Tell Soludo What Anambra People Expect From Him, Yiaga Africa Tells Civil Society, Media
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media have been told to stop hailing the outcome of the Anambra governorship election and start telling the incoming Prof Chukwuma Soludo led administration the expectations of the masses.
Yiaga Africa, an independent election observer group, made the call at a post-election reflection with CSO leaders and the media in Awka on Tuesday.
Dr Ezenwa Nwagwu, a member of Yiaga Board of Directors said it was time to move from analysing the Anambra governorship election to engaging the governor-elect with citizens’ charter of demands.
Nwangu called on them to begin to engage with communities to generate citizens’ charter of demands and confront the next government with them.
He said CSOs and the media should hold the incoming administration to their campaign promises while the masses should pay conscious attention to governance.
Nwagu decried poor participation among Anambra electorate noting that only about 112, 000 persons had succeeded in electing a government that would implement a budget of about N144 billion proposed for 2022 on the entire state.
According to him, the election has come and gone, Yiaga Africa deployed about 500 observers and used Watching The Vote to follow the process. We are happy that the outcome matched our WTV predictions.
“But, now we are talking about Watching The Governance, we have to hold the incoming administration accountable and that is where CSOs and media have to come by generating citizens’ charter of demand.
“They should engage communities, professional bodies like Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria of Teachers, the Labour movement to talk about what can make the society better; roads, schools, Infrastructure and other challenges,” he said.
The Yiaga Africa director said people should eschew the fear factor and stop complaining about the issues around the election but go about their businesses of state building.
Also speaking, Mr James Laman also discussed how the electoral system could be better and the possible impact of sufficient and statutory funding, independent recruitment and streamlined political parties on making INEC truly independent.
Participants were drawn from CSOs, media and people with disabilities.
