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By Joel Anekwe
The Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI), has called on the Rivers State government, the 23 local councils in the state and other stakeholders to adopt inclusive strategies in governance. This is towards the delivery of good governance and the actualization of the true dividends of democracy.
The non-governmental organization said its call was based on findings from series of peaceful interactions, media engagements, talk shows and community town hall meetings, with several key stakeholders at the 23 local government ares and 319 wards of the state.
Making the call in Port Harcourt, Ahaka Ikechukwu, project officer, policy and governance, Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI) said the need for inclusive governance strategies in the current political dispensation has become an imperative for stakeholders.
He said that in its needs assessment of communities in the state, MAJI identified five common areas of needs in all the communities in the state, listing them as education, employment and empowerment, security, health and electricity.
Ahaka said: “As an organization that is youth-driven and community-oriented, we are very passionate about contributing to ensuring good governance in Rivers State, and have taken a careful time to work towards achieving that within the state, leveraging on collaborative efforts and synergies with other local partners and other critical stakeholders.
“Please permit me to say that the stability and democratic progress of Rivers State is everyone’s business, as the general outcome of the processes adopted by the elected government, either way affects us all.”
The group therefore recommended that in order to promote quality education, government should build new classrooms and renovate existing dilapidated structures to decongest overcrowded classrooms, recommit its effort to abolish all forms of payment, and provide writing materials periodically from primary to secondary levels of education with stringent measures taken to ensure compliance of school authorities in the state.
It added that the state government should as a matter of urgency resuscitate dilapidated all existing government business and investment, build partnerships through public private partnerships so as to create jobs for the teeming Rivers youth population
“The state government in collaboration with the security apparatus in the state should ensure protection of lives and property through cohesive efforts put in place to tackle security in our rural and urban communities, with emergency hot lines publicly displayed to call for security response.
“To achieve sustainable and adequate health delivery, there is need to improve health delivery standards, through construction of specialized hospitals, with upgraded equipment, to contend with the global trends of challenges and the emerging health related diseases facing the state and its citizens, also existing community health programs upgraded to promote effective community health delivery with adequate measures put in place to accommodate all members of society,” it added.
