Bello Oyiza Rosemary
The Kogi State Accountability Platform (KAP) comprising Media Practitioners, Civil Society Organizations, and Religious and Traditional Leaders has called for citizens’ involvement in initiating constituency projects in the state.
The call was made on Saturday at a round table discussion on constituency projects organized by Stallion Times Media Service under the Get Involved, Dialogue, and Improve Project or G-DRIP.
G-DRIP is under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA) Project of the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism and is Funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
The stakeholders stated that as direct beneficiaries of constituency projects, it is important to involve constituents to enable them to state their needs in planning and executing the projects.
They called on lawmakers to be neutral and ensure equal distribution of constituency projects to the people regardless of party affiliation.
Earlier, the facilitator of the Roundtable Discussion, Stephen Salawu, took stakeholders through the key issues for citizens’ engagement in constituency projects.
In his welcome address, the Project Coordinator, Isiyaku Ahmed, said the objective of the round table discussion was to promote citizens’ engagement in initiating and owning constituency projects.
Stallion Times Boss encouraged stakeholders to get involved in various aspects of budgeted constituency projects and develop templates to monitor and track the execution of constituency projects in their communities.
The Special Adviser on Media to Kogi State Governor, Mr Ismaila Isah, delivered a goodwill message.
He commended Stallion Times for the initiative of the round table discussion, adding that such engagement would help the people to get value from their representatives by holding them accountable.
Mr Isah also said Governor Usman Ododo’s administration is transparent and people-oriented hence his commitment to executing projects that address the needs of the people.
He called on legislators to set up committees to interface with communities to identify their needs.
The Co-Chair, Non-state Actors of Kogi State Open Government Partnership (OGP), Ambassador Idris Muraina while commending Stallion Times for initiating the engagement and bringing in someone from the government to be part of the discussion, assured that the OGP will continue to hold public office holders accountable to get the best for the people.
