BENIN CITY:- The Africa Networks for Environmental and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) and her partners have called on Civil Society Organizations and Communities in Nigeria to increase demand for accountability and hold the Niger-Delta Institutions accountable for their mandate in the desire for effective, transparent and accountable stewardship.
The call was made by the Executive Director, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor in his remarks at a one-day learning workshop that took place in Benin City, Edo State yesterday.
Rev. Ugolor said the workshop would present opportunity for ANEEJ and her partners GREE-CODE; GADA; RIVCHO; LITE-AFRICA to share outcome of citizen’s report card on Niger –Delta Institutions survey which was undertaken in Edo, Delta, Rivers and Ondo States with LITE-AFRICA.
He said the programme would also enhance the knowledge of participants on the mandates and activities of Niger-Delta Institutions and the role of legislature in improving their effectiveness.
In a paper titled “Project Success Story, and the opportunity for further CSOs Intervention”, the Deputy Executive Director of ANEEJ, Leo Atakpu said that due to ANEEJ engagement, NDDC has increased transparency and accountability measures which are intended to improve its effectiveness.
According to him, before now, anybody can parade him/herself as engineer, a development, he added had stopped, a development, he added had stopped, following the commission’s current development of a standard manual in partnership with Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
“NDDC has Institutionalized Civil Society engagement with the commission, as first and second interactive sessions have organized.
“T he commission has agreed to do this on quarterly basis to review what is happening in the body and also x-ray the challenges faced”.
The programme officer of ANEEJ, Innocent Edemhanria in a paper titled “Overview of the strengthening civil society capacity to engage Niger-Delta Institutions on Resources Management Project” said Nigeria is the number one producer of crude oil in Africa from Niger-Delta Region, but unfortunately, the government s having trouble taking its population put of extreme poverty.
“Huge resources allocated to these institutions and the budget runs into billions which they are surposed to use to work for the people, but the resources have been mismanaged by political office holders and collaborators,” he added.
