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Contributors at the Participatory Review and Reflection Process (PRRP) meeting in Lokoja, yesterday, urged the Kogi State government not to abdicate its responsibility in providing basic amenities to rural dwellers.
The participants, drawn from Adavi and Igalamela/Adolu Local Government Councils, spoke during a one-day interactive session organised by ActionAid Nigeria, in collaboration with the Participatory Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID).
They expressed displeasure that the state and local councils failed to provide their communities with potable water, primary health care and primary school education until intervention by ActionAid/PIBCID.
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Nasiru Abubakar from Osara 1 community of Adavi council regretted that once elected, politicians abandon the electorate. He said: “People that are privileged, like politicians, if they emulate what these people are doing, poverty will reduce drastically.”
Community development chairman of Ofuloko in Igalamela/Adolu local Government area, Egbunu Muhammed, said it was the advent of ActionAid that changed the story of the community, as it provided a block of three classrooms.
On his part, Sule Alfa Abdulrahaman from Ajaka ward 1 said ActionAid enlightened his community to know its rights. He said it had promised to build a clinic. He appealed to the state government to focus on the community and liberate its people from poverty.
Executive director of PIBCID, Grace Owonikpa, and programme manager, ActionAid Nigeria’s Local Right Programme, Kogi State, said the participatory and review process is a yearly affair.
