By Taiwo Adeyemi
Tracka, an open-source service delivery monitoring platform, has called on Nigerians to show keen interest in nation building to promote good governance.
Tracka’s Kwara State Coordinator, Mr Olarewaju Lawal made the call while featuring on Diamond FM, Ilorin, Kwara State popular Yoruba Language News and Current Affairs program “E ba wa da si” on Tuesday.
It will be recalled that Tracka in its analysis of the Nigerian 2024 budget revealed that the federal government allocated 2,558 projects worth N628 billion to the wrong agencies in the 2024 budget.
The report identified misplaced projects across different agencies, and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN) was particularly frequent.
For instance, the FG allocated N5 billion to SMEDAN to purchase and distribute official vehicles to selected traditional rulers in the six geo-political zones.
Lawal emphasized that citizens must take active interest in governance in Nigeria.
“Citizens must show interest in governance by monitoring projects in their communities”.
“They must also demand for accountability from the political elites. They should also stop demanding undue favors from the political elites”.
On the discoveries made by Tracka on the 2024 budget, Lawal maintained that it’s a plot by the political elites to milk the nation’s scarce resources.
“it’s a plot by politicians to steal public funds, many government agencies got allocations for projects outside their purviews”.
He furthered that “some projects are in the budget without a basis for data selection, we have over four thousand empowerment projects, how do you track people that will benefit from it?”
Lawal reiterated that citizens contribute to corruption by putting undue financial burden on politicians.
“Many politicians do receive unnecessary and ridiculous requests from the electorates”.
“There was a time Tracka went for a community engagement, some members of the community attacked us saying that we are exposing their leaders because of few privileges they are enjoying from them”.
Full programme link;
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/psLqefhz4tRAgvMh/?mibextid=qi2Omg