The northern regional town hall meeting, on how best citizens can benefit from government policies including savings from fuel subsidy, organized by Partnership for amplified voices (PAV), took place in Kano.
The session supported CSOs with information to help improve their engagements in the region,
and to be more effective at promoting transparency and accountability in management of subsidy savings.
In his opening remarks, the executive director connected development (CODE), Hamzat Lawal explained that, as citizens and stakeholders, the fuel subsidy removal has affected people at the grassroots level,hence the need to come together to profer lasting solutions.
He described citizens engagement as a major catalyst to help improve their engagements in the northern region, states and Communities and be more effective at promoting transparency and accountability.
In his presentation tagged : understanding the NG carles initiative of federal government,financed by world bank: the national Coordinator Nigeria COVID-19, action recovery and Economic stimulus NG-CARES,program Dr. Abdulkarim Obaje called for enforcement of Funds release policy to ensure timely release of palliatives.
“The fund should not stay more that 10 working days in the account of the state government and immediately be disbursed to the beneficiaries.
Obaje advised Civil Society Organizations to work closely with government and citizens, to address and focus on resources,saying that, there should be more transparency and funding from the government, to bridge the gap of infrastructure, particularly in poor communities as well as access to portable drinking water.
In his key note presentation titled : fuel subsidy Savings and other FG policies: How can citizens optimally benefit? Eze Onyekpere noted that, an Infrastructure support fund has been set up by proclamation and can be used to alleviate suffering due to fuel subsidy removal.
He identified engagement of organized labour,private sector, professionals, women,information workers and the public in good faith disclosure and negotiations with relevant information and design a social Intervention program to cushion the hardship.
Speaking during a panel discussion, the falakin Bichi Alhaji Abba Wada Waziri, emphasized the need for more efforts, by CIBa, to ensure that palliatives are distributed at the grasssroots level.
Others who spoke during the town hall meeting includes Hajiya Mairo Bello from AGIP, Safiyan Lawan Bichi from Kano budget working group,Fatima Musa Aliyu Bridge connect Africa and representative from NYFF Gambo Yakubu.
The Partnership for Amplified Voices (PAV) is an accountability Civil Society platform facilitated by
partnership of two leading CSOs in Nigeria, BudgIT Foundation (BudgIT) and Connected Development
(CODE), with support from the Word Bank,servers as a means to facilitate
improvement in governance outcomes, inclusion, and social accountability for Nigerians.
KHADIJAH ALIYU
