Intra-Elite Conflict and Problems of Governance in Nigeria: Imperatives of Games Theory in African Politics

In modern African politics terrorism and failed state syndrome have became prevalent and a challenge to democratic values and virtues of good governance posing great threat and stress to the survival of domestic political systems This increasing political stress is a product of competition and struggle for power and supremacy among players in the executive and legislative organs of government which has reduced the parliament to a rubber stamp of power seekers as well as the use of electoral violence as instruments of regime change Therefore this study seeks to examine the root cause of political struggle and problems of good governance in Africa by analyzing the variables of intra-elite crisis in the parliament and the quest for establishment of spheres of influence by players in the executive arm The rivalry between both elites has created tremendous problems of governance and the desires of incumbent presidents to elongate their tenure by using the legislature to amend the constitution to suit their third term bid as was seen in Burundi The games theory is used as a tool of analysis to describe the roles of elites in the intra-power struggle for the control of the parliament which has made modern legislatures in Africa a new theater for proxy wars of domestic power seekers resulting in the collapse of parliamentary values and the ascendency of executive authoritarianism This has made legislature in Africa weak and unstable culminating in the democratization of disempowerment of the citizens from the benefits of good governance promoting poverty political exclusion apathy and frustration Therefore we conclude that intra-elite struggle for power has provided the political mechanism for reshaping and influencing the legislative processes and powers of the parliament to satisfy the self interest of power seeker

Electoral Violence and 2015 General Elections in Nigeria

The Nigerian state is not alien to electoral violence which can be traced as far back as the pre independence elections Contestants in Nigeria can go to any length to rig and win elections even if it means to break the states monopoly of violence to deploy terror to win elections At the just concluded 2015 general elections in Nigeria the South South part of Nigeria witnessed different levels of mayhem and the destruction of lives and property On the other hand the Northern and South Western states witnessed minimal electoral violence unlike previous years where violence was more in the North To this end it is the aim of this paper to highlight how electoral violence was reduced during the 2015 general elections This paper adopted the use of secondary data in the analysis of the research However this paper concluded that the electorates in the Northern part of Nigeria and the South West aligned to the All Progressives Congress political party APC the opposition party which eased tensions but in the South South violence broke out as a result of an attempt by the opposition party to unseat the ruling party Peoples Democratic Party PDP This paper recommends that continuous voter education should be increased in order to educate people on the ills of electoral violence Also stiffer penalties should be handed down on the agents and accessories of electoral violence so as to deter others from deploying violence in future elections in Nigeri

Changing Cycles of Terrorism: The use of Vehicles as a Tool for Violent Attacks

Terrorist activities are usually carried out by men of the underworld who derive pleasure is taking the lives of innocent people through the use of car bombs suicide bombers and in rare cases sporadic shooting at crowded places These methods over the years have proved to be very effective and capital intensive with serious logistic planning and critical intelligence and evaluation of the target area before the time or date to strike However with the whole world especially the super powers on high alert the terrorists have changed their tactics and have selected a more discrete but effective method to deploy violence through the use of vehicles to ram into crowds of unsuspecting innocent people To this end this it is the aim of this paper to attempt to demonstrate how terrorist have changed their game by now using a motorized technique in their violent operations The study adopted the use of secondary data and the descriptive method in the analysis of its variables The research concluded that terrorists have adopted the use of vehicles to ram into crowded places because the method raises little or no suspicion before the attack The paper recommends that speed breakers should be installed at bus stops and also government of states need to invest in intelligence gathering and proactive to avoid such attacks in the futur

Electoral Violence and 2015 General Elections in Nigeria

The Nigerian state is not alien to electoral violence which can be traced as far back as the pre independence elections Contestants in Nigeria can go to any length to rig and win elections even if it means to break the states monopoly of violence to deploy terror to win elections At the just concluded 2015 general elections in Nigeria the South South part of Nigeria witnessed different levels of mayhem and the destruction of lives and property On the other hand the Northern and South Western states witnessed minimal electoral violence unlike previous years where violence was more in the North To this end it is the aim of this paper to highlight how electoral violence was reduced during the 2015 general elections This paper adopted the use of secondary data in the analysis of the research However this paper concluded that the electorates in the Northern part of Nigeria and the South West aligned to the All Progressives Congress political party APC the opposition party which eased tensions but in the South South violence broke out as a result of an attempt by the opposition party to unseat the ruling party Peoples Democratic Party PDP This paper recommends that continuous voter education should be increased in order to educate people on the ills of electoral violence Also stiffer penalties should be handed down on the agents and accessories of electoral violence so as to deter others from deploying violence in future elections in Nigeri

Generalization of the convex-hull-and-line traveling salesman problem

Two instances of the traveling salesman problem, on the same node set (1,2 n} but with different cost matrices C and C, are equivalent iff there exist {a, hi: -1, n} such that for any 1 _i, j _n, j, C(i, j) C(i,j) q-a -t-bj [7]. One ofthe well-solved special cases of the traveling salesman problem (TSP) is the convex-hull-and-line TSP. We extend the solution scheme for this class of TSP given in [9] to a more general class which is closed with respect to the above equivalence relation. The cost matrix in our general class is a certain composition of Kalmanson matrices. This gives a new, non-trivial solvable case of TSP

Some Necessary Conditions and a General Sufficiency Condition for the Validity of A Gilmore-Gomory Type Patching Scheme for the Traveling

One of the most celebrated polynomially solvable cases of the TSP is the Gilmore-Gomory TSP. The patching scheme for the problem developed by Gilmore and Gomory has several interesting features. Its generalization, called the GG-scheme, has been studied by several researchers and polynomially testable sufficiency conditions for its validity have been given, leading to polynomial schemes for large subclasses of the TSP. A good characterization of the subclass of the TSP for which the GG-scheme produces an optimal solution, is an outstanding open problem of both theoretical and practical significance. We give some necessary conditions and a new, polynomially testable sufficiency condition for the validity of the GG-scheme that properly includes all previously known such conditions. Key words: Traveling salesman problem, Gilmore-Gomory TSP, Patching Scheme, Polynomially solvable case

The UCI Math Circle: Building an online community of young math researchers

Transitioning the UCI Math Circle (UCIMC) to an online format has forced us to pivot our pedagogical goals from teaching specific mathematical concepts to building an online mathematical community of young scholars. Each academic quarter, we recruit math Ph.D. students, undergraduate math majors, and faculty to serve as UCIMC mentors and run small breakout rooms during each meeting. Mentors are asked to volunteer for an entire quarter, so that they have time to build bonds with participants. The curriculum, created by the Julia Robinson Math Festival, and the accompanying digital applications, allows students of all ages to engage in online mathematical explorations. Prior to each UCIMC meeting, we run a “mentor training” session where we train the mentors on how to use an inquiry-based approach to guide their students on the week’s online mathematical game or puzzle. Students are encouraged to come up with their own observations and hypotheses, as young mathematical researchers, towards understanding a mathematical investigation. With 23 sessions offered throughout the school year, and an average attendance of 50 students and 10 mentors, UCIMC is making an impact on students’ math skills, while also bringing solace and stability to youths in the pandemic, by offering a dependable once-a-week scheduled online visit with peers and college mentors. In this paper, we detail the benefits of this approach towards fostering community between and among the students and mentors, and the benefits gained by the mentors towards developing their own teaching skills. Using comparison data collected from the past several years, we describe how our novel approach has been a resounding success. The geographical reach of UCIMC has expanded, our attendance has increased, and we have been able to better retain female UCIMC students

Implementasi PCM-Companding Dan Run Length Encoding Menggunakan FPGA Untuk Perekaman Sinyal Suara Pada Modul DRAM

Data Reduction Techniques have been developed to support a complex system which produces or requires a big amount of data. Sometimes, this bulky data require more spaces other than that provided by the system's memory. So, we need a method for reducing this huge data without loosing the original information. Thus, reconstruction from the reduced data will produce the information near the same of the original. Another concern, the method should run in the real-time mode. In this paper, we discuss data reduction algorithms using Run Length Encoding method for voice signal recording which is sampled using PCM-Companding technique and being stored in Single In Line Memory Module (SIMM) DRAM. By implementing this reduction technique, the information storage capacity of the memory chips whould be sufficiently increased