Norma API y ISO para tubería PSL2: Grado de exigencia al fabricante

In this question, I set out to understand how the smallholder cooperative societies perform acts of trust and reciprocity within their various groups and review how these acts are relatable to the theoretical frames espoused in this research. I structured my questions around the target subjects of trust and reciprocity in order to gather reactions from respondents’ different perspectives. From the data therefore, I synthesized out two crucial responses tables that I deemed as most relatable to the question of trust and reciprocity in the groups. The responses are as follows on viz. Borrowing and lending and vulnerability and reliability (trust).

Table 11. Local opinions on borrowing and lending

Traditional institutions and faith based groups such as community churches play significant roles in shaping the character and choices of the local residents in the research area. They are

Which of these groups would you approach first to borrow money

from when in need?

Owerri North Owerri West Total Church group 1 1 2 6% 8% 7% Gender group 2 1 3 12% 8% 10% Political group 0 1 1 0%. 8% 3%

Cooperative/ Farmer group 8 6 14

47% 46% 47%

Age grade 6 4 10

35% 31% 33%

Total 17 13 30

respondents in both Local Government Areas hold membership of at least two CB groups and cooperatives in their communities (see chapter four), it therefore becomes necessary that the research identify which of the groups they find most reliable in possible socio-economic support need such as borrowing and lending money. The similarities in the responses are shaped by the sameness of the region’s socio-cultural ethos and practices as Igbos. Both village-community areas intermarry, sustaining the familial and relational linkages between the two. Both belong to the same dominant provincial faith groups such as Catholic and Anglican dioceses but with different regional parishes. However the region’s community based organisations such as market groups, gender groups, craft groups, community churches and diaspora groups operate distinctively under their different Local Government Area’s banners.

The significance of the ‘ugwu’ as performed in cooperative reciprocity is most epitomized in the acts of borrowing and lending which underscores integrity and confidence in both parties (the individual member and the lending group). These two acts (borrowing and lending) are constantly corroborated in the compassionate teachings of the local community’s churches whose congregation come from the village cooperatives and CB groups members. Although the churches and faith institutions in the area are overtly not considered as places of economic exchange, but covertly they initiate such ideas by helping to foster closer ties between members within a community. This according to McCleary and Barro (2006) instils in people the propensity to act honestly or altruistically as motivated by the religious beliefs.

Despite the government/corporate land encroachment occurrences in some sections of the study areas; community life in the unaffected regions is still typically characterized by series of mutually interrelated social groupings, networks and kinship alliances (see chapter three). People still join smallholder cooperative and farmer group organisations for the support that these societies provide them in times of need (Ijere, 1992; Deji, 2005). From my assessment of the participants’ responses regarding the borrowing and lending question in all the groups to which they belonged, cooperative and farmer groups garnered the most support, 47% of the total sampled population. Respondents from the two Local Government Areas showed a similar preference, because of the socio-economic importance they place on cooperative association in

their area. Cooperative association in the areas despite surviving a long history of weak relationship with government is still appreciated in the communities as a socio-cultural forum and economic safety net for members. Borrowing and lending in Igbo culture is a sensitive issue because it exposes one borrower’s vulnerability to another. For an Igbo to ask for monetary assistance from a non-family member or a group he or she belongs to means he or she has exhausted every other personal and familial option for addressing his or her situation. The person or group approached must be one that could be trusted not to take advantage of the knowledge of the person’s ‘needy’ or indigent status (Okonjo, 1978:71; Olomola, 2002). The Owerri West respondents’ strong affirmation to this question resulted mainly from the success of OGB EBD55 farmer’s cooperative society that made up most of the respondents. In Owerri North the two largely church-driven cooperatives viz CNZ and CJK account for the positive response. Judging the gathered responses from Ekeh’s (1975) ‘two publics theory’ standpoint, the behaviours would be ascribed to the moral rectitude compliance in the primordial public where interpersonal interactions are regulated by cultural norms and values with dire consequences for defaulters (see Van Bastelaer, 2000 in chapter three). People in their primordial communities tend to be more cautious of what they do and how they relate with each other in transactions than in the civic public. To default on paying back what is borrowed would attract retributions for the individual and his/her family lineage. Hence people make effort to gain and sustain an untainted image in their communities unlike the distrust and amoral allegiance with the civic public (Smith 2010:8).

Age grade was the next source of loan that the respondents opted for. Both Owerri North 35% and Owerri West 31% indicate a liking or inclination for age grade activities in the area. The other groups’ options particularly the church received a few response ticks on this question because some of the participating groups already are offshoots of the church. Age grades in the area operate a comparable support structure to the smallholder cooperatives. Sometimes they are more formidable in some areas than smallholder cooperatives and weak in others. I probed the reasons for the observed dearth of trust and reciprocity in the struggling UMG PGM smallholder cooperative in Owerri West. In response, a member of the group blamed the group’s dissonance

on the convener’s adoption of the urban-styled ‘high-handedness’ and ‘instrumental approach’56 to the business of the cooperative group in the rural area. According to him, the strategy did not go down well with the members, who rejected it, and instead turned to lukewarm allegiance to everything about the group:

Whether you call it cooperative or farmers association, I don’t know what they have told you (referring to the cooperative office at the Owerri secretariat), for the few of us in this, it is like a disposable ‘pass’ with which to join in waiting for the loan hope from the government. We all belong to our different age- grades and other associations that are more serious and have no business with the government ‘shakara’57… (Coop respondent, Owerri West, 2010).

As observed in the field and illustrated in the excerpt above the group’s members hold alternate affiliations to other better unified groups in their community. Hence their relegated cooperative group suffers haphazard attention. As Munkner (1995:5) argues, members may compel themselves to remain in cooperatives because they don’t have better or comparable alternatives to the group, and once such alternatives are available, they tend to choose them as substitutes. This assertion is more probable when applied to smallholder cooperative society scenarios found in the urban centers than in the rural areas. In other research on cooperatives conducted in the city of Lagos, by Mudi-Okorodudu (2007), a cooperative manager said this:

We know that members are here to meet their needs, and if they get another way of meeting their needs that is cheaper they will leave the cooperative. And also if they don’t have need again they will leave the cooperative… (p.45).

What exists in such city cooperatives is ‘instrumental trust’ whereby members see their cooperative affiliation as only a business venture detached from any other socio-cultural connection. Trust is not an issue in these societies and unfortunately they often fade away as soon as they are formed. But in the rural areas the case is different because of the homogeneity and familiarity among the members. Bonding trust is the most essential of all the attributes that galvanize cooperation in the groups in the rural settings. Members are therefore deemed

56_{See detailed discussion in chapter six.}

57_{‘Shakara’ is a Yoruba word that literally means “show off”, but it was popularized by ‘Fela Kuti’ the Afrobeat}

music legend and it became a household word applied in various Nigerian scenarios and discussions to imply ‘unseriousness or mischievous shenanigans’.

trustworthy enough to participate in their community’s cooperative activities, to be loaned money (soft loans) from the common stock of the cooperative/farmer group, even without collateral, hence defying the risks of a member defaulting on confidence which comes at a high price to both parties (Okonjo, 1978:67-69).

Table 12. Vulnerability and reliability (trust)

Trust as an aspect of ‘ugwu’ - social capital is essential to vulnerability (see chapter three). The acceptance of vulnerability by the trustor presupposes an expected level of reliability upon the available background knowledge of the trustee and his/her competence to deliver what is expected of him/her (Fukuyama, 1995). The participating smallholder cooperative societies and other genuine similar groups in the study communities operate in this model of trust dynamics. Smallholder coop-members are well-acquainted members of their community who could be reliably vouched for by their fellow members in circumstances of integrity.

Vulnerability and reliability as characteristics of trust cannot be quantitatively measured but can be identified in an act; thus I probed on the extent that my respondents trust other member friends from the different groups to which they belonged with their appreciated valuables. The responses gave me a sense of which group they hold most importantly close to heart in

If you suddenly have to go away, would you leave your children or very

valuable goods under which of the group member friend’s care?

Owerri

North Owerri West Total

Church group 3 1 4 18% 8% 13% Gender group 3 3 6 18% 23% 20% Cooperative/farmer group 9 5 14 53% 39% 47% Age grade 2 3 5 12% 23% 17% Social club 0 1 1 0% 8% 3% Total 17 13 30 100% 100% 100%

shameful dent on one’s character; the negative effect goes beyond the person and damages the reputation of his/her entire family. But with the current poverty and hardship situation in the nation, exacerbated by such stress factors as government’s rural land encroachment and parochial political patronage as elicited in Ekeh (1975); many people have deviated to immoral ways of livelihood in their effort to survive.

This development affects public trust in interpersonal relationships in the concerned communities as people learnt to take extra measures to protect themselves. It was no longer enough to trust someone based on open community acquaintance or similarity instead close-knit conditions were required as bases to earn each other’s trust such as belonging to the same smallholder cooperative or farmer group, church and gender groups. However, the perpetrators of these deviant acts keep their deeds as discrete as possible from public eye particularly in the village communities.

To the question above therefore, about half (47%) of the total sampled population agreed that they would willingly leave their children and valued goods in the care of fellow smallholder cooperative and farmer group members, indicating the possibility of mutual trust among members in the societies/groups. In the Local Government Areas, Owerri North respondents recorded 53% while Owerri West had 39% of the responses (see table twelve). The difference is so because most respondents in Owerri West grew skeptical of smallholder cooperative association because of the such abuse instances as the UMG PGM leader’s rational self-interest behaviour and the perceived parochial patronage from political quarters to the EBD group in this area at the expense of other groups. However, this question opened a wave of interesting reactions from the respondents with some nostalgic memories. A respondent contemplatively said:

Leaving my family and other material valuables would be a tough decision for me to make. I doubt if the situation would ever arise, but if it ever does happen, my husband and bigger children will be there. But in the worst case scenario… then I would surely be asking a blood relative to take care and if that’s not available, then a very close friend that I trust and share things of value with would be my choice. From around me now, I think I could narrow down on

such a person from my present cooperative society (Coop respondent in Owerri North, 2010).

Another elderly participant put it this way:

Whatever you do in this community you carry your family and immaterial valuables with you always (respect). The cooperative or other groups that accept your membership accept your family and these other valued intangibles; so when an unexpected condition suddenly takes your attention away, be assured that many others whom you would have given attention in the past through your group involvement, would be watching over them for you (Farmer group respondent, Owerri West,2010) .

The two excerpts above, although from two different women participants, a middle-aged cooperator from Owerri North and an elderly farmer group member from Owerri West, both share a similar outlook. The elderly participant response captured ‘in a nutshell’ what my investigation was all about. It sums up the Igbo cultural worldview of life in the community (discussed in detail in chapter three). Social capital saves the cost of transaction or cuts down on the expense of seeking the services of regular professionals to play roles that could be informally taken care of by one’s acquaintances (Schmid & Robison, 1995; 59). Similarly in the Igbo community setting, a villager, by forging ‘ugwu anyi’- trust ties with reliable partners and parties or groups, reduces the onerous stress of his/her vulnerability when emergency occasions arise by leveraging from his/her bank of reciprocity. He/she would conveniently leave his/her family and other valuables in trusted hands without having to bother about professional security agents or watch-dog fees. That singular alliance of trust removes a lot of psychological stress and financial expense. Hence the local Igbo cooperator/group member could channel his/her little saved resources to other more pressing needs.

The second most preferred choice from the option list was the gender group. As mentioned earlier, such groups transform into smallholder cooperatives in some communities while still maintaining the gender element as an exclusive women’s wing. Owerri North and Owerri West registered three responses, each totaling approximately 20% on the whole. Pooling resources and mutual reciprocity are baseline features of all the groups and these attributes stream from the

discussion, pointing out the mutual symbiosis and inter-dependability of life in the Igbo community. She said, “When an animal itches, it goes to rub its body against the bark of the tree trunk, but when a human being itches, he or she reaches out to a fellow human being to help him/her scratch the spot”. This directly implies that we as human beings need each other to soothe and support ourselves at various moments of our lifetime. Finally, age grades totaled 17% and the church group 13%. However social clubs like Rotary, Lions, Omega and Alpha registered the least response (3%) because they were unpopular among the participants in this research who were predominantly rural dwellers. Such clubs have been found to exist in the urban centers and at university campuses located in the state.

Table 13. Reciprocity and group contribution

The question in (table five) is in consonance with the previous tables on the issues of motivation and the operation of trust and reciprocity within smallholder cooperatives. It specifically inquires about the cooperators’ position on monetary contributions towards the society’s/group’s activities. Cooperators contribute money in forms of levies, dues, registration fees and share capital (equity) towards their group’s set goals. These monies are utilized in propagating the business of the smallholder cooperative to profit the participating members. Beside profit sharing from business proceeds among cooperators and farmer group members, the groups do generally have common propositions set aside to be addressed whenever the financial resources are

At each monetary contribution that you make to a cooperative agreed activity, which of these is or near your

thought?

Owerri

North Owerri West Total

That it is lost money 0 2 2

0% 15% 7%

An investment like in business 4 3 7 24% 23% 23% Renewing reciprocity and confidence in

group _35%6 _31%4 _33%10 Giving charity for the needy 3 2 5

18% 15% 17% Supporting Community development

agenda _24%4 _15%2 _20%6

Total 17 13 30

available. Such monies usually come in handy after sales from harvested farm produce, where an agreed amount is put aside along with the other projected expenses like bills, wages and goods to be purchased. The remaining dividends are shared in a measure proportionate to each member’s share contribution. Often, funds for charitable works are voluntarily solicited during cooperative meetings and members would agree to contribute a certain percentage of their share to such a purpose or pull out the necessary money directly from their personal purses. Food-stuffs, clothing and other essential materials are also gathered from willing donors for planned visitation to charity homes like orphanages. In this way the CNZ (ED LD) smallholder cooperative in Owerri North for instance, is able to sustain the charity wing of their cooperative society. Capital intensive community projects initiated by the cooperative/farmer group or the general community head take a longer period of savings from the group’s common purse. This is done in network with other development-oriented groups within and outside the village community such as the diaspora groups.

In response to my enquiry about monetary contribution, 33% of the entire sampled respondents agreed to have the renewal of reciprocity and confidence when making their financial contribution. Reciprocity practice is broad and differs from one group to another. For instance in bereavement or child-birth, the group members contribute a certain amount of money to support the bereaved or celebrating family. This act of support and solidarity ‘ugwu’ is usually accorded to all members in time of need. A cooperator told me an Igbo proverb to buttress this view of money (wealth) and inter-mutual cooperation saying:

Onye nwere mmadu ka onye nwere ego - one with dependable human connection i.e. social capital ‘ugwu’ is preferred to one with bags of money. (People can make money but money cannot replace people). Money is more pleasurable when it is used to touch and change the lives of those around you than isolating oneself in self-indulgences (Coop respondent Owerri North, 2010).

The perspective of money and its utility will be elaborated in some of the cooperative society cases (chapter six). The respondents saw money as a resource that could be used in the pursuit of

and embraces communitarianism and cooperation but not without its share of challenges as is being explored in this research. Conversely the west extols individualism and capitalism and