NGO Calls for Open Government Partnership to Attract more Development in Kwara
Written by Olarotimi Oshin on October 7, 2022
Joseph EMERIBE
The governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq-led administration has been reminded of the need to have a people-centered government at the local level for better development in Kwara State.
The charge was made today by the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE)- a non governmental organisation under the funding of ActionAid Nigeria, Comrade AbdulRahman Ayuba at a meeting held in Ilorin the Kwara state capital to assess the impact of the Local Right Programme of the organisation (LRP).
According to Ayuba, the Transition Implementation Committee (TICs) Chairmen serving as heads at local government areas in the state have their limits and called on the government to hasten the process for an elected local government representative.
“so we’re emploring the state government to look beyond whatever hurdle is in place to ensure that we have a democratically elected personality in place at the local government level instead of running a TIC system that we are currently faced with. And like I told you also one of the instruments in which to drive the OGP is the FOIA- Freedom of Information Act” he added.
He added that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the state are often bedeviled by the none availability of Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Kwara; a challenge which to him is the major reason why there are fewer international organisations coming with aides for people of the state.
Meanwhile, the LRP; a project of the CCEPE, boasts of empowering, enlightening and educating over eighteen (18) communities in Asa and Kaiama Local Government Areas respectively, since 2007.
In his words: “The LRP project is about ensuring that community understands their right, advocate for their right and actually achieve their right. Ours is to build the capacity and funds that are being used are gotten from what we call the Child Sponsorship Mechanism”
Representatives of the vulnerable communities reached by CCEPE in partnership with ActionAid Nigeria expressed their joy and happiness with the intervention of the NGO in their areas and promised to do even more with the skills and knowledge garnered from the program.
They however, appealed to the government of the state to come to their aid with more social amenities for them to live and lead more meaningfully in their communities.
“I am Hussein Hassan from Gatte Community in Kaiama Local Government Area. In fact they have done so many things. they have done advocacy for us that if we want to ask for our right we’ll we’ll ask for our rights from the right bearers and we are the duty bearer”
“My name is Daudu Rashida from Ipetu Community in Asa LGA, CCEPE did so much for us and I have implemented the knowledge received by writing, calling and visiting kwara state ministry department and agencies we are still expecting the government to fix the electricity challenge in about three communities in our area”
Also present at the event are representatives of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the state government, and CSO
