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UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT

TOPIC:

SOCIAL POLICY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE

NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE

A TERM PAPER
PREPARED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE: PUB 324
(SOCIAL POLICIES ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA)

BY:
EKUMA, TOCHUKWU ONYEAGOZIRI
REG. NO: 2012/182138

LECTURER: VEN. A. OGBOCHIE

AUGUST, 2015.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of contents - - - -- - - - - i

1.0 Introduction - - - -- - - - - 1

1.1 History and development of social policy in Nigeria - 3

1.1.1 Pre-Colonial Era - - - - - - - 3

1.1.2 Colonial Era - - - -- - - - - 5

1.1.3. Post Independence Period - - - - - 7

2.0 Perspectives On Social Policies In Nigeria - - - 9

2.1 Perspectives on Education - - - - - 9

2.2 Perspectives on Health Policy - - - - - 11

2.3 Perspective on Housing - - - - - - 14

2.4 Perspectives On Social Security - - - - 16

Conclusion - - - - - - - - - 17

References - - - - - - - - - 18
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SOCIAL POLICY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE

NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE

3.0 INTRODUCTION

Social policy as a concept is difficult to be given a consensual

definition with ease. This stems from the difficulty prevalent in

the social sciences where consensus definition is unattainable.

In spite this, scores of definition has been given by different

authors and social policy scholars based on their own perception
of what consist in social policy. One of such scholars is Baldock
(2007), in Ikeanyibe (2013:157). He defines social policy as “those
policies or the intentions and activities of government that are
broadly social in their nature”. Though this definition may be
faulted for using “social” to define social policy, the definition
provides some understanding of what social policy is and also
makes case for the difficulty in defining social policy as a concept
Ikeanyibe (2013:154) quotes The Quality Assurance Agency for
Higher Education, QAAHE (2007) to have defined social policy as
“public policy that has strong focus on those aspects of the
economy, society and polity that are necessary to human
existence and well-being”. These aspects according to QAAHE
include adequate food and shelter, a sustainable and safe
environment, the promotion of health and treatment of illness
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etc. This definition is apt and therefore adopted as our working

definition.
The controversy and difficulty arising from the attempt to

pin down the best definition of social policy has led Baldock

(2011) in Ikeanyibe (2013: 154) to regard as classic examples of

social policies the activities of governments in providing

assistance and services to their citizens in five main areas. He

enumerated these areas to include:

 Social protection benefits/social security

 Health services

 Education services

 Housing provision and subsidies

 Personal social services

In his contribution, Ikeanyibe (2013: 160) went further to discuss

social policy under the following conceptualized headings:

1. Social policy as social welfare;

2. Social policy as providing social services

3. Social policy as guaranteeing social security

4. Social policy as addressing basic needs

5. Social policy as dealing with social problem

6. Social policy as social control

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7. Social policy as ensuring social justice

8. Social policy as lacking social exclusion

9. Social policy as social production and investment

3.1 History and development of social policy in Nigeria

The history and development of social policy in Nigeria can be

discussed under three major dispensations namely:

1. Pre – colonial era

2. Colonial era

3. Post-colonial era

3.1.1 Pre-Colonial Era

The family and the community formed the basis of social service

and welfare provisioning in pre-colonial Nigeria as is the case

with other traditional societies. In pre-colonial Nigerian

communities, mutual social security was organized for groups in

the extended family. It was the duty of the family which attracted

a moral compulsion to provide for its needy members. Thus,

whether it is old age, deformity, delinquency or sickness, the

family or the entire kinship group took it up as a problem.

Solutions as it were, were often based on mysticism and could

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often lead to killing or quarantining of victims rather than helping

them.

The later introduction of Christian and Islamic religion

provided and offered their own view of addressing human and

social problems. In Islam, alms giving is one of the five pillars of

the faith. Hence widows, aged, infirmed and those whose fortunes

have been shattered were readily available for alms. Apart from

the voluntary alms, there is a special tax (zakat-which is another

pillar of Islam) collected annually and distributed to those in

need.

Christianity on the other hand contributed its own quota in

social welfare and social service provisioning. The missionaries

such as Anna Hinderer and Mary Slessor were known to have

built motherless babies home and looked after abandoned twin

children respectively.

The traditional societies of pre-colonial groups in Nigeria

had various other specific provisions through which peoples’

needs were taken care of. These could best be described as social

policies as some of them were communal laws enacted by those

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in leadership positions, or at worst could be described as the

customs and traditions of the people.

In summary, though there was no conscious attempt to develop

social policies as a modern government would do, there was

enough social and welfare services to take care of the peoples

social problems and needs in the pre-colonial communities of the

modern day Nigeria (Ikeanyibe, 2013: 252).

3.1.2 Colonial Era

During the period under review, the early colonial policies

were more of social control and regulation rather than social

service provisioning. This is due to the effort made then to out

law obnoxious customary laws of the people through formal

legislations and regulations. Early colonial era witnessed the

domination of welfare provisioning by voluntarism especially from

the Christian missions, with little assistance from the colonial

government.

Apart from regulatory policies, the only interest of

government in social service provision is the early period of

colonial rule was restrictive, and targeted the expatriate officials.

One of the explicit priorities of the colonial government was to

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provide comfort and protection for the expatriate community

against a hostile physical environment hence the concept of

Government Reservation Area (GRA). Social policy at the early

stage of colonialism was selective, discriminatory and

exclusionary, geared towards protecting and advancing colonial

interest and those of white settlers.

However, the period after world war 11 witnessed

greater involvement of the colonial government in social welfare

policies. A number of factors led to this change in direction

1. The end of the world war witnessed intensified nationalist

movements for independence which also attracted greater

political concessions from the colonial government.

2. Increase of America’s pressure on Britain to grant

independence to her colonies (Ibezim, 1999)

3. Economically, trade between Nigeria and Britain increased

in this period yielding more revenue that could be employed for

developmental objectives. The implication of this for Nigeria was

the adoption of a Ten Year Plan of Development and Welfare for

Nigeria in 1946. The plan envisioned development in areas of

education, communication, health, agriculture, veterinary

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research, and extension of urban and rural developments

(Ibezim, 1999).

1.1.4. Post Independence Period

During this period, social welfare saw a steady expansion in

Nigeria. With the formation of integrated development plans as

early as 1962 and subsequent renewal of the plan every four

years, the country adopted a system of development planning

centred on the state. Social policy and indeed all sectoral policies

started to be part of a comprehensive national development plan.

There was a strong social policy initiative geared towards building

physical, social, economic and human infrastructure. Major

programmes were embarked upon in education, health,

communication etc. at that stage, the model of social policy

changed from remedial and restrictive framework of the colonial

era to that of unrestricted social service provisioning. The

Nigerian welfare state became obvious and outstanding in the

post-civil war Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation

policy of the federal government. This period can be described as

the era of institutionalism in social policy in the country. The

universal framework service provisioning was sustained by huge

revenue of the country from the oil boom of the early 70s
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(Ikeanyibe, 2013: 257). The resolve of the Nigerian government to

ensure adequate social services led to entrenchment of same in

the 1979 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, where

provision were made for health, safety, education and welfare of

all persons without discrimination.

Nonetheless, the universal services era was not to last long

as the oil glut soon came is the late 70s and early 80s and

starved the government of the fund to carry out its good

intentions. The consequence was a radical change in focus and

conceptualization of social policy from the mid-1970s during the

preparation of the 3rd National plan. Henceforth, attempts were

made to delineate the focus irrespective of the constitutional

provision. Thus, the guidelines to the Third National

Development Plan (1975 - 1980) indicated five areas of federal

government focus in respect to social policy. These areas include-

youth, workers’ welfare, destitute, sports development and

promotion of co-operatives (Ikeanyibe, 2013: 259)

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4.0 PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL POLICIES IN NIGERIA

In this study, attempt will be made at explaining Nigeria’s social

policy perspectives on education, health, housing and social

security.

4.1 Perspectives on Education

Nigeria’s education policy is one of the social policies of

government used in strengthening and improving the wellbeing of

her citizens. Since after independence in 1960, successive

governments have not relented in efforts to improve the quality of

the nation’s education system via education policies. A look at

the current education policy shows that it covers the following

areas: pre-primary education, primary education, secondary

education, tertiary education, mass literacy, adult and non-

formal education, special education, educational services as well

as financing, administration and supervision of education (Etuk,

Ering and Ajake, 2012).

For want of space, our discussion will not be

comprehensive. We will just attempt a summary.

Historically, formal education in Nigeria can be traced to the

advent and activities of European missionaries and colonialists.

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However, the scope of education in Nigeria during this era was

not only narrow, it also lacked a properly defined focus.

Government’s formal involvement in education began with the

1882 Education Ordinance for British West African countries.

Other important milestones in the development of educational

policy in colonial Nigeria include: The 1919 Amendment

Ordinance which gave more powers to government inspectors by

allowing them inspect schools, the setting up of Advisory

Committee on Education in 1923, the 1926 Education ordinance

which issued new guidelines based on the memorandum on

Education policy in British Tropical Africa, the 1948 Education

Ordinance, the 1952 Education Ordinance and the Ashby Report

of 1959 (Ikeanyibe, 2013: 270).

By the time Nigeria became independent in 1960, some

serious comparable strides have been made by the indigenous

leaders.

The regional governments provided education to their respective

region. The western and eastern region’s tree and compulsory

education policy gave a boost to the level of literacy to these

regions. The federal government’s involvement in educational

policy became more critical with the passage of time as the

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implications of imbalance in educational services became glaring.

The precursor of a comprehensive National policy on Education

came with the National curriculum conference held in 1969

which produced the popular 6-3-3-4 education system (Nwabuisi,

2008). Subsequent efforts on legislations of the federal

government towards the provision of educational services in

Nigeria are too numerous to mention. Suffice it to mention few of

them:

i. The introduction of the universal primary education in 1976

ii. The enactment of a comprehensive National policy on

Education (NPE) in 1977

iii. The inclusion of meta-policy of government in education in

the 1979 and retained in the 1999 constitution

iv. Promulgation of several decrees from to 1999 by different

military administrations

v. Re-introduction of the universal Basic Education by the

federal government in 1999

vi. The revised Education policy in 2004 etc. (Ikeanyibe, 2013)

4.2 Perspectives on Health Policy

Health care system predates colonialism in Nigeria. The

traditional health care system was virtually free as those who had
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the knowledge dispensed it for the good of all. Cost was never a

factor in receiving healthcare rather the only major challenge

then was limitation in knowledge.

Orthodox medical care as obvious came with Christianity and

colonialism the same way did formal education as discussed

above. The first healthcare facility in Nigeria was a dispensary

opened in 1880 by the church missionary society in Obosi while

the first hospital was the Sacred Heart Hospital built by the

Roman catholic church in Abeokuta in 1885 (Schram, 1971 and

Ajovi, 2010 in Ikeanyibe, 2013: 290). With time, several

government-owned healthcare facilities were established, ranging

from health centres to general hospitals. However, the effort of

the missionaries in establishing healthcare facilities surpassed

that of the government by the time of independence.

Oyewo (1990) in Ikeanyibe (2013), observes that the beginning of

a meaningful health service policy of the government began with

the first Ten Year National Development Plan(1946-1956) wherein

health was put on the concurrent legislative list with powers

within their areas of direct administrative control. Ajovi(2010)

reports that the control of health services was transferred to the

Regional government between 1952 and 1954 (Ikeanyibe, 2013).

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The Second National Development Plan (1970 - 1975) made

deliberate attempt at drawing up a comprehensive national

health policy dealing with such issues as health ma-power

development, provision of comprehensive health care based on

Basic Healthcare service scheme, disease control, efficient

utilization of health resources, medical research and health

planning and management.

Subsequent plans, the Third (1975 – 1980) and the Fourth (1981

- 1985) placed great emphasis on Basic Health Services Scheme

(BHSS) which has the following objectives (according to Adeyemo,

2005) as provided in the Third National Development plan

1. To initiate provision of adequate and effective health

facilities and care for the entire population

2. To correct the imbalance between preventive and curative

care

3. To provide infrastructures for all preventive health

programmed such as control of communicable diseases,

family health, environmental health, nutrition and others.

4. To establish a healthcare system best adapted to the local

conditions and to the level of health technology in the

country (Ikeanyibe, 2013: 292)

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Other health policies introduced in Nigeria are the national

Health Policy and strategy to Achieve Health for All Nigerians,

introduced in 1988, the National Health Insurance Scheme,

introduced in 1999. These and may more were the efforts of the

government in providing good healthcare to the Nigerian citizens.

4.3 Perspective on Housing.

Housing is one of the basic needs of man aside food and clothing.

Before the advent of colonialism, houses were provided to grown

up individuals or each married couple by group efforts. What

colonialism and modernization did to the housing sector in

Nigeria was to increase both qualitative and quantitative

demands.

General welfare Housing policy was not so much the

concern of the colonial government except in terms of sanitation

rules and house spacing regulation, applied in some urban

centres like Lagos. The first public intervention in housing

delivery was the provision of housing for expatriate officials and

for selected indigenous staff in specialized occupations such as

railways and police during the colonial period.

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Adequate housing for the citizens started to occupy a

central place in Nigerian politics and governance from the 1950s.

this was kick-started by the establishment of the Nigerian

Building Society (NBS) in the 50s to provide low interest housing

loans to public servants. The government began to articulate

formal housing policies into the National Development plans.

Though the First National Development plan (1962-1968) did not

pay much attention to housing issues, it recognized the need for

urban centres and included a section on town and country

planning. Following the workers’ strike in 1964, the ministry of

Housing was created in the first republic to provide avenue for

more consistent development of policies and their implementation

in the housing sector. Other attempts at adequate housing are,

the establishment of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) in 1973,

Employees’ Housing scheme in 1979, the National Housing

programme in 1980 etc. The Babangida regime in 1989

promulgated the mortgage institution Decree of 1989 to regulate

and supervise the operation of primary mortgage institutions

which were set up with the aim the aim of providing housing

affordability through long-term repayment of housing loans for

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low income earners. The regime also established the National

Housing fund in 1992.

The democratic dispensation which started in 1999 has tried a

reformation of housing policy to give Nigerians sufficient and

adequate housing.

4.4 Perspectives On Social Security

UNCDF and UNDP (2011), according to Ikeanyibe (2013: 328)

defined social security as “public and private interventions and

support and enable individuals, households and specific groups

in their efforts to prevent manage and overcome a defined set of

risks vulnerabilities, aimed at reducing extreme and chronic

poverty”.

As it is, there seems to be as yet no social security in Nigeria

as there seems to be no area where people have any entitlement

to seek for welfare services as a right, not even in pensions and

retirement benefits which obviously are the most legally

guaranteed social security scheme is the country. Few things can

still be pointed out as policies that fall within the category of

personal services and social security in Nigeria. Some of these

include pension scheme provided at all levels of government and

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some large private sector establishments. There are some

agencies of government that channel its effort in guaranteeing

social security. Such as National Agency for Prevention of

Trafficking in persons (NAPTIP), which oversees the problem of

trafficking in persons National Directorate of employment (NDE)

which address unemployment problems, National Poverty

Eradication Programme (NAPEP) which takes care of poverty

alleviation.

Conclusion

From our study, many attempts have been made in social service

provision especially in the areas of education, health and housing

but improvement is recommended as it is observed that despite

the efforts claimed to have been made in these areas, the

standard of education keeps falling, decay of health facilities is

still on the increase and shortage of housing is still witnessed.

Social security as understood from this study is still at a very

poor level.
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REFERENCES

Etuk G.R, Ering S.O and Ajake U.E (2012). Nigeria’s Universal

Basic Education (U.B.E) policy: A sociological Analysis.

American International Journal of Contemporary research

vol.2 (7) pp. 179-183.

Ikeanyibe O.M (2013). Public policy in Nigeria; perspectives on

social policy and Administration. Enugu: John Jacobs

classic publishers Ltd.

Ibezim.E.O (1999). Political Economy: Issues and problems in

contemporary society. Onitsha: providence publishing

company and Hybrid publishers Ltd.