This exploratory study of child and youth care services in Nigeria first examines theoretical concepts associated with the causation of youth problems in developed countries with particular reference to Britain and North America. From an historical and comparative perspective, the application and limitations of Western theories of delinquency causation in developing countries are analysed. An historical analysis of traditional Nigerian culture serves to highlight the problems associated with socio-economic change and the impact of change on traditional child and youth care practices. The impact of urban development on migrant youths is then analysed to establish the theoretical relationship between urbanisation and delinquency. Traditional roles maintained in extended families and traditional patterns of child and youth care practices are analysed to Identify the relationship between family disorganisation and delinquent behaviour among contemporary Nigerian young people. Family structure is identified as a core variable in explaining differences between rural and urban delinquency. Two case studies are presented to illuminate the degree of delinquent behaviour found amongst children and young people from disorganised families and to highlight differences between delinquency found in an urban area and a rural culture. Religious differences are identified as central to sequences in the development and definition of delinquency in the two major cultures in Nigeria. A social policy ideal, based on the notion of an integrated "continuum of care" for children and families, is used to analyse and evaluate child welfare services found in Nigeria at the present time. Prospects for the future development of services are also considered.

Since the first thesis on Nigerian education by a Nigerian was completed in 1946, several others have followed in quick succession. These studies critically examined the education system from the points of view of the qualification of its teaching staff, the effectiveness of its administration, the adequacy of its curricula and of the instructional methods used, the suitability of its facilities, the extent of its support by the Nigerian public, and the abilities and attitudes of its students. Most of these studies found that the Nigerian education system was a wholesale "export" of the types of education that enjoyed the most esteem in Europe, particularly in England, and which was only just adequate in supplying the needs of the Christian missions for teachers and preachers and of the colonial government for clerks and workers for the subordinate ranks of the administration. [...]

No description available.

The problem with which this study is concerned is the description of the past and present trends in the process of urbanization in Nigeria. In addition, the study explores tribal practices and perspectives in Nigeria's urban areas, giving special attention to the bases for the continuous existence of these phenomena. The data used in the study are obtained from books, government documents of both the United States and Nigeria and the. United Nations demographic analysis documents. The study is divided into five chapters. Based on findings and research of this study, the conclusion is drawn that adaptation to Nigeria's urban life proceeds through modification of the traditional institutions and their combination with Western cultural values, technology and economic practices into a new social structure.

The vast corpus of works on corruption in Africa focuses almost exclusively on 'grand corruption' and political elites (so-called 'Big Men'), and hardly on 'everyday corruption' and ordinary actors. When everyday corruption appears in the literature, it is frequently explained away as petty and/or normal - something expected and accepted. In this study, I take issue with this predominant narrative, couched in an equally dominant but narrow Weberian notion of corruption. Grounding corruption in the micro-politics of urban public transport in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital and Africa's largest city, I argue that ordinary actors detest the corruption that they encounter daily. At the same time, their power(lessness) in the face of its banality compels them to constantly devise tactics to find a way around it or to make it productive for their ends. Structured into six chapters, the study begins by probing the popular imagination, discourse, and spatiality of corruption. It then shows how corruption is embedded in routine socio-economic relations, how it conditions ordinary lives and social livelihoods, and how everyday actors encounter it, exploit it, resist it, or become its victims each day. The study required eight months of ethnographic fieldwork grounded on the routine experiences and lifeworlds of road transport workers in Lagos, Nigeria. My direct experience of the 'surrounds' of these urban actors, the 'junctions' that constitute the spatial hinge of violent extortion and complicity, and routine participation in the omnipresent 'danfos' (commercial minibus-taxis) enabled access to a sense of how this complex system works.

This study seeks to explain the relationship between civic associations and attitudinal social capital---norms of trust and reciprocity---within the context of an authoritarian state. In contrast to many post-industrial nations, Nigeria boasts a vibrant civil society but seems to possess little attitudinal social capital. A deeper understanding of this relationship is offered by considering how an association's structure influences members' attitudes and how this relationship is impacted by a repressive regime. These relationships are tested using both statistical data and a qualitative study of three associations. The findings support the hypothesis that certain structural characteristics are more conducive to the fostering of attitudinal social capital but that the presence of state repression undermines this process. Furthermore, it is shown that pro-democracy associations are essential in creating the space necessary for trust and cooperation between citizens, even when they do not foster these norms amongst their own membership.

No description available.

Changes and developments of the educational instituion of Nigeria are discussed. The analysis is based upon available data. Historical developments, including social movements and nationalism, are related to changing educational needs of an emerging nation. Developments during the past twenty years are discussed in detail. Increased levels of education are related to social mobility, agencies and types of socialization, and the development of Nigerian independence. Demographic changes, particularly decreases in mortality and differential fertility, are described in detail. The demands for technical and vocational training are related to urbanization. Based upon analyses of these historical trends, recommendations are suggested which should better enable Nigeria to cope with the modern world.

This study is directed toward the relationship between population growth and socioeconomic development in Nigeria for the period 1960-1984. A controlled population growth would positively affect every segment of the economic and social environment. With hunger and starvation, disease, poverty and illiteracy plaguing large portions of the world, Nigeria's limited resources would best be utilized if shared among a smaller population, Nigeria, like other developing African countries, does not have an official population control policy. The diversity in the Nigerian culture, the controversial nature of the subject of population control, and possibly, implementation difficulties, account for the absence of a population control policy in Nigeria. This study offers in its concluding section some policy recommendations on how to tackle Nigeria's population problem.

This thesis examines the social character of petroleum-related grassroots struggles in Nigeria’s oil-producing region. It does this against the background of the dominant scholarly narratives that portray the struggles as: a) a disguised pursuit of an ethnic/sectional agenda, b) a 'minority rights' project, and c) a minority province’s protest against 'selective' environmental 'victimisation' by the majority ethnic nationalities. While the dominant scholarly analyses of the struggles are based on the activities of the better known activist organisations operating in the oil region, this thesis focuses primarily on the everyday 'grammar' of discontent and lived worlds of ordinary people vis-à-vis upstream petroleum operations and petroleum resource utilisation. The aim has been to gain an understanding of the forces driving community struggles in the oil region and their wider societal significance. Examined alongside the narratives of ordinary people are the legal/institutional framework for upstream petroleum operations and the operational practices of the oil-producing companies. Using primary data obtained through ethnography, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and visual sociology, as well as relevant secondary data, the researcher constructs a discourse matrix, showing how grassroots narratives in selected oilproducing communities intersect with contemporary civic discourses in the wider Nigerian context. The thesis highlights the theoretical and policy difficulties that arise when the social basis of petroleum-related grassroots struggles and ordinary people’s narratives are explained using an essentialist idiom. It reveals, above all, the conditions under which so-called 'locale-specific' struggles in a multi-ethnic, oil-rich African country can become a campaign for the emancipation of ordinary people in the wider society. This research extends the existing knowledge on citizen mobilisation, extractive capitalism, transnational corporate behaviour, and Nigeria’s contemporary development predicament. It sheds light on some of the processes through which ordinary people are forcing upon the state a change agenda that could drive the country along a more socially sensitive development and democratisation trajectory.