Assessment of traditional procurement system in Nigeria: key challenges and proposed solutions

Traditional procurement system is commonly used in Nigerian construction industry. However; despite the wide choice of other procurement system, there are numerous of key challenges that affects cost, time and quality of completed project. This challenge contributes negatively to both parties namely clients and contractor. To date, there are limited works that assess the key challenges of traditional procurement system in Nigeria which hinders the proposition of possible solutions to the problems. Hence, this research aims to identify the key challenges that are associated with traditional procurement in Nigerian construction industry with a view to identify areas of weakness and propose a solution. It also involves identification of the most frequent use of traditional procurement system. Structured questionnaire was distributed to 136 contractors that actively participated in the construction industry with 78 percent response rate. The use of mean, ranking, correlation and analysis of variance were used to analyses the data. The result shows that all the challenges have a significant relationship with the open tendering method. Further analysis also show that all the key challenges: Cost certainty, Time certainty, Build ability and Fragmentation of organizational interface have a significant relationship with one another. All the formulated solutions such as creation of unified project team, improvement in line of communication, early participation of contractor in design stage were found to be related to all the individual challenges and are therefore, suitable in overcoming all the key challenges

Economic assessment of biomass gasification technology in providing sustainable electricity in Nigerian rural areas.

Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) in general, and biomass source in particular, remains one of the means of providing sustainable electricity to rural areas in developing countries. This is because of its strategic value in identifying when and where electricity is really required thus, reducing/eliminating the high cost of grid network. The majority of Nigeria's rural dwellers are farmers and use little or none of their residues at the end of the farming season. Nigeria has also been experiencing dwindling power supply at both national and rural level with accessibility representing only 35% and 10% respectively. The rural areas are the most affected causing significant disruption of their socio-economic settings. Considering the enormous biomass resources in these communities, and they constitute approximately 65% of the country's total population, it is feasible to provide sustainable electricity to these communities through Biomass Gasification Technology (BGT). Cost has been found to be the major constraint in adopting RETs. Hence, this paper aims to evaluate and optimise the unit cost of generating electricity through BGT in Nigerian rural areas. Whole Life Costing approach has been used to evaluate various capacities of BGT. The findings reflect that cost/kW of BGT ranges between US{dollar}594(NGN118, 800)-US{dollar}3,604(NGN720,800) for capacities between 125kW-10kW. The Net Present Value(NPV)/kWh of generating electricity has been calculated for several scenarios including 125kW, 100kW, 50kW, 32kW, 24kW and 10kW system capacities under 3 different operational hours (8, 12 and 16), with and without feed-in tariff(FIT) incentive is from US{dollar}0.015-US{dollar}0.11(NGN3.08-N21.79). The only scenario that exceeds the current unit price of generating electricity from fossil fuel source in Nigeria which is averagely US{dollar}0.083(NGN16.50) is 8 hour operation without FIT at 10kW capacity. More so, in the event fuel wood price increases by 50%, 75% and 100%, the average increase in NPV/kWh will be 13%, 20% and 27% respectively

Graphical Techniques of Presentation of Hydro-Chemical Data

Water is vital to man’s existence and early human civilizations centered on springs and streams for their day to day activities with water which is vital for survival. Throughout history, people around the world have used groundwater as a source of drinking water and even today, more than half of the world’s population depends on groundwater for survival. Pure water does not exist in nature due to various interactions between the geologic Formation as well as atmospheric gases such as Carbon dioxide and Oxygen, hence the need for chemical analysis of water. Determination of concentration of various ions is one major form of chemical analysis. Because of the number of ions involved, it is usually more convenient to present the results in graphical forms for easy understanding of the water samples analyzed. There are several methods of graphical presentation which includes Bar Chart, Pie Chart, Stiff Diagram, Schoeller Diagram, Piper Diagram and Scattered Plots.  For instance Bar chart, Pie Chart, Stiff Diagram are good for small numbers of chemical data, whereas the Schoeller, Piper Diagrams and Scattered Plots are suitable for presentation of results for large numbers of chemical data. Keywords: Groundwater, Hydrochemistry, Graphical, Molality and Water typ

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy: The Role of Traditional Versus Alternative Approach

Hypnosis is a state of mind that is characterized by focused attention and heightened receptivity for suggestions. It is either established by compliance with instructions or achieved naturally; the critical nature of the mind is bypassed during hypnosis and acceptable suggestions are delivered. Misperceptions about hypnosis by clinical practitioners and their clients have been shaped through years of inaccurate but interesting portrayals of hypnosis in books, plays, and movies. Part of the misperceptions is that individuals with seemingly magical powers to manipulate the unsuspecting innocent with their authoritative voice commands and penetrating eyes are depicted as hypnotists. This chapter will review the traditional and conventional approaches used in hypnosis, their advantages and disadvantages as well as where hypnosis is used as a complementary or alternative therapy to the modern day orthodox medicine. Despite the pejorative image display of hypnosis and misconceptions surrounding it, hypnosis still has numerous applications in contemporary medicine. Hypnotherapy conducted by a trained therapist is considered as a complementary or safe alternative to present day orthodox medication for numerous ailments

Globalization and Indigenous Public Policies in Nigeria

This research attempts a critical examination of the impact of globalization on indigenous public policy in Nigeria.Globalization demands that countries must obviously open their borders to allow easy flow and movement of goods and services. This condition, therefore, demands that Nigeria must adjust her indigenous public policy mechanism and apparatus to accommodate the movement of these goods and services. With effect of globalization on Nigeria in both political, economical and technological aspects etc the research findings conclude that globalization itself is not a strong predictor of indigenous public policies in Nigeria.  The research employed the use of questionnaire to collect primary data and documentary research method was utilized to collect secondary data

Civil Service and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

The aim of this research work is to critically examine the two concepts the Civil Service and Sustainable Development in Nigeria.  Civil Service performed services such implementation of government policies and programmes, promoting unity, sustainable and equitable economic growth among others.  Sustainable Development demands that quality of human life, availability of resources for current and future generations be sustained.  The methodology employed by the research work is questionnaire survey design to collect primary data.  The research study found that there is no significant relationship between civil service and sustainable development in Nigeria.  Some of the recommendations of the research work include need for the government to give more training, motivation and so on to win the confidence of the civil service

Evaluation on the effectiveness of the use of Management Information System (MIS) by students of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai. Niger State

This study investigated the effectiveness of the use of management information system (MIS) by students of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai. Specifically, four research questions guided the study such as what are the factors influencing the need for management information system to students in Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai? How effective is management information system to students in Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai in terms of e-learning, e-accounting, e-administration, records keeping and e-communication? It adopted a descriptive survey design and had a population of 845 undergraduate students in the department of business administration Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai. The study used two hundreds undergraduate students through simple random sampling in business administration department. Two hundred (200) copies of the questionnaire were distributed with one hundred and seventy (170) returned; representing a return rate of 85%. The data collected were analyzed using percentages. The findings of the study revealed that there is need for management information system for effective records keeping of both students and staff files, the effectiveness of management information system has helped in the smooth running of university records, the challenges of management information system are lack of basic ICT skills, inadequate power supply, lack of management involvement in the design of MIS, low data concentration, lack of management support and inadequate ICT professionals. The study recommended that attention should be given to management information system for effective records keeping. There is the need to have an effective management information system in place for effective records keeping, the challenges facing management information system should be looked into and solve once and for all so that Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai will have an effective and reliable management information system for records keeping. Keywords: Management Information System (MIS), University, Students, Computer, Evaluation, Record

Child Begging: Poverty and Misgovernance as a Causal Factor in Northern Nigeria

Child-begging is a phenomenon that sends the school going age children on the street and begs for alms, as they attend a local Islamic (almjirii) school in most part of northern Nigeria. The menace of child-begging in has assumed an alarming rate. The institution of the state does not do much to curtail this menace. This study adopted a thematic approach, and data was collected at secondary sources. The findings of the study reveals that High rate of illiteracy, coupled with low family incomes stemming from unemployment and lack of good governance in Nigeria explains the reasons for this menace. The recently conceived new Model Islamic school system by the state where both Islamic and Western Education is taught and pupils kept in the school hostel is yet to take effect. Could this address the menace in northern Nigeria? This paper examines the two possible causative factors critically and recommends that the government should address the issue of poverty and unemployment while ensuring consistency in implementing the new policy as conceived, planned. Keywords: Child-Begging, Poverty, Misgovernance, Northern Nigeria, Almajiri. Almajirai

Assessment of Wind Energy Alternative in Nigeria from the Lessons of the Katsina Wind Farm

The harnessing of kinetic energy through the wind has been used for centuries, be it in form of powering sail boats, windmills or furnaces. However it was not until 1979 that the modern wind power industry began in earnest with the production of wind turbines. The use of wind energy as a form of renewable energy gained momentum in the 80s and 90s and there are now thousands of wind turbines operating all over the world (Abdelaziz et al 2011; Fangbele et al 2011). The modern and most commonly used wind turbine has a horizontal axis with two or more aero-dynamic blades mounted on the shaft. These blades can travel at over several times the wind speed, generating electricity which is captured by a medium voltage power collection system and fed through to the power transmission network. Wind farms can range from single turbines for domestic use, through to large commercial farm either onshore or off-shore. The energy emitted is measured in watts per hour (kilowatts, megawatts and gigawatts), the turbines currently in manufacture have power ratings ranging from 250kW to 5MW. To put that into perspective, a 10kW turbine will generate enough electricity generation to meet the annual electricity consumption of an average house hold in the US or 10 rural villages in Nigeria. Regardless of the size of the farm, the placement of the turbine is the key to its success. Wind farms are often opposed and refused planning permission, due to general belief that they ruin the natural environment; in very remote locations, there may be a lack of available transmission lines, protected fauna that may be displaced by the farm, not to mention the difficulties in transporting the turbines to the site in the first instance. Despite its setbacks, wind power is still seen to be cheap, low maintenance form of renewable energy which makes it imperative for Nigeria to adopt among its energy mix (Kwon 2010). The study area  is in Katsina State of Nigeria. Katsina State extends from the arid southern Sahara (where there are important towns such as Jibiya, Katsina, Maiadua and Daura), Southwards through the semi-arid dry lands (with important towns like Dutsin-ma and Kankia) to the semi-arid savannah (with important towns like Malunfashi and Funtua). These settlements mentioned could be placed on an effective wind energy alternative for domestic electricity generation. The Katsina wind project could achieve this but there are several misgivings from the critics of the project. This chapter is intended to review the factors considered necessary in setting such a project i.e project’s cost, wind penetration, wind predictability, wind reliability and energy storage. The objective of the research was to assess the extent at which these factors were considered in the project

MAGNITUDE, VICISSITUDES AND REMEDIES OF URBAN POVERTY IN NORTH-EAST NIGERIA

Nigeria is divided for political convenience, into six geo-political zones; The north east, in the last decade is in global media because of the ceaseless conflict and war-like situation between the Nigerian government and youth insurgents. The dictum of western education is “unlawful” was the agitation of the insurgents, and they seek to change the educational status quo. North East Nigeria is blessed with an arable land for agricultural activities and mineral resources. The inability and lack of the political will by the governments both at central and state governments to strategically invest in the growth of these sectors for development purposes, brought about many challenges for the north east geo-political zone. Greater percentages of the population within the north east are youths in their productive ages that were engaged in rural-urban drift in search for a better livelihood and economic comfort. This paper seeks to explore the magnitude, changes and solutions of urban poverty in north east Nigeria. The paper adopts a qualitative design to investigate the perceived economic deprivation, social challenges and political miscalculations by the state and their inability to plan for the economic well-being of its population. Data were sourced at secondary source and thematic analysis was employed for analysis. Urban poverty brought many untold hardships to the people in the north east states, Hitches arising from fast urbanization with rapid development of the cities in the North-East, are very apparent. Lack of ensuring satisfactory and steady establishment of the basic needed services such as housing, health care amenities, water, electricity etc are remains the greatest encounter. This will further incapacitate family’s social growth and economic progress unless income generating opportunities are created by policy makers and backed with a greater political will