Constitutional Challenges of Creating New Local Government Areas in Nigeria

Local government is purposely established by law to provide grassroots development. In federal states, it is usually created by law of the federating units, and in unitary states it is created by central government. However, since the entrenchment of local government as a third-tier level of government in the 1979/1999 federal constitutions of Nigeria, there have been a lot of difficulties in creating new local governments. This paper examines the dynamics of this structure and the challenges posed to the orderly creation of new local government areas in Nigeria. The paper adopts secondary methods of data collection and analysis. It finds that the conflicting constitutional provisions which vest in the state and federal governments powers to create new local government areas have created many controversies in the polity. It recommends that the creation and statutory finance of local government councils in Nigeria should be expunged from the federal constitution

Local government financial autonomy in Nigeria: The State Joint Local Government Account

This paper addresses the statutory financial relations and financial autonomy of local government in Nigeria, and the freedom of local government to generate revenue from its assigned sources without external interference. It focuses particularly on a financial instrument called the State Joint Local Government Account (SJLGA) and how its operations have positively or negatively affected the financial autonomy of local government councils and the inter-relations between state and local government in Nigeria

ECOWAS and Democratic Reversal in West Africa: Re-visiting Military Incursion on the State Leadership

This paper explores the major impediments to democracy in West Africa as some states are trapped in a reversed democratic experience where the military have consistently made efforts to take over power. It examines the character and nature of democracy in West Africa using system theory as a tool of analysis. It also assesses the role of Economic Community for West African State (ECOWAS) in promoting and protecting democracy in West Africa considering various interventions and conferences held to safeguard it. Methodologically, it employs the use of descriptive analysis relying solely on secondary information for data generation and articulation. It discovers that despite all the efforts ECOWAS is making, African leaders are not living up to their mandate. It is in line with this that the research states that the problem remains a systemic one. It thus, recommends that there should be a concerted effort to commit concerned bodies into employing legal means in addressing similar reversal whenever it occurs. Keywords; ECOWAS, Democracy, Democratic Reversals, Military Coup d’état, West Africa

A Critical Appraisal of Enforcement of Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010

Nigeria is abundantly endowed with mineral and human resources, and is reputed to be the seventh largest oil producing country in the whole world. Despite the huge investments made by Nigerian government in oil and gas sector, an average of $10 billion per annum, the contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is minimal an average of less than 30%. This abysmal contribution of oil and gas sector is often attributed to the high foreign content and low inputs by Nigerian firms or low local participation in the sector resulting to huge capital flight. Despite the introduction of local content policy since 2006 and enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act in 2010, Nigerians have very little share of oil and gas business over the years just about 14%. The thrusts of this study therefore is that the inability of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the previous regulatory agencies to bridge capacity gap hinders oil and gas multinationals from complying with the Nigerian content directives. Keywords: Local content, Nigeria, oil and gas, NNPC, oil multinationals, rentieris

The 2011 National Minimum Wage Act Controversy and Trade Dispute in Nigeria: Problematizing Nigeria’s Fiscal Federalism

The 2011 National Minimum Wage Act raised serious controversy and debate in Nigeria thereby problematizing the nature and structure of Nigerian federalism and fiscal federalism. By adopting qualitative method of analysis, the study concludes that, one, the trade unions’ insistence on uniform national minimum wage scale hinders the enforcement of the National Minimum Wage Legislation, and two, variation in revenue profile of states in Nigeria impedes implementation of National Minimum Wage Act 2011 by some state governments. Following from the above, the study made some recommendations prominent among which are, one, amendment of some sections of the Nigerian Constitution necessary for ‘true’ (fiscal) federalism; two, restructuring of the structure of Nigerian federalism anchored on the principle of viability; three, allowing states to have their own minimum wage and wage structure based on their ability to pay and the subsisting cost of living or living wage. Keywords: Minimum wage, trade union, trade dispute, federalism, fiscal federalism, revenue and Nigeri

Nigeria and World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) Partnership: The Tragedy of the Commons

Globally, over 150 billion cubic metres of associated gas are being flared and vented annually. Africa flares 40 billion cubic metres annually in which 35 billion cubic metres are flared in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria alone, gas flaring amounts to about 23 billion cubic metres per annum in over 100 flare sites, constituting over 13 percent of global gas flaring. This translates to greenhouse gas emission of 45 million tons of CO2 out of the global total of 400 million tons annually. Nigeria partners with the GGFR, a World Bank led public-private partnership that includes major oil and gas producing countries and companies. The GGFR was established to facilitate and support national efforts to utilize currently flared gas by promoting effective regulatory framework and tackling the constraints on gas utilization. The study essentially adopts qualitative method that relies on secondary data and applies radical environmentalism a combination of Marxism, rentierism and environmentalism as theoretical framework of analysis. The paper focuses primarily on the role of Nigeria in the GGFR vis a vis other partners; and thus, concludes that oil dependence of GGFR partners undermines the enforcement of associated gas flaring and venting reduction and elimination policy in Nigeria. Keywords: Oil, gas flaring, radical environmentalism, World Bank, GGFR, Nigeri

Policing the Community or Community Policing: Implication for Community Development in Nigeria

Community policing is fast becoming a global trend, especially in the 21st century. But community policing is neither foreign nor new to Africa, because long before European colonialism in Africa, the traditional African political societies had been policing and securing themselves. The European colonialism supplanted African model of community policing with colonial police who alienated the people. This alienation continued in post-colonial Nigeria deepening the distrust or mistrust between the people and the police. Rather than community policing, the Nigerian police has been busy policing the community thereby alienating the people more. This lack of cooperation from the people has a serious consequence, which is the inability of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to combat crime and tackle various security challenges in Nigeria leading to the proliferation of vigilante security architecture particularly in the form of vigilante militia groups. But this proliferation has only exacerbated security challenges in Nigeria owing to the distrust between them and the police. So far, community policing as implemented in Nigeria has not ensured security and safety in Nigeria not to talk of facilitating community development. Thus, insecurity, crimes and disorder have hindered development in the communities. The paper concluded that so long as the Nigerian Police engages in policing the community instead of partnering with the community in matters of security, safety and development in the communities will continue to elude Nigeria. This study is essentially qualitative, descriptive, and prescriptive. Keywords: Community policing, community development, rural development, security, Nigeri

Constitutional Democracy and Caretaker Committee in Nigeria Local Government System: An Assessment

The 1976 Local Government Reform among other landmark changes unified the local government system in Nigeria, and the 1979 constitution made local governments the third tier of government and provided for a system of local government by democratically elected councils. More recently, elected local government councils have been dissolved and replaced with Transition Committees or Caretaker Committees appointed by the Governors’ of their respective states. This paper therefore, examines the impact of the caretaker committees in Nigerian Local Government on the practice of constitutional democracy. The discussion is framed by the theoretical perspectives and Nigerian literature on local government and constitutional democracy, and by the recent phenomenal wave of dissolving elected local government councils and subsequent replacement with caretaker committees. Contrary to popular belief, that local government as the third tier of government has failed to achieve the objective for which it was created, this paper observes that party politics has been the bane of Nigerian local government since its inception, and that democratically elected local councils with political and financial autonomy are the major conditions for an effective and efficient multi-purpose local government system in Nigeria

Adaptation problems of computer control management systems adaptation for mobile trading

This project’s motivation comes from the increasing importance of Supply Chain Management and the interest in the successful case of Dell on the one hand, and the need for a relevant analysis of a lower-level, on the other hand. We have tackled this problem by developing a business process model that illustrates Dell’s supply chain strategies, and which is strategic and business goal-oriented. In order to make this BPM executable, we have designed and implemented a workflow engine that simulates BPM execution and calculates the related total time and cost. Furthermore, we have simulated two processes of the developed BPM and we have conducted experiments for their improvement and for their comparison with according processes of a traditional computer company