NAN-H-45
Project
By Christian Ogbonna
Yenagoa, July 13, 2017 (NAN) The Bayelsa Government, has advised rural dwellers, especially the youth, to protect the existing infrastructure in their areas and desist from any act of project sabotage in the interest of development.
The Commissioner for Community and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Saviour Ibegi, gave this advice during a courtesy visit by the Afrihealth Optonet Association to his office in Yenagoa on Thursday.
Ibegi, who lauded the association’s plan to implement the Sustainable Citizen Participation (SCP) in government and stakeholder’s projects, decried the way projects were being damaged by some people in the rural communities.
He called on the youth and organised groups in various communities to always ensure the protection of the existing projects in their localities.
The commissioner said that sustainable development in the rural communities could only thrive when the people imbibe the culture of safeguarding both existing and on-going projects.
“The community should also stop the attitude of extorting money from the contractors handling the various developmental projects in their areas.
“It is too bad to hear that many youths go about asking contractors to settle them first before putting a project in their communities.
“This is why sustainable development in the rural areas has been slow; there is need for serious campaign to address this challenge.
“Though, the State Government is making plans to empower youths through an NGO so as to develop dwellers of the rural areas.
“I, therefore, commend the gesture to establish the SCP to ensure development and its sustainability in the Niger-Delta states, especially Bayelsa”.
Earlier, Dr Uzodinma Adirieje, the National Coordinator of the association, explained that the association was a civil society network for the promotion of health and other development programmes.
Adirieje said the association, being funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), was committed to ensure that sustainable development is achieved in rural communities in the nine states of the Niger-Delta.
He expressed the hope that the SCP, when established, would address the challenges that have been militating against development in the rural communities.
“We have trained more than 18 duty bearers, who will be working with us at the community level; this group is going to train another set of 50 persons from each community.
“This is to ensure that the citizens are made to be part and parcel of any projects being executed in their areas,”. (NAN)
OOC/MO/YEMI
Edited by Morayo Omolade/Yemi Idris-Aduloju