Academic literature on the topic 'Transportation – Nigeria – History'

The literature on the Third Plague Pandemic in West Africa focuses on urbanisation and disease processes in colonial Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria. Consequently, there is a dearth of historical study of the relational complexities between public health interventions and maritime trade during the outbreak in the region. It is with this in mind that this article examines the historical effects of plague control on internal commerce and international maritime trade in Lagos from 1924 to 1931. The study is based on the historical analysis of colonial administrative, sanitary and medical records as well as newspaper reports. It concludes that the nature of colonial public health intervention was determined by economic policy preferences that impacted distinctively on internal commerce and international maritime trade in Lagos.

Niger State has unique history of kolanut production in northern part of Nigeria. Unfortunately, the potentials of kolanut production in the state are not duly recognized. Lavun and Mokwa Local Government Areas, where kolanut is widely produced were selected for the study. Kolanut farmers were randomly selected for administration of structured questionnaire. Cola nitida was the dominant species planted by the farmers. More than two third of the kolanut plantations were 60 years and above. Kolanut farms were mainly owned through inheritance. Farmers at Lavun adopted more cultural practices than the farmers at Mokwa; such practices included application of organic manure and mulching to the kolanut trees, felling of unproductive kolanut trees to coppice, and adoption of multiple land practice. Due to this, the farmers at Lavun got more harvest from their kolanut plantations than those at Mokwa. Stored nuts were mainly attacked by weevils and rot disease. Challenges of kolanut production are low yield, lack of information on improved technology, pest and disease infestation, lack of intervention from the government, and transportation. Farmers in the study areas still hold kolanut production in high esteem, and there is vast area of land which could be used for kolanut production.

This paper aims to analyse the growth of the taxi and shared taxi industries in Nigeria after the 1980s Structural Adjustment Programs. The reduction of public bus services and growing urbanisation fuelled the rise of (paid) car-pooling and eventually a change in the taxi regime. This new system offered an increasingly flexible shared service which (partially) met urban mobility demands. Although this system is common to many African cites, and similar to post-1989 socialist states in Europe and central Asia, focusing on the city of Kano (Nigeria) allows us to identify some of its peculiarities. Relying on secondary sources and on interviews with witnesses, this paper traces the trajectory of shared taxi services from the 1950s to today.

Purpose It is of concern that several attempts at making Nigeria an automobile producing country have not yielded much success. This paper aims to re-examine the history of automobile manufacturing and the consequences of auto policies of successive governments towards having a viable automotive industry in Nigeria and the lessons therefrom. Design/methodology/approach Dispersed data were assembled from both primary and secondary sources on the automobile industry activities in Nigeria. The historic data cover Nigeria’s vehicles need, production levels, importations and local content developments. Time series data on Nigeria’s crude oil prices and the devaluation of the local currency were obtained and analyzed to elucidate effects and provide the trajectory. A comparative analysis of the policies of successful countries with initial status with Nigeria was carried out to elucidate the policy pitfalls in Nigeria’s industrial policies. Findings The automotive policies in Nigeria are not self-sustaining. It has been curiously observed that the automotive policy on import substitution and local content development approach did not include the key components in automobile manufacturing, making it a footloose industry. Nigeria’s crude petroleum mono-economy affects the manufacturing sector negatively. A fall in international crude oil price causes free fall of the country’s currency in the international market, the cost of imported new vehicles and parts become prohibitively high, consequently, individuals, as well as corporate organizations, resorted to imported fairly used vehicles and parts for their transportation needs. Capacity utilization dropped abysmally. Originality/value Nigeria’s experience has demonstrated the critical role the government can play in safeguarding the automobile industry in the developing economies. Apart from diversification of the economy, there is a need, therefore, for a more refined and pragmatic approach in the formulation of policies to enable only genuine investors to operate in the automobile industry which hitherto has been an all-comers affair with many taking advantage of unguarded and unguided government incentives.

Background. Poor municipal waste management, including waste treatment and disposal methods, threatens the environment and public health in most developing countries. Lack of proper municipal waste segregation and transportation techniques has increased the potential for the transmission of pathogens such as hepatitis B virus (HBV). Objectives. This study addressed issues relating to the potential risk of infectious diseases and prevalence of HBV among municipal waste workers and scavengers in Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among municipal waste management workers and waste scavengers in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria. A total of 120 respondents were administered questionnaires during the first stage of the study and participated in the second (testing) stage of the study. The prevalence of an HBV infection biological marker, the Australia antigen (HBsAg), and its association with exposure to waste, socio-demographic factors, and history of occupational injuries with sharp objects/needle sticks was examined. Results. The prevalence of HBV infection among municipal waste management workers and waste scavengers was 2.6% and 16.67% respectively, indicating that scavengers were at higher risk of HBV infection. Conclusions. Lack of proper occupational health safety management among municipal waste management workers was a possible risk factor for HBV infection through injury with sharp instruments. The possible pathway of virus transmission was waste segregation, which is usually carried out with bare hands, and lack of hygiene and occupational safety during waste management activities. Therefore, vaccination against HBV, personal hygiene practices and regular training on occupational safety will help to control risk of HBV infection among municipal waste workers and scavengers.

AbstractSedimentological and scanning electron microscopic analyses of some shallow reservoir tar sand samples in parts of Southwestern Nigeria were carried out with the aim of characterizing the reservoir properties in relation to bitumen saturation and recovery efficiency. The production of impregnated tar from the sands requires the reservoir to be of good quality. A total of thirty samples were collected at different localities within the tar sand belt (ten out of these samples were selected for various reservoir quality analyses based on their textural homogeneity). The result of particle size distribution study showed that bulk of the sands is medium – coarse grained and moderately sorted. The grain morphologies are of low to high sphericity with shapes generally sub-angular to sub-rounded, implying that the sands have undergone a fairly long transportation history with depositional energy having a moderate to high velocity. The quartz content was made up of about 96% of the total mineralogical components; the sediments of the Afowo Formation can be described to be mineralogically and texturally stable. The result of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that the oil sands contained minerals which had been precipitated and occurred as pore filling cement; these minerals include sheet kaolinite, block kaolinite, vermiform kaolinite, pyrite crystals and quartz. The SEM images also showed micro-pores ranging from 0.057µm to 0.446µm and fractures. The study showed that the clay minerals contained in the Afowo reservoir rocks were mainly kaolinite. Kaoline unlike some other clays (e.g Montimorillonite) does not swell with water, hence it is not expected to have any negative effects on the reservoir quality, especially during enhanced oil recovery operations.From overall results of the reservoir quality assessment, Oso J4 and Gbegude sands should be expected to make better reservoirs with good oil recovery efficiency due to their low content of fines and better sorting characteristics when compared to sediments of other areas.

This study concentrated primarily on how the changes in the trunk A transportation network configuration in Nigeria alter both the hierarchy of the network system and the connectivity of the network itself. Using the graph theory, the study looked at the network development in Nigeria in 1949, 1961, 1976, and 1982. The period covered in the study spanned from the colonial to the post-colonial eras. Road maps of each of these years were the primary sources of data. The maps were translated into abstracted networks and subsequently converted into square matrices, and analyzed. The analysis resulted in the establishment of the network connectivity and the accessibility of individual nodes. Gamma and alpha indices were used to determine the complexity (the degree of connectivity) of networks in each of the study periods. The sporadic changes in the number of nodes and linkages resulted in the fluctuation of the network connectivity. This type of fluctuation is a common problem in network development within the developing economies. Political and administrative factors exert stronger influence in shaping the content and the outcome of transportation programs than the Taaffe, Morrill and Gould (1963) and Lachene (1965) models imply. The sporadic fluctuations in the number of nodes, linkages and in the values of the gamma and alpha indices suggest that neither the sequence of network development nor its supposed discrete nature is appropriate to postcolonial development. There is a significant difference between network development during the colonial and post-colonial eras. During the colonial era, there was a strong connection between network development and primary economic activities. The conditions during the colonial era support the link between the network and economic development as illustrated in Kansky (1963) work. The post-colonial era in the other hand, is marked by the need for both social and political integration. Thus, the pattern of network development in Nigeria in the eighties is quite consistent with Friedmann (1975) assertion that social and political factors should be assigned a higher score than economic in the development model for Third world. After nearly ninety years of network development, the trunk A network system in Nigeria is in transition. It is now moving from elementary into an advanced stage of development. One of the things that is likely to at least slow down the rate of such transformation is the political sub-division of the nation into smaller constituent units, coupled with lack of political predictability. From most indications, network development is moving away from concentration in relatively few nodes to a system that imposes a grid on the nation. The imposition of such a grid is likely to induce and enhance the interregional linkages and competition. Such phenomenon is indeed healthy in the light of the existing imbalance in terms of responsibilities between the three levels of government. It is also a good approach towards redressing the existing regional disparities as regional integration is very likely to bring about incentives and opportunities for a fair competition.