Foreign Development Assistance to Agriculture and Food Security in Africa in the last Decade: Lessons for Tomorrow

There are well-founded fears that it is unrealistic to expect Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and to halve the proportion of people who suffer hunger by 2015. Recent efforts of African governments to meet the MDG1 have resulted in a number of initiatives including the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) framework that calls for 6% agricultural growth rates, the Maputo Declaration calling for 10% of total public spending to be on agriculture, and the 2006 Abuja Declaration calling for an increase in fertilizer use from 8 – 50 kg/ha by 2015. CAADP estimates that an average investment of US$18 billion/year will be required to trigger sufficient agricultural growth rate to meet MDG1. Meanwhile, budgetary allocation to agriculture in many African nations is low and an analysis of trends in foreign development assistance to Africa over a 10-year period (1995-2004) showed that the annual commitment to agriculture out of the total assistance of US$230 billion declined from 11% in 1995 to 6% in 2004. This decline could be traced to the frustration of donors and African governments alike at the failure of agriculture to achieve sufficient progress towards food security and poverty reduction. Nevertheless, there is evidence from the past that where projects have been successful, governments provided political leadership and financial support; organized farmers groups actively participated in decision-making; and that close public-private-partnership existed. Based on the lessons learned from previous projects and the subsequent more favorable rules of engagement of donors with beneficiaries, the paper concludes that the challenges and responsibility for getting agriculture back to the front-burner of the development agenda is largely that of African governments.Africa, Millenium Development Goals, Agriculture, Farmer, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

Dynamic Relationship between Crude Oil Price, Exchange Rate and Stock Market Performance in Nigeria

This study employed a multivariate Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) that uses the Granger causality test and generalized variance decomposition analysis to study the relationship between crude oil prices, exchange rate and stock market performance in Nigeria from January 1995 to December 2014. As expected from an oil exporting country, a short-run positive relationship is observed between the Nigerian stock market and crude oil prices and the direction is from crude oil prices to the Nigerian stock market but not the other way round. The short run relationship between exchange rate and Nigerian stock market is observed to be positive and the direction is from the exchange rate to the Nigerian stock market. Exchange rate is also observed to be positively related to the movements in the crude oil prices in the short run with the direction of causality running from crude oil prices to exchange rate. However, the results of a multi-variate Johansen cointegration test suggest the existence negative relationship among the three variables in long run. The Variance Decomposition analysis shows that the Nigerian stock market performance and Exchange rate behaviour are strongly influenced by the movements in Crude Oil prices.Key Words: Crude Oil Price, Exchange Rate, Nigerian Stock Market, Vector Error Correction Mode

The Case for Eight Igbo Tones

Despite research findings to the contrary, many still regard Igbo as a two-tone language, with some recognizing an additional third tone. However, this simplified two-tone system (or two-plus-one system) does not tell the full story of Igbo tones or reflect all the research in Igbo linguistics. Tone testing using a soundboard reveals eight tones (four long and four short ones) which occur in the default pronunciation of common Igbo words and which every Igbo speaker uses frequently. An eight-tone system for individual words better explains the complexity of Igbo tonality and reveals interesting possibilities about the evolution of the Igbo language and its relationship with other tonal languages, such as Chinese. Keywords: Igbo, tones, Chinese DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/76-04 Publication date: February 28th 2021

The African social question: A challenge to the African church in light of the two synods on Africa

The First Synod of Catholic Bishops on Africa took place in April 1994 in the wake of the Rwandan genocide. That horrendous fratricide has left a dark spot in the history of Catholicism in Africa where “the blood of tribalism is thicker than the water of baptism”. The Second Synod on Africa, held in October 2009, had as its theme: “The Church in Africa in service to reconciliation, justice and peace”. Pope Benedict XVI issued a post-synodal exhortation, entitled Africae Munus. In one article, the pope writes: “Reconciliation is a way of life and mission of the Church” (Africae Munus no. 34). This article is set against that background to examine the mission and the role which the Catholic Church can play in Africa with regard to the African social question that encompasses all other perennial issues on the continent. Those other issues include ethnicity, religious and cultural hatred, as well as incessant conflicts that lead to the loss of lives andretardation in development

The Role of Globalisation on Energy Consumption in Nigeria. Implication for Long Run Economic Growth. ARDL and VECM Analysis

This study explores the relationship between globalization energy consumption and economic growth for Nigeria by explaining the contributions of financial development and urbanization from 1975 to 2011 The cointegration test proposed by Pesaran and Shin 1995 and Pesaran et el 2001 is applied to estimate the long-run and short-run relationships among the variables in company of VECM Granger causality framework to establish the direction of causality over the period After confirming the existence of cointegration using Johansen approach the overall results from the estimation of an ARDL energy demand function reveal that in the long run the index of globalization measured in three dimensions - economic social and overall globalization leads to a decline in energy consumption especially when combined with the marginal contribution from of economic growth financial development and urbanization This study found financial sector development insignificant in influencing energy consumption in Nigeria In general the results highlight the weakness of the Nigerian financial sector in stimulating long run economic growth through resource mobilisation and allocation Urbanization are the key factors leading to increased energy demand in the long run We found a feedback relationship between globalization and energy consumption in the long run The unidirectional causality running from energy consumption to financial development economic growt

The effects of public perception of Yar’adua’s leadership on stability and sustainable development

The political stability and socio-economic development of my state hinge on the competence and effectiveness of the political leadership. Without the support, co-operation and contributions of the populace, leadership becomes a herculian task for the leader. However, the willingness of the populace to support and co-operate with the political leader is dependent on how the governed perceive and assess the quality and character of the leadership. This work is an attempt to use the factors of legitimacy, political will, charisma, political culture, popular participation, political stability and social integration; identified by the respondents as the highpoints for determining the effectiveness and efficiency of the president, to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of President Yar Adua in the face of the mounting public criticism of his administration. Employing the primary research method of direct observation, interviews and questionnaire, the data generated was processed through the theoreticalperspective of Leonteif’s input/output model of analysis, and the findings led to the conclusion that, although the performance rating of the President was below average; the quantum of the activities of hisgovernment portends a high index for appreciable development strides

A Hedonic Analysis of Cattle Prices in the Central Corridor of West Africa: Implications for Production and Marketing Decisions

Detailed weekly sales transactions data for the period January 2000-June 2001 from three frontier markets in the central corridor of West Africa were analyzed to identify the factors influencing short-run, intra-year cattle prices. The empirical results indicate that in addition to market location and seasonality of supply and sales, market participants show systemic preferences for specific cattle attributes (sex, weight, condition and finish) and are willing to pay premium prices consistent with their preferences. Communicating this information to producers can assist them to tailor their production and marketing decisions to meet market expectations and thereby improve their competitiveness, profitability and intra-regional livestock trade. Innovative policy and institutional approaches to improve market information dissemination and ease other constraints that tend to dampen supply response, even in the face of favorable prices, are discussed in the paper.livestock markets, hedonic price model, market information, West Africa, Livestock Production/Industries, C21, D4, Q13, Q17,

Strategic Outsourcing For Effective Conflict And Peace Management In Oil And Gas Producing Communities In Nigeria

The challenge of managing organizational conflicts in operational areas in order to achieve an atmosphere of industrial peace and harmony has persistently occupied the front-burner in industrial and corporate discourse in recent times; especially in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. While a lot of strategies and programmes have been formulated and highlighted; a detailed research study of the causes, trends and consequences of conflicts in operational areas has revealed that the adoption of the practice of strategic outsourcing by organizations will not only go a long way, but will drastically eliminate the problem of industrial conflict in operational areas and restore peace and harmony that would enhance the attainment of set goals in the industry. The Needs theory observes that organizations and all human beings have needs which border on social, economic, psychological, security and distributive justice; which they desire to be met, and which, when not met, drive them towards aggression and conflict in order to get what they want. A critical examination of the characteristics of this theory in the light of the research questions which investigated conflict situations in operational areas of operational areas of organizations; leads to the conclusion that outsourcing undoubtedly offers the way out of the chaos for industrial and corporate bodies in the oil and gas industry and communities in Nigeria. The methodology employed included  using simple random sampling of persons in the operational areas and the corporate bodies operating in them to obtained the data for analysis which employed simple percentages to reach conclusions to arrive at the decisions and recommendations made. Key words: Strategic outsourcing; conflict; peace management

ARDL Approach to Trade Libralisation and Economic Growth in the Developing Country: Evidence from Nigeria

This study examined the trade impact of trade liberalization in the developing economies from 1981 to 2014. It employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test approach. Two measures of trade liberalization were used to form an index of trade openness, while three measures of financial sector development were used to construct index of financial development using principal component analysis. The result suggested that the long run impact of trade liberalization on the economic growth of Nigerian is found to be negatively significant. The short run impact of trade liberalization on economic growth was found to be positive and significant. In total, the long and short run impact of trade liberalization to economic growth suggested that the Nigeria economy is yet to harness the benefits of international trade. It was also suggested that trade liberalization could enhance economic growth. However, the introduction of other variables in the likes of financial development, labour force and gross capital formation, none played a significant impact on economic growth in the Nigeria. The findings of this study offer some important policy implications. Trade liberalization could be another avenue for economic diversification through foreign direct investment and by so doing there will be improved in gross capital formation and indeed economic growth. Nigeria also needs to create diversified, dynamic and competitive sectors capable of absorbing the more educated labour force to translate human capital to higher economic growthKey Words: Trade liberalization, Economic growth, Labour force, gdpc, ARDL, cointegratio

The effects of public perception of yar’adua’s leadership on stability and sustainable development

The political stability and socio-economic development of my state hinge on the competence and effectiveness of the political leadership. Without the support, co-operation and contributions of the populace, leadership becomes a herculian task for the leader. However, the willingness of the populace to support and co-operate with the political leader is dependent on how the governed perceive and assess the quality and character of the leadership. This work is an attempt to use the factors of legitimacy, political will, charisma, political culture, popular participation, political stability and social integration; identified by the respondents as the highpoints for determining the effectiveness and efficiency of the president, to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of President Yar Adua in the face of the mounting public criticism of his administration. Employing the primary research method of direct observation, interviews and questionnaire, the data generated was processed through the theoretical perspective of Leonteif’s input/output model of analysis, and the findings led to the conclusion that, although the performance rating of the President was below average; the quantum of the activities of his government portends a high index for appreciable development strides