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Despite the efforts of organizations to improve safety performance, shortfalls of the strategies have been reported in numerous studies around the globe. However, previous studies in countries with more organized construction sectors show that adopting a resilient safety culture by organizations has a tendency of improving safety performance. As safety culture is dynamic which differs with geographical context, the purpose of this paper is to achieve two objectives: testing the causal relationship between safety performance and resilience safety culture in the Nigerian construction environment; and determining the key components for ensuring the resilience of construction organizations with regards to safety.

Quantitative research approach was used. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. The population of the study comprises small and medium construction organizations predominantly across the Northern region in the Nigerian built environment. A total of 180 questionnaires were distributed to construction managers and safety managers in respective organizations to serve as respondents to the study. Partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the relationship between safety performance and resilience safety culture. While principal component analysis was used determining the key components for ensuring the resilience of construction organizations with regards to safety.

Findings of this study revealed that resilient safety culture has a significantly strong positive relationship with safety performance. Safety hazard recognition and effective safety response attitude were identified as the key components for guaranteeing a resilient safety culture.

With a view to achieve a consistently high safety performance, organizations have to acknowledge and anticipate unexpected hazardous events and provide the necessary safety resources to manage them. Furthermore, there is also the need to create awareness on recognized safety concerns on safety hazards, coupled with a dynamic risk response attitude to ensure consistent improvement in safety performance.

This study presents an alternative to the slow and reactive safety culture of the Nigerian built environment. This study builds on existing literature, and the findings explore the potential impact of adopting a resilient safety culture in construction organizations in Nigeria. This study provided further insights into key factors organizations need to focus on to ensure resilient nature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study in this regard was conducted in Nigeria despite its apparent need.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the question: “Is Boko Haram (BH) a ‘child’ of economic circumstances”? In other words, do economic problems of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and population growth lie at the root of BH insurgency in Nigeria? Finding (an) objective answer(s) to this question informs the purpose for this paper.

The author uses both ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and descriptive statistics to provide answer(s) to the question(s) asked.

The OLS regressions result show that terrorism incidence and intensity (TII) and unemployment levels are positively related and statistically significant over the range of the sample. Gross domestic product and population growth of the country on the other hand have been found to be statistically insignificant with TII. The results from the descriptive statistics show a high and above average Northern Nigeria’s economic indexes of poverty, unemployment, population growth and illiteracy rates. Thus, the author deduces that economic factors of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and unchecked population growth could not be ruled out as possible causes of BH terrorism.

The findings of this research may be peculiar, limited and applicable only to the region of research – Northern Nigeria. The author is, therefore, constrained to generalise the findings across countries or other terrorist organisations. Also, while terrorists often quote religious texts to justify their actions, researchers often find it difficult to establish the veracity of such claims because: religious texts are, more often than not, subjects of different, contextual, sectarian and scholarly interpretations and If we take the terrorists’ claim for religious inspiration at their face value, the contradiction of why terrorists represent a minority fringe in particular religions or, why the vast majority of those who share same religion with terrorists do not partake in terrorism, crops up. For these reasons, this research is constrained from exploring terrorists’ religious motivations.

An implication of the findings of this research is that it avails the Nigerian Government with fact that, to fight BH successfully, it needs to also address the issues of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and uncontrolled population growth. Thus, in essence, the anti-BH campaign should not only be limited to the “sticks” but the “carrots” of poverty alleviation, unemployment reduction, raising literacy rates and awareness about controlling birthrate.

Social welfare programs are likely to be devised to tackle the issues raised.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no research explored the possibility of whether or not economic factors of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy could have been the causes or contributory factors for the emergence of BH terrorist organisation in Nigeria. Research on BH mostly focusses on social and political dimensions leaving the economic aspect either superficially explained or completely unexplored. The originality of this paper derives from this.

Despite the contributions of both the oil and gas and construction industries to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, both industries are still marred by incessant accidents. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the health and safety practises of the construction and oil and gas industries in Nigeria in order to suggest the best approach to health and safety practices.

A survey questionnaire was developed and administered to professionals working in the construction and oil and gas industries. Data were analysed using the relative importance index (RII). An independent sample t-test was also conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the construction and oil and gas industries.

The study revealed that the rate at which health and safety are practised in the oil and gas industry is comparatively high compared to how they are practised in the construction industry. Proper site layout and planning, provision of a safe working environment, proper health and safety risk assessment were more predominantly practised in the oil and gas industry, while proper site layout and planning, disallowing unauthorised entry into site and the provision of a safe working environment were predominantly practised in the construction industry.

This study is the first to compare the health and safety practises of the construction and oil and gas industries in Nigeria. This study was significant because it would provide insight into construction and oil and gas managers, as well as other decision-makers in both industries, on how to improve health and safety practices.