Subject: National Values
Topic: Pressure Groups
Human beings seek to satisfy many interests in life. Some interest are personal and require personal efforts to satisfy, when other interests are collective and require collective or group efforts to satisfy. Example of personal interests are purchase of a car, building of a family house, payment of school fees, travelling abroad, etc. for the above interests, an individual decides on what to do and goes ahead to do so.
Unlike personal interests, group of collective interests are pursued by a group and not individual. Example of group or collective interests are salaries of workers, allowances of workers, building new classroom blocks for a school, amount to be paid as taxes, rates, etc.
Group or collective interests are pursued by groups of people called pressure groups. A pressure group is a group of people with common interests or goals who act together to ensure that such common goals or interest are achieved.
Examples of pressure groups
There are many pressure groups in Nigeria. Examples of these pressure groups are:
I) Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) : This pursues the interests of Public servants in Nigeria.
ii) Academic Staff union of universities (ASUU): This acts in defense of the welfare of teaching staff and researchers in Nigeria universities
iii) Non-Academic staff union of universities (NASUU): This pursues the interests of non-teaching staff of Nigeria universities.
iv) Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT): This oversees the welfare of teachers in primary and Secondary schools.
v) Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN): This looks after the religious interests of Christians in Nigeria.
Home- Work: List 7 pressure groups that you know