The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library.

The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library.

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The paper examines the contentious nature of resource control and distribution in Nigeria. It avers that resource control has been a big problem confronting the Nigerian state from inception. This fact has not been helped by the heterogene ous nature of Nigeria, the weak capacity of the Nigerian state, the politics of resource allocation and the primordial bend of leadership. Therefore, the con testations over resources have been heightened in recent years by the politicisation and ethnicization of the resource allocation process by the Nigerian state and its elites. In this situation, the Niger Delta minority ethnic groups have seen them selves as victims of this politicisation of resource control by the dominant ma jority ethnic groups in control of state power. This allegation of marginalization in resource control is given further impetus by the decline of the derivation principle of revenue allocation, over centralization of the resource allocation process and the general socio-economic plight of the region in spite of being the source of the oil upon which Nigeria's monoeconomy has depended in the last three decades. Therefore, the grievance of the Niger Delta minorities and the general conflict and violence over resource control in Nigeria can only be mean ingfully addressed through a committed restructuring of the fiscal system

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This study examines the influence of globalisation on labour utilisation in Nigeria using the construction industry as a case study. It reveals that the era of globalisation has given rise to profound changes in the way labour is utilised, specifically in terms of employment patterns as well as the related issues of earnings, job security, unionisation etc. In effect, the way the worker is used by the firms in the industry is determined solely by the dictates of capitalism, i.e. the profit motive. The conclusion is that the consequences of globalisation have been unfavourable to the workers in the so-called 'semi-skilled' category. Thus, neo-liberal globalisation, contrary to the often-benevolent impacts attributed to it, has worsened rather than improved the situation of workers in the construction industry in Nigeria. This then calls attention to the need for inter alia a more focused regulation of the activities of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and the enforcement of minimum ILO standards in member countries, especially in the developing world where the need to attract the all important foreign investment may override any other consideration. RésuméL'étude examine l'impact de la mondialisation sur l'utilisation de la main-d'oeuvre au Nigeria avec comme exemple l'industrie de la construction. Elle révèle que la mondialisation a engendré de profonds changements sur la manière dont la main-d'oeuvre est utilisée, en particulier en constances de recrutement, de rémunération, de sécurité de l'emploi, de syndicalisation, etc. En effet, la façon dont le travailleur est utilisé par l'entreprise est uniquement déterminée par les principes du capitalisme, à savoir le souci du profit. La conclusion est que les conséquences de la mondialisation sont défavorables aux travailleurs, soi-disant, semi qualifiés. Ainsi, la mondialisation néolibérale, contrairement aux effets souvent bienveillants qu'on lui attribue, a détérioré la situation des travailleurs nigérians de l'industrie de la construction plutôt que de l'améliorer. C'est pourquoi il est nécessaire de porter plus d'attention à une réglementation plus ciblée des activités des Corporation multinationales et à une application des normes minimales du Bureau international du travail au sein des pays membres, particulièrement dans les pays en développement, où le besoin d'attirer les très importants investissements étrangers peut prévaloir sur toute autre considération.

This paper examines the travails of the social sciences in Africa since the post-colonial era. It pinpoints the fact that the ability of the social sciences to be really meaningful to the delusive development quest by Africa has been undermined by a combination of structural and epistemological problems. These problems range from the dismal economic environment in the continent, the structural limitations imposed on research, poor conditions of service to laziness and epistemological inferiority among African social scientists. However, the paper posits that the current wind of change blowing across Africa, a re-examination of the epistemology of the field and a conscientious self-reappraisal will ultimately reposition the social sciences to play significant roles in the development of Africa.Re´sume´: L'article analyse les travaux en sciences sociales re´alise´s en Afrique depuis l'e`re post-coloniale. Il identifie le fait que la capacite´des sciences sociales a`jouer un roˆle re´ellement significatif dans la queˆte illusoire de de´veloppement en Afrique a e´te´mine´e par l'effet conjugued e proble`mes structurels et e´piste´mologiques. Ces proble`mes sont notamment l'environnement e´conomique peu encourageant du continent, les restrictions structurelles pesant sur la recherche, la me´diocrited es conditions de service, la paresse et l'infe´riorite´du niveau e´piste´mo-logique des spe´cialistes des sciences sociales en Afrique. Cependant, l'article indique que le vent du changement qui souffle actuellement en Afrique, un re´examen de l'e´piste´mologie et une auto-re´e´valuation consciencieuse repositionneront, a`terme, les sciences sociales et leur permettront de jouer des roˆles importants dans le de´veloppement de l'Afrique.

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