By Hussaini Ibrahim Sulaiman
A Non-Governmental Organization known as the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) has in partnership with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the media launched a Constituency Projects and Governance Tracking Campaign.
Speaking at the launch in Kano, the Executive Director of the Centre, Comrade Dr. Ibraltim M Zikirullahi, said the one-year long project aims to mobilize citizens to put the spotlight on the delivery of the critical service of constituency projects in Kano State.
Comrade Zikirullahi emphasized that the project will address the opaqueness, lack of accountability, and lack of transparency that have characterized the implementation of Zonal Intervention Projects, also known as Constituency Projects.
He said: “The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), said the constituency project delivery process in Nigeria continues to be blighted by corruption, lack of beneficiary participation, and poor project delivery outcomes, resulting in the loss of value and waste of scarce public resources.”
According him, CHRICED will harness the political voice of marginalized groups and assist women, youth, and persons with disabilities (PWD) groups across the 44 local government areas of the state in organizing and advocating for priority issues and demanding accountability in the use of public funds.
A baffling, which he described as terrible, was how a collective Action on Corruption in Nigeria estimates that between 1960 and 1999, close to $400 billion was taken from Nigeria’s public accounts.
He further disclosed that between 2005 and 2014 approximately $182 billion was lost due to illicit financial flows in Nigeria.
However, CHRICED, he said, will embarked on organizing communities, equipping them with the skills they need to exert pressure on supply-side actors to ensure their perspectives are heard and the delivery of essential social services.
The group solicited robust supports from the citizens to key into the projects, saying that the project may not be achieved if the citizens, the ultimate target of constituency project’s intervention do not take the interest in closely monitoring and tracking.
“The CHRICED project on strengthening accountability and transparency in constituency project service delivery would provide the needed tonic for citizens to take a greater interest in how public resources are used to deliver this critical service, upon which trillions of Nigerian monies are appropriated.
“CHRICED therefore calls on citizens across the 44 local governments areas to brace up to be counted in the task of moving the governance debate towards addressing the issues in this critical sector of constituency projects.
“This project is yours because it is about the you and your community,” Zikirullahi added.
