The historical development of Minna town in Nigeria, 1976 to 2015

Minna Town started as an insignificant Gwari settlement on the Paida hill but transformed into an important economic, political and administrative centre following the British colonial activities and post-colonial state policies. The major aim of the study is to understand the historical development of Minna town up to the end of colonial period and to know post-colonial transformations that impacted on its development. It has however been observed that literature on the historical development of Minna Town as an urban centre, the processes and dynamics of its changes and transformation have been fallow. This study in particular considers specifically the historical development of the Minna town between 1976 to 2015 which is a watershed in its history. Using qualitative method the research employed the utilization of semi structured interview approach with thirty people across board to obtain historical information on the development of Minna Town. The information was corroborated with archival source materials to analyze and interpret the study. Minna as an important economic, political and administrative centre is one of the very few urban settlements which its emergence is rooted in the colonial history of Nigeria. The research finds out that various administrations played significant role in its development. The research therefore is significant as it sought to explain development of towns through various State policies. The study will assist in our understanding of social, economic and political complexities of urban centres whose transformation is rooted in colonial history. It will assist government and policy makers in addressing issues associated with urban growth and transformation in the light of modernization, urbanization and changing socio-economic and political environmen

Investigating the link between ICT intervention and human development using the capability approach: A case study of the computerised electricity management system

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThere has been an increasing amount of investment in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) interventions in developing countries under the premise of accelerating the process of social, economic and political development. These interventions are usually driven by the symbolic power of ICTs which signify progress and upon which the governments of developing countries try to draw to modernise the functioning of the state and to further enhance public service delivery to citizens. However, in this thesis it is argued that the actions and events that lead to the design and implementation of ICT4D tend to be politically motivated because ICT4D are simply interventions used by powerful actors and institutions to achieve their goals. These powerful actors include international donor agencies, politicians, top bureaucrats and private entities. In addition, it is argued that, due to these politically motivated agendas, ICT4D projects tend to be implemented in a top-down fashion and within an economic development perspective that appears to isolate the concerns of the country itself and the wellbeing of its citizens. In an attempt to try and redress social exclusion and imbalance, the capability approach drawn from the work of Amartya Sen (1999) stresses the enhancement of human capabilities and the moral aspects of development. Theoretically, the study is based on the key concepts of Sen’s Capability Approach. However, Lukes’s (1974) concepts of power are also drawn upon to address the limitation of the capability approach in addressing the concept of power. The research questions guiding this thesis are as follows: (1) How do the underlying motivations of different actors drive the design and implementation of ICT4D initiatives in developing countries? (2) How can researchers usefully conceptualise the relationship between ICT and development given the complexities in which ICT4D initiatives are undertaken? What conceptual framework could help theorise the complex relationship between ICT and development? Epistemologically, the study was conducted by following an interpretive research approach. The research was carried out in two states of Nigeria, Abuja and Plateau, and took place during the period of 2010-2011. The case-study centres on the initiation and implementation of the Computerised Electricity Management System (CEMS). Empirically, data collection techniques include 65 individual interviews, field observations and document analysis. The following are key findings of this thesis: ICT4D interventions are a complex process shaped at two levels. At the international level, they are shaped by donor agendas such as privatisation, and at the national or local level they are shaped by political and private interests. These agendas and interest are driven by powerful actors such as international donor agencies that often impose such interventions as a condition of aid, politicians who often use such interventions as campaign tools, and other top public and private actors who often use such interventions for personal gain. Hence, the beneficiaries of these projects usually have no say in the design of ICT4D projects but are rather forced to accept these interventions. Corruption is a major obstacle that hinders the expected ICT4D contributions in terms of individual opportunities and freedoms of living better lives inscribed in ICT4D interventions. Corruption exists as a “network” involving different actors present at three levels of ICT4D projects, namely the design, implementation and usage stages. Viewed from this perspective, the findings of this study show that international donor agencies, politicians, public bureaucrats and private entities are equally responsible for promoting corrupt practices in the context of ICT4D interventions. Theoretically, this thesis progresses the operationalisation of the capability approach (CA) by encapsulating the central aspect of the approach and Lukes’s (1974) concept of power. This is an innovative way of operationalising the capability approach by addressing its limitations in explaining the notion of power; the study thereby contributes to the field of IS using the capability approach and expanding the scope of theoretical analysis of contemporary ICT4D studies. Practically, to make the relationship between ICT and development more effective in meeting broader development goals, it is necessary for government policies to move beyond the mere provision of technology to also concentrate on the cultural, institutional, social and political aspects in ensuring the effective use of ICT resources, which should serve to improve people’s opportunity to participate more in social, political and economic activities

Reverse Engineering Mobile Apps for Model Generation Using a Hybrid Approach

The popularity of mobile devices is ever increasing which led to rapid increase in the development of mobile applications. Model-Based testing can improve the quality of mobile application but the models are not always available or are of inadequate quality. Reverse engineering approaches are used to automatically generate model from the GUI of mobile applications for model-based testing. This paper proposes a hybrid approach for reverse engineering mobile applications which exploit the capabilities of both static and dynamic approaches while trying to maximize the quality of the generated models. The insight of this approach is to use static analysis on app’s source to identify supported events. The generated events can be used to dynamically explore an app at run-time to generate a state model of the app’s GUI. The preliminary results from our approach indicated that the technique can generate high quality models from android apps

TEGDroid: Test Case Generation Approach for Android Apps Considering Context and GUI Events

The advancement in mobile technologies has led to the production of mobile devices (e.g. smartphone) with rich innovative features. This has enabled the development of mobile applications that offer users an advanced and extremely localized context-aware content. The recent dependence of people on mobile applications for various computational needs poses a significant concern on the quality of mobile applications. In order to build a high quality and more reliable applications, there is a need for effective testing techniques to test the applications. Most existing testing technique focuses on GUI events only without sufficient support for context events. This makes it difficult to identify other defects in the changes that can be inclined by context in which an application runs. This paper presents an approach named TEGDroid for generating test case for Android Apps considering both context and GUI Events. The GUI and context events are identified through the static analysis of bytecode, and the analysis of app’s permission from the XML file. An experiment was performed on real world mobile apps to evaluate TEGDroid. Our experimental results show that TEGDroid is effective in identifying context events and had 65%-91% coverage across the eight selected applications. To evaluate the fault detection capability of this approach, mutation testing was performed by introducing mutants to the applications. Results from the mutation analysis shows that 100% of the mutants were killed. This indicates that TEGDroid have the capability to detect faults in mobile apps

Evaluating the Effect of ICTs on Development Using the Capability Approach: The case of the Nigerian Pre-paid Electricity Billing

In recent years, there has been vast investment on ICT initiatives in developing countries for social, economic and political development. Yet, the impact of these investments on development is difficult to determine. The reason for this is partly because “development” itself is an extremely debated notion, and a clear engagement with it demands a familiarity with the development theories, as well as willingness to engage explicitly with other research disciplines (Walsham & Thompson, 2010); or partly due to a lack of assessment guidance (Bhatnagar & Singh, 2010)

ICT AND EMPOWERMENT TO PARTICIPATE: A CAPABILITY APPROACH

Under which conditions can ICT4D initiatives empower poor communities of developing countries? In thispaper we evaluate the promise of development associated with the introduction of an ICT initiative in Nigeria.We employ the basic concepts of the Sen’s capability approach to understand how the introduction of prepaidelectricity billing system has empowered people to participate in accessing electricity supply. Our analysisillustrates that various activities resulting from the introduction of the system allow for the participation of bothconsumers and electricity workers, and in order for them to be empowered to participate in each of the activities,different resources are required. We conclude with some implications for policy makers advancing an agendafor ‘ICTs for Development’

A User Readiness Model of Social Media for Learning among Polytechnic Students in Nigeria

The adoption of Internet resources for learning continues to grow in the world today. Despite the abundant benefit of utilizing social media due to the growth of web 2.0, an internet resource for communication and interaction, its use has not been fully embraced as a teaching tool in Nigeria. Social media is becoming a prominent communication tool and found to be facilitating teaching and learning activities among students. However, the user readiness of social media in learning by the students has been challenging. Despite the wide acceptance of social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, e.t.c.) amongst Nigerian polytechnic students, they do not utilize it for academic pursuit. This study examined the Use of Social Media among students in Nigerian Polytechnics. The main objective of this study is to find out the user readiness’ factors that influence the use of social media by the students in Nigerian Polytechnic. The evaluation results show that social media is an indispensable Internet platform among Nigerian Polytechnic students

Emergency Online Teaching and Learning in a Nigerian Private University: An Activity Theory Perspective

The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of emergency online teaching and learning adopted in a Nigerian private university due to the suspension of face-to- face learning, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Activity theory was used to examine the elements that make up the activity, that is, the virtual learning environment, as well as their associated relationships in order to reveal existing and potential tensions within the activity. Data used for the analysis of this case study was obtained by observation of the online class sessions, student responses to an online survey, emails (requesting support) received by the instructional technology support team, and interviews with participants of the activity system. The findings show that majority of the challenges and contradictions observed were a result of a hurried decision to migrate to online learning in order to complete the academic semester. This brought about several issues with regards to the tools, rules, and roles within the activity system. The most significant contradiction observed was as a result of the influence of an external activity on the studied activity system. The study provides insights to policymakers in the education sector on the current barriers to online learning, especially in the Nigerian context

Design and Implementation of a Mobile Library Management System for Improving Service Delivery

A mobile library management system provides a more efficient way of managing library processes and rendering effective library services irrespective of time and place. This research work aimed to develop a Mobile Library Management System for the Nile University of Nigeria Library to overcome the challenges that hinder the librarians from managing the library processes on the go. The android mobile library management system was developed using Android Studio, HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQLi database. Service Responsibility Table was used in eliciting and documenting the user’s requirements for the library management system. The proposed Android-based mobile library system was evaluated through a survey by the librarians. The evaluation has shown that the proposed system is capable of complementing the existing library management systems