The calls for the study of criminal actions in different societies as a consequent of the rapid socio-culture, political, and economic changes blowing over these societies is not new in criminology texts (Clifford 1965; Bennett 1980; Brown, Esbensen and Geis 1991). This study building directly on key insights about armed robbery in contemporary Nigeria: patterns, rates, modus operandi, and social organisation (characteristics), begins by noting the importance of these calls, and the need for conceptual revival in this regard. Conscientious approach directed at developing a brand of theoretical framework that approximates the criminal behaviour in question and context is one sure way of achieving this revival. This research draws 86 samples of armed robbers in three selected prisons and states of contemporary Nigeria to provide first and foremost, a fuller criminological and sociological descriptive analysis of the offence and the offenders. Analyses of data provide findings from which wide scales of meanings are possible. For instances, results suggest that offenders are more likely to be those at the economic margin of the society; those with a taste of western education–largely educated or quasi-educated as a way of life; those expressing their despise to a system they perceived to be corrupt and highly elitist. They are likely to be armed with weapons; be in groups; and have females as members of the gang/group. They are also and fundamentally, likely to tap other peculiarities of Nigerian society such as the belief in "African insurance" (charms), and pervasive corruption. Results of test show that there tends to be good degrees of causal relationships between the sources of learning about modern armed robbery and the frequency of committing the offence, planning, and the modus operandi. Within the broad context of sociological theory, and more specifically, the Tarde's imitation, Sutherland's differential association, and Iwarmie-Jaja's previous experience strands, the results of the empirical investigation are synthesised and explained. The research draws upon these conceptual threads to suggest a better and fuller model of armed robbery in contemporary armed robbery. This alternative model of explanation is described and referred to as "emulation". / Criminology and Security Science / DLITT ET PHIL (CRIMINOLOGY)

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Thesis (DTech (Human Resource Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / The Nigerian public service has been perceived over the years as not delivering its services effectively and in most cases leadership has been assumed to be the problem. However, from the perspective of human resource management (HRM) this study seeks to examine the people management practices that could have contributed to this ineffectiveness. It has been observed that the importance of people as the most important element of productivity cannot be underestimated, because machines can be replaced, money can be recovered but diligent, competent and professional employees are an organisational asset that cannot easily be replaced. The professional employee is described as the one with the right skills, knowledge, qualifications and attitudes that support organisational effectiveness. The study was carried out at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria where all public servants from Grades 07 or above in Nigeria are expected to attend at least one course before the end of their careers. Questionnaires were administered to about one thousand, one hundred (1,100) randomly selected participants while four hundred and seventy six (476) useable ones were retrieved. Likewise, a focus group discussion was held with three different groups. Quantitative data collected was cleaned and coded appropriately for the Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) and used to generate descriptive statistics. Recordings of focus group discussions were also transcribed and organised into themes according to the discussion content. All research objectives were achieved relying on both qualitative and quantitative data output. Various statistical analyses were used for the quantitative analysis and factor correlation showed that organisational culture, organisational climate, human resource retention and development, employment relations climate and exit management have significant relationship with professionalism at various levels. Other statistical measures (t-Test and Analysis of Variance) were adopted to determine the relationship of demographic variable and it was shown that age, work grade level and work experience have significant relationship with professionalism. Employee resourcing (recruitment and selection) was also found to have a significant effect on professionalism, having been statistically analysed using ANOVA. Likewise, all qualitative themes acknowledged the significance of the people management role in public servants’ professionalism.

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M.Com. (Business Management) / The last mile distribution is the final link of successful supply chain operations. The high demand for products, lead time uncertainties and replenishment time complicate the distribution task. In order to achieve a competitive business edge, suppliers need to work at developing and improving their last mile distribution link. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the last mile wine distribution in Lagos Island, Nigeria, and to determine appropriate improvement strategies that can be recommended to wine suppliers. A qualitative research design was used in order to address the key research questions. Wine suppliers in Lagos Island, Nigeria were sampled for the study and mainly surveyed using open-structured interviews. The results of the research suggest that human resources factors influence the effectiveness of the last mile distribution. In addition, management-related factors also affect it. It was also noted that the effectiveness of last mile distribution for the wine suppliers is hampered by supply chain and logistics limitations. However, the findings indicate that the suppliers were able to contend with these challenges by applying some logistics strategies and personal initiatives to keep making profit. The study is expected to not only add value to current wine suppliers in Lagos Island, Nigeria, but also to potential investors interested in the Nigerian wine market. Recommendations for future research conclude the minor dissertation.

As a result of maritime piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, especially in the West Africa sub-region, off the coast of Nigeria the researcher started carrying out research in 2014 on the laws pertaining to piracy. In this regard Nigeria does not have the legal framework to effectively address the threat of piracy off its coast but a Bill entitled: “Piracy and Other Unlawful Acts at Sea (and Other Related Offences) Act” has been forwarded to the Nigerian National Assembly in order to criminalise ‘piracy and other unlawful acts at sea’. For this reason, the researcher deems it necessary to examine the provisions of the Bill to determine whether it is adequate to address the threat of piracy or whether there is a need to reform or improve it. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the Bill will never achieve the purpose for which it was drafted as the legal framework on piracy of the Bill has many limitations which makes it easier for perpetrators to escape punishment. In order to achieve the goal of this Bill, the researcher deemed it necessary to contribute by drafting maritime piracy legislation for Nigeria that effectively addresses the threat of piracy off its coast, relying on the preparatory work for UNCLOS and other global, continental and regional instruments relevant to maritime piracy. Relied upon also are comparative analyses of piracy legal system of Anglophone African States and Nigerian legislation. This draft legislation amends the limitations of the Bill and is in accordance with legal notions of piracy which emerge from the combination of the principles of criminal and international law.

Ph.D. / Background: Most recent data have shown a slight reduction in the incidence of malaria in Nigeria. However, cases of malaria in children younger than five years of age have continued to escalate amidst ‘simple’ and ‘effective’ treatment options. The realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – to halve the burden of malaria by 2015 – is becoming increasingly unrealistic in Nigeria following the alarming rates of malaria in children. Apart from the ecological and environmental factors, socio-cultural and behavioural factors might be responsible for the staggering cases of malaria in children in local communities in Nigeria. It was against this background that a sociological study of health care service utilisation was conducted among caregivers of children with malaria. The study investigated the perceived threat of malaria; how the local understanding of malaria affects the recognition of signs and symptoms, perceived aetiology, treatment-seeking patterns and the use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs). The socio-generational changes in the healthcare seeking behaviour between young and older mothers as well as differences in the patterns of health care service utilisation between rural and urban subjects were also interrogated. Method: This study adopted a qualitative research design using complementary methods. A total of 40 semi-structured interviews, 20 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with caregivers and health workers. The respondents included young and older parents between the ages of 25 and 80 years whose children or wards below the age of five had manifested malaria symptoms at one time or another. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select sample for the study. The study was conducted in two selected rural areas; Okanle and Fajeromi; and one urban centre; Ilorin, Kwara State of Nigeria. Findings: The research indicated that the perceived aetiology, symptoms and treatment of malaria in children were largely influenced by the socio-cultural patterns of the communities studied. The study found that the first line of treatment for children with malaria in the communities of study was usually home treatment using traditional herbal medicines. The use of modern health care facilities is usually seen as the last resort. The traditional beliefs about causes of malaria, affordability and trust in herbal medicines, on the one hand, were found to be responsible for the widespread use of herbal medicines in the treatment of malaria in children. On the other hand, poor service delivery, lack of money, attitudes of medical personnel, mixed feelings about the efficacy of modern medicines and lack of trust in the community health centres were some factors found to be responsible for delays in seeking modern health care services when children have malaria. More importantly, the decision to seek treatment from either traditional or modern sources was largely influenced by the network of informal social interaction and social support at household and community levels. In addition, the study also found some changes in the patterns of health care seeking behaviour of young and older caregivers but generally found no differences in the patterns of health care seeking behaviour between rural and urban participants. Finally, the study found that the majority of the respondents were not aware of the effectiveness of the ITNs. Consequently, there was a high dependence on the use of traditional preventive measures which included a local leaf known as “ewe-efon” translated as “mosquito leaf”. Apart from the perceived corruption and mismanagement at the level of distribution of the ITNs, lack of appropriate knowledge about the effectiveness of the ITNs was discovered to be responsible for the widespread non-acceptance of the ITN in the prevention of malaria in children.

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The debt-for democracy hypothesis is that undemocratic governments were largely responsible for not only the accumulation but also poor management of externally sourced capital resources. External borrowing had therefore failed to lead to growth of the economies of debtor countries under undemocratic political leadership. Despite this explanation of the debt problem conventional empirical analyses of the debt-growth relationship did not include political institutional variables. This study investigates the relationship between democratization and debt-led growth, using Nigeria, a typical debtor country whose politics was dominated by 'undemocratic ' governance, as a case study. Two broad research questions are investigated namely, whether available data support a negative or positive contribution of debt to the growth of the Nigeria economy during the period 1970-2000; and ifso was there any link between the levels of democratization in Nigeria and debt-led growth. Using a census of major political events in Nigeria around four dimensions of democratization, four primary indices of democratization and one composite index were constructed for the period. Using the Taylor (1983) marginal conditions to gauge the contribution of external debt to the growth of the Nigerian economy, the study found that external debt is capable of playing a double edged sword on the performance of the economy. Positive contributions coincided with the periods when Nigeria's oil dominated foreign exchange revenues were robust, and/ or when debt management strategies were better articulated and vice versa. The analyses of the link between democratization and debt-led growth using both correlation and regression techniques, yielded different results in two definitional contexts of debt-led growth. When defined purely in terms of the Taylor marginal conditions for a positive contribution of debt to the economy of a borrowing nation, the results support the pessimist view that democratization impeded growth. On the contrary, when debt-led growth was defined in a broader sense to incorporate variables such as domestic savings and investment, foreign direct investments, public and private consumption and debt burden, there was strong evidence that debt-led growth performed beller at higher levels of democratization than other wise. The result using the narrow definition was found to be a direct consequence of the overriding influence of export performance in the Taylor conditions. With Nigeria's exports almost entirely dominated by extractive industry the result derived using the narrow definition confirmed the theoretical links between natural resource endowment and regime type on the one hand, and external capital and the nature of the host country 's industry on the other. In the first resource dependence allowed the political leadership to be more detached and less accountable to the electorate since they did not need to levy taxes. Secondly foreign investors concerned with security of their sunk investments in the extractive oil induslly in particular favoured continuity of powerfol regimes with less democratic content. In both findings one thing was common: democratization was associated more with those factors whose decreases affect growth positively than with those whose increases improve growth. The conclusion from this is that the impact of democratization is stronger with negative than with positive growth factors. In other words, while democratization may be supportive of growth its greater impact appears to be in limiting the factors that themselves limit growth. To benefit from the favourable impact of democratisation on debt-led growth therefore the study suggests that improvements in the democratisation process in Nigeria is needed It identifies political education as central to this improvement. A model is developed to show how improvements in the political institutional framework may trickle down, through an enabling environment that is capable of engendering growth-enhancing domestic and international responses to lead in the direction of debt-led growth.

The importance of education to human beings has been one of the highly emphasized issues in international documents. Education is a Human Right that should be accorded to human beings solely by reason of being human. There are a lot of International human rights instruments that provide for education as a fundamental human right. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1966) among others. Nigeria is well aware of the commitments laid down by these international instruments and has taken steps to either sign, accede or ratify these instrument to show its commitment to adhering to the contents laid down in these instruments. This mini-dissertation focuses on the provision of basic education in Nigeria. It examines the contents of various international documents to which Nigeria is party and looks into the role Nigeria should play in providing education. In other words the extent of state parties obligation to provide education to their citizens. As commendable as these programmes and policies may be towards providing basic education, some social vices hinder the successful implementation of these programmes there by resulting in the inadequate provision quality basic education in Nigeria. Most importantly this mini-dissertation takes into consideration the extent of Nigeria’s commitments to the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to education stated in the general comment No. 13 on the right to education stated in article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. It takes into account, the extent to which Nigeria has adhered to the provision of article 13 of the ICESCR. The laws in Nigeria have also been found wanting with regard to international instruments which state the fact that education is a right which should be justiciable in various courts of law and not just a directive principle of state policy which is not justiciable. This mini-dissertation criticizes this notion of directive principle of State policy in the Nigerian Constitution and proffers some legal and non legal recommendations which can enable the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provide better quality education throughout the country. Finally, the private sector in Nigeria is examined as it also thrives to provide private schools as a multidisciplinary measure to fill in the lacunas left by the Nigerian Government in the area of providing basic education to the typical Nigerian who wants to acquire basic educational knowledge. Copyright / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted