Public sector governance and service delivery in Nigeria: Issues and challenges

This paper explore the propensity of the Nigerian public service to adequately manage public affairs. The paper focus on the significance of public service delivery to the citizens in a manner that will enhance or improve service delivery to the generality of the masses, in a civilian administration in Nigeria. The paper uncovered that government reform introduced to improve service delivery have not been yielding any positive result. Why this persistence failure is as a result of reform of public service delivery called SERVICOM to achieve its objectives. This is can be traceable to lack of political will on the part of government and the governed. Therefore, limiting its operations. The paper advocate that SERVICOM should gained a wide publicity, proper coordination, given it a “legal backing” to make it efficient and effective

The challenges of implementing civil service delivery reforms in Nigeria

The need to explore the activities of the Civil Service Reform in Nigeria is imperative because management and provision of services to citizens are through the public services. Thus, this research set out to explore the challenges faced by the civil services in Nigeria and find solutions to the critical situation. Due to this, the federal government of Nigeria initiated several reforms aimed at repositioning civil service in the country. Nevertheless, the reforms are still inefficient, and past remedies by reforms committees had little effects. Therefore, the study explores the challenges of the civil service reforms through in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions. These methods was used to triangulate the data through the NVivo 10 Qualitative analysis software to analyze the transcribed data thematically. The study discovers that civil service quality delivery has deteriorated while the series of reforms carried out have not improved civil service delivery. The findings reveal that previous reforms were not fully implemented and the failures was due to the lack of continuity in the policies, diversion of public funds, poor assessment of the needs of manpower and so on. The study was situated within the framework of the Bureaucratic Theory, the Theory of Public Choice, and the System Theory. The research discovered and concluded that the continuous failures of the civil service to meet quality services can be traced through the level of satisfaction, sincerity and so on. Hence, the study has contributed to the management of the civil service reform in Nigeria. It will be beneficial to the civil service in the area of development and service delivery outcomes at all levels of governance as well as the parastatals. Most importantly, it will be useful for the immediate repositioning of the civil service to enable a sustained good service delivery. Based on the findings, the study suggests that due to the lack of attention at the state and local civil service, future studies should focus on these respective areas

Addressing Postnatal Challenges: Effective Strategies for Postnatal Care

Delivery of the placenta marks the end of pregnancy and the beginning of puerperium. Puerperium or postnatal period is a period of transition, it is the extended period between the completion of the third stage of delivery till 42 days (6 weeks) after childbirth. It is a critical time requiring the most attention on the mother, baby, and family members. Many mothers experience near-miss events and maternal and infant deaths occur during this time. However, it is a most overlooked period. Mothers experience numerous changes which include physiological, psychological economic and sociological changes and without the necessary knowledge and support could affect their ability to care for the newborn and themselves. Challenges mothers experience include the decision to breastfeed and care for the baby, medical conditions associated with pregnancy and puerperium, postpartum hemorrhage, preeclampsia, increased cesarean section rate and complications and high delivery cost. International health bodies have recommendations for postnatal care, this chapter will focus on strategies the mothers and care providers can adopt to overcome postnatal challenges

Increasing Cardiac Myosin Super-Relaxation With Decreasing Metabolic Demand

I schemic heart disease often leads to heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and to a puzzling condition termed hibernating myocardium, where the left ventricle is dysfunctional but still viable.1 Strikingly, the hibernating myocardium experiences a change in its metabolism and a remodeling of its energy supply.2 This undoubtedly underlies the involvement of mechanisms generating ATP. Six kilograms of ATP are hydrolyzed every day by the human heart. The major cardiac energy-demanding cycles include the sarcoendoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPases (to pump free Ca2+ back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum) and myosin ATPases. Hence, in the present study, we aimed to verify the hypothesis that, as a consequence of hypoperfusion, the hibernating myocardium has myosin-related ATPconsuming cycles being partially shut down via accrued myosin biochemical super- relaxation. For that, following Animal Research Committee approvals, left ventricle samples were obtained from control Yucatan minipigs (N=7) and animals undergoing a surgical casein ameroid implant around the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery, inducing a reduced ejection fraction (<50%) and hibernating myocardium (N=7).2 Samples from animals with a previously described phenotype2 were then dissected into thin bundles and membrane-permeabilized. Thin cardiac strips (≈50-μm wide) were isolated and we applied a loaded Mant-ATP chase assay (7–8 strips per animal per condition).3 In line with a previous study in patients with heart failure,3 at short sarcomere length of 2.0μm, we observed a significantly higher proportion of super-relaxed (SRX) myosins in the hibernating myocardia than in controls (Figure A). When cardiac strips were stretched to a sarcomere length of 2.3μm, mimicking diastolic events, we found no difference in the percentage of SRX myosins between conditions (Figure B). Interestingly, when we exposed cardiac strips to 1μmol/L Mavacamten, known to be a potent myosin ATPase inhibitor and activator of myosin super-relaxation, the difference was abolished (Figure C). Similarly, when cardiac strips were incubated with 10μmol/L EMD57033, known to be a motor activator and myosin super-relaxation inhibitor, no difference was seen (Figure D). Taken together, as initially hypothesized, our data confirm that myosinrelated ATP-consuming cycles are partially shut down in the hibernating myocardium by enhancing the number of cardiac myosins blocked in the ATP-conserving SRX. To further determine whether the results relate to myosin structural auto-inhibited state (=electrostatic interactions between myosin head and coiled-coil region), we repeated the loaded Mant-ATP chase experiments at various ionic strengths by gradually increasing the KCl concentration from 25 to 150mmol/L. In controls, the proportion of SRX myosins decreased with increasing ionic strength whereas in hibernating myocardia, the ionic strength dependence was less pronounced (Figure E). These results then strongly indicate that the promotion of myosin super-relaxation in the hibernating myocardium is paired with an accrued structural myosin auto-inhibited/stabilized state. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. heart ■ hibernating myocardium ■ metabolism ■ minipig ■ myosin ■ reindeerpublishedVersio

Current and future therapeutic approaches to the congenital myopathies

The congenital myopathies − including Central Core Disease (CCD), Multi-minicore Disease (MmD), Centronuclear Myopathy (CNM), Nemaline Myopathy (NM) and Congenital Fibre Type Disproportion (CFTD) − are a genetically heterogeneous group of early-onset neuromuscular conditions characterized by distinct histopathological features, and associated with a substantial individual and societal disease burden. Appropriate supportive management has substantially improved patient morbidity and mortality but there is currently no cure. Recent years have seen an exponential increase in the genetic and molecular understanding of these conditions, leading to the identification of underlying defects in proteins involved in calcium homeostasis and excitation-contraction coupling, thick/thin filament assembly and function, redox regulation, membrane trafficking and/or autophagic pathways. Based on these findings, specific therapies are currently being developed, or are already approaching the clinical trial stage. Despite undeniable progress, therapy development faces considerable challenges, considering the rarity and diversity of specific conditions, and the size and complexity of some of the genes and proteins involved. The present review will summarize the key genetic, histopathological and clinical features of specific congenital myopathies, and outline therapies already available or currently being developed in the context of known pathogenic mechanisms. The relevance of newly discovered molecular mechanisms and novel gene editing strategies for future therapy development will be discussed

The bone morphogenetic protein axis is a positive regulator of skeletal muscle mass

Although the canonical transforming growth factor &beta; signaling pathway represses skeletal muscle growth and promotes muscle wasting, a role in muscle for the parallel bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway has not been defined. We report, for the first time, that the BMP pathway is a positive regulator of muscle mass. Increasing the expression of BMP7 or the activity of BMP receptors in muscles induced hypertrophy that was dependent on Smad1/5-mediated activation of mTOR signaling. In agreement, we observed that BMP signaling is augmented in models of muscle growth. Importantly, stimulation of BMP signaling is essential for conservation of muscle mass after disruption of the neuromuscular junction. Inhibiting the phosphorylation of Smad1/5 exacerbated denervation-induced muscle atrophy via an HDAC4-myogenin&ndash;dependent process, whereas increased BMP&ndash;Smad1/5 activity protected muscles from denervation-induced wasting. Our studies highlight a novel role for the BMP signaling pathway in promoting muscle growth and inhibiting muscle wasting, which may have significant implications for the development of therapeutics for neuromuscular disorders

Tropomodulin 1 directly controls thin filament length in both wild-type and tropomodulin 4-deficient skeletal muscle

The sarcomeric tropomodulin (Tmod) isoforms Tmod1 and Tmod4 cap thin filament pointed ends and functionally interact with the leiomodin (Lmod) isoforms Lmod2 and Lmod3 to control myofibril organization, thin filament lengths, and actomyosin crossbridge formation in skeletal muscle fibers. Here, we show that Tmod4 is more abundant than Tmod1 at both the transcript and protein level in a variety of muscle types, but the relative abundances of sarcomeric Tmods are muscle specific.We then generate Tmod4−/− mice, which exhibit normal thin filament lengths, myofibril organization, and skeletal muscle contractile function owing to compensatory upregulation of Tmod1, together with an Lmod isoform switch wherein Lmod3 is downregulated and Lmod2 is upregulated. However, RNAi depletion of Tmod1 from either wild-type or Tmod4−/− muscle fibers leads to thin filament elongation by ∼15%. Thus, Tmod1 per se, rather than total sarcomeric Tmod levels, controls thin filament lengths in mouse skeletal muscle, whereas Tmod4 appears to be dispensable for thin filament length regulation. These findings identify Tmod1 as the key direct regulator of thin filament length in skeletal muscle, in both adult muscle homeostasis and in developmentally compensated contexts.</p

Effect of Ad-hoc Staff Training on Election Outcomes in Kano State, Nigeria

The study titled “Effect of Ad-hoc Staff Training and Development on Election Outcomes in Kano State, Nigeria”, a quantitative survey research design was adopted. Data collection was done through the administration of structured questionnaires to the population of 300 ad-hoc staff in Kano state. The use of secondary sources includes reports from INEC on its past elections as well as guidelines on the ad-hoc staff training). The data collected were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics which include the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study have shown that training on technological skills have great impact on the efficiency of Election Day activities, with a p-value of 0.000. On the other hand, the duration of training as an independent variable did not affect the efficiency and accuracy of electoral activities, with a p-value of 0.127. Pre-election training content as an independent variable was found to be statistically significant on the accuracy of electoral outcomes, with a p-value of 0.000. the study concludes that when ad-hoc staffs are well trained, the election delivered are more credible, even with more realistic voter-turnout and vote counts. Consequently, it was recommended that training for ad-hoc staffs should be extensive and effective. INEC should ensure training on technological expertise as well as the pre-election training on the conduct and ethics of electoral processes. Also, periodic training should be carried out as part of the refresher courses aimed at ensuring staff competence and updates on innovations in the electoral process. Keyword: Ad-hoc Staff Training, Election Outcomes, election technological skills and duration of trainin

Solution approach to civil service reforms challenges for effective service delivery in Nigeria

The service delivery in Nigeria has remained a challenged while the erstwhile causes identified and solutions offered in the past have not really helped in the containment. Therefore, there is a need for a new approach to investigate the series of reforms that have been introduced by successive government. Centered on the research question set forth for this paper, sixteen informants who oversee the affairs of ministries and staff matters across different sphere of work force in Nigeria were probed about their perceptions on the possible solutions to the moribund reforms in civil service and service delivery in Nigeria. The sampling design was based on purposive method while Thematic data analysis technique was used to analyze the interviews data. However, qualitative computer data analysis software (NVIVO 10) was used to facilitate the process of storing, sorting, coding, analyzing and preparation of representation of the data. Arising from this, the paper established the nexus of solutions in relation to restructuring that requires creating enabling environment, carrying out employment by merit and federal character, introduction of comprehensive staff welfare and purging of corruption in the civil service. Similarly, as part of attempt to find answers to these challenges it was discovered that regular re-training of civil servants, improvement in the management of information and feedback to, the need for continuity of policy implementation and Prompt Response to public Complaints. Meanwhile, this study’s findings have significantly contributed to the understanding of the spiral of the challenges of the civil service reform through the solutions advanced by this study. These are imperative because identification of solutions could create efficient strategies for governments and lessons for civil servants