By Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
The Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Ekiti State Council have demanded more quality and responsive representations from members of the National Assembly from Ekiti State.
The organisations made this known on Tuesday while giving in the series of the Citizens’ Watch Report on the performances of the lawmakers representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Senator Cyril Fasuyi, Hon Akintunde Rotimi, and Hon Kolawole Akinlayo.
Delivering the report, the Director of JPDI, Rev. Fr Emmanuel Akingbade noted that the findings were as a result of the responses received from the random citizens interviewed across the constituencies.
According to the report, more than 65% of the people interviewed did not know the contacts of the lawmakers as well as their Constituency Offices; more than 70% did not know whether the lawmakers have had any town hall meeting with the people of their constituencies: and more than 85% were not aware of any bill sponsored by the lawmakers. Out of the three lawmakers assessed, Hon. Akinlayo was rated best by the people with a score of 3 over 5, while the other two lawmakers were not well rated.
Fr. Akingbade noted that the lawmakers were in office to advance the course of their constituents with quality legislative inputs and constituency engagements, and also explained that the lawmakers should be more accessible and available towards impacting their constituencies positively.
He acknowledged the various interventions of the three federal lawmakers in the area of empowerment and projects, adding that there is need for them to follow up with contractors and agencies on the projects in the budgets for effective implementation.
According to him, “ 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 that we practice in Nigeria is ‘Participation Through Representation’.
“ 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 is more than stating the obvious.
“ The people need to be more concerned with the projects being nominated for their Senatorial District 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, electorates should continue to ask their representatives questions.
On his part, the chairman of the Ekiti State NUJ, Kayode Babatuyi reiterated the constitutional role of the media to hold leaders and representatives of the people accountable in the interest of the people.
He added that the partnership between the NUJ and the JPDI was aimed at calling the attention of the lawmakers to the areas that need improvements and not to attack their personalities.
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