From Austine Tule, Makurdi
A consortium of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Benue has urged the Benue State Government to include all the abandoned projects in 2018 in the 2021 budget or the supplementary budget of 2020.
Dr Helen Teghtegh, the Executive Director, Community Links and Human Empowerment Initiative, stated this during a press briefing in Makurdi.
Represented by the Program Officer, Miss Dooyum Orbunde, Teghtegh said that most of the projects that were captured in the 2018 budget were people oriented.
“It is our collective resolve that these projects as encapsulated in the 2018 budget were people oriented and worthy of execution.
“They are targeted at easing the challenges of the electorate.
“Also, contractors should be mobilized to site for the execution of the projects as this will hasten the ease of suffering of the masses.
“Government at all levels should involve CSOs in projects monitoring activities to balance perspectives and ensure transparency as well as prudence,” she said.
She said that they tracked the 2018 budget and discovered that 15 projects representing 38 per cent and scattered in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state were abandoned.
She listed the LGAs to include, Buruku, Logo, Oju and Ushongo respectively.
Meanwhile, Head of Programmes, Environmental and Climate Change Amelioration Initiative (ECCAI), Mr Romeo Obarike, lamented that women were still facing unequal access to political, economic policy and decision making and financial resources.
“So, despite the significant advances for women, the fact is unless women and girls are able to fully realize their rights in all facets of society, human development will not be advanced,” he said.
Also, the Directors of Engineering and Planning, Research and Statistics, Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives, Mr Terkura Wuam and Mr Moses Pila enjoined the CSOs to always involve Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) in their monitoring processes.
The Executive Director, Women in Agriculture, Mrs Ngizan Chahul, said that the aim of the budget tracking was to enable the government attend to the projects that were uncompleted or abandoned.
