Diss.--Wien--Universität Wien, 1991. / Résumé en aglais. Bibliogr. p. 232-257.

Diss--Münich, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 187-209.

The issue of price deregulation in the downstream oil sector of Nigeria through gradual subsidy withdrawal has generated a heated debate in the country with the government claiming that it will guarantee long term stability in product, supply and price. This will translate into economic growth and development. Others, especially the organised labour, claim that deregulation will lead to higher product prices, higher cost of production, and cut of jobs and will bring about recession in the economy. Therefore, this thesis employs Vector Auto regression Model using Variance Decomposition, Impulse Response Function and Granger Causality tests to assess the effect of price deregulation through gradual subsidy withdrawal in the downstream oil sector of Nigeria on four macroeconomic variables which are; GDP, Inflation, Unemployment and Minimum wage. The research finds evidence that changes in oil price, as a result of subsidy withdrawal, is the major source of variation in GDP, Inflation and Unemployment, while it is not found to be a significant source of variation in minimum wages. The result also reveals that there is positive impact of oil price changes on GDP and Inflation but negative impact on Unemployment and Minimum wages at the beginning of the observation period which became positive in the later stage of the observation. Finally the Granger causality test indicates unidirectional causality running from Petroleum prices to GDP and from Inflation to Petroleum prices while there is no evidence of causality on Minimum wage and Unemployment. The result of the granger causality test is an indication that the positive effect of changes in petroleum prices on GDP is not as a result of increased economic activity but a result of increased government spending due to increased revenue available to it as a result of subsidy withdrawal. The study suggests that countries wishing to deregulate their downstream oil sectors should evolve ways that will reduce the impact of the policy on cost of production, protect jobs, control inflation and protect real wage. This will mitigate economic recession and promote growth.

No description available.

Nigeria, like many nations of the world, is confronted with a high level of poverty. Over the years the country has taken several initiatives to reduce the incidence of poverty. Nigeria was one of the earliest countries to adopt the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] as a strategy in reducing poverty and promoting development across the vast nation. The federating states have also rolled out a number of poverty reduction programmes tailored along the millennium development goals. This study, therefore, evaluates the achievement of the millennium development poverty reduction target in Ogun State, South west Nigeria. The study seeks to ascertain whether the state was able to significantly reduce poverty with the introduction of the MDGs. The study also attempts to establish difference or similarity (if any) between past poverty reduction policies in the state and the MDGs poverty reduction strategies. In carrying out this study, related literature on poverty, development and poverty reduction efforts (strategies and programmes) implemented in the state were extensively reviewed and relevant information retrieved for the study. This study employed the mixed method research, comprising both the quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data through the administration of a questionnaire was obtained from 232 respondents. While in-depth interview with seven participants provided the qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed using Descriptive statistics, and chi-square statistical technique was used to analyze the quantitative data while qualitative data analysis was carried out using transcription and thematic clusters. The findings of the study, in general, revealed that the MDG poverty reduction strategy did not make any significant contribution in reducing poverty in the state. The MDG strategy was not any different from past poverty reduction strategies implemented in the state. The findings of the research also strongly indicated that there was low awareness regarding the MDGs poverty reduction strategies set up amongst the citizens of the state. The low awareness emerged as a major hindrance to the success of the MDG programme. Based on the findings of this study, a sustainable development poverty reduction model was developed. The model gives room for programme awareness; people’s consultation and participation. It emphasizes the need to consider the community setting or environment factors in the planning and execution of poverty reduction programme. This model contend that aligning strategies to the peculiar need of each environment is a critical component for the sustenance of any poverty reduction programme.

Most universities have long recognised the importance and contribution of on-campus hostels to the learning process. In so doing, most of these institutions have provided and maintained building facilities for academic purposes (teaching and research). Hostels are integral components of most campuses of Nigerian universities, and they are part of the built assets of the institutions in terms of both administration and maintenance management. Currently, there is little understanding of the maintenance management systems of on-campus hostel buildings in both the public and the private universities. Moreover, there is a dearth of research evidence demonstrating that there is an appreciable difference in the maintenance management systems of the Federal, State and private universities in Nigeria. This research aimed at establishing an understanding of maintenance management systems of on-campus hostel buildings at Nigerian universities owned by the Federal and State governments and the Private Sector, relative to stipulated criteria for best practice.The qualitative method of research inquiry that is rooted in the phenomenological paradigm was employed in the investigations. The research activities included a comprehensive review of the related literature and study of selected cases. The North-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria was the selected geographical scope of this research. Ten universities were purposefully selected for the study, and they include three Federal, four state and three private universities. The nature and differences in the research questions necessitated generating different forms of data. The questions that were related to the maintenance management systems for the hostels in place at the universities were addressed with the outcomes of interviews with the hostel managers. The questions that were about the structures and current conditions of the hostel buildings at the three categories of universities were addressed with data that were generated from condition assessments of the facilities and physical observations with the aid of cameras. The study reveals apparent deteriorated and unhealthy conditions of most of the on-campus hostels at the public universities, while those of the private universities are satisfactory. The research also found that the maintenance management systems in use at all the universities are reactive and lack proper planning and coordination of maintenance activities. There is no significant difference in the maintenance management systems of hostels at the public and the private universities and the systems have major negative impact on the conditions of the buildings and their performances. The research has developed a conceptual model for the study of maintenance management informed by the theoretical framework. The model considered the impact of the external environmental factors on the management and maintenance of the hostels. Secondly, the interrelationships of strategic and performance management with maintenance management in developing an effective maintenance management system were established. The study has achieved its aim of establishing an understanding of maintenance management systems of on-campus hostel buildings at Nigerian universities owned by the Federal and, State governments and the Private Sector. The maintenance management model developed in the study is recommended to maintenance management departments as a guide for effective maintenance of the built facilities in their institutions.

The focus of this thesis is on labour-management relations in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria. The study explores current managerial practices in the corporation and their effects on the intensification of work, and how the management sought to control workers and the labour process. The study explores the experiences of workers and their perception of managerial practices. Evidence suggests that managerial practices and their impacts on workplace relations in NNPC have become more subtle, with wider implications for workers’ experience and the labour process. Using primary data obtained through interviews, participant observation, and documentary sources, the thesis assesses how managerial practices are varieties of controls of labour in which workers’ consent is also embedded. This embeddedness of the labour process generates new types of worker subjectivity and identity, with significant implications for labour relations. The study suggests that multiple dimensions of workers’ sense-making reflect the structural and subjective dimensions of the labour process. In NNPC, the consequence of managerial practices has been an emergence of a new type of subjectivity; one that has closely identified with the corporate values and is not overtly disposed towards resistance or dissent. While workers consent at NNPC continues to be an outcome of managerial practices, the thesis examined its implications. The thesis seeks to explain the effects of managerial control mechanisms in shaping workers’ experience and identity. However, the thesis shows that while workers remain susceptible to these forms of managerial influence, an erasure or closure of oppositions or recalcitrance will not adequately account for workers’ identity-formation. The thesis shows that while managerial control remains significant, workers inhabit domains that are ‘unmanaged’ and ‘unmanageable’ where ‘resistance’ and ‘misbehaviour’ reside. Without a conceptual and empirical interrogation, evidence of normative and mutual benefits of managerial practices or a submissive image of workers will produce images of workers that obscure their covert opposition and resistance. Workers ‘collude’ with the ‘hubris’ of management in order to invert and subvert managerial practices and intentions. Through theoretical reconceptualization, the thesis demonstrates the specific dimensions of these inversions and subversions. The thesis therefore seeks to re-insert “worker-agency” back into the analysis of power-relations in the workplace; agency that is not overtly under the absolute grip of managerial control, but with a multiplicity of identities and multilevel manifestations.

While wastage of materials has become a serious problem requiring urgent attention in the Nigerian Construction Industry, cost overrun is a problem, which affects 90 percent of the completed projects in the world; the argument on how to reduce/eliminate cost overrun has been on-going for the past 70 years; as the on-site wastage of materials leads to increases in the final project cost. Studies from different parts of the world have shown that construction-material waste represents a relatively large percentage of the production costs. Consequently, as a result of low levels of awareness, the Nigerian construction industry pays little attention to the effects of generated material waste on cost overruns. Thus, this research aimed to investigate the relationship between material waste and cost overrun in the Nigerian construction industry. A comprehensive review of the related literature revealed that all material waste causes are related to cost overrun causes at both pre-contract and post-contract stages of a project; but not vice versa. The mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) approach that is rooted in the positivist paradigm was adopted for this study. Abuja, the federal capital territory of Nigeria was the selected geographical scope of this research, out of which thirty-one (31) construction projects were purposeful selected (projects to the value of 100 million Rand/1.6 billion Naira and above).The research instrument was an interview guide used in conjunction with a tick box. Other sources of data included field investigation (measurement of onsite material waste) and the collection of archival records from bills of quantities, project records, and specifications. Analyses of the findings lead to the conclusion that a relationship exists between material waste and cost overrun; at the pre-contract and at the post-contract stages of a project. The implication is that an increase in material wastage on-site leads to a corresponding increase in the amount of cost overrun, regardless of the percentage allowance for material waste in the process of bill preparation. The study also concluded that the average percentage contribution of material waste to project-cost overruns is four (4) percent. Material-waste sources, causes, and control measures were found to have significant effects (very high, high, medium, low, and very low), in causing or minimising cost overruns at both pre-contract and post-contract stages of projects. The research has developed a conceptual model for the management of material waste and cost overruns in the construction industry based on the results and informed by the theoretical framework. The research has also developed a mathematical model for quantifying the amount of material waste to be generated by a project; as well as a mathematical equation for the effective management of material waste and cost overrun for projects. The study has achieved its aim of establishing an understanding of the issues leading to the relationship between material waste and cost overruns, as well as their management in the Nigerian construction industry. The study recommends that the management of material waste and cost overrun should be revised, based on the findings of this research and included as part of the procurement process. The mathematical models for quantification of onsite material waste, and the mathematical equation for managing material waste and cost overruns developed in the study, could be usefully adopted to improve management of material waste and cost overrun in the Nigerian construction industry.

The central thesis of this study addresses biodiversity challenges from a social relations perspective. This is viewed from the standpoint of enhancing sustainable bioresource-use systems from a behaviour change departure. The study reviewed the activities of organisations in Nigeria which focus on bioresource management. The review focused on how the organisations view, conceive and implement activities which aim to address biodiversity loss emphasising how these aspects inform the concept of programme design, planning and implementation. The strategies were weighed against theories and techniques in behaviour change. The study argues that it should be recognised that the challenges of biodiversity loss have a strong relationship with how a society is socially constructed, and that addressing the challenges will require a systematic approach aimed at social construction, using efficient techniques to ensure behaviour change. The objective of the study was to acquire insight on how programmes which aim at addressing biodiversity loss in Nigeria approached behaviour change towards sustainable bioresource-use practise. The study captured these insights in a set of themes which provided an improved analysis on the dynamics of behaviour change and biodiversity management in Nigeria as well as extrapolated these findings to articulate new ideas on how to address the challenges of biodiversity loss in Nigeria. Through analysing basic suppositions and exposing contradictions, social science disciplines examine the credibility of arguments and key concepts that commonly remain unquestioned. Based on this premise, critical assumptions on biodiversity management were challenged by the study. Furthermore, the study articulated questions which have been raised in recent years from a variety of social science perspectives on biodiversity management concerns. The study postulated the need for biodiversity management to be approached from a social-construct perspective in rethinking the discourse on unsustainable bioresource-use patterns. The thesis derives from an eco-sociology framework rooted in human interaction analysis, which is connected with approaches in the social science of functionalism and behaviourism. The concepts and ideas discussed in the thesis lay out the main dimensions relevant to the discourse on behaviour change-biodiversity management. The study’s conceptual and theoretical underpinning discussed biodiversity management concerns from a global context and narrowed the discussion down to country specific contexts. Within these contexts, the study discussed issues of policies, legal systems, political and social systems, practices and programme activities, as part of management concerns. The study compiled relevant views on conservation and protection practises which were in line with internationally accepted norms and practises on biodiversity management. It highlights the challenges of current practises which emphasise strengthening of legal frameworks, policies and practises, and which criminalise actions that contravene ideally-construed conservation precepts as best models of addressing biodiversity loss. It further discussed the emphasis placed on protected-area systems as the main model of biodiversity conservation and argued on the need to rethink the approach within the Nigerian context. The study articulates the role of sociology in ecological discourse and argues that although the knowledge gained by physical and biological sciences are essential in addressing ecological challenges, however, they are not sufficient to understand the driving forces underlying ecological challenges and the phenomenon fundamental to understanding trends and patterns of human factors in biodiversity loss. The study was explored within the methodological framework of phenomenology as the underpinning paradigm using a qualitative approach for analysis. The layouts of the thesis ensure that the research moves from theoretical and conceptual reflections to the actualities of lived realities and situated practices embedded in biodiversity management in Nigeria. The conceptual inclination for the theoretical base for the study analysis was postulated, which articulate the study’s scientific and empirical contributions. The survey method reflects exploratory analytical inquiry which supported the study’s methodological considerations. This was based on the specific data chosen for review, which was informed by the selected organisation’s application of social-construct concepts. Considered from a national perspective, the study assumed that issues of biodiversity management concerns were not to be separated from everyday social realities and the larger social challenges. In view of this consideration, the study analysis looked at historical, political and socio-economic backdrops in Nigeria, which reflected on bioresource-use practises. These are relevant to understand the dynamics and interplay of culture and values in bioresource-use patterns. The study builds on diverse arrays of global frameworks to integrate the major findings of the study. These were compared with related and different dimensions as well as existing theories of human-bioresource interactions. The first aspect of the empirical analysis explored conceptual dimensions which raised questions concerning perceptions of reality and social values that were linked to the strategies of social-constructs expressed through policies, plans and practices. The study’s fundamental empirical dimension explored the forms in which programmes and social institutions were relevant in ensuring behaviour change towards sustainable bioresource-use practise. The analytical sequences observed trends which support facilitation of social change through behaviour change. Another aspect of the empirical analysis focused on revealing the processional dynamics of programme activities to achieve set objectives. This was analysed from the methodical perspective of how the processes were monitored and measured in order to achieve anticipated outcomes. The study summarised the findings and the outcomes by outlining the themes which emerged from the research. The study analysis argued that the ideals of social interventions cannot be different from a society’s inherent and attributed meanings to realities, as well as how they engage with their everyday realities.

The purpose of this study was to identify the curricula emphases of home economics in Oyo state secondary schools, and to analyze the relationship between subject matter emphasis and selected aspects about teaching and the teacher. Sixty-two home economics teachers in Oyo state, Nigeria, responded to a mailed survey asking them to indicate the degree of emphasis given to 50 topics in five subject matter areas of home economics: Human Development and the Family, Home Management and Family Economics, Foods and Nutrition, Textiles and Clothing, and Housing. The most taught subject matter area was Foods and Nutrition followed by Home Management and Family Economics, Textiles and Clothing, Human Development and the Family, and Housing. A similar rank order was observed for subject matter competence and for preference for teaching subject matter. Scores on the topics within each subject matter area, however, indicated that all of these topics and the subject matter areas were moderately emphasized in the curriculum. The philosophical views of home economics as homemaking education; home economics as household management and home economics as cooking and sewing exist concurrently. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the above five subject matter areas and selected aspects about teaching and the teacher. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated no significant relationship. Some of the problems facing home economics as a subject in the secondary schools were lack of laboratory space, equipment, finance, and shortage of home economics teachers. Collaborative curriculum development and local co-operative responses may offer the means to overcome the shortage of resources for programs in specific locales. Further research in the form of case studies of successful home economics programs could be informative in understanding better the necessary components which should be fostered in strengthening home economics programs. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate