A COOPERATOR IS NOT COARSED TO BECOME A MEMBER, BUT VOLUNTARILY JOINED

4.1d.                Because Co-operative societies are voluntary organizations, means that people should not be forced directly or indirectly to become a member. Research shows that in some part of the country, people are indirectly forced to join a co-operative group by asking them to form a co-operative society so that they can benefit from incentives from the government. i.e fertilizer or loan.

If this trend of systematic forcing of people to set up co-operatives persists, it then means that people are not allowed to become members of co-operative society willingly or on their own volition (voluntary) rather, because some persons feel they can make use of co-operative society to achieve their selfish gains or maybe they desire to use it to get free gift from the government. We could say here that this action breach the principle of “Voluntarily Joined Together”. One question we must not fail to ask ourselves here is, what happens to the co-operative society if government or other father Christmas-like donors are not ready to support them, Will they be able to operate effectively on their own?

ACHIEVE COMMON ECONOMIC END:-

4.1e.    All co-operators must understand that the main purpose of setting up or forming co-operative society is to collectively achieve profitable goals. Such goals could include; making extra profit, increasing the number of members in order to be able to generate enough money, so that the co-operative will be able to buy more goods, or perhaps for them to make more profit for themselves, and also to create guarantee for one another.