Nigeria’s petroleum industry is the lynchpin of its economy. While oil has been the source of immense wealth for the nation, that wealth has come at a cost. Nigeria’s main oilproducing region of the Niger River Delta has experienced tremendous environmental degradation as a result of decades of oil exploration and production. Although there have been numerous historical works on Nigeria’s oil industry, there have been no in-depth analyses of the historical roots of environmental degradation over the full range of time from the colonial period to the present. This thesis contends that the environmental degradation of Nigeria’s oil producing region of the Niger Delta is the direct result of the persistent non-implementation of regulatory policies by post-independence Nigerian governments working in collusion with oil multinationals. Additionally, the environmental neglect of Nigeria’s primary oil-producing region is directly traceable back to the time of colonial rule. Vital to this argument is the view that the British colonial state created the economic institutions which promoted Nigerian economic dependency after independence was achieved in 1960. The weakness of Nigeria’s post-colonial dependent system is exposed presently through the continued neglect of regulatory policies by successive post-colonial Nigerian governments.

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ABSTRACT The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has in recent years been a hotbed of conflict. The region has been embroiled in turmoil over the struggle for the control of the vast resources of the region. There has arisen a controversy over the cause of the struggle. Closely associated with this controversy is the confusion over the terms ‘resource control’ and ‘increase in revenue’. Though the Supreme Court, the apex court in Nigeria has delivered a landmark judgment on the issue of resource control, the last is yet to be heard on the matter. There is a lacuna in the law as an appropriate revenue allocation formula is yet to be fixed for Nigeria. This work examines whether the people of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria are entitled to the right to resource control. It will examine the Supreme Court’s decision in A.G. Federation v. A.G. Abia & 35 ors. and discuss on the possibility of fashioning out an acceptable revenue allocation formula for Nigeria.

Using a cross section data collected in 2005, this study uses both parametric and semi-parametric methods to investigate key factors associated with household vulnerability to drought and economic downturns from exposure to shocks in Niger, conditioned on household and community assets. The findings provides evidence that factors positively affecting ability to overcome drought and economic condition downturns are the educational levels of the heads of households, livestock ownership, access to income generating activity opportunities, and participation to government decision taking. Household size and dependency ratio are found to negatively impact household ability to cope or manage shocks. Descriptive statistics are also used to determine major shocks faced by households after the drought and common coping strategies after the shocks. The results show that the prevailing shock experienced by Niger's population (especially the rural population) in 2004/05 is drought, followed by important loss of agricultural products. The most common coping strategy employed after these shocks is food aid and receiving assistance from other households. / Master of Science

No / The prime concern by the Nigerian state in the management of the oil conflicts in the Niger Delta has been to maximise oil revenues. What is probably most confounding about this strategy is the evolving tendency to twist and treat every conflict in the Niger Delta, including some episodic 'epi-oil' conflicts abetted or orchestrated by the state itself, as oil conflicts. In other words, there is a tendency on the part of the state to wittingly 'oilify' some apparently extra-oil conflicts. Compared to other regimes before it, the present civilian administration has probably contributed most to the fast-tracking of this evolving phenomenon. This article unravels and analyses the evolving politics of oilification of extra-oil conflicts in the Niger Delta, its underlying rationale and consequences. Oilification, as the study demonstrates, is yet another in the series of dangerous contradictions engendered by the Nigerian state. How this and other dangerous contradictions could possibly be solved is a research conundrum for the relevant cognoscenti of state-society relations and conflicts in Nigeria. But would the Nigerian state take on board any useful and promising solutions materialising from such studies? This is most unlikely in the present conjuncture given the prevailing configuration of interests in the state.

Le taux d’allaitement maternel exclusif à six mois au Niger était de 9,9 % en 2009. L’OMS et l’UNICEF recommandent que tous les enfants soient nourris exclusivement au sein pendant les six premiers mois de vie. Le présent document est le résultat d’une enquête sur l’identification des facteurs qui caractérisent les mères qui ont allaité exclusivement jusqu’à six mois. Les mères ont été réparties en deux groupes : celles qui ont allaité exclusivement jusqu’à six mois et celles qui ont allaité, mais avaient introduit d’autres aliments avant cet âge. Des entrevues individuelles ont été réalisées au Centre de Santé Intégré de Tessaoua de février à avril 2011. L’étude a porté sur un échantillon de 296 mères. De l’analyse, il ressort qu’au Niger les facteurs de réussite de l’allaitement maternel exclusif les plus importants sont : le niveau d’instruction, les difficultés pendant la 1ère semaine d’allaitement, l’opinion favorable des amis et de la famille, l’occupation de la mère (travail), l’accouchement au centre de santé, l’initiation dans les minutes suivant l’accouchement et le suivi de grossesse par un professionnel de la santé. Cette étude n’a porté que sur la seule commune urbaine de Tessaoua et sur 14 variables principalement de type nominal ou ordinal. Nous pensons néanmoins que, nos résultats peuvent permettre la mise en œuvre de mesures adéquates pour augmenter le taux d’allaitement maternel exclusif afin d’améliorer la situation nutritionnelle des enfants Nigériens.

Štěpánka Staňková Pedf UK, Aj - FJ Development aid in education in selected former French colonies of Sahel-Benin Union Abstract The following thesis on Development aid in education in selected former French colonies of Sahel-Benin Union presents the situation in Education of former French colonies in sub- Saharan Africa with the particular focus on Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. The sources and the donors of the development aid are described; special attention has been paid to the international organisations, to the European Union and to the development aid provided by France and the Czech Republic. The aim of this thesis is to present the critical state of Education in former French colonies in Africa and the effort to solve the situation made by international organizations and France in particular. The main sources of information are the international studies and evaluation reports elaborated by the expert teams of the United Nations and the World Bank, together with direct personal experience made in the described countries. Key words: Development Aid, education, sub-Saharan Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger

Chez de nombreuses espèces d'insectes sociaux, le nid joue un rôle central dans la survie de la colonie. Une fonction supposée du nid est d'assurer une protection contre les fluctuations climatiques importantes. Il est donc nécessaire d'étudier la façon dont les nids construits par les animaux régulent les facteurs abiotiques et réciproquement comment ces facteurs modulent le comportement constructeur et en conséquence l'architecture de ces nids. Pour toutes ces questions, des réponses partielles et fragmentaires existent dans la littérature. Le premier objectif de cette thèse consiste à étudier les propriétés thermorégulatrices supposées des nids de termites. Nous avons choisi comme modèles d'étude deux espèces de termites du cerrado brésilien, Cornitermes cumulans et Procornitermes araujoi. Ces deux espèces sympatriques construisent toutes les deux des nids composés d'une partie hypogée et d'une partie épigée. Si les nids de ces deux espèces offrent une morphologie externe similaire, les architectures internes diffèrent nettement et les parois externes semblent également posséder des propriétés différentes. Nous avons exploré si ces différences de structure étaient liées à des différences dans leurs propriétés thermorégulatrices. Nous avons enregistré les températures dans les nids de ces deux espèces et proposé une méthodologie pour étudier la dynamique de diffusion de la chaleur en leur sein. Des mesures de l'humidité relative, plus difficiles à traiter, sont également discutées. En complément de ces travaux de terrain, nous avons testé la survie des termites soumis à différentes conditions de température et d'hygrométrie. Ces expériences ont permis de tester l'hypothèse d'adaptation des individus aux conditions abiotiques potentiellement différentes, en relation avec les milieux de vie de ces deux espèces. Le second objectif de cette thèse vise à apprécier l'effet des facteurs abiotiques, notamment de la température, dans les processus de construction du nid. En effet, les facteurs abiotiques sont connus pour affecter les comportements des insectes, aussi bien au niveau individuel que collectif. Pour aborder ce sujet, nous avons travaillé avec la fourmi Lasius niger dont le comportement constructeur, analogue à celui des termites, a déjà été modélisé. Cette espèce de fourmi très commune dans l'hémisphère nord, construit un nid également composé d'une partie sous-terraine et d'une partie épigée, comme les deux espèces de termites étudiés. En laboratoire, les ouvrières de L. niger construisent en quelques heures des piliers qu'elles finissent par recouvrir de plafonds formant les premières bases de la construction. Nous avons étudié le comportement de construction des fourmis sous différentes conditions de températures afin de mesurer l'effet de ce paramètre abiotique sur l'architecture des structures émergentes. Une analyse quantitative et qualitative de l'architecture a été réalisée après avoir scanner ces structures à l'aide d'un scanner de surface et d'un tomographe à rayon X. Avant d'étudier le comportement constructeur, nous avons préalablement réalisé une expérience visant à étudier le préférendum thermique des fourmis. Nos résultats indiquent que la régulation des températures dans les nids suit l'équation classique de la chaleur où l'architecture pourrait jouer un rôle sur la dynamique de diffusion dans le nid. Les facteurs abiotiques étudiés ont un effet sur la survie des termites, la distribution des fourmis et l'architecture émergente, en accord avec les prédictions d'un modèle de construction précédemment établi. Cependant, nous restons loin d'une compréhension globale de l'interaction entre la régulation des facteurs abiotiques par le nid, leur effet sur l'architecture de ce dernier et leur influence sur les traits d'histoire de vie des individus qui l'occupent. / For many social insects, the nest is a central element for the colony's survival. A presumed function of the nest is to ensure protection against climatic fluctuations of the environment. One has to ask how the nests achieve to regulate such abiotic factors, and whether this factors modulate the construction behavior and thus the architecture of the nests. For all these questions only partial and fragmentary answers exist in the literature. The first aim of this thesis was to investigate the putative thermo regulating property of termite nests. We focused on two termite species found in the Brazilian cerrado: Cornitermes cumulans and Procornitermes araujoi. These two sympatric species both build nests consisting of an hypogeous and of an epigeous part. If these structures might seem similar, the internal architecture and the nest composition are quite different. We first aim to investigate whether these differences between the two structures influence their thermo regulating property. To do so, we monitored the temperatures inside the nests of the two species and we proposed a methodology to study the heat diffusion dynamics inside the structures. We also monitored the relative humidity, a factor that is essential for termite survival but that proved to be more complicated to understand. To complement this field work, we tested the survival of the two termite species in different conditions of temperature and relative humidity to test whether they present some adaptations to resist to such conditions related to their living environment. The second aim of this thesis was to study the effects of abiotic factors and more precisely temperature on the nest construction process. In fact, abiotic factors are known to affect insects' behavior, as much on the individual than on the collective level. Here we used the ant Lasius niger in which the construction behavior had already have modelled. This really common species of the northern hemisphere build a nest also made of an hypogeous and of an epigeous part. In the lab, the workers quickly build pillars that they covered by caps and thereby established the first basis of the structure. We performed an experiment where we constrained ants to build under different temperature conditions to test the effect of this abiotic factor on the emerging architecture. It is then possible to establish a quantitative and qualitative description of the architecture by scanning the structure thanks to a surface scanner or with X-ray tomography. Before studying the construction behavior, we first did an experiment to study the ants thermal preferendum. We found temperature regulation in the nest to follow the common heat equation where architecture only modifies the speed of heat diffusion in the nest. The studied environmental factors had complex effects on termite survival, ant distribution and the emerging ant architectures, the latter in agreement with the predictions of the construction model. However, we are still far from a coherent understanding of the interplay between the regulation of abiotic factors by the nest, their effect on his architecture architecture, and their influence on the animal's life history parameters.

Os compostos fenólicos estão presentes em grande número de efluentes industriais, cujos lançamentos inadequados podem acarretar em riscos ao meio ambiente e à saúde humana. O uso de fungos em reatores biológicos é uma alternativa de tratamento de despejos que possuem compostos persistentes, como fenóis. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a viabilidade do uso de Aspergillus niger em reator biológico para o tratamento de água residuária sintética contendo fenol. O trabalho foi realizado com dois tipos de reatores: em batelada e reatores contínuos com escoamento ascendente. No experimento em batelada, foram utilizados 5 reatores de controle (RC), 5 com fungos (RF) e 5 com fungos e glicose (RFG), verificando-se o uso de glicose (5 g/L), como substrato primário, e a remoção do fenol pelos fungos. Estes apresentaram maior desenvolvimento nos reatores contendo glicose (RFG), alcançando-se remoção de 100% de fenol, no quinto e último dia de experimento. Nestes reatores, a velocidade média de consumo de fenol foi quase o dobro da desenvolvida nos reatores sem glicose (RF). A remoção de matéria orgânica, medida como DQO, foi superior nos reatores contendo glicose (RFG) e atingiu 93%, no quinto dia. Não houve remoção significativa de fenol nos reatores de controle. Nos RF, as maiores remoções de fenol e matéria orgânica foram registradas no quinto dia e foram, respectivamente, de 48% e 27%. As maiores remoções de fenol em relação à de matéria orgânica indicam, possivelmente, a presença de compostos intermediários da degradação do fenol. Os reatores contínuos, cada um com volume total de 4,45 L e com meios suportes de manta de polipropileno (R1) e espuma de poliuretano (R2), foram mantidos sob as mesmas condições operacionais, durante 399 dias, divididos em três tempos de detenção hidráulica: 8 h, dividido em duas fases de alimentação (Fase I – alimentação complementada com glicose e Fase II – alimentação sem complementação de glicose); 4 h e 6 h. As maiores remoções de fenol ocorreram durante o tempo de detenção hidráulica (TDH) de 8 h, tanto com a presença ou não de 0,5 g/L de glicose no afluente, obtendo-se, na Fase I, remoções médias de fenol de 99,5% '+ OU -' 2 (R1) e de 98% '+ OU -' 5 (R2) e, na Fase II, 99,6% '+ OU -' 1(R1) e 92% '+ OU -' 23 (R2). No tempo de detenção hidráulica de 4 h, a remoção média de fenol ficou em torno de 50%, em ambos os reatores. Com o tempo de detenção hidráulica de 6 h, houve melhora na eficiência de remoção, atingindo 72% '+ OU -' 35 (R1) e 78% '+ OU -' 25 (R2). Análises microscópicas revelaram que os fungos cresceram bem nos suportes empregados, porém o uso de espuma de poliuretano provocou maiores problemas operacionais. Apesar dos bons resultados de remoção de matéria orgânica e de fenol, houve crescimento excessivo de biomassa no interior dos reatores contínuos, o que resultou na colmatação do leito, indicando necessidade de se procurar melhor ajuste nutricional do meio para controlar a geração de biomassa. / The phenolic compounds are present in a great quantity in industrial effluents, which inappropriate release can cause serious damage to the environment and to human health. The usage of fungi in biological reactors is an alternative to the treatment of wastes that contain compounds with persistent nature like phenol. The goal of this work was the study of the available usage of Aspergillus niger in a biological reactor treating synthetic wastewater containing phenol. The work was realized in batch and upflow continuous reactors. Five control reactors (CR) were applied in the batch experiment, being five with fungi (FR) and five with fungi and glucose (GFR), in order to verify the application of glucose (5 g/L) as main substrate and the removal of phenol by fungi. These presented better development in the reactors containing glucose, with the achievement of 100% of phenol removal in the fifth and last day of the experiment. In these reactors, the mean consumption velocity of phenol was approximately the double of those that were developed in the reactors without glucose. The organic matter removal (measured as COD) was higher in the reactors containing glucose, achieving 93% in the fifth day. There was no significant phenol removal in the control reactors. The higher removals of 48% for phenol and 27% for organic matter were observed in the RF reactors in the fifth day, indicating the possible presence of intermediate compounds in the phenol degradation. The continuous reactors were built with total volume of 4,45 L each one, with polypropylene blanket as support media in the R1 reactor and polyurethane foam as support media in the R2 reactor. The reactors were kept in the same operational conditions during 399 days. These conditions were divided in three hydraulic detention times (HDT): 8 h, divided in two feeding phases (Phase I – feeding complemented with glucose and Phase II – feeding without complementation of glucose); 4 h and 6 h. The higher phenol removals occurred during the hydraulic detention time of 8 h, in the presence and absence of 0,5 g/L of glucose in the influent. The mean phenol removals of 99,5% '+ OU -' 2 (R1) and 98% '+ OU -' 5 (R2) were attained in the Phase I, and 99,6% '+ OU -' 1 (R1) and 92% '+ OU -' 23 (R2) in the Phase II. The mean phenol removal was around 50% in both reactors when hydraulic detention time of 4 h was applied. With the hydraulic detention time of 6 h, there was improvement in the removal efficiency that achieved 72% '+ OU -' 35 for R1 reactor and 78% '+ OU -' 25 for R2 reactor. The microscopic analyses showed that fungi grew well in the applied support media, but the usage of polyurethane foam caused more operational problems. Even with the good results of the organic matter and phenol removals, there was excessive growth of biomass inside the reactors. This resulted in the clogging of the blanket, indicating the necessity of better nutritional adjustment of the media to control the biomass generation.

Cette thèse a pour but de comprendre pourquoi et comment les rébellions touarègues du Niger se forment, se pérennisent et réapparaissent malgré une efficacité marginale dans l’accomplissement de leurs buts politiques. L’analyse des mobilisations est fondée sur une approche sociohistorique qui en montre les tendances longues et permet de resituer les facteurs de déclenchement des mouvements récents. On voit apparaître une porosité entre les temps de guerre et de paix qui permet au rebelle de conserver un statut et à la rébellion d’évoluer sous l’effet conjugué des influences extérieures et de la créativité politique de ses acteurs. Au-delà de la temporalité du conflit s’est développé un répertoire culturel qu’on peut définir comme une culture politique rebelle. On montre d’abord qu’il existe depuis les premières rencontres avec la France une histoire de résistance qui s’inscrit dans un cadre politique plus complexe que généralement décrit et installe durablement une représentation du combattant. On voit ensuite que ces processus se réalisent dans la rébellion des années 1990, qui a mobilisé des combattants aux parcours sociologiques divers favorisant l’émergence de son influence après les accords de paix. Enfin, la rébellion et les rebelles en tant qu’acteurs politiques se pérennisent dans une culture politique, qui est renforcée par la voix de la diaspora et enfin par le monde occidental, dans un jeu de miroir constant et éminemment productif. Ce travail privilégie une « approche par le bas » qui situe les rebelles au centre des analyses. Au-delà du cas nigérien, cette approche critique les analyses unidimensionnelles des conflits dominantes dans le monde académique et les institutions du développement. / This work aims at understanding why and how Tuareg rebellions in Niger form, last and reappear although they have proven only marginally efficient at reaching their political goals. The analysis of the mobilizations is based on a sociohistorical approach, which shows their trends in the long-term and allows us to reconsider the start factors of the most recent movements. One can see a porosity appear between times of war and peace, which allows the Rebel to retain his status and lets the rebellion evolve under the influence of both outsiders and the political creativity of its actors. Beyond the conflict’s timeframe, a cultural repertoire has developed, that might be defined as a political culture. I show first that since their first encounter with the French the Tuaregs have had a history of resistance included in a political frame much more complex than usually described. This history has also contributed to establish a representation of the combatant. Then one will see that those processes find a realization in the rebellion of the 1990’s. By mobilizing combatants with very diverse backgrounds, this rebellion has built a sustainable influence after the peace agreements. Lastly, the rebellion and the rebels as political actors last as a political culture reinforced by the voices of the diaspora as well as the Western World, through a highly productive mirror effect. This work favors an approach “from below”, putting the rebels at the center of the analysis. Beyond the case of Niger, this approach criticizes the one-dimensional analysis that dominates academic research as well as the institutions of economic development.