Performance Evaluation of Some Selected Incubated Enterprises at Technology Incubation Centre, Kano, Nigeria.

The performances pattern in terms of monthly turnover of three (3) selected enterprises which were arbitrarily designated as A, B and C from Technology Incubation Centre (TIC), Kano were evaluated from 2007 to 2010. Three critical stages of the enterprises’ incubation status were considered, that is their last twelve (12) months of resident incubation, next three (3) months of transition from resident incubation to post incubation and the subsequent first twelve (12) months of post incubation. A scatter diagram was then plotted as turnover versus time for the three (3) entreprises which produced unique relationships for each of the three (3) critical stages. It was observed that that all the enterprises showed a parabolic behaviour in terms of progress in the last twelve (12) months of resident incubation. However, the three (3) months transition period considered as the period from graduation to final relocation from the centre characterized by the  commencement of withdrawals of the subsidies enjoyed by the enterprises during the three (3) years in the TIC in facilities rent, utilities, marketing, ICT, technical/business coaching,etc, recorded a linear behaviour  with a sharp drop in turnover. However, on final relocation outside the TIC which is the commencement of post incubation, the turnover in respect of enterprise A began to steadily rise, enterprise B maintained a constant turnover, while enterprise C recorded a gradual drop that lead to its collapse. In summary, the results of the study call for the need by the stake holders of the Technology Incubation Programme in Nigeria (TIP), ie; Government at all tiers, Academia and the Industry/ Entrepreneurs to address the critial observations in the second (2nd) and third (3rd) stages through provision of facilities, grants, loans, etc including relocation to a befitting technology/innovation packs that will serve as a booster to their survival. Keywords: Technology, Resident Incubation, Innovation, Enterprise, TIC/TIP

INDEX MODELS ASSESSMENT OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IN SOIL SAMPLES OF SELECTED MOTOR PARKS WITHIN MAIDUGURI, BORNO STATE, NIGERIA

Heavy metal pollution is a global issue of concern which results from both biogenic and anthropogenic activities. Hence, an investigation of soil pollution is pertinent because of its potential threat to human health. The present study examined the concentrations, contamination and pollution load index cum ecological risk factor for some heavy metals in soil samples collected from Borno Express (BOEXP), Tashan Kano (TASKP) and Tashan Bama (TASBP) motor parks within Maiduguri, Borno state of Nigeria. The data obtained showed mean concentration range of 0.34 - 1.18 mg/kg, 0.04 - 0.15 mg/kg, 0.07 - 0.41 and 0.18 - 0.29 mg/kg for Zn, Cr, Cd and Cu respectively. Nonetheless, lead was not detected in any and all samples analyzed. The increasing order of concentrations in the soils followed: Zn > Cu > Cr > Cd, Cu > Cd > Zn > Cr and Cd > Zn > Cu > Cr for BOEXP, TASKP and TASBP motor parks respectively. Notwithstanding, the results showed lower concentrations to the allowable limits of World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, the contamination factor of cadmium in the TASKP fell within the (0.10 – 0.25) category, indicative of slight contamination whereas in TASBP, the calculated value 0.5125 was within (0.51 -0.75) category implying severe contamination. The other heavy metals analyzed showed contamination factor as well as pollution index values < 0.1 indicative of very slight contamination.Keywords: Borno Express, Tashan Kano, Tashan Bama, Motor Parks, Contamination Index

Ethno-Religious Factor and the Menace of Election Violence in Nigeria

Elections in Nigeria have been characterized by high scale of electoral malpractices, money politics, electoral violence and the use of ethno-religious divide strategy by political elite in order to influence the majority votes, claimed and announced as authentic election winners, these phenomenon’s has dominate Nigerian electoral process since the return of democracy in Nigeria during 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 elections. Electoral violence is one of the strategies employed by Nigerian politicians during electioneering period to win election by illegal and dubious means. Desperate challenges of democratic governance operations and poor attitude of our leaders in Nigeria whose fails to meet the public demand of protecting lives and property as well as citizens welfare provision, the power drunk politicians often sponsor unemployed youths and stark illiterates to carry out assaults on their perceived political opponents with a view to manipulating election results to their own advantage. Therefore, this paper discusses electoral violence in the context of religion and its implication for sustainable development. Since electoral violence has been the bane of political stability and development in Nigeria. The researcher has uses secondary source of data to reviewed various literature on the subject matter to investigate the problem of election violence connecting it with religious or ethnic factor differences and used Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism theory on the discussion of the problems of election violence in Nigeria. This paper has made an in-depth analysis of electoral violence in Nigeria with particular focus on the Fourth Republic. The  paper was of the view that right  application of religious  teaching, moral values is considered to be a veritable tool for ensuring violence free elections, which will guaranteed  development of democracy in Nigeria. Keywords: Electoral Violence, Electoral Security, Religious and Ethnic Difference DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/59-04 Publication date:May 31st 202

Capacity Building Needs of Business Education Lecturers for Efficient Lecturing in Federal Colleges of Education in North Western States, Nigeria

The study empirically investigates how professional business education lecturers in Federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria’s North-western needed to be strengthened. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated at 0.05 level of significance.  The study used a descriptive survey design. The population of this study was 126 professional business educators from six Federal Colleges of Education in North-western State, Nigeria. Research experts validated the instrument. The researchers used Cronbach Alpha method to determine the instrument’s reliability and a reliability coefficient of 0.93 was then obtained. The questionnaire has 20 items in the instrument. The study used inferential statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the t-test was used to test the null hypotheses formulated for the study. According to the study’s findings, entrepreneurial skills, managerial skills, information and communication technology (ICT), and capacity building for professionalism are the priorities for all professional lecturers in the field of business education in federal colleges of education in North-western Nigeria. Based on the findings the researchers concluded that professional business education lecturers should be gingered because professionalism in Federal College Education necessitates ICT, managerial, and entrepreneurial competencies. Keywords: Capacity building, Business education lecturers, Efficient lecturin

Moderating role of management support in the relationship between human resource practices and employee performance: A study of academics in Nigerian Polytechnics

Organisation performance centres on human resource because it has the skills, knowledge and competencies required for the execution of organisational strategy and planning. Considerable numbers of HRM research have indicated positive effects of HR practices on employee performance. Nevertheless, some other studies indicate otherwise, which suggests that findings of the extant research are seemingly inconclusive. Thus, this study investigated the effect of HR practices involving recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, performance appraisal, and succession planning on employee performance with management support as a moderator. A cross-sectional survey approach was used in which data were collected from 424 employees of six state-owned polytechnics in the north central zone of Nigeria. Partial Least Squares Method (PLS) algorithm and bootstrap techniques were used to test the study's hypotheses. The results provided support for all the hypothesised relationships, except compensation-employee performance relationship and performance appraisal-employee performance relationship. The overall findings signified a positive effect of recruitment and selection, training and development, and succession planning on employee performance. The finding indicated that effective HR practices (recruitment and selection, training and development, and succession planning) enhanced employee performance; thus, organisations should entrench such HR practices in an effective manner. Besides, competitive compensation system, performance appraisal and succession planning weighted with management support would enhance employee performance, given that management support is recognized as a constant driver of employee creativity and innovation. Also, employee performance can be improved through management support because it gives employees a sense of involvement necessary for inspiring creative ideas, discovering new opportunities and converting them to action without losing efficiency at work. Limitation and recommendations of the study are also discussed

Bioflocculant production by aspergillus flavus using chicken viscera as a substrate

The biodegradability and safety of the bioflocculants make them potential alternative to non-biodegradable chemical flocculants for wastewater treatment. However, low yield and production cost has been reported to be the limiting factor for large scale bioflocculant production. The sustainability and economics of bioflocculant production is dependent on the use of low-cost substrate at optimum culture conditions. This study focused on the optimization of culture conditions for Aspergillus flavus growth and its bioflocculant production using chicken viscera hydrolysate as substrate. The effects of culture conditions including pH, shaker speed, temperature and inoculum size on bioflocculant production were investigated and optimized via response surface method in accordance with the critical component design (CCD) package of design expert. The purified bioflocculant was characterized using physical and chemical analysis. The flocculation performance and effect of cations on the bioflocculant was investigated using jar testing and Kaolin clay suspension as wastewater model. Under optimized culture conditions, 6.75 g/L of crude bioflocculant was produced. The bioflocculation activity was mostly distributed in the cell free supernatant with optimum efficiency of 91.8% at dose of 4 mL/100 mL Kaolin suspension. The purified bioflocculant was an uneven, coarse EPS assemblage in netted texture consisting of 23.46% protein and 74.5% polysaccharide, including 46% neutral sugar and 2.01% uronic acid with zeta potential of -25.28 ± 2.7 mV at pH 6.2. The Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated the presence of carbonyl, amino, hydroxyl and amide functional groups and mass proportion of C, O and N at 63.46%, 27.87% and 8.86%, respectively. It had a minimum of 83.1% efficiency in flocculating 2-12 g/L Kaolin clay suspension over a wide temperature range (4 - 80°C) and function optimally at neutral pH. It effectively flocculated different suspended particles such as activated carbon (92%), soil solids (94.8%) and algae (69.4%) at varying concentrations. Addition of both Ca2+ and Mg2+ stimulated the efficiency of the bioflocculant at all the concentrations tested with optimum flocculation efficiency of 95% recorded with 5 mL 1% Ca2+. Lower concentrations (1-2 mL) of Al3+ also stimulated the bioflocculant to about 94%, K+ slightly enhanced the flocculation at 4 – 10 mL 1%, while Na+ and Fe3+ inhibited the flocculation. This study indicates high potential of cation dependent bioflocculant production from chicken viscera at appropriate culture conditions and stand as an attractive candidate for additional exploration and development for large-scale bioflocculant production and application

Methods and protocol flow cells: technique used for studying microbial biofilms

Biofilms are sessile communities of microorganisms growing on material surfaces and embedded in self-accumulated extracellular polymers. A comprehensive analysis of physical, chemical and biological factors including hydrodynamic and nutrient conditions that regulate their formation is required to adequately gain insight to this complex multicellular microbial life style. Reproducible experimental models that consider all the conditions under which they grow and develop also remain a required tool for studying the biofilms. As a result of its ability to create hydrodynamic and nutrient conditions coupled with continuous and non-destructive ability to grow biofilms, flow cell technology has become one of the most recently patronised models used to study microbial biofilms. This article focuses on recent advancements, principles and practical application of flow cell technology to study microbial biofilms

An Assessment of the Implementation Impact of SURE-P Intervention on Maternal Mortality in the Selected Local Governments in Niger State, Nigeria

The objective of this study was to explore the implementation of the SURE-P intervention on primary healthcare among the selected local government areas of Niger State, Nigeria. In these local governments, the primary health centers are not enough, and the existing ones are dilapidated with the absence of facilities needed to operate effectively. To access medical services, some communities must travel long distances, resulting in high mortality rates. This study examined the perceptions of Desk Officers regarding implementing the SURE-P intervention in primary healthcare among the selected local government. A descriptive design within the qualitative tradition was used in the Study. Thirteen SURE-P desk officers from the state and selected local governments were purposively selected as participants for this study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, and a thematic framework was used for interpretation. The results revealed that the primary healthcare SURE-P initiative had improved access to medical facilities across the selected local governments, resulting in a slide reduction in maternal motility. Furthermore, there was a lack of adequate assessment of needs, insufficient funding, relatively low inclusion, and political pressure in the implementation process. Based on findings, it is recommended that the SURE-P intervention be sustained, adequately financed, that the community members' priority needs should be addressed, that the community members should be more inclusive, and track the implementation of the SURE-P intervention

Adequacy and Availability of Instructional Materials for Teaching Business Education Students Office Management Skills in Public Colleges of Education in Niger State, Nigeria

In Niger State's public colleges of education, the study looked at how well and easily accessible instructional materials were for teaching business education students office management skills. The study formulated two null hypotheses and two research questions were raised. The researchers review some previous research work that is related to the current study. The researcher looked at a lot of literature from books, journals, magazines, special reports, the internet, and other sources. The researchers used a survey research design to carry out this study. For this study, sixty-seven (67) lecturers of Business Education from public Colleges Education in Niger State form the inhabitants of the study. There was no sample size because the total inhabitants of the study was very small. A study instrument with the title: For the purpose of data collection, the phrase "Adequacy and Availability of Instructional Materials for Teaching Office Management Skills (AAIMTOMS)" was used. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions raised in carry out this study, and t-test statistics were used to test the two null hypotheses formulated for this study at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among other things, that two of the ten identified instructional materials were neither adequate nor available for teaching office management skills to business education students in Niger State's public colleges of education. It was concluded in this study that the government, school administrators, and other stakeholders in secondary education should make available adequate instructional materials for teaching office management skills in business education in Colleges of Education in Niger State so as to make the recipient of the programme better in the world of work