Politics, Public Policy and Social Protection in Africa by Nicholas Awortwi Emmanuel Remi Aiyede

Author:Nicholas Awortwi, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede [Nicholas Awortwi, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351716802
Goodreads: 35140684
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

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Public policy, intergovernmental politics and the piloting of cash transfers in Nigeria

Emmanuel Remi Aiyede, Pam Dung Sha, Emmanuel Olawale Ogunkola, Bonaventure Haruna, Akinpelu Olanrewaju Olutayo and Ezekiel Best

Introduction

Politics has been repeatedly implicated in the character and reach of social protection policies in Africa. But that influence has not been rigorously studied. Research has focused on technical design – extent of coverage, fiscal space, potentials and implementation challenges. Analysis has adopted the governance, gender and life cycle approach, as well as the transformative social or international labour framework. Where Nino-Zarazua et al. (2010) addressed political issues in social protection in Africa, they did not cover Nigeria to a significant extent, nor did they address Nigeria’s preference for a growth-related social protection policy. None of the studies provided a systematic political economy analysis of factors that enhance and prevent social protection policy uptake (Hagen-Zanker and Holmes, 2012; Hagen-Zanker and Tavakoli, 2012; Holmes et al., 2012a, 2012b). Yet analysis of political institutions and processes that transform ideas into budgets, programmes and eventually social outcomes is crucial to understanding potentials and constraints. A systematic and detailed study across all levels of government is imperative.

This chapter analyses the social assistance programme ‘In Care of the People’ (COPE), which provides cash transfers to needy households in Nigeria. The scheme requires beneficiaries to ensure that their children of school age attend school regularly; pregnant women attend regular antenatal clinics; and children under five years are immunised and taken to clinics regularly. There are several cash transfer programmes run by state governments and non-state organisations, but COPE is the only one that straddles both state and federal governments in a complex configuration of institutions of policy making and politics. The triad of politics, policy making and intergovernmental relations is pivotal in the processes towards reducing poverty in Nigeria.

Nigeria consists of a federal government (FG), 36 state governments (SGs) and 774 local governments (LGs) with varying areas, population sizes and resources. Nigeria has 250 ethnic groups, and a roughly even split of population between the Muslim and Christian faiths. After several decades of military rule, Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999.

The federal government has statutory powers to control the subnational governments for macro stabilisation. State governments have liberty to make policies within their jurisdictions. Social policy, of which social assistance (cash transfers) is a subset, is in the ‘concurrent legislative list’, which means that both federal and state governments can legislate.1 This makes it possible for multiple actors to play active roles in the sector. Local governments are responsible for the provision of primary and secondary education, healthcare, rural roads and infrastructure, water and sanitation and community services. The federal government controls 55 per cent of the national revenue, while the rest is shared among the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) and the 774 local governments.

Where issues covered are on the ‘concurrent list’, treaties and conventions domesticated by the federal government have to be adopted by a state government before they can be enforced in that state.

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