DR. OROKPO OGBOLE FRANCIS E

One of the perennial problems which has not only defied all past attempts at permanent solution, but also has a tendency for evoking high emotions on the part of all concerned each time it is brought forth for discussion or analysis is the issue of equitable revenue allocation in Nigeria. It is an issue which has been politicised by successive administrations in Nigeria both military and civilian regimes. It is consequent on this that various regimes had attempted at establishing various commissions/committees on revenue allocations which attempted various criteria for sharing national revenue which have been distilled into a number of principles as enunciated in this paper. The imperative of competition over sharing common wealth in the context of a plural society like Nigeria have resulted into a lot of contradictions despite the plethora of commissions which is the focus of this paper. The paper among other things concludes that an acceptable formula that would foster a more bala...

Manuscript ID: RCMSS/IJPAMR/13015 Abstract This paper examines political groups as an importan t element in political decision making particularly in plural and democratic societies. It aligned and relied heavily with the group politics behavioural model of political analysis. It argues that politics generally involves the struggle for the control and exercise of political power within the complex dynamics of group politics. Similarly, it maintains that in a plural democratic society, individual citizens can only best realize their ambition of influencing government policies t hrough group participation in politics. The paper found that political groups influence politic al decision making through variety of ways including public education campaigns, civil disobed ience and violence, civil litigation, lobbying, protests, demonstration and strikes, electoral acti vities as well as control of information and expertise. The paper concludes that through these a ctivities, political grou...

Leadership, democratization and good governance as concepts have assumed prominence in the world’s history of both underdevelopment and develo pment discourse. In Nigeria, people have continued to experience a severe economic poverty a nd wretchedness over the years due to leadership that is absence of a moral principle. Th is frightening situation appears nonstop consequent upon the democratic and military rulers who have been advocating for good governance, economic prosperity and establishment o f critical infrastructures since independence in 1960 who are not effective “change agents”. Ther efo e, the main thrust of this paper is to explore the paradox of political leadership and the challenge of good governance in Nigeria in the midst of abundant human and material resources. The paper is divided into six segments: introduction; theoretical framework; methodology, c on eptual debate; the lamentation and ended with recommendations. It adopted transformational l eadership theory ...

The paper posits that fiscal federalism is a partic ular pattern of constitutional division of revenue powers and responsibilities among levels of government. Th e federal government however has occupied a very strong position vis-à-vis the State and Local gover nment since the 1970’s in Nigeria. This is because most of the power (financial and legislative) relating t o economic development has been explicitly centrali zed at the federal level. It is the position of the pap er that a high level of fiscal decentralization is required in Nigeria because of the unfair revenue sharing formu la and the need to resolve the controversial issues surrounding the contentious fiscal federalism in Ni ger a. Apart from recommending a substantial review of the fiscal system, it draws attention to the pol itical imperatives of a constitutional modification f the fiscal arrangement and adequate compensation for th ose who produce the ‘commonwealth’ among others.

Over the years, Public enterprises have been adjudg ed to be a critical prerequisite for the developmen t of any nation. All nations that are among the league o f developed nations today regarded as world powers, have achieved certain development feats via the est abli hment of these enterprises. Nigeria was no exception in terms of the belief that the state and public enterprises have a role to play in the coun try’s development efforts. The government in conjunction with the private sector, mostly foreign, was direct ly involved in areas ranging from the production of fo od stuffs to assembling cars. In recent years, privatization of public enterprises has preoccupied policy analysts in the search for solutions to imp rove the performance of state-owned enterprises. Several developing countries including most African countries have embarked upon extensive privatizatio n programme within the framework of macroeconomic reform and liberation, revising the e arli r strategy of using p...

The rising profile of poverty in Nigeria is assuming an alarming and worrisome dimension. Nigeria, a Sub-Saharan African country has at least half of its population in abject poverty. It is incontrovertible fact that poverty has been massive, pervasive and engulfs large proportion of the Nigeria society which results in hunger, ignorance, malnutrition, disease, unemployment, poor access to credit facilities and low life expectancy as well as a general level of human hopelessness. Nigeria presents a paradox because the country is rich but the people are poor. Thus, the daunting challenges over the years of nationhood is that of tacking poverty in the mist of abundance of resources that nature and divinity has endowed the country with; hence the proliferation of plethora of programmes to alleviate nay eradicate this hydra-headed monster without any significant evidence. The paper posits that; the poverty alleviation programmes in the country over the years have not impacted the target...

... Adeniyi (2003:353) has identified violence and other forms of electoral conflicts perpetrated ... dominance in political parties, godfatherism, indigeneship, intra-party rigging, political violence, thuggery and ... Despite the argument that political participation of women in Nigeria rose in ...

Nigeria's quest for sustainable development road map has been a tortuous one since independent with various plans and policies developed to fast-track the economy. Sadly, however no meaningful change had been witnessed thus making all successive government to come up with different development blueprint on how to rejig the economy. The Buhari administration came up

Civil society has become important agents for engendering good democratic governance through the promotion of accountability, transparency, rule of law, curtailment of human rights abuses, and capitalist exploitation. Civil society is seen as the cumulus of voluntary, self-generating, at least partially self-supporting, and autonomous associations different from the state, business and family and bound by a legal order or set of shared rules that is open to the public. Civil society is seen as a sine qua non to democratic governance, which explicitly is about providing social security, expanding and advocating for economic opportunities, rule of law, freedom of press, nipping in the bud ethno-religious violence, provision of basic infrastructural facilities, guarantee of oppositions, and a regular free and fair election. However, because the state represents the interest of the ruling class, whose interest is to perpetually control the apparatus of state power and machinery of government at all cost, the interest of the people especially in emerging democracies in Africa like tends to be disregarded. The paper x-rays the extent to which civil society in Nigeria has been able to stimulate and galvanize the entrenchment of good governance through political mobilization since the return to democratic rule in I999 and concludes that a lot needs to be done to strengthen the capacity of civil society groups for a positive intervention in the democratization process and political mobilization. The paper thus recommends among others adequate funding, unity, transparency and accountability in the cause of their advocacy and campaign.

The conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in different parts of Nigeria are one of the major national discourse in recent times because of the security challenges that are involved. This study was carried out to identify the security implications of these conflicts on Kogi State and the nation at large and suggest possible way forward. Data were generated from primary and secondary sources via interviews and literature search derived from earlier research work by these same authors titled "Farmers/Herdsmen Crisis in Kogi State: Security and Developmental Implications". Analyses were qualitatively and quantitatively carried out. Findings reveal gross material, physical and psychological consequences of these conflicts, which suggest that the security implications are alarming. These combine with the existing national security issues facing Nigeria are signs that the country is drifting into a failed state. A policy formulation and implementation that recognizes the role of modernization and political economy to development and good governance are necessary antidotes to this drift.

One major security and developmental challenge that has attracted much national discourse in the recent past is the conflict between herdsmen and farmers in different parts of the country. The crisis has become a recurring decimal, especially in Kogi State and indeed a time bomb, which appears not to have been given the desired national attention by government at all levels. Irked by the bizarre dimension herdsmen/farmers conflicts have taken in Nigeria in recent time and Kogi State in particular, this research was carried out with a view to proffering solutions that could arrest the ugly situation and prevent it from becoming a monster like Boko Haram crisis. Thus, this research was carried out to achieve the following objectives: 1. Identify the root causes of herders/farmers conflicts in Kogi State. 2. Examine the security implications of the herders/farmers conflicts in Kogi State. 3. Examine the socioeconomic implications of herders/farmers conflicts in Kogi State. 4. Proffer workable solutions that can be put in place by both the Federal and Kogi state Government to resolve the herders/farmers conflict in Kogi State. The study was a survey research. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The area of study is Kogi State. Data for the study were generated from primary and secondary sources. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire and interview. The population for the study was drawn from farmers, herders, traditional rulers, community leaders and security agents from the study area. The data collected were presented and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Descriptive statistics was used with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Findings were made based on the tested significance level of the responses as revealed by the standard deviation analysis. Based on the results of the analysis, the study categorized the causes of herders/farmers conflicts in Kogi state into major and incidental factors. The major factor centred on economic use of land resources while incidental factors include policy framework, deficient response and demographic, ecological/environmental factors. Far reaching recommendations were made among which were: the need for definite policy enactment on use of land resources as it relates to grazing lands as well as establishment of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms (ADRM) for resolving disputes between farmers and herdsmen as the conflict groups (farmers/herders) have lost confidence in the Nigerian judicial system, establishment of ranches, combating desertification and mop up of illicit arms amongst others.

The rising profile of poverty in Nigeria is assuming an alarming and worrisome dimension. Nigeria, a Sub-Saharan African country has at least half of its population in abject poverty. It is incontrovertible fact that poverty has been massive, pervasive and engulfs large proportion of the Nigeria society which results in hunger, ignorance, malnutrition, disease, unemployment, poor access to credit facilities and low life expectancy as well as a general level of human hopelessness. Nigeria presents a paradox because the country is rich but the people are poor. Thus, the daunting challenges over the years of nationhood is that of tacking poverty in the mist of abundance of resources that nature and divinity has endowed the country with; hence the proliferation of plethora of programmes to alleviate nay eradicate this hydra-headed monster without any significant evidence. The paper posits that; the poverty alleviation programmes in the country over the years have not impacted the target-beneficiaries-the poor hence NAPEP and so many other poverty alleviation/ reduction programmes mounted by successive government has not realised their objectives in our nation over the years. It is the recommendation of the paper among others; the need for a concerted effort to identify, articulate and highlight the existence, the causes and effects of poverty in Nigeria and pragmatically addressing them. Introduction Over the years, discourse on poverty has continued to engage the attention of scholars, development practitioners, politicians and international development agencies. The consensus however is that poverty is seen as a universal phenomenon that affects the socioeconomic and political well being of its victims whether in a developed or underdeveloped countries. Nigeria a country once regarded as a model for African development and ‗‗Giant in the Sun'' but is today a poor country in the midst of abundant resources. Among other things, the country is enormously endowed with human resources, good whether condition for agriculture, petroleum, gas, and large untapped mineral resources. But rather than recording remarkable progress in the national socioeconomic development, Nigeria retrogressed to become one of the poorest countries fifty years after independence, whereas she was among the richest 50 in the early 1970's (Obadan, 2001:1). Generally, a number of socioeconomic indicators are used to measure the standard of living or the general wellbeing of the people. These socioeconomic indicators include food, heath care, education, employment opportunities, and access to basic infrastructures among others. Poverty is

Nigeria is a state known to have formulated articulate policies for the purpose of providing solution to her numerous problems and development. In fact, the fate of many public policy programmes has been that of poor, callous, haphazard implementation and abandonment. Policy programmes are replete with short falls in terms of implementations, inability to produce demonstrable outputs and gaps between objectives and outcomes are likely reasons for failures. Paternalistic arrogance is replicated in the way and manner in which public policies are formulated and implemented without the involvement of the people whom most of such policies are meant for. No wonder over the years, Nigeria brims over with abandoned projects, aborted hopes and dried up dreams. This paper therefore concerns itself with the need to examine the issue of policy failure within the Nigerian nation — State within the premise of paternalistic arrogance of our political leadership, hence policy failure which is a recurring phenomenon in our political system. INTRODUCTION Several Decades of failed development efforts in Nigeria, the persistent deterioration in the quality of life of the average Nigerian, the worsening conditions public utilities and the enduring poor economic performance have combined to stimulate scholars to ask questions which are of practical administrative interest and of great concern to scholars of policy science. Some scholars have attempted to enquire into these

The growing complexities of the workplace exacerbated by the impact of globalization, technological innovation and knowledge explosion on national economies has made human resource development a strategic imperative for nations, organizations and individuals. Organizations in view of these changes are forced to rethink their practice, reposition their vision and consciously create enabling environment that will stimulate and expose its human resources to opportunities for learning and acquisition of new knowledge base and higher education institutions (Polytechnics included) are not insulated from this global momentum. These changes, along with the rapid increase of the body of knowledge, challenges HEI's generally and Polytechnics in particular to put in place strategies that will facilitate learning and development processes among academic staff. The main thrust of this paper informed by the literature review is to look at those strategies that will facilitate learning and development of academic staff of Nigerian Polytechnics.