Our tale, not without the NGOs

Legislation affecting children and families in the United States often is passed only reluctantly, and even more often is not passed at all because of a pervasive reluctance among policy makers to “intrude” on family life (Zigler & Hall 2000, p.35).

The excerpt above, reminds me again of government’s exercise of constant caution aimed at avoiding interference with parental rights, here in the U.S. This sequence of government-citizenry interaction, primarily intrigues me .This is because democracy only emerged in Nigeria in 1999, ending decades of consecutive military rule. During these years of dictatorship,sensitivity did not always characterize government -citizenry interractions;and advocacies for social policies were quite uncommon.

Nonetheless, Nigeria is one country where local nongovernment organizations (NGOs) have existed since the pre-colonial era, serving as pressure groups. So with the perception that government wasn’t working in the peoples best interest, these organizations multiplied to deal with the issues of the society in the interim.

Overtime however the Nigerian government, even during the military regime has enjoyed and continues to enjoy the good will of many international donors and partners, particularly in the areas of child well being and maternal health. Key players include The African Development Bank (ADB), World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Funds received from these agencies support the formulation of policies, plans and child and maternal health program service delivery. Some NGOs and research efforts also receive support from these organizations.

With the advent of our nascent democracy, advocacy for social policies have increased, consequently the present civilian administration has expressed greater commitments to social policy issues including, improving child survival and restoring the Primary Health Care system across the nation - words which give us reasons to anticipate substantial changes across policy issues in the near future.