Policy Guideline on Social Development

Social development is a dynamic process that ensures a good quality of life within the community. The term social development is used here to embrace three major components: social welfare, community development and recreation.

Social development programmes are designed to offset, for individual as well as for the community at large, the unintended harsh effects of social change. Economic development efforts often result unintended effects such as migration, heavy urbanization and unemployment.

These in turn create problems such as family disintegration, emotional stress, delinquency and other social ills. Therefore social development programme are necessary to combat these stressors, which, if unchecked, could overwhelm the individual, and destabilize society itself.

Our party recognizes that these problems are especially pronounced where there is rapid economic and social change. Our Society Development Programme is designed, therefore, in direct response to current and anticipated problems arising from the rapid economic and social changes in our country.

Objectives

The Social Development Policy of our party for Nigeria has the following objectives:

1. To provide facilities and services that will assist the citizens in overcoming the harsh effects of rapid economic and social changes
2. To develop the body and character of the Nigerian youth by means of sports and recreation
3. To create facilities for the individual to enable him relate happily with the community.

To achieve these goals, the government of our party will pursue the following programmes of social development:

Social Welfare

1. Full and gainful employment
2. Marriage guidance and counseling bureaus
3. Family reconciliation services
4. Adoption and foster-care service
5. Homes for motherless and abandoned babies
6. Day-care centres
7. Old people’s homes
8. Rehabilitation and resettlement centres for the destitute and refugees
9. Social security arrangements for all employed and self-employed persons.

Community Development

The Integrated Rural Development Programme of our party is a broad programme of community development, essentially for the non-urban areas but with important ramification for the entire country. A significant feature of the programme is the organization of rural communities into cooperatives. As a further strategy for the economic and social integration of the individual into the society in an effective way, our government will foster the developments of GUILDS uniting the practitioners of particular trades within each cooperative unit. For example, encouragement will be given for the setting up and development of a Guilds of Blacksmiths, Guild sof Palm- oil or Groundnut-oil Producers, or a Guild of Dyers, etc. Such guilds will also be actively encouraged in the urban areas.

Another strategy for integrating the individual into society is the establishment of:

• a National Patriotic Youth movement,
• a more relevant National Youth Service Scheme (as an integral part of the programme of Education)
• Boys and Girls Clubs
• Women’s Club

Voluntary organizations such as the Girls’ Guide, the Boys’ Scout Movement, and others which will be given recognition and support.

Our government will provide free technical advice and encouragement in the execution of community-based self-help schemes. The Adult Education sub-program is itself a useful instrument in community development. It will therefore be vigorously pursued not only as a means of improving the mind of the individual but also as an opportunity for making him participate more meaningfully in the development of his community.

Sports

We recognize the role of sports in the physical and mental development of the individual and in projecting the image of a nation on the international stage. The party is very much aware that in recent years, sporting success on the international scene has boosted the morale of Nigerians and given us greater confidence than before.

The party believes that, for a sports-loving nation like Nigeria, outstanding achievements at the world level will create fresh inspiration and impetus that will have a salutary effect on our endeavors in this fields. We are therefore determined to make appropriate investments in the field of sports.

Objectives

1. To ensure the maximum success in the field of sports, our government will take the following steps.
2. Broaden participation in sports in order to increase the pool of talents from which young athletes are recruited. The policy of free education up to secondary school level is expected to facilitate efforts to broaden the base for the recruitment of top-grade sportsmen and sportswomen.
3. Require educational institutions, particularly at the higher level, to permit appropriate flexibility of their academic curriculum and schedules to encourage sportsmen and sportswomen to combine sports with academic pursuits without undue disadvantage. It is noted that the policy of free education at primary and secondary school levels and bursary and scholarship for indigent students at the tertiary institutions will remove the financial hardship that would otherwise befall the sportsman-student if he should lose time during important competitions.
4. Ensure the effective involvement of a much broader section of the population, by requiring that agencies of the Sports Commission be established at the Local Government level for the propagation of sports in every school and in every Boys and Girls club. Our Government will also provide adequate facilities for training, coaching and competition.
5. Establishment of a Welfare Association to support competitive athletes. The services of the Association will be available to all sportsmen and sportswomen who have consistently won honors in national and international sport.
6. Create a system of merit awards for sportsmen and sportswomen who win national and
   international titles.

Filed Under: ACN Manifesto