The Tripartite Dynamic Relationship between Poverty, Unemployment and Construction Sector: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

The increasing rate of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria has necessitated further efforts towards alternative means of reducing the trend, outside the government’s microeconomic mechanisms. As a sector with multiplier effects on other sectors of economy through its numerous activities, the construction sector is expected to reduce both poverty and unemployment. This study, therefore, examined the relationships between construction sector variables, poverty and unemployment rates in Nigeria. Using socio-economic data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics, United Nations Development Program and World Bank from 1981-2019, the study deployed an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to analyze the relationships between construction sector variables, poverty, and unemployment rates.  It also used Granger causality test to determine the direction of causation between the variables under investigation. The results showed that there are both long-run and short-run dynamic relationships between poverty rate and construction sector variables (F-stat. (3.93) > upper (3.67) and lower (2.79)) bounds. It showed that no long-run balanced relationship exists between the unemployment rate and construction sector variables (F-stat. (2.01) < lower (2.79) and upper (3.67)) bounds. The result further revealed that there are significant and positive linear correlations between construction sector variables, poverty, and unemployment rates; except between construction output and poverty rate, where an insignificant linear relation was established. Nevertheless, the relationships could not result to direct causal effect, except a unidirectional Granger causal relationship that flows from government capital expenditure to construction service recurrent expenditure and construction output, and from construction service recurrent expenditure to construction output. Consequently, the study suggested that construction sector expenditure and output should be directed towards poverty and unemployment reduction. This could be done through the diversification and integration of all construction sub-sectors, particularly the private sector into the nation’s economic equation. Thus, this study would direct the paths of policymakers and construction planners towards the right construction policies and plans that would lead to a reduction in unemployment and poverty rates with a long-term economic transformation in Nigeria

Monetary Policy Changes and Inflationary Pressure in Nigeria

Achieving price stability has continued to be one of the major macroeconomic policy objectives of successive governments in Nigeria. This is because, inflation rate, as measured by changes in consumers price index (CPI), has continued to be on the increase despite the implementation of monetary policy measures to control it. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to analyze the impact of monetary policy changes on inflationary pressure in Nigeria. This is to identify whether inflationary pressure in Nigeria is a monetary phenomenon or not. Annual time series data on changes in inflation rate, broad money supply, net domestic credit, monetary policy rate, real GDP growth rate (real output) and exchange rate were collected from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin, 2018 issue. To analyze the data, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, applying bounds test, was adopted. The empirical results show that monetary variables (broad money supply, net domestic credit, monetary policy rate) have insignificant impact on inflation both in the short run and long run respectively. Real output has the expected negative sign and its impact on inflation is significant both in the short run and long run. This implies that inflation in Nigeria is more of output than monetary phenomenon. It is recommended that Nigeria should invest more in agricultural sector since more output is sourced from the sector. This will help to reduce food (price) inflation in the country

Ecomusicology: A socioecological dimension towards acoustically sustainable residential buildings

This study examined the socioecological roles of music sounds towards achieving acoustically sustainable residential building. The study adopted a survey research approach where questionnaires were distributed to the occupants of different types of residential buildings in three urban cities of Anambra State Nigeria. The survey data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) Software. The results revealed that music plays significant roles towards acoustically sustainable building performance with the overall average mean score index of 4.36 and a range of 3.64 to 4.87. But the three most outstanding roles played by music towards acoustically sustainable building performance were: Enabling pleasant sound environment (4.87), improving quality of relaxation and resting (4.83), and increasing acoustic comfort and satisfaction (4.79). The result of one-way ANOVA revealed that music sounds significantly influence acoustical sustainability performance of residential buildings (p-value (.000) &lt; α (0.05); F-ratio (148.377) &gt; F-critical (3.020)); and that there was no significance difference between opinions of residents of the three urban cities in this regard (p-value (0.713) &gt; α (0.05); F-ratio (0.338) &lt; F-critical (3.020)). This study therefore, canvassed for integration of music principles and acoustics into sustainable building design processes as a way of achieving a sustainable building

Phytochemical Composition, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Potentials of some Indigenous Plants in Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria

Twenty four ethanol leaf and stem bark extracts of 17 indigenous plants were examined for their phytochemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Phytochemical compositions were analysed with GC-MS while antimicrobial activities on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were investigated by the agar well diffusion method. The antioxidant activities were determined with Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), total phenolic content (TPC) and 2, 2,-dihenyl-1-picryhydazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assays. The antibacterial activity was more towards the gram positive S. aureus than the gram negative P. aeruginosa for all the plant extracts.  A wide range of phenolic concentrations among the aqueous plant extracts which varied from 28.04 to 500.26mg GAE per gram were observed.  Inhibition percentages of DPPH ranged from 19.13 to 95.77% showing effectiveness in radical scavenging. GC-MS characterization of the plant extracts showed a total of 18 components including alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, saponins, terpenoids, steroids and glycosides. Irvingia gabonensis leaf (IGL) extract and Tamarind stem bark (TSB) exhibited excellent ferric reducing abilities of 2.11 and 1.56 respectively while Voucanga Africana leaf (VCA) extract indicated the lowest ferric reducing power of 0.50. Extracts of IGL and TSB exhibited the highest antioxidant capacities and therefore could be the main sources of natural antioxidant. An important relationship between total phenolic content was observed showing that the major contributor to the antioxidant properties were phenolic compounds

Assessing the adequacy and sustainability performance of multi-family residential buildings in Anambra State, Nigeria

The proliferation of multi-family residential building in Anambra State of Nigeria due to increasing demand without recourse to performance has brought concerns about the adequacy and sustainability of this housing type. This study therefore, assessed the adequacy and sustainability performance of multi-family residential buildings in urban areas of Anambra State. The study sampled the opinions of 384 households living in multi-family residential buildings through a questionnaire survey. We conducted data analysis based on 214 responses that were useful for analysis. The study found that internal and building component variables and supporting neighborhood variables were adequate, but the surrounding environment variables were inadequate based on Mean Score Index. However, based on Sustainability Performance Index, the occupants perceived social sustainability performance of the buildings as satisfactory, while environmental and economic sustainability performance were perceived as fairly satisfactory. The Pearson correlation coefficient result further established that adequacy of internal and building component variables was significantly and positively related to the residents’ perceived social sustainability performance. Adequacy of the surrounding environmental variables was also found to be positively and significantly related to the residents’ perceived environmental sustainability performance, whereas adequacy of supporting neighborhood facilities was found to be negatively and significantly related to the residents’ perceived economic sustainability performance. This suggested that investors and owners of multi-family residential buildings should direct more efforts towards improving the surrounding environment to supplements other facilities and increase the economic benefit of the renters or occupiers with increasing economic sustainability performance in terms of value for money

NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS FRAMING OF THE CHIBOK SCHOOL GIRLS ABDUCTION (A STUDY OF THE GUARDIAN, DAILY SUN, THE TRUST AND LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPERS)

ABSTRACT: This study investigates how selected Nigerian newspapers reported the Chibok school girls&apos; abduction in Government Secondar