….urges citizens to demand judicious use of allocations
By Sumaila Ogbaje
Community Advocacy for Peace and Strategic Leadership Initiative (CAPSL-Initiative), a civil society group, has called on state governments to be more responsive to the citizens’ needs in addressing the prevailing hardship.
This is contained in a statement by the chairman and Secretary of CAPSL-Initiative, Akwuobi Francis and Pius Pamela, on Monday in Abuja.
They said there was urgent need for state governments to deliver on the existing social contract they had with the masses, with a view to dousing tensions and agitations that have the potential of threatening public peace and safety.
According to the group, until Nigerians begin to demand accountability from their respective state governments, human capital development will remain largely elusive.
They said that investigation they had conducted had so far revealed a steady increase in revenues from the Federation Account Allocation Account committee (FAAC) to the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to the group, a reduction on the cost of governance by governors, other elected and public office holders will free resources.
“This will subsequently be deployed to critical areas of needs such as employment generation, infrastructural development, credit opportunities, among other basic amenities of life.
“A situation where governors, and other elective and political office holders display opulence amid biting hunger and excruciating economic realities, provokes the poor, many of whom need as low as N100,000 to establish themselves.
“We have it on good authority that allocations to states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been on the increase for months now, without corresponding improvements in the lives of the ordinary citizens.
“It is worthy of note that the recent protests that happened in parts of the country, might have been averted had many of the states been sensitive to the basic needs of their peoples.
“We daresay that there is a nexus between insecurity and absence of opportunities needed to better the lots of the ordinary Nigerians, whose demands are as basic as pipe borne water, cottage industries, access to education and health, feeder roads for farmers to convey their produce to markets, among others.
“It is a no-brainer to state that where development exists, there will be no need for rural-urban migration, which has continued to put strains on infrastructure in cities,” they said.
CAPSL-Initiative challenged the state governments to revamp the moribund technical colleges, which, according to them, have the capacity of turning out millions of technicians/artisans.
The group also lamented that many promising young men and women had dropped out of school owing to their inability to pay tuition fees that had continued to rise above the capacity of the ordinary Nigerian parent.
“How many states have functional scholarship boards, which are saddled with the mandate to offer education aid to deserving indigenes?
“While the federal government has its core responsibilities in the areas of foreign policy, defence/security, and others, we hasten to note that states must brace up to the socio-economic development of their people.
“We, therefore, conclude by admonishing Nigerians to demand accountability, transparent application of public funds by their governments, as well as officials.
“Nigerian youths are resilient in spirit, and dogged in character; all they need are the necessary incentives to activate and propel their skills,” the group added. (NAN)