CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The onus of providing social welfare service in any community or state overtly lies on the government. However some complementary efforts are made by the private sector in some regards, as in the case of housing, transport, Medicare and education. However, the bulk of social welfare services which include roads, national defence, health services, water supply, education, postal services, and waste disposal are provided by the public sector (Mitle, 2001). The State renders the aforementioned services through its departments and agencies. In Nigeria, the three tiers of government are involved in the provision and regulation of these services. Their involvements however vary and depend on the constitutional responsibility, financial disposition and the scale of delivery. Adejumobi (1996) noted that the tasks of waste disposal and primary education are responsibilities of the Local Government; major water supply is the responsibility of State Governments. It is worth noting that post-primary education and health care services fall under recurrent functions, which can be performed either by the state or the Federal Government or both. In Nigeria, Agbola (2002) noted that successive governments in the country have made efforts in the provision of these services. However due to dwindling financial standing of the government, her achievements leaves much to be desired. Beside, current inclination towards economic liberalization, governments’ ability in meeting up with this responsibility is undermined. This has forced private agencies to spring up and complement for the deficiencies in publicly supplied social services (Boreham, 2004). The Federal Government of Nigeria budget on public social service is always in billions of naira. Health services dropped from 18.26 billion naira to 16.94 billion naira from 1994 to 1995, which is a clear case of withdrawal. In the same vein, transportation dropped from 59.88 billion naira to 57.20 billion naira. Although there has been arithmetic progression on the educational sector in the Nigeria budget, further research revealed that discrepancy exists between the budget of educational sector in 2009 and the actual expenditure in the same year. This is also another evidence of government withdrawal in the provision of social services in Nigeria

In most of the African Countries the responsibility of providing essential social services and bringing about development to the rural dwellers has been delegated to the local government councils. Social services represented services which are official to individuals, groups or communities either by the government or by non-governmental agencies in order to cope with social problems and to enhance the welfare of the people individually and collectively and are justified outside the free-market mechanism. It is those services provided to foster integration and discourage alienation among the members of society. In pre-colonial Nigerian society for example, the nature of social services delivery evolved to cope with societal needs varied from some ethnic groups to another and were tempered by the existing social structure. Ethnic and religious heterogeneity mediated the social services delivery system differently, as the Islamic and clientele system of Hausa, the much egalitarian system of the Igbo’s and the much extended family system of the Yorubas varied (Olowu, 1980). The old region of the East, West and North, as a result of different levels of development traversed different paths to strengthen their system of local administration for effective social services delivery (Okoli, 2004). The colonial experience brought along its trails, and increased rate of urbanization and industrialization, which combined to undermine the extended family system that previously ensured the provision of social services in many traditional society (Nwoba, 2011). The colonial social service act of 1940 focused more on child labour (children under 14 years). The 1945 ordinance emphasized free education service for the disabled and a disables register was opened in 1955. The 1942 act focused on the establishment of boy’s club in order to prevent delinquency (Olowu, 1980). The missionaries activities especially in the furtherance of education as an instrument of social change and a prerequisite for religious conversion further Jettisoned the traditional values on which the traditional social services were builth (Nwoba 2011). The missionaries were however, the initial cornerstone of the early social services delivery in Nigeria, especially in relation to healthcare and education of most people in Nigeria outside Lapos (Olowu, 1988). The military intervention and civil war in Nigeria led to a creation of a new class of beggars and displaced people, the interstate and interceding transport and communication, which has led to greater urban concentration, and the declaration of 1979 as the international year of the child has direct consequences for the development of social policy and social services delivery in Nigeria. The guidelines of the third National development plan in Nigeria (1979-1980) indicated five areas of federal government policy in respect to social services, namely health, workers welfare, destitute, sport development and the promotion of cooperatives. In addition, the guideline of the forth National development plans identified some of the problems which have militated against the realization of social policy objectives to include low priority ranking accorded to the sector, lack of clear definition and conception of the real scope and meaning of the social services, shortage of qualified personnel, instability of constitutional arrangement and inadequate facilities for the provision of social services. The reason for the rapid growth of social services lies in the self-evidence fact that increasing social services is what really constitute “development” from the people’s viewpoint, individual, political parties, or governments who seek popularity; political support or votes must patronize the populace through the most ambitious promise of social services provision (Nwoba, 2014). The Nigerian election of 1979, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 were marked by competing promise among the political parties for social service provisions and indicates the trends in Nigeria and other countries socio-economic position (Nwoba, 2014). Similarly, government has a commitment to providing basic services for all, the scare fiscal and manpower resources available to government, coupled with the need for the rational planning and use of available resources often leads to extreme administrative centralization and a partial distribution of social services in favour of urban centres (Okol, 2008). The yearning of the masses of the people who still reside in rural areas and the fact that politics in these areas are the politics of social services availability, commits the government to decentralize administrative structure often seeing the local institutions as the agents of bringing development to the localities. Few governments have in fact, been able to reconcile this paradox of development administration. Other government continue to maintain a strongly centralized administrative system or an excessively decentralized one while some others alternate the extremes of either type, depending on what is happening in the political and economic development.

1.2      STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The provision of essential social services such as health, education, water, roads and housing has always been the responsibility of the federal, Regional or state and local Governments in Nigeria. It cannot be said yet that Nigeria has evolved a definite social policy such as obtained in Britain, Federal Republic of Germany, Nether lands, and the former Soviet Union for the provision of essential social services. In Nigeria, it is important to note that these services are not only economically unproductive activities directly but also that their provision has to be financed from the other sectors of the economy consequent upon the several limited resources available to governments and parastatals which provide these services. This is aggravated by constantly widening range of consumers in our cities with their phenomenal population growth and density, competition for financial resources allocation between the directly productive activities and these social services has become stiff (Nwoba 2014). The situation was worsened by what seems to be a general but erroneous belief in Nigeria that government has the sole responsibility of providing the comfort of all Nigeria. The individual is expected to contribute little or nothing in return. These widespread notions follow the ideas of sharing the national cake. They portend problems of policy legitimacy which traverses important areas of decision making in a democratic state: questions of what, when, where and how to optimal choices and administration of public policies for effectiveness and efficiency at the least cost to the welfare of the citizenry. This highlights the importance of the public policy environment: social, economic or political, in which policies are domesticated to acceptance or resistance—issues which have formed the basis of government-public conflicts in Nigeria. The prevailing socio-economic condition in Nigerian in terms of public service delivery and welfare impacts negatively on the legitimacy of government policies and reforms. Etieyebo averred that the prerequisite for state divestment from social service obligations is lacking in Nigeria (Etieyebo, 2011), while Thomson explained that nothing is more fundamental than the ability of the government to listen to people´s demands for services in terms of what they see as important, how and whether they access those services, and what would improve them (Thomson, 2005). Unfortunately, while Nigeria bows to the competition of international comparative development guides, its societies are replete with unique and peculiar social ills: decadent infrastructure, rising youth unemployment and poverty, expanding portfolio of crime, a collapse human security system and a dangerous trend in social inequality itself reflecting the impaired distributive system of capitalism (Amzat and Olutayo, 2009). The study seeks to evaluate the social welfare service of the Federal capital development agencies (FCDA) and the impact on the beneficiaries.

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study is to examine social welfare service of the Federal Capital Development Agencies (FCDA) and its impact on selected beneficiaries. Other general objectives of the study are:

1. To examine the social welfare services in Nigeria.

2. To examine the how social welfare services combat social problems and address social issues by both preventive and remedial measures.

3. To examine the impact of social welfare services on the beneficiaries.

4. To examine public agencies support for social services in Nigeria.

5. To examine the relationship between public agencies service delivery and

6. To examine the strategies of solving social problems in Nigeria.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. To examine the social welfare services in Nigeria?

2. To examine the how social welfare services combat social problems and address social issues by both preventive and remedial measures?

3. To examine the impact of social welfare services on the beneficiaries?

4. To examine public agencies support for social services in Nigeria?

5. To examine the relationship between public agencies service delivery?

6. To examine the strategies of solving social problems in Nigeria?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H0: There is no impact of social welfare services on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs).

H0: There is a impact of social welfare services on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs).

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study would greatly benefit minsteries, departments and agencies in achieving social welfare. The study would also benefit students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing further studies on the subject matter.

1.7SCOPE OF THE STUDY 

The study is based on the social welfare service of the Federal Capital Development Agencies (FCDA) and its impact on selected beneficiaries.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.