Investigation into Project Abandonment and Implications in Public Universities in North-East, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated project abandonment and implication in North-East Public Universities in Nigeria. Research design was adopted for the study which was carried out in North East geo-political zone, Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and one hypothesis were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. From a population of 8764 staff in the 12 public universities in North East, a sample of 90 staff were involved in the study. This was drawn from 12 out public universities in the zone using multistage sampling procedure. One instruments namely Factors Responsible for Project Abandonment Questionnaire (FRPAQ). The internal consistency of the instruments was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha and this yielded reliability coefficients of 0.8 for (FRPAQ). Mean and standard deviation and Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were used to answered research questions and test the hypothesis. The study revealed that project poor funding, insecurity challenges, political instability, fall in national revenue, poor monitoring and evaluation, poor project planning, inflation, corruption and incompetent Contractors are the factors responsible for projects abandonment in Public Universities in North-East, Nigeria. The result also indicated that the implication of project abandonment public universities in North East includes; encouragement of cults hideout and activities, contribution to shortage of facilities, increment in completion cost of the project, wastage of resources and delay in universities development. The result also showed that there is a significant relationship between projects abandonment and some public Universities in North-East, Nigeria.  Based on these problems identified, the paper hereby recommended the following: the government should increase the funding of public universities and school administrators should ensure the funds are released to the contractors as at when due. The government should direct all anti-corruption agencies to monitor all funds released for capital projects in public universities. The government should prioritize capital projects in universities in case of fall in national revenue, government should provide adequate security in all public universities to guarantee safety of lives and properties.