Unfairness in Reward Allocation in the Nigerian Public Sector Organizations: A Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis

The paper is a conceptual and theoretical literature review of articles and works that are relevant to reward allocation in public sector organizations. The paper reviews literature on organizations nature and characteristics; unfairness and fairness in reward allocation and notable theories of reward allocation. The paper reveals some of the unfairness in reward allocations to employees in public organizations and the unfairness of the factors in the performance appraisal used for reward allocation to employees in the public sector as: religious affiliation; ethnicity; corruption; intimidation/threat by superior officers; sexual harassment of female employees by superior officers; political pressure; God-fatherism and Federal Character Principle (FCP). The paper recommends that (1) States and Federal Government should address the unfairness and close the wide gap across hierarchical levels in their reward allocation to employees. (2) The Federal Government should increase its supervision on the States’ Governor in order to prevent them from their present inhuman practices of diverting to elections campaigns and their personal use, civil servants and teachers’ salaries and allowances that are statutorily allocated to them from the federation accounts

ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF WILDLIFE TO BUSHMEAT MARKETS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE

This paper examined the economic contribution of wild animals to bushmeat trade in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Five prominent bush meat markets in Ibadan and its suburb were used for the study. The selection was based on the high intensity of bush meat marketing operations identified with the markets. All sellers in each market visited were interviewed which sum up to forty four respondents. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Budgetary analysis was done to calculate costs and return of the bushmeat sellers. Income on mammals had the highest (₦5,755,600) per annum followed by the income on birds (₦858,000) per annum and reptiles (₦182,000). In the same pattern, percentage contribution indicates that mammals contributed 84% of the total income, while wild birds contributed 12% of the total income and reptile 3%. The net profit realized from the sales of mammals was ₦4,979,000 and ₦180,900 for wild birds. Cost and return analysis showed that sale of bushmeat is a profitable venture. In addition, mammals contributed more to the economy of the market than other two classes of animal found in the bushmeat market

Response of Growing Pigs to Diet Physical Form and Allzyme® SSF Supplementation in a Palm Kernel Meal-Based Diet

. The increasing cost of conventional feeds calls for the unconventional ones. The effect of Allzyme®SSF and diet physical form on performance, haematological and serum biochemical indices of growing pigs fed with palm kernel meal-based diet was determined. Twenty four growing pigs comprising of twelve male and twelve female weighing 8.95±1.01Kg were assigned into four dietary treatment groups involving dry mash diet, wet mash diet, dry mash diet+ Allzyme®SSF and wet mash diet+ Allzyme®SSF in a completely randomized design. After feeding experiment for six weeks, haematological and serum biochemical parameters were determined. Growth performance was observed on a weekly basis for six consecutive weeks. The results showed that the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation in a palm kernel meal-based diet did not significantly affect the haematological and serum biochemical parameters; however weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly influenced by the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation, thus making dry mash diet + Allzyme®SSF the best dietary treatment. The experiment showed that the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation in a palm kernel meal-based diet did not have any negative effect on the growing pigs and growth performance was not hindered; therefore palm kernel meal-based diet in wet or dry mash form with or without Allzyme® SSF supplementation could be fed to growing pigs

Transformative Potentials of E-governance: The intrinsic role of Information and Communication Technology in Reinvigorating Public Service Delivery in Nigeria

Proffering solutions to developmental issues such as poverty, unemployment, high costs of governance and poor service delivery among others require changes to government processes through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). This paper examines the transformative potentials of e- governance vis-à-vis the intrinsic role of information and communication technology (ICT) in reinvigorating public service delivery in Nigeria. To accomplish the objective of this paper, systematic review of literature on these issues was presented and discussed. The paper deliberated that e-governance is more than just the visibility of government website on the internet. In other words, e-governance relates to restructuring the state’s administrative procedure and in ensuring that the government is more transparent, and service-oriented. Remarkably, public service delivery in Nigeria has been adjudged to be poor, and fall short of expectations of citizen. As a result it has become a theme of mockery because of its rigidity and after many years of effort in implementing reforms in public service, it costs too much to delivers very little, and the level of achievement is not sufficiently responsive and accountable. The paper concludes that public services reinforce the social contract between states and citizens and, as such, serve as indicator of wellbeing of the society. Therefore, for Nigeria to make progress; there is need to strengthening public service delivery via ICT. The paper recommends that effort should be intensified to ensure that e-governance bridge the digital divide through training and by adapting technologies that is accessible to all user groups

STOCHASTIC PREDICTION OF MONTHLY INFLATION RATES THROUGH KALMAN FILTERING

Inflation measure is an important indicator of the state of an economy and the desire to determine it ahead of “time” cannot be overemphasised. This paper presents a step-by-step algorithm to predict the would-be monthly inflation rate of the Nigerian economy, using Kalman Filtering Predictor (KFP). The ordinary structural model for a time series (structTS) is highlighted to “fairly” compete against our proposed KFP. The structTS is a powerful “competitor”, it is in recommended R package “stats” and used for fitting basic structural models to “univariate” time series. It is quite reliable and fast, and is used as a benchmark in some comparisons of filtering techniques, it is indeed the “predictor” to “beat”, yet our proposed KFP has more to “offer”. The pertinent statistics and pictorial representation of the results obtained, through both techniques, is highlighted for any “incorruptible” judge’s perusal. All of these are contained in the couple of illustrative examples that exhibit the steps involved in the proposed algorithm, using a hypothetical monthly inflation rate and the monthly inflation rates data (January, 2011 to June, 2014) of the Nigerian economy.     &nbsp

Development of a Refrigerant Recovery and Recycling Machine

Indiscriminate discharge of refrigerants into the atmosphere during servicing or overhauling of refrigerating systems by Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC) Practitioners is one of the major contributing factors to ozone depletion and climate change. The objectives of this study are to: design, fabricate and evaluate the performance of refrigerants recovery and recycling machine. The machine with 19.44 kg/hr rated capacity produced at cost of N106, 503.00 (about USD 500) with locally sourced materials comprises: compressor, drier, capillary tube, solenoid valves, two (2) pressure gauges and heat exchanger as functional parts. In order to evaluate the performance of  this machine, R-12 and R-22 refrigerants were considered for its analysis and results showed that for every 1 kg refrigerant recovered and recycled it has average recovery and recycling efficiencies of 88.5 % and 85.68 % whilst recycling used refrigerant to 99.9 % of its original purity. Keywords: Refrigerants, Ozone Depletion, Global Warming, Recovery, Recycling, Performance evaluatio

A Simple Dose Regimen of Artesunate and Amodiaquine Based on Age or Body Weight Range for Uncomplicated Falciparum Malaria in Children: Comparison of Therapeutic Efficacy With Standard Dose Regimen of Artesunate and Amodiaquine and Artemether–Lumefantrine

A new dose regimen of artesunate and amodiaquine (NDRAA) based on age or body weight range was compared with standard dose regimen of artesunate and amodiaquine (SDRAA) calculated according to body weight and with fixed-dose artesunate–amodiaquine (FDAA) and artemether–lumefantrine (AL) in 304 children afflicted by malaria aged 15 years or younger. In initial comparison (n = 208), children on NDRAA received 1–3 times amodiaquine per kilogram of body weight and 1–1.5 times of artesunate per kilogram of body weight compared with those receiving SDRAA. Parasite but not fever clearance was significantly faster in children who received NDRAA (19.4 ± 8.4 hours vs. 24.6 ± 15.5 hours, P = 0.003). Polymerase chain reaction–uncorrected cure rates on days 28–42 were also significantly higher in children who received NDRAA (P < 0.02 in all cases). Therapeutic responses in children younger than 5 years (n = 96) treated with NDRAA, FDAA, and AL were similar. Changes in hematocrit values and reported adverse events after commencing therapy were similar in those who received NDRAA and SDRAA. All drug regimens were well tolerated. NDRAA based on age or body weight range is simple, is therapeutically superior to SDRAA calculated according to body weight, and is as efficacious as AL in children younger than 5 years

MARKOV MODELS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

Most real world situations involve modelling of physical processes that evolve with time and space, especially those exhibiting high variability. Such events that have to flow with time or space are called dynamical systems. The mathematical notions of a dynamical system serves to depict the flow of causation from past into future (Kalman 1960). In this study, Markov model which is a signal model based on the Markovian property with state space approach was adopted for the analysis of dynamical systems. The Nigerian monetary exchange rate data was used in the application with the use of R statistical software package. The study incorporated the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation in the construction of absolute limiting distribution of the system via the state variables. The procedure gives an easy and effective means of analysing complex and time varying dynamical systems. The study showed that the Nigerian monetary exchange rate is ergodic with stationary probability distribution. &nbsp

Barriers to utilization of cervical cancer screening services among non-medical female personnel in tertiary hospitals in south west Nigeria.

Context: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women and contributes significantly to cancer related deaths among women worldwide. Women knowledge and practice of screening for pre malignant lesions vary significantly. Studies on this subject had focused mostly on either medically informed health care workers or lay community persons but hardly on non-medically informed hospital workers who forms the bulk of health workers and influences health behaviors equally or even more.Objectives: To assess women's knowledge, attitude and practices towards cervical cancer screening and the barriers to utilizing cervical cancer screening services among non-medical female personnel in two tertiary centers in South West NigeriaStudy Design. Setting and Subjects: The study is a deseriptive cross-sectional study among female nonmedical personnel in OOUTH Sagamu and LAUTECH Ogbomosho in southwestern Nigeria. A self administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 280 women, which was analyzed using SPSS 21 statistical software.Main Outcome Measures: The study measured knowledge, practices and barriers to utilization of screening services.Results: Awareness is 84.3% and knowledge of screening is 77.5%. Utilization rate is low at 15%; indecision, 32 .4% feeling of good health, 28.2% and fear of positive results, 18.1 % are the main reasons for not screening. Low level of education and poor knowledge orthe disease are discovered as the most significant barriers and determinants of utilization Conclusion and Recommendation: Women education in context specific terms is recommended as the intervention to improve screening practices amongst women of reproductive age group