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From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Church and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Ekiti State Council have urged members of the National Assembly from Ekiti State to engage regularly with the citizens they represent.
They pointed out that this will help them build better relationships and connections with the people they represent, noting that since they are in office to advance the course of their constituents with quality legislative inputs, there is a need for them to be more accessible and available to positively impact their constituencies.
The organisations made this known while submitting the series of the citizens’ watch report on the performances of the Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Senator Cyril Fasuyi; lawmaker representing Ikole/Oye federal constituency 1, Hon. Akintunde Rotimi and his counterpart in Ido-Osi/Moba/Ilejemeje federal constituency II, Hon. Kolawole Akinlayo.
Three Senators and six members of the House of Representatives represent Ekiti State at the National Assembly.
The Director of JPDI, Revd Father Emmanuel Akingbade, while delivering the report, noted that the findings were a result of the responses received from the random citizens interviewed across the constituencies.
While acknowledging the various interventions of the three federal lawmakers in the area of empowerment and projects, Akingbade said that there was a need for them to follow up with contractors and agencies on the projects in the budgets for effective implementation.
“The findings apparently show that the representatives whose performances have been examined need to work on the quality of their representations. The system of democracy which we practice in Nigeria is ‘Participation Through Representation’.
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“This practice requires back-and-forth at all times between the representatives and the people they are representing; otherwise, the representatives might just be representing themselves and their cronies while they think that they are representing the people.
“In the light of this, we recommend the following: the representatives need to put a clearly defined methodology in place as regards how they connect with the people they represent in an inclusive manner. Periodic Citizens’ Engagement is non-negotiable.
“That nominated projects for a constituency must align with the needs of the people of the constituency.
“The people need to be more concerned with the projects being nominated for their Senatorial Districts and Federal Constituencies now that a Senator is entitled to nominate constituency projects worth Two Billion Naira yearly for his/her Senatorial District, and a Member of the House of Representatives is entitled to nominate constituency projects worth One Billion Naira yearly for his/her Federal Constituency.
“Our collective efforts can achieve responsive and responsible governance; the electorate should continue to ask their representatives questions,” Akingbade said.
The Chairman of the Ekiti State NUJ, Kayode Babatuyi, in his remarks, clarified that the constitutional role of the media is to hold leaders and representatives of the people accountable in the interest of the people, hence the decision to raise the concern.
Babatuyi added that the partnership between the NUJ and the JPDI was aimed at calling the attention of the lawmakers to the areas that need improvement and not to attack their personalities.
