Budget Expert Tasks CSOs, Media to Work against  Abandoned Projects

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

As part of efforts to curb the growing incidence of abandoned projects in Nigeria, a budget expert, Mr. Henry Omokhaye, has urged the civil society organisations and media to engage in monitoring in order to prevent  contractors and others stakeholders from abandonment of  constituency projects across the country.

Omokhaye was the facilitator at a two-day training workshop on tracking constituency projects (Get Involved Dialogue and Improve Project (GDRIP) organised by the Stallion Times for journalists and Civil Society Organisations in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital yesterday.

He explained that the media and civil society organisations have roles to play to curb hydra-headed abandonment of projects after being paid for.

The budget expert lamented  that through the effective monitoring and projects tracking in the recent past, it has been discovered that several thousand constituency projects have been abandoned, while  few were completed and not beneficial to the host communities, even as others could not be traced at all.

He identified some of the reasons why constituency projects are being abandoned as corruption, lack of awareness, and that critical stakeholders were not involved in citing of such projects in their domain.

Omokhaye, therefore, tasked the civil society organisations in Kogi State to avail themselves by participation in citizen budget engagement in their various states, noting that they should engage in monitoring and tracking of both federal, constituency, and  state government projects.

He also called on kournalists to rise up to the occasion to save  tax payers money by  monitoring and tracking constituency projects, noting that the media should create awareness for the people at the grassroots level who are direct beneficiary and also engaged the lawmaker representing the constituency on the need to complete projects for the benefit of the people.

The budget expert, however, commended the President Muhamaadu Buhari-led administration over the giant strides in infrastructure development, noting that no administrations has surpassed the present administration in the areas of budgeting, fund releasing execution and completion of projects in the past  seven

years.

Also, the Editor in Chief/Executive Director, Stallion Times, Ahmed Isiyaq, in his opening remarks, stated that the two-day training workshop was aimed at building capacity for media/CSOs on budget processes and procedures.

It is also to train journalists/CSO advocates on how to track constituency projects, and to improve journalists’ capacity on writing investigative story on constituency.