Advocacy News

Transparency and Accountability:

Kaduna LG Councils lock horns over N20 million prize money

Pic: From Left: Director Budget Kaduna North, Mr Andrew Swat, Deputy Director Planning, Budget and Planning Commission, Alhaji Badamasi Musa and CALPED's Head of Governance, Mr Yusuf Goje, exchanging views during the visit

In a renewed move to take governance closer to the grassroots, all the 23 Local Government Councils of Kaduna state are being assessed on the basis of adherence to policy documents, budget planning and preparation process predicated on increasing internally generated revenue (IGR), improved public procurement system and reduced payroll fraud, tracking of absenteeism of primary school teachers and health personnel and the essence of abiding by guidelines of the state to engender transparency and accountability.

Deputy Director Planning in the state's Budget and Planning Commission, Badamasi Musa who led the Budget Assessment team to the Kaduna North Local Government Council of the state during the week, said the move became necessary to give the rural poor a sense of belonging.

While explaining that the Local Government Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability(LFTAS) program was a governance reform initiative of the state being facilitated by the commission and in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government Affairs to deepen accountability and transparency in the state, Musa pointed out that the ultimate goal was to improve and consolidate service delivery in local governance.

"LFTAS has five thematic areas of focus as follows: adherence to policy documents; budget preparation process; increased internally generated revenue(IGR); improve public procurement system tracking absenteeism of primary school teachers and health personnel", Musa disclosed, adding that the initiative "has 24 success factors which will be used to assess and evaluate all the local government councils with a financial reward of twenty million naira to those local councils that are able to achieve all the success factors as the case may be.

In his remarks, the Chairman of Kaduna North Local Council, Alhaji Sale Shauibu expressed delight over the initiative and assured the budget assessment team of his council's cooperation to ensure that the laudable program of the Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led administration was successfully implemented.

The Commission in her bid to ensure citizens' participation in the process had requested the civil society to be part of the assessment visits in each of the local government, thereby mobilizing one civil society focal person in each of the local governments to be supported by the state civil society team for effective and result-driven participation.

On his part, Yusuf Goje, Head, Governance and Advocacy of Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development (CALPED) expressed the readiness of Civil Society to effectively participate and support the LFTAS program in the spirit of Open Government Partnership (OGP).

"Civil society engagement has now changed from confrontation to collaboration towards improved qualitative service delivery and good governance”, Goje stressed, calling on the civil society to take advantage of the LFTAS program initiated by the government to effectively engage and demand for Fiscal transparency, accountability, responsiveness and improved quality of service delivery at the grassroots.

Meanwhile, Kaduna North's Director of Budget, Mr Andrew Swat along with his deputy, Rabiu Isyaku assured the assessment team that the Budget department of the council was in good stead to clinch the prize money at stake in view of the council's "track record of promoting transparency and accountability in the scheme of things"

Comments

Malaria: In solidarity with Under-5s

A cross section of children Ward DANGWA DANJUMA R enewed campaign to eradicate malaria as part of activities to commemorate the World Malaria Day 2022, led by Centre for Media Advocacy for Mother and Child (CAMAC) has kicked off in Kaduna. The campaign which is part of the NGOs "Malaria Eradication Campaign 2022" with the theme: "Eliminating Malaria through Community Engagement", this year, is themed: “Harness Innovation to Reduce the Malaria Disease Burden and Save Lives” The World Malaria Day is celebrated every 25th of April to bring greater awareness to the global fight and recognise the existence of malaria across the globe. This year's project is being supported by Newsweb Express an online news platform in collaboration with Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME) a global network uniting civil society organizations and communities to achieve malaria elimination. People are more prone to malaria in the rainy weather and it is timely when communitie...

Kaduna IDPs cry out over Deplorable Conditions

By DANGWA DANJUMA L ack of basic education, sanitation, healthcare facilities and access to portable water supply have hit Gwagwada, a host community camping over 300 households displaced from fifteen villages in Chikun Local Council of the state. Speaking at the flag off of relief materials distribution for the internally displaced persons (IDPs), the Village Head of Gadani, Mr Bitrus Tsauri disclosed: “Since they arrived, the wells which have been the sure source of water for several households in the community have dried up; the solar powered borehole is only providing drips of water necessitating most residents to seek drinking water from streams. Our two public primary schools and healthcare facility are currently inadequate and may be unsafe, especially with the coronavirus pandemic that Kaduna state is still counting cases”. He confirmed that those who can farm, have been provided land to start over again; there is still the worry however, for those who are unable to farm due t...

'Development Partners, a blessing to my Community' - District Head

His Highness, Mr Haruna Kuye (3rd left, middle roll) flanked by the visitors and village heads T he District Head of Gidan Zaki, His Highness, Mr Haruna Kuye has given kudos to members of the civil society, for positively touching the lives of his people, through frequent capacity building in governance processes, thereby empowering his community in the area of tracking and monitoring government projects. "Work began sometime ago in my community and no one had information on the details of the project. I mobilized and led a small team to engage and inquire from the client and contractor the details of the project. Now we know the kilometers of the road to be constructed. I am grateful to participate in Open Government Partnership with regard to Local Government Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability engagements; without which we would not have had any idea by now on the ongoing governance reforms in Kaduna State.", he disclosed. He st...

TRIBUTE: Dr Bala Takaya 1930 - 2018

Bala John Takaya (2nd Left) at a function recently By Nasiru Jagaba Again, with rude shock, death has come upon us in the early hours of Sunday, 27th May, 2018. It is with deepest regret that the Middle Belt Youth Wing of Middle Belt Forum mourns the death of our President, Father, Mentor, and a tireless advocate of equity, fairness and justice, Dr Bala John Takaya, the President of Middle Belt Forum has silently closed the door of life and departed from us, never to return. 68 years old Takaya, an unparalleled University Senior Lecturer, a distinct politician who served as the Secretary to State Government of the old Gongola State, a member of the 1987 Political Bureau. On the fight to restore democratic system of governance, he worked hand in hand with Chief Solomon Lar. Also, in 1999 he was the governorship candidate of the All People’s Party, APP later ANPP. He is much esteemed in the community of Middle Belt and generally recognized as on...

'Terrorists are all over, not only Southern Kaduna'

-Governor Nasir el-Rufai el-Rufai addressing Journalists in Hausa after a security meeting on Southern Kaduna By DANGWA DANJUMA G overnor Ahmed Nasir el-Rufai has admitted that terrorists are everywhere in Kaduna state, not only in the troubled Southern Kaduna, disclosing that miscreants have taken to the social media space to promote what he called disturbing and further aggravating the worsening situation situation with religious and ethnic colouration. Speaking to newsmen in Hausa, after a meeting with security officials, el-Rufai said that miscreants from Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and outside Nigeria are trying to insinuate that the Southern Kaduna killings is ethnic and religious even going as far as asking people to take the law into their hands. While maintaining that these people would be brought to book, he tasked traditional leaders, religious leaders and political office holders in the state to speak the truth about the happenings as failing to do so wo...

Cubinks NEWS

Search This Blog