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    Tuesday, June 11, 2013

    STAKEHOLDERS MUST COME TOGETHERTO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF GRASSROOTS -Adeyemi Ikuforiji


    Speaker of the Lagos state House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji has said that critical stakeholders in the Nigerian project must come together to address the critical challenges confronting the people at the grassroots level.
    Ikuforiji made this call in his remarks at the second edition 'Legislative-Civil Society parley' of the state Assembly which took place at the Lateef Jakande Auditorium, Assembly complex last week.
    The theme for the parley was, 'Promoting Grassroots Governance: A synthesis of roles'.
    According to the speaker, "the task of good governance is a collective responsibility for all of us: the government, the civil society community, the media, the traditional and religious institutions and other stakeholders.

    "The critical import of today's parley is the strengthening  of our understanding with the civil society community in Lagos state and for us to evolve a working synergy and arrive at a more operational mechanism by which we could jointly assess the effectiveness and efficiency of our government at the grassroots in order to ensure good road networks, adequate security, qualitative education, sound health care delivery, hygienic environmental condition and an enabling atmosphere for trade and good living among other dividends of democracy", Ikuforiji said.
    He stressed the hope that the interactive and thought-provoking dialogue would help to lay a strong foundation for better governance and more measurable improvements in the living standards of the people at the grassroots.
    Adding that, "the Lagos Assembly has on regular basis and in a very diligent and innovative manner, been carrying out her oversight functions in the monitoring of various government ministries, departments and agencies including all local councils in the state.
    "This is to ensure that they are not only adhering to global best practices in the discharge of their duties but that the people are having unhindered access to the dividends of democracy especially at the grassroots level where governance is most measurable", Ikuforiji said.

    In his welcome address earlier, chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy, Security and Publicity, Hon. Segun Olulade stressed on the imperative of soliciting the active collaboration of civil society organisations in "the sustainability of those values and ideals that would not only help to strengthen democracy in the country but such that would help to promote good governance, massive job creation, quality education, sound and affordable health care services, steady infrastructural development and measurable improvement in the living standards of the people that we have been elected to serve".
    The parley, Olulade said, is hinged on the need to strengthen governance at the grassroots level through performance monitoring and assessment of the pogrammes and activities of local councils in Lagos state.
    “The Lagos Assembly is very passionate about the people at the grassroots level, bearing on the indisputable fact that basic government attention to the critical needs of the people is mostly felt at the grassroots. Effectiveness and efficiency of governance at this level is very important since the realization of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is most measurable at the grassroots". Olulade said.

    In his introductory remarks,rights activist, Dr. Sylvester Odion Akhaine decried the bastardisation of local government blaming the situation on 'allocation mathematics', "besides, under the current dispensation the chief executives of the various states of the federation have asphyxiated the local government structures by usurping their financial autonomy in the name of state-local government joint account. To worsen matter, virtually all the occupants of the leadership positions of local government are imposed by party stalwarts".
    According to him, what obtains at that level as a result is local administration and not local governance "which entails inclusivity and actual participation of the local people in the decision making process in the affairs of the local council. The idea of participation has to do with people at the grassroots taking part in the determination, execution, supervision and audit of projects as well as partaking in the payback", Akhaine said.

    Delivering the keynote address, Prof. Abubakar Momoh, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, condemned lack of specific local government structure which has continued to change through time resulting in anarchic and destructive structure.
    He called for the involvement of the community in local government programmes to ensure sustainability and for information flow between the local councils and the community.

    Among civil society organisations in attendance were, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Women Advocacy Research and Documentation Center (WARDC), Leadership Advocacy Concept (LAC), Lagos state Civi Society Partnership (LACSOP), Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) etc.
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