The much-awaited citizen awareness campaign for the monitoring and safeguarding of constituency and other government projects in the 36 states of the federation commences today.
The campaign tagged : My Constituency, My Project! was launched by ICPC late last year 2019 in Abuja, the nation’s capital, in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to remediate observed lapses in the execution of constituency projects after the conclusion of the first phase of Constituency Projects Tracking Group exercise led by the Commission.
The result of that exercise revealed, besides other corruption-linked factors, a significant lack of awareness among community people of the fundamental objectives and principles behind constituency projects. This information gap has naturally led to misconceptions and lack of understanding of government’s role and intentions concerning constituency projects.
The very concept and implementation of constituency projects is evidence of government’s good intentions for grass roots people. The aim is to spread development to all nooks and crannies of the country through the intervention of the people’s representatives in the Legislature who expectedly should be in tune with their areas of need.
ICPC and NOA, given their mutual mandate which overlaps at the duty to mobilise citizens for good governance, are determined to alter the narrative and bring to fruition an active and committed citizenry desirous of ensuring the quality completion and protection of government projects in their communities.
The My Constituency, My Project! campaign which is supported by ActionAid will feature town hall meetings, a documentary, radio jingles, printed information and enlightenment materials as well as other potent communication tools.
These tools have been designed to provide avenues for feedback, enquiries and suggestions by community people to government through ICPC and other relevant agencies. Importantly, there is a dedicated toll-free line 0800-2255-4272 which citizens are encouraged to call to get information.
The campaign is also designed to properly guide community people in the course of monitoring projects to avoid antagonising contractors and other persons who are in the chain of conception and execution.
The goal is simply to ensure that both the government and the community receive value for money, and that ownership and sponsorship of such projects are not ascribed to the wrong entities.
It is hoped that as the campaign progresses, the song in every community person’s heart will be My Constituency, My Project! which will lead to effective, efficient and quality delivery of all government projects across the land.
