Nigeria - Africa Social Work & Development Network | Mtandao waKazi zaJamii naMaendeleo waAfrika

Social Work Training Institutions (43)
History of Social Services and Social Work
Template: Code of ethics
Template: Roles of association
Template: Structure of social development institutions
Please provide any additional information

Universities
Ebonyi State University-Abakaliki
Lagos State University, Lagos
Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, Anambra State
University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State
University of Benin, Benin-City, Edo State
University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State
University of Lagos, Lagos State
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State
University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno State
Bayero University Kano, Kano State
Delta State University, Abraka
University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu
University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State
Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti
Kogi State University, Lokoja
Nassarawa State University, Lafia
Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, Edo State
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State
Babcock University, Ilisha Remo, Ogun State
Federal University, Lafia
Polytechnics and related institutions
Jigawa State Polytechnic, Dutse
Kano State Polytechnic, Kano
Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State
Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin
Sokoto State Polytechnic, Sokoto
Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, Borno State
Plateau State Polytechnic, Jos
Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State
Federal Polytechnic. Offa
Federal Polytechnic, Mubi. Adamawa State
Federal School of Social Work, Emene. Enugu State
Shehu Idris College of Health Science and Technology, Makargi, Kaduna State
College of Administrative and Business Studies, Potiskum, Yobe State
Social Development Institute, Ningi, Bauchi State
Social Development Institute, Kumo, Gombe State
Social Development Institute, Katsina, Katsina State
Adamawa State Polytechnic, Numan
Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State
Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu, Yobe State
Niger State Polytechnic, Zungeru, Bida Campus
Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic, Katsina State

Information from website of Nigeria Association of Social Workers

Colonisation: The arrival of ‘people without toes’, or white colonialists in Nigeria in the 1890s disrupted many facets of life. As Chinua Achebe wrote in his historic novel, things fell apart (Achebe, 1958, Things Fall Apart). The first white Christian missionaries, among them Brown and Smith, did so many new things paving way for full scale colonization. They denounced people’s ways of life, killed, brought alcohol, brought a new religion, introduced a new educational syllabus, promoted laziness, sowed hostility, broke families and broke cohesion. This led to creation of a new government system and a new legal system. The white people, although they were considered outsiders or lepers, ended up with power to make laws, imprison and hang. They came to dominate, uninvited. “It said (the Oracle), other white men were on their way. They were locusts, it said, and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain. So, they killed him”, p. 116. This story of the first white men in an Ibo village shows that they were strongly resisted but used religion to divide, weaken and conquer. At that time the Ibo had stories of white men who took people across the sea into slavery. “We have heard stories of about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true”, p117. The white men came a few months later and killed everyone at the market in retaliation. Ironically, they had come among the Ibo to start a new religion, Christianity. A conversation between two Ibo men, Obierika and Okonkwo showed clearly the shortcomings of white people. Okonkwo asked:

“Does the white man understand our custom about land?”

Obierika replied, “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe, p.176 ).

Literature like Chinua Achebe’ novel, rarely used in African social work, offers powerful insider perspectives of Africans when they first had contacts with whites, and clearly show the insertion of colonization.

Rapid urbanization would bring about social problems which would have to be dealt with by trained social service workers (Irele, 2011). The first workers were expatriates like a Mr Faulkner.

Later, Nigerian philantropists started providing social services. One of them was Mother Obasa who started an orphanage for girls (Irele, 2011). At this time, services were also provided by Salvation Army and the Roman Catholic Church missionaries.

Template: Code of ethics

The Code of Conduct was adopted in 1982 by Nigeria Association of Social Workers (NASoW). The 10 ethics statements in the code are:

I will hold as primary the welfare of the individual or group I serve. By this, I will give precedence to my professional responsibility to my client over my personal interest.
I will make distinction between my public work and private interests and would never allow the latter to becloud the former.
I will never discriminate negatively against my client on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, belief, race, colour, social class and will prevent and protect my client against such negative discrimination in the work I do.
I will hold as strictly confidential and information with professional colleagues only in so far as to improve the quality of service render.
I will work to uphold the dignity of the human person and to respect the fundamental human rights of the clients I serve.
I will practice social work within the recognized knowledge and professional competence and will hold myself responsible for the quality of service I give to my client in relation to maximum utilization of available resources.
I will work to support the idea that social development work requires professional education and association.
I will take as my personal responsibility to contribute to the development of social work professional knowledge and practice and will treat with respect the findings, view and actions of other professional colleagues.
I accept responsibility to help,. protect individuals or groups against unwholesome or unethical practices by any individual, group or corporate organisation that is engaged in social development activities.
I will stand ready to provide professional service in times of public emergencies. I will act with integrity in the professional work I do and make myself accountable for the work I have done or would

Template: Roles of a professional associations of social workers

Creating a code of ethics relevant to Africa: To create a code of ethics guided by African values that have been used to provide social services since time immemorial.
Societal recognition: make social work known in families and communities including what social work is in local language, the roles of social workers and how the complement not replace or compete with the roles of families and communities. Presently, in most African communities, social work is not understood and at times it is hated because of its focus on western ideas, knowledge, philosophy, theories, methods and literature.
Creating a local definition of social work: to help social work being understood and appreciated. Definitions in local languages will be more useful.
Creating relevance: making social work in Africa more developmental to enable it to respond to the social issues, challenges and problems on the continent. Social work has to respond to mass poverty in a developmental not remedial way.
Professional recognition: To raise social work to the level of other professions, and to give social workers respect and recognition of their service.
Professional regulation: Ensure that social workers follow ethical principles that make them accountable for any professional misconduct, breach of ethics or confidentiality.
Professional standards: To oversee social worker’s performance, attitude towards families, communities, peers, profession and the society. This builds trust and ensures credibility of social work.
Training monitoring: To monitor social work training and fieldwork.
Produce literature: To research, write and publish relevant literature for social work training and fieldwork.
Advocacy: To advocate for social justice and social services.
Continuous training: To lead continuous professional development (CPD) of social workers and all people providing social services. This is important especially for social workers trained in the colonial period, those trained using colonial syllabus or those trained outside Africa.
Supporting and empowering indigenous services: To support families and communities in their roles of providing social services and not disempower them.
Trade unionism: Act as the trade union of social workers to represent their interests and labour rights as workers, entrepreneurs, volunteers and social innovators.
Consumerism: protect families, communities and employers from poor services from social workers, receiving complaints and dealing with them.
Collaboration with other associations: Work and collaborate with other professional bodies in the country, in the region, in Africa and globally.
Policy work: Creating policies or alternative policies to advance social development and to scrutinize existing policies of the government.
Recognising social workers: Celebrate social workers through national social work day, global social work day and providing awards to social workers, students, academics and social work organisations.
Networking: providing opportunities for social workers to network, share experiences and listen to others through indaba, conference, webinar, newsletters, journals, websites, social media e.g. groups of Facebook or WhatsApp, dinner etc
Decolonising: To decolonise social work to make it relevant to Africa communities, this work involves, among others
- Using African philosophy, including values, ethics, theories, models etc
- Using African ethics and removing colonial ethics
- Using African literature and removing colonial literature
- Using African academics and replacing non-African academics
- Using a home grown syllabus, and replace colonial syllabus – in the process avoid brain drain
- Using and valuing African methods, techniques and strategies of social work and not non-African methods
- Valuing African history of social work and Africans who have contributed to that history
- Contributing African knowledge and methods to global social work and not just receiving global knowledge without scrutiny
- To educate families, communities, organisations and government about how to remove colonial practices, methods, knowledge etc from the social work services that they provide
- Generally, make African social work more developmental in approach so that the profession becomes relevant to our families, communities, organisations and government

Template: Structure of Social Development Institutions

Institutions of social work or social development are structured differently in each country. Below we provide a list of institutions that are necessary.