DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO
NIGERIA
RESEARCH PRESENTATION
ON
TRADE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
BY
UNDERGRADUATE FINAL YEAR STUDENTS 2014
SUPERVISED
BY
M. M.YUSIF
Introduction
Social
Science research is a social criticism. As such any which is not a criticism is
a dead research which is not worth reading.
Here
is presentation of undergraduate Research Reports which are critical assessment
of the issues at two levels:
1.
Reformulation and
criticisms of the existing literature to explain a research problem
2.
Second, is a simple
effort to collect primary data through a survey research to find an answer to
some questions
In
this academic year (2013/2014) I selected an area for research by my students
on “Trade, Environment and Development.
Understanding
the environment, especially as we see it in term of interactions between nature
and human activities deserve studying the earth from its core to its
atmosphere, including its climate, forests, population, etc and examining the
social and economic dimensions of its development and sustainability e.g.
Agriculture, industry, etc
This
indeed requires such study from many subjects and with a multidisciplinary
approach that combines an in-depth analysis of biological, geographical, physical
and chemical processes, together with social sciences to understand the
dynamics of its development and modify society’s responses to its changes
naturally and globally.
I
believe that only by integrating the perspectives of many diverse fields can we
begin to address the enormous complexities of global environmental problems in
the twenty-first century.
Subject
perspectives for understanding environment include physics, geology, geography,
history, economics, political sciences, biotechnology, remote sensing,
geophysics, soil sciences and hydrology, etc
These
diverse sciences searching for explanations of different aspects of environment
gives political sciences a great advantage. To borrow the phrase of Spiro, who
said political science is a “Master Science”, it fits into this search of
scientific knowledge with greater advantage because political science adopts
from all sciences, theories and methods and turn them to become its own.
Secondly, political science is a fragmentary science, so it becomes political
sciences which is capable of snatching any field to become its own. Thirdly, in
order to avoid the conflict which this trend of the science show, across the
globe it is called “politics” instead of the original political science.
I
have gone briefly into this analysis to convince sceptics who would say that
environmental study in political science is wrong. It looks that the general
theme of the projects i.e. “Trade, Environment and Development” and the
analysis that came out from the studies reveal social and economic development
of both developing and developed countries.
|
S/N
|
NAME
& REG. NUMBER
|
TITLE
OF PROJECT
|
BRIEF
ON THE PROJECT
|
GRADE
|
|
1
|
Mustapha Ibrahim SMS/09/POL/00676
|
Effects of Environmental measures on
market Access for Developing Countries
|
Inspite of free economic environment some countries still
use protectionist measures to protect their economies which in turn weaken
the economies of the developing countries
|
|
|
2
|
Uchechukwu Iheanacho Ibekalam SMS/09/POL/00669
|
Trade Liberalisation and Environmental
Protectionism
|
Liberalisation of trade encourage
overuse of available resources thereby causing environmental degradation
|
|
|
3
|
Abubakar Ali Tofa SMS/10/POL/01286
|
The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on
Environmental Services
|
Trade Liberalisation intensifies
growth of the Services Sector especially the Utilisation of Environmental
Services
|
|
|
4
|
Rabiu Shamma SMS/09/POL/00726
|
Organic Agriculture, Trade and
sustainable development
|
Organic Agriculture is capable of
creating food security and boost sustainable Agriculture in Nigeria
|
|
|
5
|
Nura Bello SMS/10/POL/01175
|
Impact of Agricultural policy and
practices on trade and the Environment in Nigeria
|
An Overview of how Agriculture affects
or changes on the Environment in Nigeria
|
|
|
6
|
Joseph Manga SMS/09/POL/00784
|
Agriculture and Environment: A case of
Ganye LGA Adamawa State
|
Support to small farmers increase
harvests and food security
|
|
|
7
|
Garba Shuaibu Babaita SMS/09/POL/00658
|
The impact of Trade in Chemical
Fertilizers in Agriculture
|
The implication of fertiliser to
yields and to soil
|
|
|
8
|
Nasiru Aliyu SMS/09/POL/00646
|
Trade and Deforestation: A case of Nigeria
|
Trade liberalisation increase
deforestation in Nigeria
|
|
|
9
|
Bashir Danjuma SMS/09/POL/00771
|
Economic and Environmental impact of
deforestation: A case of Dawakin Tofa – Kano
|
An Assessment of deforestation on the
economy and environment of Dawakin Tofa – Kano
|
|
|
10
|
Junaidu Mohammed SMS/10/POL/01244
|
Trade and Environment: Implications of
Electronics Equipment to Development
|
An assessment of the negative impact
of E-waste on health
|
|
|
11
|
Khalifa A.B. Mohammed SMS/09/POL/00802
|
Electronic Communication: Development
and the Environment
|
Electronics communication enhances
environmental development
|
|
|
12
|
Mubarak Aminu SMS/09/POL/00764
|
Environmental Governance and Economic
Development
|
The relationship between Environment
and Economic Development is reciprocal
|
|
|
13
|
Muhammad Dauda Aliyu SMS/10/POL/01162
|
The Triangle of Trade energy and
Environment: Politics and Policies in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
|
Oil exploration in Niger Delta Area of
Nigeria causes economic development while at the same time resulted in
Environmental degradation
|
|
|
14
|
Maryam Aliyu Rufai SMS/10/POL/01259
|
The Policy and Practice of the WTO on
Trade and Environment
|
The relationship between trade and environment
causes damages to the latter
|
|
|
15
|
Muntasir Kabir Sani SMS/10/POL/01266
|
Trade and Environment: Relation of
conflict under WTO
|
Relations between trade and
Environment leads to conflict between them which called management under WTO
regime
|
|
|
16
|
Iman Sani SMS/09/POL/00678
|
Environmental effect of Population
growth to sustainable development: A case of Funtua - Nigeria
|
Low density Population better
Environment and vice-versa
|
|
|
17
|
Sadiq Ibrahim Ayuba SMS/09/POL/00648
|
Environmental Services and Development
in Nigeria : A case of water and waste management
|
The management of Environmental
services in Nigeria is not adequate and their privatisation affects the
capacity of the sector
|
|
|
18
|
Musa Ahmad Muazu SMS/10/POL/01249
|
Impact of Trade on Health and the Environment
|
Trade between countries transmits
diseases from one part of the world to another
|
|
|
19
|
Ibfrahim Aisar Mukhtar SMS/09/POL/00767
|
Environmental Hazard by local
industries: A case study of Sharada Industrial Area
|
Industries of Sharada industrial area
resulted in environmental hazards in Kano
|
|
|
20
|
Anas Abdulmumin Usman SMS/09/POL/00742
|
Radicalism in the politics of
Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi and his contribution to Democracy
|
Radicalism and Democracy under Rimi
regime in Kano brought social justice
|
|
Specifically,
as we could see from the above table, there are many changes to the
environment, as a result of increased liberalisation of trade. These changes
are normally disastrous to lives of human being.
However,
global organisations, such as the WTO, UN and even regional groups are trying
to manage the development with minimal dangers to human lives.
Methodological Observations
The
traditional social science research method originally became very common in
sociological and anthropology studies, but with development of American
political science in the early twentieth century was adopted by political
science method, and inspite of new political science in some research and
educational institutions it remains the dominant approach.
The
orientation of many young researchers, in all levels of research is that
primary data comes through a survey research, whether it is relevant or not. As
if there are no other options or are not capable of going beyond the survey
method.
However,
very few of these students used the survey research which I feel must be
combined with another method in order to overcome the problem of generalisation
from what few people said. It looks they are not equipped methodologically to
be able to do that.
Thus,
most of the students employ the method of “Secondary Analysis”. This method is
of re-interpretation and making analysis of the available literature to explain
the research question and the hypothesis formulated.
In
this too, one can observe many methodological difficulties confronting the young
researchers. One is that they become overwhelmed by the existing literature on
subject of their work online. This affects the management of the resources
available to them and sometimes access readymade kind of analysis they want to
make. Here comes the second difficulty which is in many cases the inability of
researchers to make an independent criticism and contribution to knowledge.
Indeed,
the internet system has its own problems as it has advantages. The point
however, is to control these problems so that we continue to make maximum use
of it.
M.M. Yusuf
2013/2014 Academic Session
13/06/2014
