Spatial Inequality in Development: A Case Study of Anambra State, Nigeria (Published)
This work examined the spatial inequality of development in the twenty one Local Government Areas of Anambra State. To determine the extent of the inequality in state’s development service, Gini co-efficient procedures, factor analysis and cluster analysis procedures were employed. The data used were collected on 17 variables indexing various aspects of development for the 21 Local Government Areas. From the Gini co-efficient analysis, using the 17 original development indicator variables, the result shows that there are inequality in health, M.D.G water, and transportation variables. With the composite standard deviate, several patterns of inequality were revealed. Development is found to be continuous in scale among the areas, and the areas can be categorized into different groups; but on the basis of the technique of analysis adopted, a structure of privileged and under privileged areas were revealed. Eleven out of the 21 Local Government Areas were privileged while 10 areas were deprived. Six variables with eigen-value greater than unity were extracted from the factor analysis. Six variables explained about 78.16 percent of the variation in the original variables. It shows that 4 Local Government Areas have a comprehensive development while many other areas are deprived in terms of development. Conceptually, development is seen in terms of social and economic opportunities available to a community for its welfare and progress. The principles of equity and social justice therefore form the bases of determining the relative privilege or under-privilege of a unit area in the overall development of the study area. From the cluster analysis result, it shows that while the privilege group exhibits random pattern, the underprivilege group has some tendency towards clustering.
Keywords: Community, Development, Nigeria, Social Justice, Spatial Inequality
Role of Social Trust in Urban Development (Case Study: Zahedan City) (Published)
Social trust is one of the most important aspects of human relationship that is the basis for cooperation between members of the community. Social trust will enhance the cooperation in the economic, social, political and cultural fields and will increase the willingness of people to work with different groups of population. The target of the current research is surveying the role of social confidence in urban development of Zahedan. The type of the research is corresponding and in order to analyze data the regression model was used. The population in the research include all of the Zahedan citizens and the population of the sample, based on Cochran formula, is 384 people in which individuals were selected randomly. For collecting the data of the research social confidence and urban development questionnaires were used. The questionnaires’ reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s Alpha. The questionnaires were distributed among the sample population and then collected. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS.V20 software. The results show that from the perspective of the citizens of Zahedan city, there is a significant positive relationship between social trust and urban development.
Keywords: Development, Urban Development, Zahedan, social trust
Impact of ECOWAS Protocols on Political and Economic Integration of the West African Sub-Region (Published)
This paper analysed the impact of the ECOWAS protocols and programmes on political and economic integration of West African sub-region. The desk review method was adopted in this paper, while information contained therein were obtained from relevant literatures’. The paper evaluated the implementation of the various protocols and programmes that constitute the main integrative instruments of ECOWAS from 1975 – 2007. These include protocols and programmes relating to free movement of persons, trade liberation, monetary cooperation, transport, telecommunication, conflict resolution, energy and power and ECOWAS Court of Justice. The paper observed that although the necessary structures have been put in place, ECOWAS is yet to achieve complete implementation in some of the main integrative instruments. It was also observed that some of the programmes have negative impacts on the sub-region. The partial implementation achieved in free movement of persons and goods is not yielding expected benefits due to lack of political will and administrative bottleneck in implementing the various protocols and programmes placed by member-states. In spite of these shortcomings, ECOWAS has made some remarkable progress in its drive to regional integrations. The paper recommends among others that ECOWAS should source for fund internally by ensuring that member-nations pay their dues. ECOWAS leaders should practice good and transparent governance in their countries to reduce occurrences of conflicts in the region.
Keywords: Development, ECOWAS Institutions, Economic Integration, Political Integration, Security