Texte remanié de: Diss.--Frankfurt am Main--Universität Frankfurt am Main, 1997. / Notes bibliogr.

Thesis (MFamMed)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / Background: Coronary heart disease is a global public health problem. Formerly considered rare in sub-Saharan Africa, evidence has shown that urbanization and the adoption of more affluent and sedentary lifestyle in subpopulations of this region, may result in increased prevalence. One such subpopulation is workers in the Nigerian petroleum industry and this study examines their risk factors for coronary heart disease. In addition the study compares the risk profile of onshore and offshore workers. Method: This is a descriptive cross sectional study undertaken to determine the level of risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease in two groups of male workers of the petroleum industry in Nigeria; the onshore and the offshore workers. Four hundred workers were randomnly selected and invited to participate, with a desired sample size of 234. The data was collected by using an electronic questionnaire to explore life style factors like exercise, diet, and smoking that predispose to this disease. Anthropometric indices included body mass index, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio. Biochemical tests included lipid profile and fasting blood glucose. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was also recorded. The prevalence of known hypertension and diabetes as well as the metabolic syndrome were determined. The questionnaire data was analysed and compared with the chi-square test using the software, Epi-info 2008 Windows Version 3.5.1 and the means of the continuous variables were determined and compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: 121 onshore and 110 offshore workers participated. Overall the cardiovascular risk profile of onshore versus offshore workers in the oil industry was worse. Onshore workers had increased waist circumference,; though there was no significant difference in the Waist-Hip Ratio, increased rates of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and hypertension and were less physically active. Dietary differences were less marked, but more beef and chicken were consumed by onshore while more fish was consumed by offshore workers. Conversely the offshore workers had a higher BMI and lower levels of protective HDL. Overall, in this population, the BMI and the umber of diabetics were higher and the HDL lower than the country figures. Conclusion The obesity profile of the two groups was comparable to that of the Western nations and could become worse. This also reflects the fact that within Nigeria there are sub-populations with cardio-metabolic profiles that depart significantly from the national average. This is most probably due to dietary factors and poor exercise habits and calls for intervention through health promotional activities / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nie beskikbaar

The planned Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria - Abuja is the context of this research. Abuja was conceived and conceptualised under a Master Plan designed by Kenzo Tange and Utec to replace Lagos as the new Capital City for the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1977. This came about because of the unstructured and unplanned facilities characteristically evident in buildings, communities and some critical infrastructure in Lagos. These have combined, with the rapid rates of urbanisation, and relative to lack of supporting infrastructure and services, to render Lagos as one of the most overcrowded and dysfunctional cities in the world. Housing shortages, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, overburdened and dilapidating physical infrastructures and services, and poor quality environment have become the defining characteristics of Lagos. These were the issues that forced the idea of relocating the Capital City elsewhere in the country that resulted in Abuja’s selection as the New Capital City for Nigeria in 1977. Kenzo Tange Associates, an authority in urban design was appointed that resulted in a Master Plan to guide the development of the new city. The resultant Master Plan was designed with the specific peculiarities of Lagos in mind to avoid reoccurrence, although, the concept of environmental sustainability and development was not the preoccupation of urban design and planning in the 1970s, Abuja Master Plan incorporated the concepts, principles, and practice of sustainable development today. Nevertheless, the implementation of the Abuja Master Plan has drawn consternation from built environment professionals. Anecdotal evidences exist to suggest that Abuja is rapidly incubating all the urban problems experienced in Lagos in the 1970s. Sequel to the above therefore, this thesis aims to develop a conceptual framework that will enable Abuja develop into a 21st century functional and resilient City of sustainable communities. The view pushed in this thesis is that not only does sustainable approach to design, implementation and management of urban communities holds huge capacity for bridging urban inequalities and prudent resource management; it holds the key to the survival of cities. The main aim of the research; to produce a conceptual framework to guide the development of Abuja Capital Territory into a 21st Century City of Sustainable Communities. To accomplish this aim, a mixed method of research methodology has been used for data gathering, an approach informed by the epistemological and ontological positioning of the researcher. Data obtained were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSSx) and the results resulted in a conceptual model illustrating ‘the road map’ to sustainable community development approach to Abuja in becoming a 21st century sustainable city. The study has successfully highlighted and resolved key issues centred around the sustainability of Abuja. It has also answered fundamental questions of whether Abuja can, and how it can develop into a 21st Century City of Sustainable Communities. Therefore, it is expected that the conceptual framework which is the outcome of this research becomes a reference manual to both urban decision makers, built environment professionals, and other stakeholders in planning the development of Abuja Capital Territory into a 21st Century City of Sustainable Communities.

As a result of the rising problems of poverty and unemployment in African countries, there is now growing interest in the development of the small and medium enterprise sector. The interest given to small and medium enterprises rests on the belief that such firm's serve as a medium to stimulate economic growth and development in the African region. This is not only in terms of their contribution to the overall development of a nation, but also due to their ability to contribute to employment creation and development of new niche markets. Despite the significant role played by small and medium enterprises in the economic development of a nation, their performance in Africa has been disappointing. A better understanding is therefore needed of the factors which influence the performance of the small and medium enterprise sector, thus achieving sustainable economic development. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the factors that influence small and medium enterprise growth in Nigeria. In particular, the study focuses on three broad growth influences: the characteristics of the owner/managers, the nature of the firm and the external environmental influences. A mixed method approach involving the use of self administered questionnaire and semi-structured interview was adopted to achieve the aims of the study. The target sample consisted of the owners and managers of small and medium enterprises in five cosmopolitan cities in Nigeria. In total, 523 owner/managers took part in this study. In addition, the research utilised simple statistical techniques to analyse the data. The findings indicate that firm growth is influenced by a combination of owner/manager, firm characteristics and external factors. In particular, the results of the analysis in relation to the characteristics of the owner/manager revealed that age, in relation to middle-age and older owner/managers and motivation, in relation to employment creation influence firm growth. Furthermore, the result on the characteristics of the firm indicates that firm size was the most significant influence on firm growth. In relation to external factors, the result show that constant electricity interruption, corruption of government officials, poor quality roads, problems with collateral for banks and technological factors were significant influences on firm growth. From the research that has been undertaken, the key research questions were answered, conclusions and recommendations were then made. It is anticipated that the study can provide SME policy makers and advisory services with guidelines to improve the growth of the SME sector in Nigeria. In addition, it is hoped that the study will assist SME owner/managers recognise those factors which may influence their firm growth and take appropriate measures to address them.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The unacceptable high rate of maternal and neonatal deaths in Nigeria has been persistently unabated. Therefore, the present quality of maternal care evident by the magnitude of severe maternal/neonatal morbidity and mortality in this region makes designing of a model that will serve as a framework for provision of quality maternity care to women and their new-born a worthwhile study. The global report of deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth documented 600,000 maternal deaths annually. Developing countries, including Nigeria, have the highest burden of maternal and neonatal deaths resulting from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. There has been no improvement in Nigeria as far as maternal and neonatal deaths are concerned. In Nigeria, the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 was recorded as 545/100,000 live births, and 576/100,000 live births in 2013. Women and children from low socioeconomic background are the vulnerable groups. The peculiarity of their vulnerability predisposes them to finding quicker and cheaper avenues to seek health care. The Primary Health Care (PHC) maternity facilities are to serve this large population of women and their babies at grassroots level. Few studies have been done to measure quality of antenatal and delivery care separately at higher level of care with resultant subjective findings and conclusions. Each of these aspects of maternity is a part of the whole and not the whole. Currently, there is gross dearth of literature regarding quality of maternity services at the disposal of the vulnerable women, who are likely to utilize the PHC facilities. The measurement of the quality of the existing maternity services at primary level is imperative for designing a more effective model capable of improving quality of services at this level. This study sought to develop a quality service improvement model for primary level-based maternity following rigorous analysis of the quality of its structure, the process and the outcome as proposed by Donabedian. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the status of infrastructures, equipment, instruments, medications; investigate the degree to which the services rendered are timely, appropriate, satisfactory and consistent with current professional knowledge; investigate the degree to which services rendered in the facilities are satisfactory to the women and uphold their basic reproductive rights; measure clients’ return rates for maternity-related services in the facilities; and to develop a validated model to guide provision of quality maternity care in PHC facilities. Using a theory-generating approach, the study was conducted in two distinct phases. The first phase focused on analysis of the existing maternity services at PHC level, while the second phase concentrate on model development. The first phase, which is an embedded mixed-methods approach, utilized validated clients’ questionnaire, health workers’ questionnaire, observation checklist, focused group discussions, and in-depth interviews for data collection. A multistage sampling method was used for sample size selection. Five local government areas (LGAs) in Ibadan were selected purposively. Similarly, all the facilities that offer maternity care in each LGA were purposively selected. Postnatal women, health workers in each facility, medical officers of health (MOHs) and heads of facilities were the participants in the study. A total of 755 postnatal women who participated in the surveys were recruited from the sample frames (attendance registers) using systematic random sampling. A validated structured questionnaire was utilized to elicit information on their experiences with their chosen places of antenatal and childbirth care from pregnancy to puerperium. Similarly, the 130 health workers who participated in the surveys were recruited from the sample frames (duty rosters) using systematic random sampling. A validated structured questionnaire was utilized to elicit information on their competences, attitudes and the midwifery practice in their respective facilities. In addition to the quantitative surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted for some postnatal women and four MOHs/heads of group of facilities. The participants for the FGDs and the IDIs were conveniently and purposively selected, respectively. FGD guide and IDI guide were used to guide the interviewers. The study was approved by the Faculty Board Research and Ethics Committees, the Senate Research Committee of University of the Western Cape and Oyo State Research Ethical Review Committee in Nigeria. Informed consent was obtained from each study participant. Autonomy, anonymity, and confidentiality of information provided by the participants were ensured. Nobody was coerced to participate in the study. The data collected with the aid of observation checklist and questionnaire from the selected PHC, health workers and client (postnatal women) were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency/percentage distributions); while association between variables of interest and difference in mean values were done using chi-square and t-test statistics, respectively. The second phase of the study focused on model development, and was done in line with a theory- generating research process in the literature supported by McKenna & Slevin, (2008) and Chinn& Kramer (2014). The developed model was tested for its appropriateness, adequacy, accuracy and whether it represents reality, for it to be assumed effective in achieving the goal if applied in midwifery practice at primary level.Client-participants were between 15 and 44 years; their mean age ± standard deviation was 28 ±5.3. The health workers were between 20 and 58 years; mean age ± standard deviation being 41 ±10. Out of the 730 client-participants, 92.1 % were married. None of the women had access to preconception counselling in any health facility. A total of 92.6 % of the women received prenatal care under the existing traditional model of antenatal care (ANC), out of which 22.6 %registered for ANC in two different facilities for various reasons. Although there was gross shortage of manpower in all the facilities, the percentage of nurses/midwives was fewer than that of the community health extension workers (CHEWs) and health assistants (HAs), while only one medical doctor was employed to cover all the different types of facilities in each local government area . There was a questionable staff level of competence reported in the study. Evidence of training in life-saving skill (LSS), post-abortion care (PAC) and safe motherhood was rare among the health worker participants. Among health workers who had witnessed vaginal laceration and those who claimed to have performed episiotomy on women, 30.2% and 32.6 % would depend on other health workers for repair of the vaginal traumas, respectively. Partograph was not in use for management of progress of labour by any health worker in any of the facilities. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis showed evidences of abuse of women’s rights to timely, quality and respectful maternity care and risky practices by the health workers. The conditions of the buildings used for PHC centres and the beds were not satisfactory. There was gross inadequacy of essential and basic items needed to provide standard and quality care across all the facilities, while significant proportion of the available equipment/instruments were obsolete, dirty, rusty and faulty. The infection prevention and control practices were sub- standard. Inadequate funding by respective local government authorities was implicated for the poor conditions of infrastructures, equipment/instruments, staff recruitments and consequent shortage of manpower. Low level of patients’ satisfaction, evidenced by verbal expression, percentage difference between antenatal registration and childbirth record, immunization clinic visits and childbirth record in each facility, was reported. Therefore, fixing the deplorable and/or non-commodious building infrastructures to meet the required standard, provision of facilities and items needed for quality care and infection prevention, recruitment of skilled qualified health professionals, establishing a new Primary Health Board in the state to provide efficient funding and effective monitoring systems were recommended, based on the findings of the study. Lastly, the implementation of the newly developed model is strongly recommended in order to improve women’s and new-born’s health. / Centre for Teaching and Learning Scholarship, School of Nursing, University of the Western Cape

Studies have acknowledged various conceptualisations of diversity management. These studies have also provided guidance for better and effective ways for managing diversity at the organisational, national and global levels. Nonetheless, it has been argued that focus on conceptualising diversity management has mainly been within the context of the Global North: reflecting mainly Anglo-centric and neo liberal structuring. As a result, this has limited the growth of management styles in Africa. To this effect, this research explores the nature and concept of diversity in Nigeria; it examines diversity management approaches by Shell and General Electric (GE) subsidiaries in Nigeria, and evaluates the broader role of these diversity management practices in contributing to the National Development Plans in Nigeria. Though starting from an Anglo-centric and neo liberal position, I go beyond this structuring as I critically examine the diversity management practices from a Nigerian context and by conducting interviews about the significance of these practices in Nigeria. This research adopts a feminist lens that gives voice and unveils power relations. In addition, I draw on four Western diversity frameworks, including Cox Taylor organisational types and dimensions, Ely and Thomas model of diversity, relational framework by Syed and Ozbilgin and intersectionality theory. These frameworks and approaches analyse the implication of diversity management within these MNC systems in Nigeria as they promote social equality and foster development. In addition, evaluating the broader roles of these MNCs in contributing to national development planning emphasises the need for incorporating diversity management in human resource development theorizing.

The cultivation of a culture of constitutionalism remains the greatest challenge to Nigeria’s constitutional democracy. Militarism affected in a very substantial way Africa’s efforts to develop a culture of constitutionalism in the continent. Nigeria typifies the failed African effort in trying to establish an enduring democracy and constitutionalism. After ten years of transition from militarism to constitutional democracy and the euphoria of the country’s return to democracy, the country is still on a slow march in the entrenchment of the practice of constitutionalism. This work primarily sets out to investigate the state of constitutionalism in Nigeria. Human rights and judiciary as constituents of constitutionalism are the main focus of that investigation. A crucial question that encapsulates the main objective of the study is how can Nigeria entrench a culture of constitutionalism? The study, therefore, investigates the question whether constitutional formalism or textualism without more can guarantee constitutionalism. It advocates that constitutionality does not necessarily lead to constitutionalism. The work further probes into the nature, extent and reasons for the past failure of constitutionalism in the country and its current state. The study also embarks on an exploration into the mechanisms for the protection of human rights, the problems and challenges in Nigeria. The challenges include the introduction of the “new Sharia” by some States in Nigeria; the failure to accord socio-economic rights due consideration in Nigerian jurisprudence and the poor pace of the domestication of human rights norms. The work demonstrates the relationship and linkage between human rights, democracy and judicialism in the study of constitutionalism. / Public Constitutional and International Law / LL.D.

The purpose of this study is to explore the activities of transnational organizations which were involved in the Nigerian civil war, in order to evaluate the hypotheses of this study - that the transnational organizations studied here contributed to the outbreak of the civil war; that they attempted to influence the behavior of the conflicting parties; that they helped to prolong the war; and that they served as instruments of conflict resolution in the civil war. The final chapter summarizes the conclusions arrived at in various chapters of the study. The evidence yielded varying degree of support to the hypotheses, These transnational actors are seen to have, through their different interactions with both sides affected the course of the war and have produced mixed impacts. They produced some evidence for the explanation of behavioral patterns likely to be displayed by transnational actors in similar situations. Also, these interactions are seen as giving some validity to the perceived need to expand the analytic framework of actors in international politics.

No description available.

Thesis (MTech (Human Resource Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012. / South Africa and Nigeria are both African countries, while the former is located in the southern region of the continent, the latter can be found in the western region. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is the largest trade union federation in South Africa with twenty-nine affiliate unions. The trade union federation entered into an alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government owing to their long-standing involvement in the struggle for freedom during the Apartheid era in South Africa. Conversely, the Nigeria labour Congress (NLC) is the only trade union federation in Nigeria with forty-two affiliates. Their political alliance is with the have the Labour Party. The study examines and compares the two trade union federations' administrative and leadership styles. Also, economic, political and social involvements of the unions are examined and members' perceptions with regards to these two union federations promote the interest of their members are compared. Quantitatively designed close-ended questionnaires were distributed to members of (COSATU) and NLC affiliates. The members were drawn from South Africa Municipality Workers Union (SAMWU), South Africa Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), Nigeria Union of local Government Employees (NULGE) and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT). Various questions were asked about the trade unions federation's performances regarding some union-specific areas. Participants were required to grade the unions' performance based on their opinions with regard to assessment of their functions. This study also, discusses the unions' performances in the past, and relates it with their present activities, as well as areas, which union members hope to improve. Results from the questionnaire were coded, cleaned and cross-tabulated by using SPSS. A chi-square test of association was used to determine significant levels of association. Levels of significant differences were determined at p≥ 0.05. The overall result shows that workers still believe in trade unions activities and representation.