Letter to the editor

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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

Evaluation of Some Microbiological and Physico-chemical Composition of Domestic Wastewater in Rivers and Bayelsa States

Aims: This research study aims at ascertaining the inhibitive contributions of these domestic effluents even as they flow from drains into the rivers. Study Design: The microbiological and physico-chemical composition of domestic wastewater in Rivers and Bayelsa States was achieved experimentally. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in Rivers and Bayelsa states, Nigeria, between August 20016 and January 2017. Methodology: The waste water samples were aseptically collected from domestic points using 1 litre sterile polyethylene bottles filled with ice and was immediately taken to the laboratory for analysis to improve reliability of data and they were stored at 4°C for further analysis. Results: The physicochemical analysis of wastewater collected from 20 stations were investigated. These parameters were analyzed by standard methods. The color of the collected sewage water was pale yellow to black and was turbid in some selected stations. Unpleasant odor was observed in all selected stations. The pH of the wastewater varied from 6.0 to 7.3, while the water conductivity ranges from 650 to 2390 μScm-1. The maximum total suspended solid was 182 mg/l, and the maximum biological oxygen demand was 569.5 mg/l. The chemical oxygen demand of the selected stations varied widely (507.1 – 602.9 mg/l), and the dissolved oxygen content varied from 0.01 to 0.242 mg/l. The nitrate content was found to be maximum in station G (18.5 ppm), and the samples show high content of bacteria in all the stations. Conclusion: This study anchors on the need for effective sewage treatment of domestic, industrial and municipal effluent before they are discharged into the environment. This will help to meet up with the long-term challenges of environmental pollution, improve standard of living and health, and also enhance economic opportunities and good sustainable development

Quality of Life and Self-Reported Common Mental Disorders: An Analysis of Patterns and Relationship in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

Quality of life (QoL) is a major measure of health and wellbeing. Studies that have examined the quality of life of urban residents from a geographical view in developing countries are still emerging. This present study examines the relationship between urban residents’ quality of life and its relationship with self-reported common mental disorders. The cross-sectional survey approach which entails data collection from 1200 respondents in Ibadan city, Nigeria. WHO-5 and SRQ-20 were adapted to obtain information on quality of life and self-reported common mental disorders respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to establish associations and analysis were carried out at 0.05 significance- level. The spatial pattern of quality of life was found to be random although there are pockets of poor quality of life. Quality of life was found to be negatively related to self-reported common mental disorders (R = -0.396). The urban ecological conditions of the study area indicate poor quality of life and this may be responsible for the increasing risk of common mental disorder in the city. The study concludes that common mental disorders exist in the urban settings and its occurrence is closely related to poor quality of life

Isolation and Characterization of Fungi Associated with in-Can Degradation of Paint

This study was carried out to determine the isolates of fungi types associated with in-can degradation of  paint. Thirty-six paint made up of water based and emulsion in equal numbers obtained from various location in the southwest Nigeria were  investigated by conventional biochemical cultivation on selective medium. Growth of different fungi isolates were obtained in varied proportions in both water based paint and emulsion paint. Rhizopus and Aspergillus spp were predominant in this study while other fungi; Absidia,  Monilia, Alternaria, Fusarium and Penicillium spp  were also recorded in varied density

A table mounted device for cracking dika nut (Irvingia gabonensis)

A simply designed machine for cracking dika nut was fabricated. The nut is fed by hand inbetween a toggle mechanism comprising of the slider and a fixed block. Fracture mechanism was based on the deformation characteristics of dried dika nut under uni-axial compression. When actuated, the slider compresses the nutshell to failure along its line of symmetry. The experimental machine gave 100% cracking efficiency but with 24% kernel breakage in cracking sun-dried dika nut at 6.6% moisture content (w.b). The machine provides a viable and effective technique for safe dika kernel extraction

Determinants of Financial Inclusion in Sub-Sahara African Countries

As the exclusion of large percentage of population has been identified as major obstacle to inclusive growth and development in developing countries of the world it is against this background this study investigates the determinants of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa using Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL). The results from the study reveal that financial inclusion in the region is meaningfully influenced by both demand side factors (level of income and literacy) and Supply side factors (Interest rate and bank innovation proxy by ATM usage). Government in the sub region should put policy in place to promote financial literacy and other forms of innovative banking in their respective country as this will go a long way in promoting financial inclusion in the region