Back to: Civic Education Primary 5
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PRESSURE GROUPS
Meaning of Pressure Groups
Social justice refers to a situation in which everyone in a society is treated fairly. It refers to the equal distribution of the advantages and disadvantages of the society to everyone.
Different groups have their own ideas of what social justice means. Generally, these groups want people to be treated fairly in all aspects of life. They want people to enjoy their rights and they wish to correct the ills of the society.
Whenever they feel a section of the society is being treated unfairly, they take actions to remedy the situation.
In a general sense, these groups which try to ensure social justice are called pressure groups.
A pressure group is an organisation that tries to persuade the government to do some particular things. It also tries to make the ordinary people see things from its own point of view in order to support its course.
Communicating Social Injustice to Leaders
Pressure groups try to get the attention of the government (and the people) by doing the following things:
- Organizing seminars to which they invite government officials and members of the public.
- Organizing public rallies.
- Calling press conferences: They invite journalists and explain their objectives to them. The journalists would then publicize those objectives so that people would know and understand them. This would make more people support the cause of the pressure groups.
- Placing advertisement in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television.
- Distributing handbills.
- Putting up billboards.
- Organizing discussions and phone-in programmes on radio and television.
- Organizing strike actions.
- Organizing public debates.
- Sometimes, prominent government officials who support pressure groups could resign their appointment from government to show their support for the pressure group.
Examples of Pressure Groups in Nigeria
- Nigerian Labour Congress.
- Nigerian Union of Teachers.
- Nigerian Bar Association.
- Women in Nigeria.
- Nigerian Union of Journalists.
- Civil Liberties Organisation.
- Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
- Anti-Piracy Committee.
- Women Trafficking and Child Labor Eradication Foundation.
- Baobao for Women’s Rights.
- Association of Positive Youth in Nigeria.
Examples of what Pressure Groups Want
- Some pressure groups want government workers to earn better salaries and more benefits (e.g. the NLC)
- Some want the government to punish those who enslave women and children and stop their activities (e.g. the WOTCLEF)
- Some want to protect the interests of journalists (e.g. NUJ)
- Some want the Niger Delta region to get more benefits from the government because the country’s major source of income––crude oil––is from there (e.g. NDCVF and MEND).
- Some believe that the society is unfair to women, and so they want women to get fair treatment (e.g. WIN and BWR)
- Some want those who are HIV positive and those suffering from AIDS to be treated with respect and to receive medical treatment and all the help they need (e.g. APYIN).
Quiz
- What is social justice?
- What is a pressure group?
- Write a list of ten pressure groups. You could add those which are not in this text.
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