The Political Economy Of Privatization In Nigeria: A Case Study Of The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel)

Privatization in Nigeria was thought to have represented a reversal of the entire post-military and post-authoritarian interventionist policy paradigm. The privatization decision resulted from demands associated with the international institutions such as the World Bank and globalization in general. The sad reality, however, is that privatization in Nigeria has been abominably politicized, climaxing at political patronage and cronyism as clearly shown by biased selection of candidates, inadequate regulatory framework and the poor mode of privatization. Using the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) as a Case Study, this dissertation rehearses the problematical scenery of privatization in Nigeria, and how privatization, rather than serving as an economic reformatory tool, has been used as a tool for political settlements. The result of the study corroborates previous researchers‟ position that privatization in Nigeria failed to deliver the economic goal of efficiency and improved productivity. In the case of NITEL particularly, the results of the study (using information and data collected on NITEL, a thorough insight of the performance after privatization exercise were taken with references to some performance indicators such as profitability, operating efficiency, capital investment, leverage and employment), showed that the company almost experienced bankruptcy before the Nigerian government revoked the sale from Transnational Corporations (TRANSCORP). The pinnacle of the findings of the study reveals that political corruption and institutional failures are the most responsible factors for the failure of privatization in Nigeria, generally, and in the case of NITEL, particularl

Criminality and election outcomes in Nigeria

This study explores democratic practice in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in the light of globally prescribed and acceptable norms, tenets and values of democracy as a form of government. The study was conducted in Nigeria and adopted a multistage sampling technique to administer questionnaire to 700 delegates across the six (6) geopolitical zones of Nigeria’s 36 States. The results and findings show that Nigeria’s democracy is plagued with massive electoral fraud, including intimidation, disenfranchisement of eligible contestants and voters from participating in the democratic process, corruption of the election process, scam, and fraudulent declaration of winners of elections. The implications of such democratic deceit in Nigeria’s democracy includes voter apathy resulting from lack of confidence in the democratic process and outcome, violence and political instability and the nonparticipation of qualified and honest citizens in the politics of Nigeria. Consequently, leaders that emerge from Nigeria’s democratic politics are not always the choice of the people, which explains why they are not accountable to the people as well as why there is deficit of public trust in Nigeria’s democratic system

Incidence of Diabetes mellitus at the Federal Medical Centre Katsina, Katsina State, Nigeria: A Retrospective Study

A six-year (2002 – 2007) retrospective study of hospital records (in-patients) was carried out to investigate the incidence of Diabetes Mellitus in Katsina. The records showed that a total of 754 cases were attended within the study period. The study showed yearly increase in the incidence of the disease with the highest incidence of 288 (38.20%) in the year 2007 and the least 65 (8.62%) in the year 2002. More males suffered from the disease 456 (60.48%) than females 298 (39.52%). The incidence was also found to be high 289 (38.33%) in the age range 65 and above, while age range 25 – 34 was least affected 28 (3.71%). Ways on how to live free of Diabetes Mellitus were also recommended.Keywords: Age Range, Diabetes Mellitus, Incidence, Hospita

Hepatorenal toxicity studies of sub-chronic administration of calyx aqueous extracts of hibiscus sabdariffa in albino rats

Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn has been reported to have a broad range of therapeutic effects. Subchronic effects of calyces aqueous extracts of H. Sabdariffa were studied in albino rats. Twenty four (24) albino rats were randomly divided into six (6) groups of four rats each. Group A, was fed with growers mesh and distilled water as control. Groups B to F were administered orally with the aqueous extract at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5g /kg body weight respectively and the treatment period was 28 days. A decreased in weights of the animals were observed at all dose levels. The activities of liver maker enzymes (alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase) and direct bilirubin increased significantly (p0.05) increase in concentrations of total protein and albumin were observed in comparison to the control. The renal indices, urea, uric acid and creatinine in the treated groups were significantly increased compared to the control but a significant decrease (

A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF DEMAGOGUERY IN THE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE OF NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC

There are concerns about the feasibility of democratic governance in Africa generally, and in Nigeria particularly due to pervasive demagoguery in the practice of democracy, which is still relatively understudied (particularly as it relates to the Nigerian context). In spite the seemingly remarkable progress of democracy in Nigeria, its survival, deepening and dividends are threatened by anti-democratic behaviour and practices that are antithetical to the universally acknowledged principles, values and culture of democracy. The objectives of the study were to examine the ways in which demagoguery manifests itself in Nigeria‘s democracy, examine the role of demagoguery in Nigeria‘s democracy in the Fourth Republic, identify the factors that make demagoguery thrive in the democratic politics of Nigeria, and examine the implications of demagoguery on democracy and good governance in Nigeria. The study adopted triangulation of methods, collecting data from both primary and secondary sources. A total of 658 respondents and 20 interviewees drawn from political parties, security agencies, Independent National Electoral Commission and political office holders participated in the study. Data were analysed using frequency and percentage distributions, cross tabulations and regression (for the quantitative data), and content analysis (for the qualitative data). Results from the quantitative data, which were complemented by the qualitative analyses, show that demagoguery pervades Nigeria‘s democracy and determines the country‘s politics. Also, the study shows that election outcomes are no reflections of a free, fair and credible democratic process, but are the outcome of a constellation of demagogic factors such as monetary inducement, intimidation, the use of security agencies and thugs to disrupt or manipulate democratic processes or outcomes, and election fraud. Two hypotheses were tested in the study. The first hypothesis showed that outcome of elections in democratic contestations in Nigeria‘s Fourth Republic is significantly influenced by a combination of acts of demagoguery including monetary inducement, intimidation and election fraud at a p-value of .000. The second hypothesis showed that money, though important, is not a significantly sufficient factor in determining the outcome of elections in Nigeria. The implications of demagoguery for democracy and good governance are that democracy loses its idea as the government that attains or retains political power through the people and makes it a venture of self-interests through Machiavellian politics. The findings of the study inform the recommendations that highlight the importance of citizens‘ education, strict and impartial implementation of sanctions against violators of democratic and electoral laws, accentuating the impartiality of security agencies and the need for constitutional amendment to protect the democratic rights of citizens against the impunity of democratic institutions, especially political parties

Energetic proton spectra in the 11 June 1991 solar flare

We have studied a subset of the 11 June 1991 solar flare γ-ray data that we believe arise from soft proton or ion spectra. Using data from the COMPTEL instrument on the Compton Observatory we discuss the gamma-ray intensities at 2.223 MeV, 4–7 MeV, and 8–30 MeV in terms of the parent proton spectrum responsible for the emission

A Numerical Algorithm for Solving Stiff Ordinary Differential Equations

An advanced method using block backward differentiation formula (BBDF) is introduced with efficient strategy in choosing the step size and order of the method. Variable step and variable order block backward differentiation formula (VSVO-BBDF) approach is applied throughout the numerical computation.The stability regions of the VSVO-BBDFmethod are investigated and presented in distinct graphs.The improved performances in terms of accuracy and computation time are presented in the numerical results with different sets of test problems. Comparisons are made between the proposed method and MATLAB’s suite of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) solvers, namely, ode15s and ode23s