Department of Administration and Local Government Studies

Agitations in Nigeria continue to take different dimensions from the cries of power sharing, economic and infrastructural development distribution, states and local governments " creation, resource control, religious manipulation to restructuring of the current federal construction. This qualitative paper adopted the Split-Class Marxian Theory to analyse this ugly development in a political independent nation like Nigeria. The paper highlighted that the socio-political and economic implications of this ugly phenomenon is better imagined than being real. They include civil unrest; and war, social, political, and economic crises; emergence of a failed state and persistence of corruption. It argues however that, none of these things can equal to the call to rise up and save this nation from the trajectory that make a break-up a viable option though none of us in this generation was present in the theatre of amalgamations. It is recommended that there should be a reconsideration of " Amended Regionalism and Native Authority Systems " , removal of " State of Origin " from the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, inter-tribal marriage, and federal constitutionalism and law enforcement.

Employment generation has been over the years considered as one of the major paths to socioeconomic progress. Honestly, this has been in recent time part of the cardinal micro and macroeconomic objectives of most successive governments in Nigeria spanning through the pre and post independence. Conventional models of poverty eradication in Nigeria from the 1950s–80s and most of the 1990s were prominently models of National Development Plans, Rolling Plans and economic growth. However, poverty borders fundamentally on human deprivation and no meaningful development can take place where the people are poor. The paper discussed the disadvantage of KEKE NAPEP (Hire purchase) Programme as an alternative to poverty eradication, and advocates agricultural development as panacea to poverty alleviation and economic consolidation of Nigerian citizens. Through secondary data and descriptive research analysis, the study revealed that the initiation of KEKE NAPEP has made no difference in making the lives of the youths better as the policy was not only unsustainable and corruption-ridden but lacked the potential of lifting most of the youths from poverty. Conversely, resuscitating the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) is seen as a sincere answer to poverty alleviation and economic diversification challenges in Nigeria. The paper majorly recommended the provision of enabling environment for the participants of all and sundry in agricultural business in Nigeria.

This paper examines the different dimensions and continuous corrupt practices in the federal government of Nigeria amidst President Buhari administration's anti-corruption songs and war (2015-date). It is observed that the menaces of infrastructural deficits are persistent and unabated due to billions of dollars that are carted away by both political and public office holders on a seasonal basis, and misfit appointment of public officials popularly referred to as 'favoritism' and the 'lopsidedness.' The study which is qualitative with data gathered from secondary sources. The paper found the fact that political and public office holders across administrations in Nigeria perceived corruption as a worthwhile venture despite the campaign against corruption. It is also noticed that the EFCC created to lead anti-corruption war only barks without biting. The study advocated, among others, that the National Assembly should immediately reevaluate and review the Nigeria administration of criminal justice system.

The high rate of economic growth, the provision of basic facilities, and job creation are products of any nation's level of industrialisation. Globally, no nation is considered to have attained a concerted level of a high standard of living in the absence of economic development. Thus, industrialisation that ought to be the bedrock of Nigerian economy has continued on a downward journey in the 21st century, despite several industrial development policies. Therefore, the paper is an attempt to find out how this sector has fared visa -vis the structural influence of UNIDO. The study is a qualitative work that adopted a thematic analysis approach. The adoption of Top-Down as a theoretical model of analyses validates the fundamental issues raised that; several industrial development programmes and projects initiated by both UNIDO and successive administrations in Nigeria to help in the revitalisation of industrial landscape in line with the government's goal of emerging among the top 20 most developed economies in the world by 2020 have failed. The major informed findings of the paper are that for the time being, Nigeria still remains a consuming economy of finished products including some raw materials. In addition, her critical construction, engineering and maintenance activities are expatriates-based with little or no regard for local content. These cumulatively resulted in the advancement of the fact that the UNIDO supports have not significantly impacted the development of industries in Nigeria. The discourse conclusively gave birth to subsequent recommendations.

There is a popular slogan in Nigeria that ‘politicians can promise to build
bridges where there is no river’ and can justify why a relationship or bilateral agreement need not be sustained. This is consequent upon language usage and determination by speakers and principal actors. This paper adopts qualitative research method to discuss major issues in language manipulation in Nigeria. It conceptualizes the key term of language and debates how language interfaces with politics, national and international relations. The study recommends that, the National Assembly should as a matter of urgency amend the Electoral Act 2010 with the provision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Judiciary empowerment to sanction politicians for language manipulation and the review of Nigeria policy on language to make provision for multilingualism at all levels of official engagement.

The impact of the Corona Virus pandemic on the socioeconomic and all spheres of endeavour in the society is difficult to quantify. Thus, with the new realities resulting in the distortion of the way things are done no doubt throw up new challenges on how to leave the new normal as a result of the of emergence of COVID-19 pandemic. High adoption ICT emanated as a key means of bridging the gap of challenges caused by the pandemic and responding to the new reality of the everyday life. ICT, with its reach, richness and performances holds great promises in times like this if Nigeria can achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a nation. As a descriptive and qualitative study, the paper attempts to unravel the utility of ICT as a precursor to sustainable development in all sectors of the economy which have been threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. It posits that the use of ICT involves its own set of challenges, especially concerning awareness, availability, accessibility and affordability of data-bundle among others. Therefore, the paper recommends that the governments should ensure that the use of ICT is fair and proportional not only during the times of pandemic, but also in the post-COVID-19 era as it holds the key to the actualization Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria and the world at large.

The paper is a conceptual review of the GDP as a measure of economic, national well-being and development sustainability and proposal for adoption of Social Progress Index as a better measures of sustainable economic growth. The study adopted secondary data analysis design and thematic approach to address the pertinent issues raised in the discourse. The overwhelmingly imperativeness to evolve new models, indicators and measures with broader views and coverage around long-term, sustainable socioeconomic and environmental development issues after about 87 years of inaccurately applying the GDP to measure what it cannot measure; The work demonstrated that there should be a preferred substitute of the Social Progress Index (SPI) to the GDP because of its inability to measure national well-being and development. It strengthens the call for Policy Makers, Public Financial and Economic Institutions Managers, and Development Partners to deemphasise the use of GDP as the determinant for all socioeconomic and development policy decisions as it was not designed to do that. The study recommends that a new formula, SPI be adopted for measuring economic growth and national well-being, one which makes for the shortcomings and limitations of the GDP be adopted: EP&NW = GDP