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Political Discourse Analyzing the famous I have a dream,

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Political Discourse Analyzing

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Political Discourse Analyzing

Cohesion

Introduction

The famous “I have a dream,” speech electrified America in 1963, when it was delivered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The main message in the speech was that all people were created equal, which was not the case in America’s political dispensations at that time. I have a dream comes alot to the minds of many people as a struggle for freedom, of the black African race in America (Hutcheon, 2000)

Cohesion in a political discourse finds words with related meanings, and identifying connections between words in a text. I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King is one of the speeches that have stayed popular for a long time in the whole world. Taking an excerpt from the speech, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood”. The connection is evident that sons in either case are son which is the bottom line.

According to Goddard, (1998), and Hutcheon, (2000), stylistically the speech is a political treatise, or a work of poetry delivered masterfully like an improvised sermon. Former slave owners and former slaves are both able to bear sons and become like brothers. This connection that former slave owners and former slaves are supposed to be like brothers. But Martin Luther King could see this in a dream that would come true (Morris, &, Hirst, 1991; Halliday, 1985).

The bursting biblical language and imagery used especially in the first parts of the speech portrays a picture of seething American nightmare of racial segregation against the blacks. The former slave owners are the whites and the former slaves are the blacks. His use of the phrase, “now is the time”. For example, now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand’s of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. This reflects the need for urgency in realizing the dream. It calls for action, and it is the kind of urgency seen in America today, of it has to happen now. This implies that now is the task that is given the first priority (McCarthy, 1991).

A greater part of King’s approach was more visionary and eloquence to the non violent movement against black segregation in America. The second part of the speech deals with the dream in a fairer future of racial harmony and integration (Halliday, 1978; Todorova, 1999). The part of the speech that says; I say to you today, my friends, that inspire of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. The repetition of this phrase continually emphasizes in driving home Martin Luther King’s inspirational concepts.

Coherence

Coherence serves as a quick way to analyze the overall form rather than the content of an argument in a speech. The coherence through parallel structure was highly applied by Martin Luther King in his speech. The reader or listener can easily predict what King is about to say. Looking at the speech, it presents a powerful rhetorical effect of using parallel structure to create refrain. For example, I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. This sentence can easily be connected to the following: With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we be free one day. The linguistic features are powerful determinants of similarities and differences between registers. I have a dream today stretches cohesion to the inter clause, inter sentence and inter paragraph level.

The logical coordination and subordination of ideas is clear. The super ordinate is supplied from the title “The American Dream”. All the words, paragraphs, and sentences make a comment either directly or indirectly about this title, and are thus subordinate to it. All the first six sentences allure directly to the title by relating some aspects of King’s dream for America. This illustrates a superb and logical subordination to the title, and coordination with one another. This coordination is shown clearly by grammatical parallelism of the sentences. “This is the faith” is also subordination to the entire sentence that begins with “I have a dream” but coordinates with “This is our hope”. The rhetorical synonym that substitutes faith for hope is a reiterated idea.

In addition to pronoun references, synonyms, and repeated words, parallelism is an important means of creating coherence. It provides the reader or listener with the cue of the way things are going in the speech. Martin Luther is able to create a link between sentences and enhance the coherence of paragraphs. One can follow the movement of King’s mind over the American Dream with a clear understanding and gist of the text.

Rhetoric

The speech clearly enchants the soul; this is very remarkable emotion in both sound and power. The mood of the day gave a sense of perpetual slavery among the blacks, and a sense of guilt in the midst of the whites. This is well shown by the phrase: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, We are free at last! The linguistic order came out as a fervent emotional sermon. I have a dream can be claimed to be a rhetorical masterpiece, given King’s magnetism and open sincererity that makes equal platforms come from the ruled to the ruler. In trying to discover particular cases of all available means of persuasion could be attributed to oratory skills that King had. This was both an art and talent used by King to bring a bridge between reason and imagination. Thus the discourse enlightens the understanding levels through imagination, passion, and influence.

Acceptability

The amazing rhetoric demanding racial justice and an integrated society became the core of the the black community. The speech was widely acceptable among the blacks; this was evident by the large crowd that gathered for the speech. This was familiar to subsequent generations of Americans as US declaration of independence. He carefully chose words that directly touched on the social and political upheavals of that time in America. He gave the American nation a word to describe what was happening. It was a kind of rhythmic, which came with hope and freedom.

Towards the end of the speech, he changed his act so as to drive the final message home. As much as his target audience for the speech was the United States government, and other stakeholders, His attention turned to black people. The African American people who had gathered at this venue, and those listening across the nation; he reminded them that there is need for perseverance, as freedom was coming. He reminded the whole nation that freedom is coming to all corners; as illustrated by his voice that displayed seriousness, urgency, and boldness equated to the quest for freedom (McCarthy, &, Carter, 1994; Pulverness, 2001; Reah, 1998).

Using critical discourse analysis in this speech demystifies anything apparent from the speeches. This tends to be associated to power, struggle, and politics. A critical analysis of the topic reveals that it was chosen after extensive research, and thorough thoughtfulness. I have a dream is ingrained in the whole speech, always emphasising the central theme of the message. The speech talked about what touched the hearts of Americans, both black and white. His phrase that said, to save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.

 It clearly touches both races as two sides of a mirror. This is further illustrated by the following: In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Education is vital to all the American citizens, just like the promissory note for equal access to peace. This is a model of effective communication and a powerful example of African American. The speech gave a vision of what a redeemed America may appear, with the hope that this redemption will come to pass one day. He dearly cemented this hope by saying that let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty (Cheung, 2001; Franklin, 1999).

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Informative

The speech really informed the American people of the plight of the segregated black people. It did not only inform the American, but the whole world, through many generations to date. The need for freedom and equality became so paramount that the dream was realized. Today Americans have a president who has black African origins. This is an example of the realization of the American dream of integration, and not segregation (Abla-Juez, 2009; Gee, 2005; McCarthy, 1991)

During the march to Washington for jobs and freedom, most people realized that the march was highly credited with helping to pass the civil rights act (1964), and the National Voting Rights act (1965). Because he wanted everyone, both blacks and whites to get along and be united against racism. When he said that, machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people; the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. He was clearly against the Vietnam War. 

Situationality

King must have read the bible, The Gettysburg address, and the US Declaration of Independence is connected to his speech. Given the socio-political situation, the speech could not have come a better time. King must have felt it must be a case of the future, he argued his point passionately and powerfully. The organisation of the speech takes care of all situations and times. Like when he talked about no time to engage in the luxury of cooling or to take the tranquilizing drug addiction of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

This illustrates that now is the time is very situational and a matter of urgency to open doors of opportunity to all God’s children. The speech took care of situations that both affected blacks and whites. Especially i n the part that he said; The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

The power that King used is comparable to Obama’s speech that is very current. The speech and therefore any situation befit the main message of the speech. King himself also gave the undertone that it was situational by asserting that he was happy to join with the congregation on that day in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of the American nation.

Inter-textuality

According to Morris & Hirst, (1991, pp.24-32), in seeking the truth, King really employed inter-textuality, because inter-textual references were put in a hybrid discourse. It appealed to different ethnic audiences. The speech was an ambitious, broad ranging statement that encompassed creativity. The enormous use of inter-textual references specifically defines other words such as allusion, influence, reference, and reformation. Like when the New Testament eludes readings from the Old Testament. ‘I have a dream’ you probably would be doing more than just quoting a small phrase from Dr. King. You would probably be attempting to pull in the wider context of his speech and the moment in history and perhaps even of the character of Dr. King, himself.

Register

I have a Dream was a seventeen minute speech, that was delivered to over 200000 civil rights supporters. It has been ranked the top American Speech of the 20th century. He educated, inspired, and informed many generations that came long after the speech was delivered. The register and ideology used in this political discourse were based on his ideology. It also gives a poetic register. The speech created transition of democracy, and separating the register of politics from the norm.

Bibliography

Martin L. and Coretta, K. (2007) I Have a Dream, Scholastic Inc., New York.

Abla-Juez, L. (2009) Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Gee, J. (2005) an introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. Second Edition New York, NY and London, UK: Routledge

McCarthy M. (1991) Discourse analysis for language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

Cheung, C. (2001) ‘The Use of Popular Culture as a Stimulus to Motivate Secondary Students’ English Learning in Hong Kong’, ELT Journal 55 (1): 55–61.

Franklin, P. (1999) Profession 1999, New York: Modern Language Association.

Goddard, A. (1998) the Language of Advertising: Written Texts, London and New York: Routledge.

Goddard, A. (1998) Hutcheon, L. (2000) ‘Blame Canada: Where Defence of the Humanities Makes the News’, MLA Newsletter 33 (3): 3–4.

Goddard, A. (1998) Hutcheon, L. (2000) McCarthy, M. (1991) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCarthy, M. and Carter, R. (1994) Language as Discourse: Perspectives for Language Teaching, Essex: Longman Group

Pulverness, A. (2001) ‘Content-Driven: Materials Design for Intercultural-Awareness’, Paper presented at IATEFL Conference, Brighton, England.

Reah, D. (1998) the Language of Newspapers, London and New York: Routledge.

Halliday, M. 1985 Introduction to Functional Grammar, London: Edward Arnold.

Todorova, R. (1999) ‘Teaching Intercultural Competence through Advertisements’, IATEFL Literature and Cultural Studies Special Interest Group Newsletter, 17: 27–30

Halliday, M.A.K. (1978). ‘Is Learning a Second Language like Learning a First Language all Over Again?’ Language Learning in Australian Society: Proceedings of the 1976 Congress of the Applied Linguistics Associations of Australia. Melbourne: Australian International Press & Publications. Pp.3-19.

Halliday, M. (1985) Introduction to Functional Grammar, London: Edward Arnold

Morris, J, and Hirst, G. (1991) `Lexical cohesion, the thesaurus, and the structure of text.” Computational linguistics, 17(1), 21–48

Political challenges facing America in the 19th century.

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Political challenges facing America in the 19th century.

In the 19th century, America was marked with a revolution of trade that changed the style of living of most of the people. New York City’s Hudson River was marked with the movement of goods and passengers in all directions. By the year 1830, the cost of ferrying goods across the canal reduced leading to the blossom of the city as a commercial center in the United States of America. The canal transport was faced by a stiff competition from private railroad companies that started the construction of railway lines giving people an alternative means of transport, which took over as the means of transport in the 1840. Expansion of transportation promoted the expansion of industries such as the textile and shoes industry which changed their mode of production and also their labor details.

The first problem that came with the industrialization was poor wages and over exploitation of the workers especially the women. The workers were paid only $2 to $3 for a whole week of about seventy hours, (311). The working environment was also very uncomfortable marked with hot and humid conditions and strict supervision that required each worker to abide by the rules. The workers lived in a communal type of shelters that were constantly under supervision. After a while the workers protested on the poor wages and poor living conditions.

1819 was marked by panic that was brought by the credit transactions that had become a way of trading in the city. This was brought about by an increase in the demand for goods and the high productivity brought by the international trade. There was a built up of debt relations that encouraged the taking of risks and the speculation of the future. Such risks could end up producing many victims in case of a business failure. This was followed by anxiety concerning the economic change, a factor that influenced the views of the Americans politically. The revolution in the market was followed by transformation in the political scene of America. At the beginning of the political transformation, few people were empowered to vote with the political scene marked by few participants, this however changed with the people getting more interested in political matters and getting involved in the choosing of the political leaders. The political transformation led to major changes in the trade and the economy at large of America. The then president of America, Jackson, felt that the growth in the economy favored some groups of people but left out others. He first got rid of the federal support that of grants and also transportation of the monopolies that gave rich investors privileges at the expense of other people. The president had the idea of favoring the settlers of America. He wanted a situation where ‘the land sales would spread economic democracy to settlers.’ A policy was established to remove Indians from the land a factor that could have ensued strife between America and India

Political scenario brought about the issue of favoritism with the leaders at the particular time choosing who they prefer over others. This brought the unequal distribution of the resources and the slowing down of the economic empowerment that had engulfed America. For example the president, Jackson preferred and advocated for white settlement with a vision of creating great opportunities to the whites at the expense of the other race of people that lived in America. This is a move that stimulated racism with some groups feeling superior to others. The relocation of the Indian tribes confirmed this notion and heightened racism. Such moves also led to an increase in the presidential powers a factor that is not conducive for any democratic country.

Work Cited

James L, Michael P, et al. The American promise. U.S.A. 2008. Print.

The effects mergers and acquisitions have on bank performances in Nigeria

Research Proposal

1. Title

The effects mergers and acquisitions have on bank performances in Nigeria

2. Background

Mergers and acquisitions could be seen as the buying, selling or companies coming together to become a single entity. It is an aspect of corporate finance that is regularly used as a strategy of promoting growth.

The global banking industry has passed through important development n a large scale. For the last one to two decades. Majority of banks have come together to form mergers and acquisitions. This has been a common occurrence in most country on an international scale. Financial consolidation was especially on a high gear in European countries and the US in the later days of 1990 causing a keen interest of researchers on mergers and acquisitions and more so in the banking industry. The prevalence of mergers and acquisitions has consequently resulted to deregulation of the global financial markets.

Other important contribution to the proliferation of mergers include globalization in as far as the real and the financial markets are concerned, the breakthroughs made in technological advancements in the recent past and the major strides that have been made in IT systems development most notably in e-commerce (Rezitis 2008).

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Charles Soludo, implemented a potent strategy of reform aimed at revolutionalizing and enhancing the financial industry in Nigeria. The enacted reforms allowed the majority of the small banks in this country up to the later days of 2005 to establish mergers with rgw larger institutions or face liquidation. This is an action that has contributed to a high proliferation of of mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector in Nigeria (Siddiqi 2005). Due to the occurrence of a reform exercise in the country, there has been a rapid rate of development in the banking industry in Nigeria that called for efficient supervision of the banking groups of significantly large sizes in comparison to the supervision of the congested banking industry which was a tradition of the past (2005). The banking reform has caused significant effects among the stakeholders, customers and the shareholders.

According to the study, some empirical tests have been applied on notable mergers and acquisitions that have been effected due to the reforms in the banking sector that have been enacted by CBN for the purpose of exploring possible effects in the banking industry in Nigeria. I intend to undertake this research as a result of my ardent interest in the field of corporate finance, with specific interests on mergers and acquisitions. I’ll like to understand how mergers and acquisitions can improve the efficiency and productivity (as well as measure the effects) of the organisations that employ them to serve the purpose of directional strategy. I also believe this will help in my future career as I look forward to getting a job in the financial service industry and excelling at it.

3. Preliminary Review of the Literature

The future of business institutions rests on growth and it is the responsibility of different organizations to determine the most appropriate strategy to be adopted to realize the intended growth. The findings of the researches so far conducted indicate that 50 % of the strategies that are adopted towards the achievement of growth are doomed to failure. Majority of the mergers and acquisitions that have been implemented have lost the shareholder value over time despite the insistence of firms to continuously put them in place. The common definition of mergers has been “creating a new organisation out of two or more organisations of more or less equal stature, pooling all resources”. Conversely, the definition that has been given to an acquisition is the “addition of a small firm to the structure of a larger organisation” (Emerald Group 2005).

Since the year 2005, at the time that the “United Bank for Africa Plc” (UBA) formed a merger with “Standard Trust Bank Plc” (STB) creating the biggest West African monetary service institution based on the size of the balance sheet (UBA Group 2007), majority of similar actions have been adopted in the banking industry in Nigeria. The anticipated gals have been complying with the specifications of CBN reforms or to retaliate against UBB. The intentions of CBN relates to the creation of a banking sector that is reliable, strong and diversified to an extent of actively contributing to the development of the economy of Nigeria along with transforming the banking sector in to a dynamic and competitive player in international banking scene. The laid down intentions are that minimum capitalization in banks shold fall in the range of N25 billion creating a difference of N23 billion as compared to the previous N2 billion mark. The deadline of compliance to the directive was set at before December 2005 (Okagbue and Aliko 2004).

Much research has been done previously on the potential impacts of mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry in European countries. According to the findings of a recent research, there is an indication of implications of similar strategies in European banks on the average mergers that have been undertaken resulting in improvements on the performance of banks. It as identified that when domestic banks are involved in mergers, the institutions that adopted the same strategies in consideration of cost, size, the terms of loan credit as well as earnings are easily and cheaply integrated as compared to others having dissimilar strategies (Altunbas and Marqués 2008).

Rezitis (2008) has documented that the Greek banks that adopted mergers and acquisitions in 1993 to 2004 experienced a considerable fall in as far as their technical efficiencies and productivity were concerned. Rezitis (2008) further postulates that his applicable analysis failed to account for all efficiency gains which might have accrued based on the adoption of mergers and acquisitions as a result of the time required for implementing them. The findings of Rezitis agree with the literature that is already available concerning banking with regard to the mergers and acquisitions coupled with the performance of the banks.

The close consideration of mergers and acquisitions along with its effects from an Asian perspective as done by Chong, Liu and Tan (2006) gives proof of economic value destruction if the mergers are implemented in a forced manner such as is the case with Malaysia. This results to more gains going to the biders relative to the target in this situation.

Peristiani (1997) examined the post-merger performance of the US banking institutions which participated in mergers around 1980 to 1990. The research made use of the approach of DFA that stipulates a correlation of efficiency measures to financial ratios Peristiani (1997) made a comparison of the banks involved in mergers and those that did not considering the pre and the post merger period and he made a discovery of “a small but significant decline in pro-forma X-efficiency” in the merged banks “two to four years after the merger”. This was also associated with a minor increment in the efficiency of scale that had a reflection of the targets being less scale efficient as compared to acquiring banks.

Another research concentrated on the manner in which the human resources of a bank can be influential to how the mergers and acquisitions are effective. The study covered 267 banking organizations in the U.S. and entail the assessment of their measures of performance. Evidence abounds that where the existence of effective human resource potentials coupled with a high merger and acquisition intensity, the new firm post-merger performance shall be encouraging (Lin, Hung and Li 2006).

All these earlier studies were carried out looking at the efficiency of monetary institutions in the banking industries in European, Asia-pacific as well as the U.S. banking sector. Although the rate of bank consolidations has been much higher in these regions of the planet, the African financial market is following in their inclinations. These studies have also failed to looked at how the nature of consolidation in the banking industry impacts on the development of an economy coupled with the potential impacts on growth of financial system but they emphasized on a good foundation based on analysis of the bank mergers along with their post-merger performances. It is my belief that a study of mergers and acquisitions in the Nigerian banking industry will open opportunities for more studies to be conducted on this phenomenon in an African market and how its aftermath affects the economy as a whole.

4. Research Questions and Objectives

Research questions;

The background and the literature review leads to some important questions to consider including the following:

Is there need for small or the medium banks merging within themselves?

Is there need for large dominant banks to acquire small banks?

Do mergers along with acquisitions lead to the improvement of performance considering the scenario of Nigerian banking industry?

Is there any effect of mergers along with acquisitions on stakeholders in Nigerian banking industry?

Research objectives;

From the research questions raised above, the following objectives will try to offer solutions. The research objectives include the following”

Examining the impact of mergers and acquisitions on bank performances in Nigerian.

To compare the effects of a merger of small banks to that of a large bank acquiring smaller banks.

To determine the impact of bank mergers on shareholder value in the banking industry in Nigerian.

5. Research Plan

Research perspective

This could be thought as a research philosophy i.e. the way information is developed. There are three important perspectives on how a research should be undertaken. They consist of positivism, realism in addition to interpretivism. The positivism perspective leads to the reflection of the stance of a natural scientist that in a way may prefer working by way of observable variables that are in a position of being controlled in to come up with generalisations. Realism posits to express the existence of reality exists in an independent manner to the beliefs and thoughts of human. It recognises the significance of a clear understanding of the beliefs of people in addition to the perception while attempting to understand the society, the people’s nature as well as their behaviour. Interpretivism involves attempting to gain an understanding of a particular situation with the absence of making generalisation with regard to similar occurrences because such situations are habitually complex and they are associated with unique characteristics (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2003: 83-85).

The approach to be taken in this research is a mix of positivist along with the interpretivist. The variables of consideration like the profits, the stock prices in addition to total assets may be observed, quantified as well as analysed statistically and also objectively. The research also seeks to understand the uniqueness and the complexity of the business situation which might not be a an appropriate candidate for generalisation of findings as it entirely depends on some circumstances which could transform in the near future.

This research is inclined towards the applying deductive approach as I will be testing the theory of mergers and acquisitions that leads to an improvement in performance along with stakeholder wealth using facts from the Nigerian banking industry.

Research design

A variety of research strategies are available for application for any type of research based on the nature of the questions and objectives. They include survey, experiment, case study, along with action research, cross-sectional plus longitudinal studies (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003: 91). This project posits to combine multiple case studies with longitudinal study.

A longitudinal research design is a good means of studying transition together with development for an extended time period (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2003: 96) and it shall be helpful in attaining my research objective. The use of multiple case studies as well offers a chance for comparison of divergent scenarios in a similar manner to my second research objective. The limitation in this design is that the cases used may not be the best representative for the objectives set to be met.

Source of secondary data

This research will be conducted with secondary statistics collected from a wide array of sources. This approach proves to be less time consuming as compared to collection of primary data and it also proves to be cheaper. Another benefit associated with this approach is that data on the banks shall be collected from the annual reports of the banks set for being analysed. These reports are public documents and so they can be accessed from the websites of respective bank over the internet. I have already gotten access to the websites and downloaded the annual reports.

Data on the merging banks shall be sort from the website of CBN as these banks are no longer in existence. I have access to the website and publications within the website that are related to the mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry in Nigerian.

Data on the stock prices of the a variety of banks set for being analysed shall be collected from the websites of investment firms in Nigeria such as Cash craft asset management, Credit Discount Limited in addition to Greenwich Investment Limited.

The sampling technique to be used in this research is set to be the purposive sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique. This technique is applied because it will help in analysing the banks that are more suitable for analysis in trying to solve each research question. It is also less expensive and also easy technique to be used and it’s very convenient.

Quality and use of secondary data

The data to be used in this project will be collected in such a way that they meet the criteria of validity, reliability and credibility. In order to do this, I must ensure that the data collected will address all research questions. For this reason, data obtained from bank annual reports in addition to the CBN website shall address research questions 1-3 and objectives 1-2. The historical stock prices acquired from the investment firms shall address the last research question along with the objective.

To meet the reliability criterion, this research will be conducted in a manner that anyone could replicate the study and its findings. The research will be properly documented all the way.

For credibility, the data (historical stock prices) to be used will be compared on the website of different investment firm to ascertain that they are accurate. The data in the annual reports of the banks shall also be cross-referenced with the data from the website of CBN. This will ensure that the data used is as accurate as can be. This research will show how the analysis is carried out, the links between the data, its analysis, findings and the conclusion I will come to.

Analysing secondary data

I will analyse the data using Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). An analysis of variance shall be conducted on the merged banks to asses the impact of mergers on performance of banks and an event study shall be carried out to establish if the mergers and acquisitions have had any significant impact on the stakeholders.

Limitations

This research has limitations which are centred in the data and analysis to be used. The data collected might not serve the purpose that I have in mind or it might be aggregated, making it unsuitable for the research. This could affect the validity of the research.

Using a purposive sampling technique also fails to allow for a generalisation of the findings as what is transpiring in the sample being analysed might not be a true representative of the entire banking industry and thus of little or no value.

Another limitation is that I could use the wrong statistical analysis to achieve my objective and this would also affect the generalisation of the research findings on similar studies to be done in the future.

6. Ethical considerations

Competence

I will pursue this research using the skills I have learned and I will still acquire in a manner that shall not bring harm to any of the research subjects, their goodwill as well as the reputation of Coventry University (Ticehurst & Veal 2000: 55).

Ethics in research

I will learn about the ethics procedure and comply with the guidelines as set out in the BES Ethics Student Handbook. The Ethics checklist and the compliance form shall also be completed at the end of research by me and my supervisor.

Plagiarism

To guard against plagiarism, I will paraphrase ideas that are not mine and also reference the sources used and cited in the course of my research. I will also comply with the referencing style of the BES faculty of Coventry University.

7. References

Altunbas, Y. & Marqués, D., (2008) ‘Mergers & Acquisitions and the Bank Performance in Europe: The Role of Strategic Similarities.’ Journal of Economics and Business 60, (3) 204-222 available from <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V7T-4NJ7WB3-1/1/daadb89aa652dc89099e33c7e95cfdf3>

Chong, B.-S., Liu, M.-H. & Tan, K.-H., (2006). ‘The Wealth Effect of Forced Bank Mergers & Cronyism.’ Journal of Banking & Finance 30, (11) 3215-3233 available from <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VCY-4KFV3CR-3/1/bfc7d40e209b92c8d5076fa39b38989a>

Emerald Group, (2005). ‘Acquire, Ally or Merge?: The Best Strategies for Successful Growth.’ Strategic Direction 21, (1) 19 – 21 available from <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/02580540510571700>

Lin, B.-W., Hung, S.-C. & Li, P.-C., (2006). ‘Mergers & Acquisitions; Human Resource Strategy: Evidence from Us Banking Firms.’ International Journal of Manpower 27, (2) 126-142 available from <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/ijm.htm

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ecn&AN=0886317&site=ehost-live>

Okagbue, S. N. & Aliko, T. B. Banking Sector Reforms in Nigeria [online] available from <http://www.imakenews.com/iln/e_article000336415.cfm?x=b11,0,w> [1 June 2008]

Peristiani, S., (1997). ‘Do Mergers Improve the X-Efficiency and Scale Efficiency of U.S. Banks? Evidence from the 1980s.’ Journal of Money, Credit & Banking 29, (3) 326-337 available from <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=9709251953&site=ehost-live>

Rezitis, A. N., (2008). ‘Efficiency and Productivity Effects of Bank Mergers: Evidence from the Greek Banking Industry.’ Economic Modelling 25, (2) 236-254 available from <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VB1-4P2S2D5-1/1/1e4a42601b39f02c3586800d70b1eaab>

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2003). Research methods for the business students.3rd Ed. Pearson Education Limited

Siddiqi, M., (2005). ‘Nigeria’s Banking Revolution.’ [online]. available from <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5327/is_200510/ai_n21380484> [24 May. 2008]

Ticehurst, G. W. & Veal, A. J., (2000). Business research methods: managerial approach. Pearson Education Australia

UBA Group, About Us [online] available from <http://www.ubagroup.com/group_info/about.asp> [2 June 2008]

Gantt Chart for the dissertation February 2008 starter Activities 16-Jun 30-Jun 14-Jul 28-Jul 11-Aug 25-Aug 31-Aug 8-Sep 22-Sep 6-Oct 20-Oct 3-Nov 17-Nov 1-Dec 15-Dec 29-Dec

Read Literature                                

Draft objectives                                

Finalise objectives                                

Read methodology literature                                

Devise research approach                                

Draft research plan                                

Source for data                                

Analyse data                                

Draft chapter on findings                                

Submit draft to tutor for feedback                                

Make adjustments to draft                                

Update literature review and research plan                                

Complete remaining chapters                                

Submit draft dissertation – await feedback                                

Revise draft                                

Print, bind and submit dissertation                                

Submission date: 9th January 2009