Public Enterprises and the Challenges of Nation Building in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The main objective of the study is to examine Public enterprises and the challenges of nation building in Nigeria. The specific objectives are:
- To ascertain the role of public enterprises in improving the Nation building in Nigeria
- To determine the nature of the relationship between Public enterprises and Nation building
- To ascertain challenges encounter by public enterprises in contributing to nation building
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Framework
Concept of Public Enterprises
According to Nwoye (2011), a Public Enterprise is viewed as an artificial person, who is authorized by law to carry on particular activities and functions. It essentially has the features of several individuals who act as one. It is described as a corporate body created by the legislature with defined powers and functions and independently having a clear-cut jurisdiction over a specified area of a particular type of commercial activity. It is a part of government apparatus and three implications are hereby highlighted: Public Enterprise, by virtue of its intricate relationship with government, is an instrument of public policy and its primary mission is in connection with governmental objectives and programmes. It is therefore, naturally under government control. Secondly, a Public Enterprise by its nature mostly manages public resources, especially public money and this means that attention must be paid to mechanisms for enforcing accountability. Thirdly, the combination of financial and economic objectives with social and political arms invariably makes it difficult to devise appropriate performance measurement instrument.
The definitions of Public Enterprise can vary between countries and can also change over time. The first United Nations (1968) definition of Public Enterprises is thus: industrial, agricultural and commercial concerns, which are owned and controlled by central government (in a Unitary State) or the central government and regional that is set up as a corporate body and as part of the governmental apparatus for entrepreneurial or entrepreneur-like objectives. The United Nations (1971) added to that: Public Enterprise is ‘an incorporated or large unincorporated enterprise in which public authorities hold majority of the shares and/or can exercise control over management decisions’. Some of the problems with this approach are reviewed in the following three classifications. A loose definition of a Public Enterprise might be ‘an enterprise which is controlled by the government’. However, such a definition raises problems of interpretation in specific cases; for example, how can we be sure that the government ‘controls’ a particular firm? It is the essence of our entire approach to see government-industry relationships where one party can rarely be said to ‘control’ the other in a mechanical way. Does ‘the government’ mean just the central government or does it include local governments? For example, statistical information from some countries excludes enterprises run by local governments (Nwoye, 2011). The legal right to appoint and dismiss directors and the right to receive the profits from the operations of an enterprise are important factors, which can be used to establish a definition of Public Enterprise.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to examine the Public enterprises and the challenges of nation building in Nigeria. Nigeria Television Authority (N.T.A) Awka, Anambra State forms the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of Ninty-five (95) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which 80 were returned. The analysis of this study is based on the number returned.
Table depicts that 14 (18.9%) of the respondents fell within the age limit of 12-30 years, 12 (14.2%) where within the age range of 31-40 years, 30 (35.5%) fell within the age of 41-50, 14 (19.2%) fell within the age range of 51-60 while 10 (12.2%) where within the age range of 61 years and above.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on public enterprises and the challenges of nation building in Nigeria. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
Summary of the Study
In this study, our focus was on the public enterprises and the challenges of nation building in Nigeria, Nigeria Television Authority (N.T.A) Awka, Anambra State. The study is was specifically focused on ascertaining the role of public enterprises in improving the Nation building in Nigeria, determining the nature of the relationship between Public enterprises and Nation building and ascertaining the challenges encounter by public enterprises in contributing to nation building.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 80 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are staff of Nigeria Television Authority (N.T.A) Awka, Anambra State.
Conclusions
With respect to the analysis and the findings of this study, the following conclusions emerged;
The study concluded that the public sector is set up with the main aim of protecting the public interest. Public enterprises are major players in economic development, many public enterprises also suffered from technological shortcomings imported through foreign aid or soft loans from abroad. Many of the public enterprises were either equipped with low or second-grade machinery contributing to low capital output Ratio or were established without due regard to their economic and financial sustainability.
Recommendation
Based on the findings of this study and the conclusions drawn therefrom, the following recommendations were made.
- a) There is the need to implement with seriousness, the reforms of public enterprises through Public Private Partnership.
- There is a need to formulate a comprehensive National implementation framework for Public-Private Partnership in a timely, transparent and proactive manner.
- The government should sensitize the mind of their citizens to understand that public enterprises are a tool for national development, if managed well, they will create job and improve standards of living.
- That politicization of the policies in Nigeria has been identified as the core of the problems of Nigeria and that same also applied to the Nigerian Public Enterprises and as such if depoliticized will also ensure efficiency and better performance of the public enterprises.
- The demands for high quality management of Public Enterprises have become too complex to be understood without prior planning and analysis. Government should discard the idea of planning for, funding and management of these enterprises and allow them to run as socio-economic services and be so accountable.
- Appropriate accounting, legal regulatory infrastructure must be provided for the new crop of managers with different functional expertise to exploit and develop. This implies that the role of the manager is not that of a chief of defence but institutional leadership.
- Management must always be sensitive to a wide range of popular orientation and expectation and adopt organizational circumstances accordingly. However, the government could help by ensuring conducive investment and ethical climate for socio-economic development.
- Government needs to be elastic in its thinking and not constrained to its search for alternatives within the western scope or World Bank at the expense of the developing economy.
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