Social governance: Governance at its best

The strength and beauty of any nation reside in what becomes of her citizens, how economically productive they can be. To be productive one must have a “seed” to sow.

Productivity is measured when the output is weighed against the input. To whom much is given much will be expected. Productivity levels will predict the impact of economic programs of governments and the extent of poverty among the people.

Are youths ready for leadership?

October 26, 2020

Poverty in Africa

September 12, 2020

Each country of the world has its own poverty index rating. A poverty index is measured based on the money earned per day per head for that country compared to a worldwide scale. Poverty creates dependants. A country with a high level of dependants will inevitably struggle to achieve growth and development in many areas because these dependants aren’t contributing as much to the economy as to what they are withdrawing. Also worrying is the reality that today’s world is experiencing growth in human population that, as a result, narrows equal access to resources. And then do we long for social governance within our democracy, especially for the developing nations.

The greatest asset that the government of any nation does have at their disposal is its human capital base. It is from the human capital base that every other resource can be effectively tapped and utilized. An educated, equipped and skilled workforce is a gold mine. Social governance isn’t a form of government. It isn’t socialism.

In social governance, the objective is to raise the people who are below the poverty line to be above it. The welfare of the people is the headache of the authorities here. It is about providing social services. In every population, some sub-groups can be derived. This will include; the women, the children (and infants), the men, the aged (men and women), the youths, the employed, the unemployed, the highly educated, the less educated, the non-educated, those in the financial upper class, those in the financial middle class, those in the financial lower class, etc.

Each of these groups requires attention in a way that is unique to it. Some of these sub-groups are often termed vulnerable groups because they can’t make it on their own. They are disadvantaged. The essence of having a government in place was so that they would manage our commonwealth for our common good.

Social governance will do all it must do to ensure that the people are adequately taken care of. The social services aren’t limited to providing; free primary education, low-interest loans and other incentives to small and medium businesses, social welfare support schemes for people with special needs, providing temporary paid jobs for the unemployed, public health insurance, free training on skill acquisition (plus start-up capital), low-cost agro services for the rural poor, etc. You see, an empowered population is the start of real development.

By Itoro Orok

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