The Forum of Executive Directors of Civil Society Organisations in Bauchi State has called on Governor Bala Mohammed to conduct local government election in the state to further strengthen the dividends of democracy.
Chairman of the forum, Sodangi Chindo, who disclosed this at the weekend in Bauchi, said the call for local government election became imperative considering the successful take-off and style of leadership exhibited so far by the current administration.
Chindo hailed the Mohammed administration’s policies, especially the declaration of emergency on education, health and standing order already approved for counterpart funds.
He said: “We have seen a level of commitment to payment of pensions and gratuity, key appointment of advisers, commissioners and caretaker chairmen of LGAs have been made, though the number of women is of concern but the appointments were timely and well deserved”.
“We want to remind the governor of his campaign promise that when elected into the office of the governor of Bauchi State, he will conduct local government election to strengthen democracy and good governance,” he said.
He explained that the objective of the forum was to strengthen civil society organisations towards a coordinated response in the state through vital and accurate information dissemination.
He charged members of the forum to redouble their commitment towards the objective of the group, adding that “Our contributions to development in the state includes employment creation, advocacy, strengthening community based structures and implementation of vital projects in areas of human development like health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, human rights, democracy and good governance among others.
“We successfully collaborated with NUJ, NBA and NIPR to organise the well-attended candidate manifesto presentation and documented firsthand almost all campaign promises of candidates, including the incumbent governor, Senator Bala Mohammed. We have supported government on key issues of education, health and gender equity in governance.”
“There is need to generate accurate data of development challenges across the political wards in the state and use the data for resource mobilisation and as a guide to critical decision making process.
“We need to develop a website where activities of CSOs in the state would be shared with the world to showcase best practices,” Chindo said.
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