The crucial role of the watchdog of the society was once again being brought to the fore in the recent state-wide projects assessment tour undertaken by the Kogi State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The tour which took the media team across the 21 local government areas of the state was meant to assess if the SURE-P funds made available to the council areas were judiciously utilised.
Submitting their assessment report to Governor Idris Wada in Lokoja recently, the state NUJ chairman, Comrade Ali Atabor described the exercise as a success as it afforded the team an opportunity to see the modest efforts galvanised by all the chairmen towards ameliorating the hardship or rural dwellers.
Even though the result of the assessment was not made public before the state governor, The Graphic confirmed that the local government councils which performed below average were Kabba/Bunu, Bassa, Kogi, Okehi, Ibaji and Dekina.
The state NUJ chairman applauded the Federal government for initiating the scheme as well as the state government’s non-interference policy in the utilization of the funds by council chairmen.
According to him, most of the local government chairmen made judicious use of the funds on people-oriented projects such as the construction and rehabilitation of rural roads, electrification projects, provision of potable water, and youth as well as women empowerment among others.
Comrade Ali further noted that 15 out of 21 council areas satisfactorily provided basic amenities in their localities using the SURE-P funds while six according to the NUJ rating, grossly under-performed.
In the light of this, he said 2nd October has been earmarked for honouring the outstanding chairmen while thanking the state governor for recognising the role of the media, in embarking on such assessment.
Responding, Captain Idris Wada affirmed the significance of the report to the state government stressing that such collaborative effort will guide the government towards rendering an appreciable service.
He equally added that the ongoing ‘Thank You Tour’ was aimed at assessing the performance of his administration and those at the local government level and assured the team of the government’s readiness to study and implement the recommendations of the report.
Source: The Graphic
