Setting standards for social progress
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- Category: Comments
- Written by Isa Halilu
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Countries and peoples all over the world do not just desire social progress, they crave for it. It is because they crave for it that they plan for it; indeed they strategise to attain it.Social progress is therefore a phenomenon to cherish. It can take different but related forms: egalitarianism, modernization, mechanical advancement, civilization etc. Social progress can be seen as both a process and a destination. So, well meaning governments strive to take their people through this process to the desired destination. For instance, is national development more encompassing than social progress or has social progress a wider ambience than national development?
From whatever perspective we look at it, people are and should be the core target. That is, people and their lives or living conditions. In this sense, even national development is expected to serve the goals of social progress.
In the case of our country, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has the mandate to work towards the actualization of these same goals of enhanced living conditions for the people. The Act which set up the SON, its vision, mission statement, and its activities are all geared towards promoting and enforcing standards in such a way that the moral and material conditions of the people could be remarkably improved.
But in the final analysis, social progress entails far more than the material wellbeing of the people. This is because social progress also embraces in its fold not only the infrastructure but also the superstructure.
This is one of the intrinsic meeting points between the promotion of standards and the attainment of social progress. The provision of infrastructure alone cannot engender social progress, as it should also embrace morals and values.
Indeed some countries today may have and enjoy advanced technologies and infrastructural facilities, but in the absence of edifying values, it is doubtful if such countries can be seen as having truly attained social progress.
So, for true social progress, a stage ought to be reached where refinement and high culture become critical indices
The SON is not only engaged in testing, monitoring, evaluating and seizing fake and substandard goods or products, it is also involved in assisting production lines to meet minimum quality or standards. It is true that these SON activities concern mainly products and services and that its primary concern is with the welfare of the people. But ultimately such concern will extend to our moral as well as mental state.
For instance, the organization’s constant sensitization and mobilization will prevail on us, indeed will create in us a disposition or predilection for quality or standards in all facets of our lives.
In other words, if we embrace the SON message, if we often watch how fake and sub-standard goods and products are seized and burnt publicly to serve as a deterrent, and if we ponder over all these, then we cannot remain insensitive. Then our minds must become conditioned to be on the look out all the time for the best quality goods and services.
In due course, we slowly but gradually come to the realization that SON activities are designed to ensure that people get satisfaction from the goods and services they pay for. This realization would make the people to reposition themselves in line with the SON vision and mission.
Soon the people’s minds become suffused with standards and quality and then they would embrace not only the celebration but also the cerebration of quality and standards.
Recently, the Nigerian press reported the story of some youths who indulge in sniffing the adhesive solution meant for patching tires. They do this just to get ‘high’. Yet if such youths had always listened to the SON awareness campaign, it is doubtful if they would succumb to such destructive habits. Put differently, if these youths were to be constantly apprised of SON vision, mission and activities for say six months, the quality of their mind would be so improved that they would no longer indulge in such acts.
Besides, the SON awareness creation and sensitization go a long way in improving not only the quality of goods and services but also the quality of people’s mind. There is a sense in which the organization’s activities and consistent campaigns for quality and standards help to nudge the mind. The discerning mind can easily see that there is a one–on–one correlation between the promotion of standards and the attainment of social progress.
If we recall the analogy of the Hobbesian State of Nature and the present times, it seems obvious or indisputable that the Social Contract must have taken off with the setting of standards – these may have been minimum standards of behaviour binding on all …. Propriety of conduct, for instance, is based on minimum standard of behaviour.
Clearly then, the promotion of standards sets us on the path of social progress. Hence there are several meeting points between the SON vision and the attainment of social progress. The link between the two may not be very apparent, indeed, but it is there nonetheless. This link is rich but recondite because it is intrinsic.
Halilu writes from Kaduna
Articles
Setting standards for social progress
Category: Comments Written by Isa Halilu Hits: 652
Countries and peoples all over the world do not just desire social progress, they crave for it. It is because they crave for it that they plan for it; indeed they strategise to attain it.Social progress is therefore a phenomenon to cherish. It can take different but related forms: egalitarianism, modernization, mechanical advancement, civilization etc. Social progress can be seen as both a process and a destination. So, well meaning governments strive to take their people through this process to the desired destination. For instance, is national development more encompassing than social progress or has social progress a wider ambience than national development?
From whatever perspective we look at it, people are and should be the core target. That is, people and their lives or living conditions. In this sense, even national development is expected to serve the goals of social progress.
In the case of our country, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has the mandate to work towards the actualization of these same goals of enhanced living conditions for the people. The Act which set up the SON, its vision, mission statement, and its activities are all geared towards promoting and enforcing standards in such a way that the moral and material conditions of the people could be remarkably improved.
But in the final analysis, social progress entails far more than the material wellbeing of the people. This is because social progress also embraces in its fold not only the infrastructure but also the superstructure.
This is one of the intrinsic meeting points between the promotion of standards and the attainment of social progress. The provision of infrastructure alone cannot engender social progress, as it should also embrace morals and values.
Indeed some countries today may have and enjoy advanced technologies and infrastructural facilities, but in the absence of edifying values, it is doubtful if such countries can be seen as having truly attained social progress.
So, for true social progress, a stage ought to be reached where refinement and high culture become critical indices
The SON is not only engaged in testing, monitoring, evaluating and seizing fake and substandard goods or products, it is also involved in assisting production lines to meet minimum quality or standards. It is true that these SON activities concern mainly products and services and that its primary concern is with the welfare of the people. But ultimately such concern will extend to our moral as well as mental state.
For instance, the organization’s constant sensitization and mobilization will prevail on us, indeed will create in us a disposition or predilection for quality or standards in all facets of our lives.
In other words, if we embrace the SON message, if we often watch how fake and sub-standard goods and products are seized and burnt publicly to serve as a deterrent, and if we ponder over all these, then we cannot remain insensitive. Then our minds must become conditioned to be on the look out all the time for the best quality goods and services.
In due course, we slowly but gradually come to the realization that SON activities are designed to ensure that people get satisfaction from the goods and services they pay for. This realization would make the people to reposition themselves in line with the SON vision and mission.
Soon the people’s minds become suffused with standards and quality and then they would embrace not only the celebration but also the cerebration of quality and standards.
Recently, the Nigerian press reported the story of some youths who indulge in sniffing the adhesive solution meant for patching tires. They do this just to get ‘high’. Yet if such youths had always listened to the SON awareness campaign, it is doubtful if they would succumb to such destructive habits. Put differently, if these youths were to be constantly apprised of SON vision, mission and activities for say six months, the quality of their mind would be so improved that they would no longer indulge in such acts.
Besides, the SON awareness creation and sensitization go a long way in improving not only the quality of goods and services but also the quality of people’s mind. There is a sense in which the organization’s activities and consistent campaigns for quality and standards help to nudge the mind. The discerning mind can easily see that there is a one–on–one correlation between the promotion of standards and the attainment of social progress.
If we recall the analogy of the Hobbesian State of Nature and the present times, it seems obvious or indisputable that the Social Contract must have taken off with the setting of standards – these may have been minimum standards of behaviour binding on all …. Propriety of conduct, for instance, is based on minimum standard of behaviour.
Clearly then, the promotion of standards sets us on the path of social progress. Hence there are several meeting points between the SON vision and the attainment of social progress. The link between the two may not be very apparent, indeed, but it is there nonetheless. This link is rich but recondite because it is intrinsic.
Halilu writes from Kaduna