144.3W @620W/m2, 35ºC as recorded for Bauchi under all climatic conditions as evaluated. The benchmark values obtained in the laboratory are VOC = 45.5V, ISC = 5.92A and 200-W under the Standard test condition (STC) conditions of cell temperature 25ºC, solar irradiance of 1000W/m2 and air mass (AM) of 1.5. The average conversion efficiency and fill factor as evaluated are 0.77 and 16% respectively. This result agrees with the benchmark of module efficiency of >15.66% recorded at STC. The results conclusively reveal that the microclimate of a locality essentially affects the performances of solar PV systems deployed to each location on the globe. Therefore, utilization of these parameters is essential for consideration in the design of solar systems in all localities

Investigating groundwater pollution at an open dumpsite using 2D geoelectrical resistivity imaging and vertical electrical sounding

Geoelectrical resistivity survey has been conducted within the Kurata dump site in Ota, south-western Nigeria. This present study focuses on the use of 2D resistivity imaging and Vertical Electrical Sounding to delineate conductive leachate point and degree of movement within the subsurface for conceivable groundwater pollution. The 2D resistivity survey was carried out using the ABEM Terrameter (SAS 1000/4000) System with multiple-gradient array electrode configuration. The Vertical Electrical Sounding was conducted using the schlumberger electrode configuration. One 2-D imaging profile of length 100m and one Vertical Electrical Sounding of length 200m were acquired on the established traverse. The resistivity data was inverted utilizing RES2DINV and WinResist to obtain the inverse model resistivity distribution. The 2D inverse resistivity models of the subsurface showed that the study site has a multi-layered aquifer system, four geoelectrical layers were inferred from the resistivity imaging and they are lateritic clay, clayey sand, sandy clay and coarse sand units. There is one aquifer system about 13 m which is highly polluted. The unpolluted aquifer system is localized around 19 m with inverted resistivity range 498Ωm – 685Ωm in the traverse. Also there might be conceivable sullying of deep groundwater system in the long term if appropriate moderation procedures are not thought about at the area

Comparison of PSO and GA for K-Node Set Reliability Optimization of a Distributed System

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), as a novel evolutionary computing technique, has succeeded in many continuous problems, but quite a little research on discrete problem especially combinatorial optimization problem has been reported. In this paper, a discrete PSO algorithm is proposed to solve a typical combinatorial optimization problem: K-Node Set Reliability (KNR) optimization of a distributed computing system (DCS) which is a well-known NP-hard problem is presented. It computes the reliability of a subset of network nodes of a DCS such that the reliability is maximized and specified capacity constraint is satisfied. The feasibility of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated on 8 nodes 11 links DCS topology. The test results are compared with those obtained by the genetic algorithm (GA) method in terms of solution quality and convergence characteristics. Experimental study shows that the proposed PSO algorithm can achieve good results

Reactive Power and Voltage Control of the Nigerian Grid System using Micro-Genetic Algorithm

In this paper, a micro-genetic based approach to the optimization of reactive power and voltage profiles improvement and real power loss minimization is presented. The reactive power control devices such as generators, tap positions of on-load tap changer of transformers, shunt reactors are used to correct voltage limits violations while simultaneously reducing the system real power losses. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are well-known global search techniques anchored on the mechanisms of natural selection and genetics. Because of the time intensive nature of the conventional GA, the micro-GA is proposed as a more time efficient alternative. The feasibility and effectiveness of the developed algorithm is tested and verified on the Nigerian grid power system for three case studies scenarios preset in the power world simulator. The far-reaching simulation results that validate the effectiveness of the developed tool are presented and discussed in depth

Genetic Algorithms Based Economic Dispatch with Application to Coordination of Nigerian Thermal Power Plants

The main focus of this paper is on the application of genetic algorithm (GA) to search for an optimal solution to a realistically formulated economic dispatch (ED) problem. GA is a global search technique based on principles inspired from the genetic and evolution mechanism observed in natural biological systems. A major drawback of the conventional GA (CGA) approach is that it can be time consuming. The micro-GA (µGA) approach has been proposed as a better time efficient alternative for some engineering problems. The effectiveness of CGA and µGA. to solving ED problem is initially verified on an IEEE 3-generating unit, 6-bus test system. Simulation results obtained on this network using CGA and µGA validate their effectiveness when compared with the published results obtained via the classical and the Hopfield neural network approaches. Finally, both GA approaches have been successfully applied to the coordination of the Nigerian 31-bus system fed by four thermal and three hydro generating units. Herein, use has been made of the loss formula developed for the Nigerian system from several power flow studies. For the Nigerian case study, the µGA. is shown to exhibit superior performance than the CGA from both optimal generation allocations and computational time viewpoints

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF 1 kW HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINE FOR RESIDENTIAL USE IN ABEOKUTA

The conventional energy sources are mainly use in Nigeria to generate electricity and yet, there is a critical challenge of electric power deficit. Therefore, design, modeling and simulation of 1 kW horizontal axis wind turbine as alternative power supply for residential use is considered. This paper presents the design, modeling and simulation of horizontal axis type wind turbine with power output of 1 kW at a wind speed of 4 m/s. Analysis of wind power capacity in W/m2 was done based on the obtained wind data using Weibull probability distribution function. The results showed that the average exploitable wind power density between 4 W/m2 and 14.97 W/m2 was realizable. The wind turbine blades were modeled using blade element momentum theory. The rotational speed of the blades was increased by using airfoil. Mathematical equations were used to determine the tip speed ratio, lift and drag forces and the power output.  The MATLABTM AND SIMULINKTM scientific computer program was used to simulate the model of the wind turbine. The model with its required input parameters, pitch angle, rotational speed of the rotor, angle of attack, and wind speed were varied above and below its actual settings. The results showed that when the parameters were decreased, there was no power output and with the parameters values above the actual settings, the output power was increased to 2.5 kW at a wind speed of 8 m/s and generator speed of 620 rpm. The capacity is small and it is affordable for many household applications in Nigeria

Computational Enhancement of Genetic Algorithm Via Control Device Pre-Selection Mechanism for Power System Reactive Power/Voltage Control

In this paper, the application of a novel and computationally enhances genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the reactive power dispatch problem is presented. In order to attain a significant reduction in the computational time of GA, a systematic procedure of reactive power control device pre-selection mechanism is herein proposed to choose a-priori subsets of the available control devices, which maximally influence buses experiencing voltage limit violations. The GA reactive power dispatch module then accesses such judiciously pre-selected control device candidates to determine their optimal settings. A pragmatic scheme aimed at further curtailing the number of the final control actions entertained is also set forth. The far-reaching simulation results obtained for two case study scenarios using the proposed algorithmic procedures on a German utility network of Duisburg, replicated on an operator-training simulator, are presented and fully discussed in depth