Suchergebnisse

Occupational preference is an age long phenomenon. It is a product of many considerations on the part of an individual, and, varies across time and society. Despite various government programmes aimed at encouraging self-employment and or entrepreneurship, little success has been achieved in this direction in Nigeria. This study sought to investigate the reasons why Nigerians prefer public sector job to self- employment or private sector jobs with a view to understanding the dynamics of youth employment in a rapidly changing society. Concurrent triangulation mixed method research design was employed for this study to collect quantitative and qualitative data in the study location. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results showed that majority of the respondents preferred public sector careers. Job security; economic benefits; negative perception of other forms of employment; societal values; and altruistic service motive were the major reasons for preference. The study concludes that an understanding of the plethora of factors that engender high preference for public sector careers could inform youth employment policy directed at enhancing informal sector career outlook.Key words: Unemployment, informal sector, career preference, public sector careers.

The majority of children living within institutional care have a history of neglect. Past studies have identified developmental challenges with children in institutional care, for which reasons, orphanages must be transitional. However, placement of some children living in the orphan homes remains difficult. Through an in-depth interview with orphanage managers, social workers, prospective and successful adopters, and foster mothers, the study situates the diverse encumbrances to child placement in observed irregularities within three stages (entry, within the home, and at the exit point) of children's contact with the orphan homes. The study found that unresolved regulation on the duration for custody of children in orphan homes impedes the placement of children who are merely kept for care and protection. Lack of response to the basic care needs of children within orphan homes poorly influence their chances for adoption, and sometimes disrupt placement processes. Also the legal preference for domestic adoption discourages and sabotages efforts toward inter-country placement of children who are not locally desired. These result into prolonged stay of children in orphan homes, and as such, children outgrow either adoption or fosterage. Child protection policy direction must, therefore, be value-laden, and informed by the unique system/society realities. This study, specifically, makes a case for more political interest in children living in orphan homes.

The purpose of this study is to assess the perception of public service in Nigeria from the standpoint of young and middle‐aged adults in Ibadan, Nigeria with a view to determining its performance and contribution to national development. Concurrent triangulation mixed methods research design was adopted in this study to collect primary data from young and middle‐aged adults in Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive and inferential statistics described quantitative data and principal component analysis (PCA) extracted two factors. In addition, thematic content analysis was adopted to analyze qualitative research data. Findings showed that respondents had a negative perception of public service in Nigeria both in terms of its operation and reward. Job security was perceived positively but corruption/bad behavior in the public service was most perceived negatively. Also, final year undergraduates most perceive public service negatively and public paid workers least perceived public service negatively. Knowledge of this study will benefit Nigerians who render and enjoy public services, and will be most useful for the Nigerian public service to formulate policies that will prevent self‐interested, inefficient, ineffective, and unproductive public service workforce. This study measures, for the first time, perception of Nigerian public service in terms of its operation and reward. Studies that will investigate the rationale behind young and middle‐aged adults' negative perception of and high preference for careers in Nigerian public service are recommended. Also, improvement in service delivery and in the conditions of Nigerian public service will help in correcting the negative view.

This study examined socio-economic and ecological factors influencing cassava farming, various products and benefits of cassava farming, challenges facing cassava farming, and governmental interventions geared toward promoting cassava farming in Nigerian rural context. Descriptive explanatory research design was adopted to collect primary data from cassava farmers in Kuje Area Council, Abuja. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select study sample, using semi-structured questionnaire and indepth interview guide as research instruments. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The results demonstrated that various socio-economic and ecological factors influenced cassava farming in the study location. Also, findings showed that there were several final products and bi-products of cassava that served various socio-economic benefits. Lastly, the findings revealed that majority of the cassava farmers had not received any government intervention. Among the minority who had received government interventions, it was gathered that financial support, amenities and equipment, as well as seeds and new species were the major assistance rendered by the government. The study concluded that there were various socio-economic factors influencing cassava farming in the study location and recommended that soft loans, access to land, basic amenities and farm implements, small scale investment in cassava farming and favourable policies should be considered for cassava farmers especially in Nigerian rural areas.

The rural areas in Nigeria have become notorious with all kinds of crime. Inadequate amenities such as good roads and communication infrastructure in rural areas in Nigeria have made it difficult for the Nigeria Police to effectively detect and prevent crimes in rural Nigeria. It is consequent on these escalations of criminal activities that rural communities in Nigeria have evolved community policing to protect their neighbourhoods. This article presents the benefits of using qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection to unravel the potentials inherent in informal crime prevention and control in rural localities in Nigeria. The social capital theory was used to bring out the benefits of community participation in crime control in rural Nigeria. Findings from the study indicated high theft cases as common crime in rural Nigeria. Youths were observed to constitute greater percentage of suspects at police stations for crime. Unemployment and poverty among the rural populace especially youths were responsible for these criminalities. The absence of social infrastructure, inade- quate police presence and government support to unemployed youths made the crime situations worse in rural areas. There was low level of community interactions with the police in crime prevention and control in rural Nigeria. The study recommended increased police-public partnership in crime prevention and control in rural Nigeria.