CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Cooperation
is rooted in the tendency to live together and assist one another. It is a
positive action geared towards making life worth living and beneficial to the
citizenry. When cooperation becomes firm and strong, it elicits peace, safety
and progression (Abba, 2013). It engenders robust consideration for the
interests of the members of a given association and consequently emphasizes a
great deal on the social wellbeing of virtually all members in cooperation .
Cooperation is a phenomenon that denotes any form of working together
voluntarily by persons or individuals to achieve common goals . To narrow it
down, cooperative refers to the activities of an association of persons with
similar social, cultural and economic needs who willingly came together satisfy
these needs in solidarity. In other words, it came into existence as a result
of reactions against capitalism, competition and injustice that are associated
with them. It is purely service-delivery .
Significantly,
cooperative members are noted to pull their resources together for the
satisfaction of their members’ identified needs. It is therefore, the best way
to tackle the perennial economic problem of a developing country like Nigeria
where a great percentage of people like below poverty line. This is probably
what informed the Federal Government to formulate a policy guideline in 1979
that at least 25% of Nigerians should become members of Cooperative Societies .
Okechukwu (2001) stated that the Danish people saw in the cooperative easier
way of improving their national economy, especially after the war with Germany
and their humiliating defeat which contributed to national poverty. They went
into promoting economic interest of their people . The Swedish people embraced
cooperation because of the need to also improve the economic interest of their
citizens. Everybody was made to participate in one form of chosen economic activity
or the other .
The
origin of cooperation could be traced to the period of industrial revolution in
Great Britain which gave rise to associations like the Chartist Movement, Corn
Mill, Banking Societies and several others. Despite the fact that some of these
associations failed in their struggles, their coming together left a legacy to
be remembered; and it consequently attracted attention in the history book.
Government, on its part, made some laws to guide against poverty. A formidable
and first successful cooperative society came into existence in 1884. It was
known as the Rochadale Equitable Pioneers. It was made up of 28 weavers which
included 27 men and a woman. In subsequent years, other associations sprang up
all over Europe, particularly in France, Germany, Denmark, etc. The success
story of these societies or association, which then flourished, was attributed
to the efforts of the Rochadale and others to fashion out rules, regulation and
guidelines for cooperatives which were eventually known as the Cooperative
Principles. Another interesting aspect of the origin of cooperatives in Europe
was the emergence of men of good will, the philanthropists, who took it upon
themselves to use their human and material resources as well as their wealth to
champion the cause of cooperatives.