Bridging the gap between non-state actors and the state in governance: Evidence from Nigeria

This paper deals essentially with how to facilitate and mainstream voices of Non-State Actors (NSAs) particularly, Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) in public policy process in Nigeria. Using library retrieval technique, the paper argues that the state and NSAs have different but coordinate roles to play within the limit allowed by law in terms of delivering to their citizenry the goods and services they need to live a meaningful life. Thus, all that is required is for both parties to realize their complementary roles and mutually reinforcing character. The paper concludes by suggesting ways of strengthening State-NSAs relationship in Nigeria

What Are The Growth Effect of Foreign Direct Investment And Trade in WAMZ

This study contributes to the debate about the impact of FDI and trade on growth using current panel data (1980-2010) from the WAMZ nations. Using a variety of modern estimation techniques, our overall findings showed that FDI has a significant positive impact on growth in the WAMZ. This impact was robust and unambiguous in all the alternative estimations that adjusted for the problem of feedback between FDI and growth as well as between trade and growth.  However, the impact of trade on growth in the WAMZ was found to be negative- a result that tends to portray current un-favorable trade composition in the zone. In conclusion, we caution that until the current trade composition (characterized by persistent trade deficits, export of primary products, overdependence on imports, etc.) is reversed, countries in WAMZ may not be able to effectively use trade to record any significant growth in their economies. Key words: WAMZ, FDI, Panel Data, Growt

Education Policy in Nigeria: the Bane of Her Practice of Functional Vocational Education

Poor policy formulation as opined by few individuals has little or no influence on the practice of functional vocational education. This paper therefore sought to find out whether it is true that policy formulation does not significantly influence the practice of functional vocational education in Nigeria as policy implementation does. Two null hypotheses and research questions respectively were formulated to guide the study. A five-point Likert Scale and a 10-item questionnaire were designed for data collection. Mean statistics was used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at an alpha level of 0.05. It was found out that policy formulation was equally a major cause of doom in the practice of functional vocational education in Nigeria. The study therefore recommended that equal degree of importance should be given to policy formulation and policy implementation

Does Government Spending Spur Economic Growth? Evidence from Nigeria

This paper investigates the impact of government spending on economic growth in Nigeria. Utilizing annual time series data from 1970 to 2010, we applied OLS technique to a modified Ram (1986)’s two-sector production growth model. Overall, our results show that at the aggregate level, government spending in Nigeria is growth promoting, although the impact is very small and less than unity (0.16%). At the disaggregated level, only recurrent spending is significantly and positively related to growth, while the impact of capital spending is negative and insignificant. Since this is contrary to conventional wisdom and economic theory, we posit that the result should cautiously be interpreted as a special case for the Nigerian economy, which is not only characterized by poor institutional quality and corruption but also with a very weak capital infrastructural base.  Thus, the paper submits that for a robust growth, recurrent spending may still be necessary but government may also need to re-adjust its spending priorities to accommodate capital spending. Doing this would not only complements and improve the competitiveness of private sector productivity but may also corrects for the observed insignificant and negative impact of the variable on Nigeria’s economic growth. Keywords: Nigeria, economic growth, recurrent and capital spendin

Foliage yield of fluted pumpkin (telfairia occidentalis hook f.) As influenced by organic manure and cutting frequencies on soil of calabar, nigeria.

Field experiment was conducted in the 2019 and 2020 early cropping seasons at the University of Calabar Teaching and Research Farm, Calabar, to assess the foliage yield of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis Hook F.) as affected by organic manure and cutting frequency on soil of Calabar. The experiment was a factorial combination of four poultry manure rates (0, 3, 6 and 9 tonnes per hectare) and three cutting frequency (2, 3 and 4 weekly intervals), laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data were collected on vine length, number of leaves, internode length, fresh leaves, dry matter weights and soil physico-chemical properties, and analyzed. Significant means were compared using Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (FLSD) at 5 % probability. Results indicated that the sand proportions decreased after harvest while the silt and clay proportions, the soil pH, total nitrogen, organic carbon, organic matter, potassium, magnesium, effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) and base saturation all increased after harvest in both cropping years. There were significant (p <.0. 05) effects of PM, cutting frequency and their interactions on vine length, number of leaves, internode length, fresh leaves and leaves dry matter weights in both years of study. Plots treated with 9 t/ha of PM produced the longest vines, higher number of leaves, heavier fresh leaf and leaf dry matter. This was followed by plots treated with 6 t/ha of PM while the lowest was the plot with zero PM treatment. Foliage harvest at 3-weekly cut intervals produced the highest cumulative number of leaves, fresh leaf and leaf dry matter weights, followed by the 4-weekly cut intervals while the lowest was the 2-weekly cut intervals. The interaction of 9 t/ha PM with 3-weekly cut intervals produced the best effect and is therefore recommended

Impact force of melon seeds during shelling

Melon seeds are shelled in a rotating impeller – a type of machine to obtain the cotyledons.  The seeds exit the impeller and impact a cylindrical ring shelling the seeds.  Because of the impact force, some of the seeds are broken, which would deteriorate in storage and make lower market value.  An analytical method was used to determine the factors affecting the impact force on the ring.  Experimental compression tests were carried out to determine the static force for breaking melon seeds.  Some seeds were also shelled with an experimental shelling machine and the number of broken seeds was counted. Analysis results showed that the factors affecting the impact force were impeller speed, seed cross-section area at impact and mass ratio.  The mean forces for breaking melon seeds were 13.14×10-3 N, 19.62×10-3 N and 19.55×10-3 N for orientations of breadthwise, lengthwise with tip up and lengthwise with tip down respectively.Keywords: impact force, melon seeds, shelling, analysis Citation: Okokon F. B., E. Ekpenyong, C. Nwaukwa, N. Akpan, and F. I. Abam.  Impact force of melon seeds during shelling.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010, 12(1): 182-188.&nbsp

Effects of Solid State Fermentation on some Physicochemical and Nutritional Properties of Post-Harvest Cowpea (Virgna unguiculata (L)Walp) Leavesv

The effects of solid state fermentation on some physical characteristics, proximate and amino acid profile of post-harvest cowpea (Virgna unguiculata (L) Walp) leaves were investigated. Pulverized samples of the post-harvest materials were incubated at 260C for 96 hours, followed by urea and trichloroacetic acid treatments. Triplicate samples of fermented and unfermented materials were subjected to standard procedures to determine variations in weight, pH, proximate and amino acids profile. There was a reduction in weight, which was significant (p<0.05) with increase in fermentation time. pH stabilized at 6.62 and 6.65 at 96 hours of fermentation (HOF), before and after urea treatment, respectively. Fermented samples showed significant increase (p<0.05) in crude protein (37.30%), crude fat (95.69%), total ash (75.73%) and nitrogen- free extract (NFE) (5.00%) over the unfermented ones. However there were percentage reductions in crude fibre (46.60%) and moisture content (61.95%) after fermentation. The Total Amino Acids (TAA) increased from 49.64 ± 0.87 to 98.90 ± 1.70 with a general increase in all amino acids except proline and cysteine having 12.72% and 10.06% as percentage reductions, respectively. Some essential amino acids (methionine, phenylalanine and tyrosine) and non-essential amino acids (serine and proline) were limiting. The findings unveiled the feed supplement potentials of the fermented materials for use in livestock and pharmaceutical industries in Nigeria. Keywords: Fermentation, Nutritional Value, Post-Harvest, Cowpe

Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in Nigeria: Beyond the Environmental Kuznets Curve

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is a presumption that environmental degradation follows an inverted U-shaped trajectory in relation to economic growth. The thorny question of whether economic growth could provide a cure to environmental degradation has sparked off a large body of empirical studies in the last decade. The conclusions have been mixed. This study contributes to the debate on the existence and policy relevance of the EKC for Nigeria by applying autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework to annual time series data from 1960 to 2008. The traditional EKC model is extended by including (in addition to the level, square and cubed values of the income variable), trade openness as well as the shares of manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors in Nigeria’s GDP. Using Co2 emissions per capita to proxy environmental degradation, our findings do not support the existence of the EKC hypothesis. Rather our results show that Nigeria’s situation when confronted with data is exemplified by an N-shaped relationship with a turning point at $77.27 that lies below the data set used for the study. Based on these findings, the paper posit that the hypothesized EKC serves as a dangerous policy guide to solving environmental problems in Nigeria. The conclusion is that to ensure sustainability, there exist an urgent need to look beyond the EKC by adopting courageous policy measures of environmental preservation in Nigeria irrespective of the country’s level of income

Environmental Quality and Economic Growth: A Panel Analysis of the "U" in Kuznets

The primary motivation behind this study was to search for evidence of the link between environmental quality and economic growth so as to answer the relevant question of whether economic growth alone could serve as a long-run solution to environmental damage as implied by EKC hypothesis. Here we analyze the relationship using a panel of 47 countries over the period 1970 -2008. Using Random-effect estimation and two-stage least square, our results leads to the following conclusions: relying on a quadratic model can easily mislead researchers to ratify the existence of EKC; the EKC hypothesis ceased to hold whenever an alternative functional form (cubic) is employed. At best, the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality is shown to be typified by an N-shaped curve. The paper maintained that simply waiting for an automatic arrival of a delinking point for environmental damage given long-run growth will not be a feasible solution to environmental quality. A number of feasible policy menu and critical questions to guide selection of the best instrument capable of bringing about a downturn in environmental damage have been suggested in the paper

Evaluation of climate variability impact on sources of water supply

Climate is a key factor in water availability and accessibility on both the earth surface and below the earth surface. The study evaluated climate variability impact on sources of water supply in Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria. The study utilized both primary and secondary source of data. Household proximity to water sources was computed using the percentages of household that falls within the basic indicator for measuring water access by World Health Organization. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between the climatic variables and water supply; and groundwater level in the study area. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was employed to establish the association between climate and water supply; and groundwater level. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between water supply and the selected climatic variables. Trend analysis was used to determine the trend of the selected climatic variables in the study area. The result revealed that rainfall amount, minimum and maximum temperature, and evaporation exhibit an upward trend which are not statistically significant. The fluctuating trend in these climatic variables, though not statistically significant are probably related to the already established changes in climatic parameters in Nigeria. The result also showed that the spatial distributions of public boreholes in the study area are heterogeneous in nature. The study recommended that the clustering of water sources, especially the shallow wells should be discouraged to avoid over abstraction of groundwater in the study area