“Ready to Lead Africa” with assistance from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has organised a two-day training for youths across the 17 Local Government Areas of Plateau State in its Accountability Project in order to give them the necessary skills on how to track the implementation of democratic dividends. This is done in order to promote greater accountability in the governance process as it relates to the delivery of democratic dividends to the people of Plateau State and Nigeria generally.
Mr. Godbless Otubure, the global president of Ready to Lead Africa, made a hint that one of the goals of the programme was to provide participants who would be “promise Followers” a better understanding of the governance process and how they could encourage accountability and openness in governance.
He revealed that the project also aims to better educate and prepare participants on the need to demand accountability from political leaders, arguing that good governance through responsive leadership that works to improve living conditions, security, social amenities, and the economy for the benefit of the populace is just as important as elections.
He claimed that the Participants are also receiving training on how to report the consistency of government projects being carried out in their particular Local Government Areas using a customised application. He made a suggestion that they have been able to gather useful information on the difficulties encountered and the strategies used in project execution, and that the platform also makes it possible for the government to present reports on the results they have been able to achieve.
He claimed, “We are working with government institutions to obtain real-time data on what the government is doing across all Local Government Areas. Additionally, we are making sure the Governors keep the commitments they made during the election campaigns.
According to him, the days of making up camping promises are over, and citizen action and young people getting involved are here to stay.
At the conclusion of the training, he said, the participants are expected to have the necessary knowledge and abilities to use the application and technology to involve community leaders, track and report progress of projects in their domains, which will be used to form a comprehensive report that would assess government performance.
Project Manager of Ready to Lead Africa, Mr. Okechukwu Ehieze, stated in his remarks that the “Follow the Promises” training is intended to equip Promise Followers, who are Representatives across the 17 Local Government Areas in the State, with greater knowledge on how to measure the progress of project implementation and report the same to promote transparency and accountability by government, particularly in line with its campaign promises to the people.
According to him, the “Follow the Promises Project” is now being implemented in six (6) pilot States: Plateau, Gombe, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Ekiti, and Sokoto, with plans to expand to additional States of the Federation in the future.
To increase the project’s effectiveness and impact, he added it is intended to scale down the training to other people in their local government regions. He said that the idea will encourage accountability by forcing governors to follow their platforms, which, in turn, he claimed, would benefit the people. He emphasised once more that accurate data and information must be provided by the Promise Followers in order for thorough reports to be created.
Participants Valentine Kefas and Mrs. Rosemary Simi Paul praised the organization’s initiative and said they had learned more about the governance process, how to ensure that the government’s manifesto is being carried out, and how to report on it, all of which they said would increase transparency and accountability.
They declared that they would impart the knowledge they gained from the training to other Follow the Promises Project Ambassadors and use the application effectively to track the development of all the initiatives taking place in their regions.
They claimed the training had a significant impact since it had given them the knowledge they needed to hold the government responsible for its manifesto and had given them the technological know-how they needed to utilise the programme to report government projects.
Participants from all 17 of Plateau State’s Local Government Areas attended the training, which took place from September 11 to September 12, 2023, at Novel Suites and Resort Rayfield Jos, the state capital of Plateau. Participants were trained to become Promise Followers, which is the main goal of the Follow the Promises Project.
