Community Life Project (CLP) provided digital training to grassroots community leaders in Ekiti and Osun states to enable them track and monitor Constituency Projects in their communities. The training took place on February 29, at Pope John Paul II Pastoral Centre Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State.
54 grassroots community leaders comprising women, youth leaders, and People with Disabilities in Ekiti and Enugu State were trained on how to access the Zonal intervention projects (Constituency Projects) published online. The list of Constituency projects is usually published on the website of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning but many grassroots communities often lack the digital literacy skills to access such information. The grassroots leaders have been tracking constituency projects for several years but had relied on CLP to provide them the list of projects Constituency projects planned by their Representatives. Now, CLP was giving them the skills to digitally access the needed information on their own.
The training is part of CLP’s efforts to reduce digital inequality and promote inclusion and grassroots participation in governance. The training was supported by the MacArthur Foundation. After the training the grassroots community leaders were able to identify and download the list of Constituency projects and extract those meant for their respective constituencies. They also receive training on how to carry out advocacy and demand for information and accountability from their Representatives concerning constituency projects.
Chief Dickson Fakayode, a Community Leader from Ise-Orun Local Government, Ekiti, expressed his gratitude to CLP for organising what he described as “a wonderful project”, noting that the training is eye-opening and has helped them come out of the darkness.
He added that he would go back to his community to educate his people and enlighten the youth on how to engage their Representatives and how to source documents online for tracking and monitoring of Constituency projects.
“Our representatives believe that the money at the national assembly belongs to them, but they are there to represent us, and we voted for them to bring the benefit of democracy to our community. Some project funds are being collected without projects being executed, but this enlightenment on how we can source documents online by ourselves will help us to know about constituency projects and how to follow up on them. Some representatives will collect funds for youth empowerment and give the youth peanuts. It is our Representatives that are frustrating the efforts of the Federal Government. We appreciate CLP for the liberation,” he said.
Mr. Boniface Segun Adeyemi, a Community Leader from Boluwaduro Local Government, Osun State, said he has been part of CLP’s programme for the past five years and the training he received has improved his knowledge about tracking constituency projects. He promised to utilise the knowledge in tracking constituency projects properly.
He said: “In this training, I just found out about a website [Ministry of Budget and Planning] where I can get the project documents by myself without the help of any other person. I can access the site to know the plans and programmes of particular locations in my community and beyond. I want to thank CLP for bringing this initiative. The sponsors and facilitators have done wonderfully well and we will use the knowledge to input it in our community to track government projects to get more valuable projects done completely in our community.”
Akanho Tope David, the treasurer for the Joint Association of Persons Living with Disabilities (JONAPWD) Irewole LG Osun State, representing Irewole LG in Osun West, said that he learned from the advocacy training how to familiarise themselves and engage their representatives in a good manner and different approaches they can use to dialogue with their House of Representatives and House of Senate, adding that he also learned how to monitor and track constituency projects.
“We want to make sure that projects allocated to our community are implemented and also ensure that it is going to be useful for us. We also learned that the money allocated for these projects is taxpayer funds and not their money and that we voted for them to represent our interest. It also helped us to know the site we can go to track projects since we know where to source for documents for constituency projects and also shared documents to track projects in Osun and Ekiti,” he explained.