Impact of Corruption on Nigerias Unemployment Rates

Impact of Corruption on Nigerias Unemployment Rates Introduction Unemployment has eaten so deep into the Nigerian society to the extent that the citizens have learnt to live with it, with a view that nothing can be done about it. This attitude of Nigerians towards this menace of unemployment however is a negative approach of dealing with such complex and complicated issue that has had tremendous negative impact on the country, some of which are robbery, kidnapping, rapes, oil bunkering etc. According to the Manpower Board and the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Nigerian youth population is 80 million and this represents 60% of the entire population (Awogbenele and Iwuamadi, 2001). It further explains that 64 million of them are unemployed, while 1.6 million are under-employed. It is very unfortunate that such ugly report of unemployment could be heard of a country like Nigeria with so much natural and mineral resources. According to the statistical rebasing exercise of 2014, Nigeria has assumed the position of the largest growing economy in Afri ca, with an estimated GDP of 502 billion USD (CIA). Such economy ordinarily would have increased the number of industries and attracted foreign investors to the country, thereby increasing the employment rate in the country, but the presence of corrupt practices in the country have been an impediment to the increasing rate of employment in the country despite its enormous resources. According to Transparency International (TI) corruption perspective index of 20013, Nigeria ranked 144 of 177 countries. The high unemployment rate in Nigeria has been attributed to corruption. In a bid to combat corruption in Nigeria, president Olusegun Obasanjo established the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) in 1999 to act as a watchdog for public officials and check corrupt practices, but these commissions have also been plagued by nepotism and the recruitments of mediocre or candidates that are unqualified in preference to qualified candidates. Other measures towards combating corruption have failed as the process also involves corrupt public officials, more like fighting an evil with the same evil. Corruption in Nigeria has become an issue of global discourse and has attracted comments from several scholars; however, this paper seeks to expose the corrupt practices in the country, in a pursuit for a change in the employment status of the country. In achieving this, this paper draw a nexus between corruption and unemployment, going forward to identify and analyse corrupt practices in the country and h ow it has impacted the unemployment rate in the country, thereafter, proffer solutions to the problems of unemployment in Nigeria by suggesting some mechanisms that will help to curb the evil of corruption that is prevalent in Nigeria. Research Question As can be seen from the introduction, the Nigerian situation of high rate of unemployment is unique because ordinarily this should not be the case with Nigeria because of her oil wealth. However, this paper suggests some research questions that if answered adequately will solve the puzzle in our minds and provide a cure to this illness of unemployment in Nigeria. My research questions include: Is there a relationship between corruption and unemployment? How has corruption impacted on the unemployment rate in Nigeria? JUSTIFICATION: It is not a misconception to suggest a high level of employment and an increasing industrial society in a state that is endowed with huge natural and mineral resources. The Nigerian situation is an exception in the sense that despite her abundant resources, the citizens still suffer high rate of unemployment. The increasing rate of unemployment in the country has been attributed to presence of corrupt public officials in the political, economic and social affairs of the nation. The corrupt practices of such corrupt officials which include nepotism, money laundering, mismanagement of public fund, bribery, fraud have increased the unemployment rate in the country. The uniqueness of the Nigerian situation triggered my interest in this paper, with the aim of finding the nexus between corruption and unemployment and thereafter explain how corrupt has impacted (negatively) on the unemployment rate in Nigeria. In answering the above listed research question, I will attempt to analyse the corrupt practices among public officials in Nigeria and evaluate its impact (of these practice) on the unemployment rate in the country. This paper will go a step further to proffer possible mechanism that could curb the menace of corruption, thereby reducing the unemployment rate in the country by adequately utilizing their God’s given resources for the good of the citizens. LITERATURE REVIEW/THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK The variables included in this paper are corruption and unemployment. Corruption is the independent variable that determines the unemployment rate (dependent variable) in the country. Increases in corruption will most likely lead to an increase in the unemployment rate in a country and a decrease in corruption will also mean a decrease in the unemployment rate in the country. However, an increase in the unemployment rate in a country could also cause an increase in corruption because there a high possibility of an unemployed population to indulge more in corrupt practices as a means of livelihood, therefore the dependent variable could also cause the independent variable. I will say however that there is a correlation between both variables because the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria is caused by the increase in corruption in the country. There is also a cofounding variable Z that makes the relationship between both variables spurious because there are states that are corrupt an d yet witness low unemployment rate and there are also states that have reduced rate of corruption and still experience high rate of unemployment. This existence of these states with exceptions shows a spurious relationship between corruption and unemployment. Definition of Concepts The term corruption has been defined conceptually and operationally by different scholars and institutions. Corruption as defined by Transparency International (TI) is â€Å"the misuse of entrusted power for private gains†. Corruption is a menace that occurs not only in developing countries, but also in the first world countries, however, it is prevalent in developing countries of Asia and Africa. Corruption is not limited to a particular political system, but as a regular phenomenon, it exists in all forms of political system. Closely related to the definition of corruption by Transparency International, the World Bank definition of corruption goes thus â€Å"the misuse of public office for private gain†. According to Brooks, corruption is intentional because public officials are aware of their duties, but they neglect it for reasons that are not intended by the state (Brook 1970). Corruption is referred to as â€Å"mother of all crime† and is included in four f orms which include bribery, graft, nepotism and prebendalism (Akinseye 2000). Conclusively, I see corruption as an illegal extra benefit that is sought by public officials at the detriment of public. I call it â€Å"illegal extra benefit† because they not legally entitled to it. Unemployment however, can be described as the condition of persons who are willing and able to work, but are not able to find job. When the supply of labour is more that the demand for labour, this could cause unemployment and joblessness as a result of lack of employment, youths may be forced to indulge in illegal means of livelihood and this may result in unemployment (Echebiri 2005; Onah 2001). The various forms of unemployment include frictional, structural, seasonal and cyclical employment. According to a report by the International Labour Organisation, the global rate of unemployment is increasing steadily and the number of people without job has increased to above 195million, which is 6.3% in the world (ILO 2007). An increasing per cent of this figure are found in the developing countries of Asia and Africa. According to Todaro, the increasing rate of unemployment is geared by the transfer of movement and economic activities from rural to urban areas (Todaro 1992). The unemplo yed is defined by the International Labour Organisation as the amount of a population who are economically active and are without job, but are willing and are seeking jobs including those that have voluntarily dropped their work and those that have lost their jobs. (World Bank 1998:63). Unemployment in Nigeria however can be divided into two: those that have lost their jobs and those that have not ever been employed. In this paper, I subscribe to the Huntington theory of modernisation that focuses on the process of change and the reaction of states to such changes. This however forms my theoretical base for the purpose of explaining the problem of corruption of which unemployment is a product. The modernisation theory also implies a transformational process from a traditional society to a modern society through the introduction of modern practices. According to Adefulu, modernisation theory is one of the theories of corruption. He argued that political stability, inequality and corruption were breaded by the political and economic process of state modernization (Adefulu, 2007). The transformation from traditional states to modern societies left some loop holes for corrupt practices. This has further increased the unemployment rate in Nigeria. In the society before modernisation, public officials were not as corrupt as in our contemporary days. Companies like the African Timber and Plywood, Sapele , Nigeria, the Delta Steel Company, Delta state, Nigeria and several other big industries and companies in Nigeria that employed thousands of Nigerians were functional and active until this modernisation process started, where Nigeria started modernisation practices as opposed to the previous state system where top leaders and rulers owe allegiance to the traditional institution. The consequence of corrupt practices in public offices in the traditional institution was death and the fear of this consequences reduced corruption to the barest minimum. Public officials then were accountable and responsible in their operations and the society experienced a very low rate of unemployment because of the reduced rate of corruption. The transfer to a modern state system has increased the corruption rate, thereby increasing the rate of unemployment in the country. HYPOTHESES. Given the above mentioned theoretical framework, my hypothesis in this work is. There is a correlation between corruption and unemployment. Corruption has impacted negatively on the unemployment rate in Nigeria. DATA AND METHODOLOGY My research data (collection of information) will include both primary and secondary sources. Primary Sources: Data that will be collected from primary source will include personal interview. Secondary Sources: Secondary sources for my research will include Transparency International Corruption Index (TI), CIA World Fact book, World Bank data etc. these sources have provided adequate, accurate and reliable information that have been of help to researchers, hence I consider them worthy of reference. Academic journals and articles will also be consulted in the course of my work. This paper will rely on observational study and will involve a small-n design by focusing on just Nigeria as my case study because the paper seeks to examine not only a relationship between corruption and unemployment, but also to identify how corruption has been able to cause a high rate of unemployment in Nigeria and possible solutions to this problem of unemployment in the country. REFERENCES Akinseye George, Y: Legal System, Corruption and Governance in Nigeria, Lagos. (2000) Adefulu A. Razaa: Neo Patrimonialism the modern Africans state and corruptions syndrome. (2007) Awogbenle, A.C. Iwuamadi, K.C: Youth Unemployment: Entrepreneurship Development Programme as an Intervention Mechanism. . (2010) Central Intelligence Agency: The World Fact Book (2014) Echebiri, R.N: Characteristics and Determinants of Urban Youth Unemployment in Umuahia, Nigeria: (2005) International Labor Organization: Youth: Pathway to Decent Work (2005). Todaro, M: England: Longman Group, U.K. Limited; Economics for a Developing World, (1992) Transparency International Corruption Perspective Index (2013) World Bank: World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C. (1998)

Life and career Essay

Singer’s parents were Viennese Jews who escaped the German annexation of Austria and fled to Australia in 1938. His grandparents were less fortunate; they were taken by the Nazis to Lodz, and were never heard of again. [1] Singer’s father imported tea and coffee, while his mother practised medicine. He attended Scotch College. After leaving school, Singer studied law, history and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, gaining his degree in 1967. He received an MA for a thesis entitled Why should I be moral? n 1969. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, obtaining a B. Phil in 1971 with a thesis on civil disobedience, supervised by R. M. Hare, and subsequently published as a book in 1973. [2] After spending two years as a Radcliffe lecturer at University College, Oxford, he was visiting professor at New York University for 16 months. He returned to Melbourne in 1977, where he has spent most of his career, apart from many visiting positions internationally, and until his move to Princeton in 1999. Animal LiberationPublished in 1975, Animal Liberation[3] was a major formative influence on the animal liberation movement. Although Singer rejects rights as a moral ideal independent from his utilitarianism based on interests, he accepts rights as derived from utilitarian principles, particularly the principle of minimizing suffering. [4] Singer allows that animal rights are not exactly the same as human rights, writing in Animal Liberation that â€Å"there are obviously important differences between human and other animals, and these differences must give rise to some differences in the rights that each have. [5] So, for example an animal does not have the right to a good education as this is meaningless to him, just as a male human does not have the right to an abortion. But he is no more skeptical of animal rights than of the rights of women, beginning his book by defending just such a comparison against Mary Wollstonecraft’s 18th-century critic Thomas Taylor, who argued that if Wollstonecraft’s reasoning in defense of women’s rights were correct, then â€Å"brutes† would have rights too. Taylor thought he had produced a reductio ad absurdum of Wollstonecraft’s view; Singer regards it as a sound logical implication. Taylor’s modus tollens is Singer’s modus ponens. In Animal Liberation, Singer argues against what he calls speciesism: discrimination on the grounds that a being belongs to a certain species. He holds the interests of all beings capable of suffering to be worthy of equal consideration, and that giving lesser consideration to beings based on their having wings or fur is no more justified than discrimination based on skin color. In particular, he argues that while animals show lower intelligence than the average human, many severely retarded humans show equally diminished mental capacity, and intelligence therefore does not provide a basis for providing nonhuman animals any less consideration than such retarded humans. Singer does not specifically contend that we ought not use animals for food insofar as they are raised and killed in a way that actively avoids the inflicting of pain, but as such farms are few and far between, he concludes that the most practical solution is to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. Singer also condemns most vivisection, though he believes animal experiments may be acceptable if the benefit (in terms of improved medical treatment, etc. ) outweighs the harm done to the animals used. [6] Due to the subjectivity of the term â€Å"benefit†, controversy exists about this and other utilitarian views. But he is clear enough that humans of comparable sentience should also be candidates for any animal experimentation that passes the benefit test. So a monkey and a human infant would be equally available for the experiment, from a moral point of view, other things being equal. If performing the experiment on the infant isn’t justifiable, then Singer believes that the experiment shouldn’t happen at all — instead, the researchers should pursue their goals using computer simulations or other methods. Applied ethics His most comprehensive work, Practical Ethics,[7] analyzes in detail why and how beings’ interests should be weighed. His principle of equality encompasses all beings with interests, and it requires equal consideration of those interests, whatever the species. The principle of equal consideration of interests does not dictate equal treatment of all those with interests, since different interests warrant different treatment. All have an interest in avoiding pain, for instance, but relatively few have an interest in cultivating their abilities. Not only does his principle justify different treatment for different interests, but it allows different treatment for the same interest when diminishing marginal utility is a factor, favoring, for instance, a starving person’s interest in food over the same interest of someone who is only slightly hungry. Among the more important human interests are those in avoiding pain, in developing one’s abilities, in satisfying basic needs for food and shelter, in enjoying warm personal relationships, in being free to pursue one’s projects without interference, â€Å"and many others†. The fundamental interest that entitles a being to equal consideration is the capacity for â€Å"suffering and/or enjoyment or happiness†; mice as well as human beings have this interest, but stones and trees do not. He holds that a being’s interests should always be weighed according to that being’s concrete properties, and not according to its belonging to some abstract group such as a species, or a set of possible beings, or an early stage of something with an as yet unactualized potential. He favors a ‘journey’ model of life, which measures the wrongness of taking a life by the degree to which doing so frustrates a life journey’s goals. So taking a life is less wrong at the beginning, when no goals have been set, and at the end, when the goals have either been met or are unlikely to be accomplished. The journey model is tolerant of some frustrated desire, explains why persons who have embarked on their journeys are not replaceable, and accounts for why it is wrong to bring a miserable life into existence. Although sentience puts a being within the sphere of equal consideration of interests, only a personal interest in continuing to live brings the journey model into play. This model also explains the priority that Singer attaches to interests over trivial desires and pleasures. For instance, one has an interest in food, but not in the pleasures of the palate that might distinguish eating steak from eating tofu, because nutrition is instrumental to many goals in one’s life journey, whereas the desire for meat is not and is therefore trumped by the interest of animals in avoiding the miseries of factory farming. In order to avoid bias towards human interests, he requires the idea of an impartial standpoint from which to compare interests. This is an elaboration of the familiar idea of putting oneself in the other’s shoes, adjusted for beings with paws or flippers. He has wavered about whether the precise aim is the total amount of satisfied interests, or instead the most satisfied interests among those beings who already exist prior to the decision one is making. Both have liabilities. The total view, for instance, seems to lead to Derek Parfit’s Repugnant Conclusion[8] — that is, it seems to imply that it’s morally better to have an enormous population with lives barely worth living rather than a smaller population with much happier lives. The prior-existence view, on the other hand, seems questionably indifferent to the harm or benefit one can do to those who are brought into existence by one’s decisions. The second edition of Practical Ethics disavows the first edition’s suggestion that the total and prior-existence views should be combined in such a way that the total view applies to sentient beings who are not self-conscious and the prior-existence view applies to those who are. This would mean that rats and human infants are replaceable — their painless death is permissible as long as they are replaced — whereas human adults and other persons in Singer’s expanded sense, including great apes, are not replaceable. The second edition dispenses with the requirement of replacement and the consequent high population numbers for sentient beings. It asserts that preference-satisfaction utilitarianism, incorporating the ‘journey’ model, applies without invoking the first edition’s suggestion about the total view. But the details are fuzzy and Singer admits that he is â€Å"not entirely satisfied† with his treatment of choices that involve bringing beings into existence. Ethical conduct is justifiable by reasons that go beyond prudence to â€Å"something bigger than the individual,† addressing a larger audience. Singer thinks this going-beyond identifies moral reasons as â€Å"somehow universal†, specifically in the injunction to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’, interpreted by him as demanding that one give the same weight to the interests of others as one gives to one’s own interests. This universalizing step, which Singer traces from Kant to Hare, is crucial and sets him apart from moral theorists from Hobbes to David Gauthier, who regard that step as flatly irrational. Universalization leads directly to utilitarianism, Singer argues, on the strength of the thought that my own interests cannot count for more than the interests of others. Taking these into account, one must weigh them up and adopt the course of action that is most likely to maximize the interests of those affected; utilitarianism has been arrived at. Singer’s universalizing step applies to interests without reference to who has them, whereas a Kantian’s applies to the judgments of rational agents (in Kant’s kingdom of ends, or Rawls’s Original Position, etc. ). Singer regards Kantian universalization as unjust to animals. It’s their capacity for suffering/happiness that matters morally, not their deficiency with respect to rational judgment. As for the Hobbesians, Singer attempts a response in the final chapter of Practical Ethics, arguing that self-interested reasons support adoption of the moral point of view, such as ‘the paradox of hedonism’, which counsels that happiness is best found by not looking for it, and the need most people feel to relate to something larger than their own concerns. Abortion, euthanasia and infanticide Consistent with his general ethical theory, Singer holds that the right to physical integrity is grounded in a being’s ability to suffer, and the right to life is grounded in, among other things, the ability to plan and anticipate one’s future. Since the unborn, infants and severely disabled people lack the latter (but not the former) ability, he states that abortion, painless infanticide and euthanasia can be justified in certain special circumstances, for instance in the case of severely disabled infants whose life would cause suffering both to themselves and to their parents. In his view the central argument against abortion is It is wrong to kill an innocent human being; a human fetus is an innocent human being; therefore it is wrong to kill a human fetus. He challenges the second premise, on the grounds that its reference to human beings is ambiguous as between human beings in the zoological sense and persons as rational and self-conscious. There is no sanctity of human life that confers moral protection on human beings in the zoological sense. Until the capacity for pain develops after â€Å"18 weeks of gestation†, abortion terminates an existence that has no intrinsic value (as opposed to the value it might have in virtue of being valued by the parents or others). As it develops the features of a person, it has moral protections that are comparable to those that should be extended to nonhuman life as well. He also rejects a backup argument against abortion that appeals to potential: It is wrong to kill a potential human being; a human fetus is a potential human being; therefore it is wrong to kill a human fetus. The second premise is more plausible, but its first premise is less plausible, and Singer denies that what is potentially an X should have the same value or moral rights as what is already an X. Against those who stress the continuity of our existence from conception to adulthood, he poses the example of an embryo in a dish on a laboratory bench, which he calls Mary. Now if it divides into two identical embryos, there is no way to answer the question whether Mary dies, or continues to exist, or is replaced by Jane and Susan. These are absurd questions, he thinks, and their absurdity casts doubt on the view that the embryo is a human being in the morally significant sense. Singer classifies euthanasia as voluntary, involuntary, or non-voluntary. (For possible similar historical definitions of euthanasia see Karl Binding, Alfred Hoche and Werner Catel. ) Given his consequentialist approach, the difference between active and passive euthanasia is not morally significant, for the required act/omission doctrine is untenable; killing and letting die are on a moral par when their consequences are the same. Voluntary euthanasia, undertaken with the consent of the subject, is supported by the autonomy of persons and their freedom to waive their rights, especially against a legal background such as the guidelines developed by the courts in the Netherlands. Non-voluntary euthanasia at the beginning or end of life’s journey, when the capacity to reason about what is at stake is undeveloped or lost, is justified when swift and painless killing is the only alternative to suffering for the subject.

Karaoke Television

The word â€Å"KTV† stands for Karaoke Television. It is a form of interactive entertainment where amateurs sing along recorded music using a microphone and public address system with a screen of displayed lyrics. There are over 100 KTV establishments in Singapore. Party World KTV is an established karaoke entertainment in Singapore, boasting 12 outlets throughout the island. Equipped with the latest in entertainment technology, user-friendly systems and comfortable spacious rooms, patrons are ensured utmost pleasure and comfort. Party World KTV strives to enrich patron’s experience in singing quality and ‘beyond singing’ experience. Various segments have been identified as possible segments that Party World KTV could target and choose to focus on. Possible segments include but are not limited to: students, corporate, families and senior citizens. The possible segments allows Party World to be an all-rounder KTV entertainment provider, providing from young to old, private to corporate. However, instead of competing in a mass market with broad segments, in adopting a narrower focus, the company ideally focuses on their specialized needs, thus better tailoring the marketing mix accordingly. The chosen segments to focus are students and corporate. Students and corporate segments are important source of customer base. Corporate functions are on regular basis where organizers are willing to spend generously. Students, on the other hand are cost conscious. Singapore’s KTV entertainment industry has grown rapidly over the years. Party World KTV has significance market shares in the industry, nevertheless, not without strong competitors like K Box, Good Luck KTV and Top One KTV. The targeted markets consist of working class (corporate) and non-working class (students). There are huge pools of customers readily available in these two segments. Offering specialize services aimed at corporate functions could set Part World’s positioning at a higher level. Students, on the other hand are customers who enjoy KTV entertainment due to many reasons such as, fans who imitate idols, singing as hobby and friends hangout. In targeting these segments, Party World KTV sets its positioning in customer’s mind uniquely different from other common KTVs. Setting a prestige standard for official functions while not neglecting the needs of the young and non-working customers. An overview of the marketing mix, place, price, products (service) and promotion are as followed. * Place – Exclusive, multiple locations strategically located (12 branches). Rooms are comfortable and spacious. VIPs room exclusively only available in 5 branches with prior bookings needed. All branches are located island wide, convenient for all. * Price – Different pricing strategy. Higher prices targeted to high end customers (corporate functions). Affordable prices for middle income or non-working customers (students). With 2 major segments targeted, pricing have to be set accordingly, suiting customer’s need. Moreover, customers are charges at per room (not per pax), this allows customers to bring more friends. * Products and/or (Services) – High-end service, well-trained staffs and well equip facilities (includes internet, pool table, board games, DVD player and Playstation 3. Exclusive service provided for corporate / private functions. Staffs are well-trained and experience in KTV related services. Party World KTV goes the extra mile to make customers feel more relax with available gaming electronics and free snacks and drinks (for members only). * Promotions – Wide variety of promotions for the targeted segments. Promotional tools currently used by Party World to attract and retain customers are as followed. Before any promotional steps are taken, there must first be a retention strategy to retain current customers before attracting new potential customers. Membership is one way of retaining and attracting customers. Members enjoy lifetime member privileges, moreover, given a birthday voucher on the birthday month. Points redemption / accumulation entitles members to be rewarded for every dollar they spent. Points are redeemable for food and beverages, longer usage of facilities and special gifts. With points redemption, customers are more enticed to spend more and remain loyal to Party World KTV than switching to others. (Spend in Party World and get rewarded!) A singing contest is held monthly to promote singing. It is considered as a friendly and leisure contest to promote singing. Most of the participants are students eagerly waiting for their chance to sing on stage. Thus, this promotional tool is appropriate in attracting the student amateur singers. â€Å"Happy Hour Promotion† applicable from Mondays to Fridays (2pm – 7pm), customers are given a special rate which includes free snacks and non-alcohol drinks. Members are able to enjoy an additional 10% discount. â€Å"3 bottles package† Customers are able to choose any 3 bottles of alcohol with free 6 bottles of mixers at only $598. Nevertheless, the promotions are insufficient to attract customers. We recommend for an â€Å"Epic Theme Nights† which covers from Monday to Thursdays and Sunday where Party World KTV has least customers. Selling points: Now you can even produce and design your own MTV album (with your own vocals and video) with Party World KTV's professional studio and recording system! find their favorite croons and save favorite songs in a playlist for easy retrieval on the next visit. All you have to do is to register through the KTV system using your mobile number as login ID and start saving your favorite KTV songs in your playlist! Your comfort and pleasure is met with our spacious rooms which are lined with comfortable leather seats and massage chairs and in-room foot massage machines. Message: For wannabe Singapore Idols, Party World is the obvious place to hone your singing skills. Affordable room rentals and a hefty bilingual song catalogue should ensure hours of crooning entertainment, not to mention various discounts available to NTUC cardholders. With 11 branches spread across the island, Party World has become quite a karaoke institution.

The Sandlot Social Skills Lesson Plan