As part of efforts to engage citizens at the grass root in the fight against corruption, Policy Alert a foremost civil society organization in the Niger Delta region took her Listening tour to Nto Edino community in Obot Akara Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State.
The listening tour which is part of her Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C) Programme of Actionaid Nigeria with funding from UKAid is designed to contribute to a reduction in corruption as a result of changing public attitudes that increasingly disapprove of corrupt practices.
SCRAP-C through its Upright4Nigeria; Stand Against Corruption campaign aims to influence social norms and attitudes that help corruption thrive in Nigeria and our communities by extension with a view to effecting social change just as the project seeks to build public demand and attitudes for anti-corruption through strengthened, organized collective and individual actions and voices as this can best be done by citizens in our different communities who feel the cost of corruption.
During the tour citizens of the area led by Amama Aloysius and other youth leaders highlighted some corruption red-flags in their different communities in the WASH and Basic Education sectors and also drew the attention of the team led by Faith Paulinus, Program Officer for SCRAP-C to the newly constructed 6.41-kilometer Nto-Edino – Ekwereazu road which had over a hundred and twenty bad spots barely a year after construction The team also inspected the bridge after a heavy downpour which of recent times have posed danger to commuters using the road recording not less than three accidents on a weekly basis due to the failed portions of the bridge.
In the coming days, we hope to work with the communities to see how they can press home their demands and make sure the contractors execute the job within its specification and correct what needs to be corrected even as we urge the project monitoring department of the state ministry of works to step up her oversight functions so that government investments in infrastructures should stand the test of time.
In their separate remarks, the village heads of the different villages expressed optimism on the visit making the commitment to work with Policy Alert to help amplify their voices. Thereafter, a ten (10) person Citizens Against Corruption (CAC) committee was formed.
