Exploring the social legitimacy of urban road PPPs in Nigeria

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become an effective and efficient contractual agreement between the state and the private sector for providing infrastructure services. Yet, their social acceptance and legitimacy are questionable. Communities accept such changes to their social contract with the government only if the PPPs are perceived to be legitimate as public institutions are not trusted by the communities. As a result, the disappointments and controversial underperformance of PPPs in Nigeria, like most developing countries, have been generally associated with community opposition due to any agency or competence-related failure. Hence, the need for this study. Drawing on data from two urban road PPPs in Nigeria, we identify the following three deeply internalised shared beliefs that shape a community group’s perceptions and attitudes towards an infrastructure built by PPPs in their neighbourhood: the public services should be provided for free, PPPs are created mainly to serve perceived ‘corrupt’ politicians and public institutions are not effective and efficient in service delivery. These beliefs, combined with the community’s structural power, explain why some community groups oppose (or support) infrastructure PPPs within their proximity, and the growing legitimacy challenge PPPs face. Our paper in this regard provides a guidance for designing effective and targeted community engagement strategies for PPP projects and contributed to PPP stakeholder management and mainstream stakeholder management research.