FACTORS AFFECTING SOCIAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Social policy constitutes of guidelines and interventions for changing, maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare. They are government programmes or initiatives that are intentionally designed to address and mitigate social problems (hunger, poverty and disease etc), improve human welfare and deal with a wide range of areas, such as education, health and employment, crime and justice. In Nigeria, social policy implementation, which involves translating the goals and objectives of social policies into tangible accomplishments, leaves little to be desired. This review paper, anchored on Johan Galtung’s (1978) Basic Needs Approach examined factors affecting implementation of social problems in Nigeria. It frowned at the poor state of social policy implementation and recommended among other measures, the need for adequate funding of social policy implementation initiatives. The paper also emphasized control of corruption and an end to frequent changes in social policy directions arising from changes in government. These steps constitute viable strategies for hitch free social policy implementation in Nigeria.