2.3.4 SOCIAL PROTECTION VALUES OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES
With social protection, we mean societal security mechanisms that can respond to unexpected socio-economic scarcity and major risks that people normally encountered in their livelihoods. Post colonial African countries relied mostly on mutual aid in securing individual from misfortune or calamity that are sometimes beyond what individual can control or handle. A cooperatives society possesses potentials to contribute to poverty reduction in rural areas which will generate confidence in rural community. With cooperative, income, social status and capacity of the household will increases and all the benefit in form of services, access or cash are converted to welfare generation. Bouman (1995) posited that the mutual aids can be express to includes, helping families, kin and villager to ease the burden and lessen the shock of death that might visit manhood by meeting the expenses of funerals, weeding and other social activities.
On the other hand, corruption and the institutional weaknesses of the African state hindered the establishment of organized and state-run social protection systems catering for the society, in this situation, it is only the fewer wealthy individual that actually benefited in the social protection system privately provided by the insurance companies leaving the less or the poor to savage their own course and provide for themselves which have quite exposed the poor to vagaries of unexpected calamities that can derail livelihood. The emergences of cooperative societies have acted as networks of securing individuals or members from all these unanticipated circumstances. Cooperatives also offer emergency and instant loan to members to solve unexpected problems which have actually been acting as fall back for members to quickly respond to unanticipated socio-economic problems like sickness, an accident, food shortage, crop failure, financial snag among others which have the potential of disrupting livelihood.
Furthermore, some cooperative societies make provisions for social fund from their annual contributions to provide for communal needs as well as some basic social services needed within the community were they operate. Provisions for food security is one of the fundamental social protection roles of most cooperative societies with the broader objectives of fighting ignorance and poverty with the package of services such as training, inputs needed by members, financial lifeline, marketing opportunities for their outputs. Each element mentioned met a specific need but the synergy between all of them goes a long way to promote development and improve members living conditions. Cooperatives also safeguard the jobs of the members most especially where trade union provide the foundation for the movement e.g Taxis drivers or Cab operators cooperative societies always assist the members in the provision of some necessities required for smooth running of their business with a view of collectively secure their job by combating unemployment, fighting ignorance and strengthening the unity of members. In all these ways, cooperative societies have increasingly protecting their members from all avoidable calamities that usually disrupt human hood.
2.4 CHALLENGES OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES
In most part of the world, cooperative societies remain in fluxes which are majorly faced with one or more problems ranging from the crises of ideology, capital formation, problems of acceptability and credibility as well as crises of management (Taimni, 1997). Five major challenges of cooperative societies have also be identified by Cheney (1995) to includes cultural transformation, competition and expansion, wage solidarity, centralization and reorganization, and policies and programmes of increasing productivity and participation. While on the other hand Groves (1985) emphases that the major problems of cooperatives are how to strike a balance between efficiency and democracy as the major part of cooperative business. i.e imbibing good business practices and the social purpose of a community of people, making it an organizations with a human face and therefore difficult to manage. Laidlaw (1974) emphasis that whenever cooperatives tend to strive for efficiency they try to imitate other businesses but in the pursue of social functions they possess the features that differentiate them from other organizations which make it a very difficult business to manage. Education makes people easy to lead and govern but difficult to drive and enslave, educating cooperatives members in this post colonial African countries like Nigeria is always a challenge to the organizations and the governments. Even cooperatives choice of business suitable for it purpose have become a fundamental challenges to the survival of the organizations. Cooperative societies also suffers from internal handicap of it own making because of the social, voluntary and democratic nature of it business which handicapped them from imposing strict measures and disciplines on themselves and prefer to act on common consent.
