*Lament lack of teachers in public schools, teaching aides, dilapidated buildings, fading primary health facilities
From Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki
Moving towards increasing accountability, transparency and effectiveness of the targeted local government areas in Ebonyi, the State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity, a USAID-funded project on Tuesday had a one-day revalidation program at Ugbodo, the headquarters of the Ebonyi Council Area of the State.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Parent-Child Intervention Centre, implementing the project for the USAID-State2State, said the program was held to improve the government's ability to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase responsiveness to citizens' needs and priorities; and oversee service delivery in the health, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors as well as enhancing government and civil society capacity to manage conflict.
This program, according to her, started in 2020 in the state, and it will run till next year.
"This program is all about knowing the people and also the people getting to know that they are the people who can help themselves by shaping their mindset, and know how to engage proper people that need to provide something for them.
"Like we are covering seven local government areas in Ebonyi State, which Ebonyi Local Government Area we visited today is part of them. This is not the first time, we came to Ebonyi Local Government Area, a lot has been done in Ebonyi Local Government Area.
"Today, we came for our second revalidation meeting and it was more or less group work from what we have done with them, for them to assess our work since the inception of the program. How do they see it? Did they welcome the program? How do they want it to continue and if need be, there is a change they want from us?"
She recalled that despite the commendations of the participants, they recommended that the USAID-State2State should provide them with a means of transportation during their meetings and step the activities to the village and community levels.
"A lot was said about their challenges. The participants of the program were able to open up. One of the challenges was the means of transportation. We discovered that going to the local government council to meet with the participants will be cheaper and make life easier for them. We never knew that the local government headquarters is not their house, it's right from this program through their challenges that so many people have to come from different miles to get to the headquarters to attend the training," she pointed out.
Mrs Ogbuagu commended the 20-man working group in Ebonyi Local Government Area for the passion they have for the USAID-State2State's training, noting that if they were determined within themselves to create changes in their communities, they would not be attending the meetings at the council headquarters.
She noted that the 20-man working group for the USAID-S2S project had been trained in peace and conflict resolution analysis, how to identify early-hour crises - when conflict is about to happen, citizens engagement, use of the freedom of information act, and budgeting, and after all this training was expected to engage in the local government chairman, the people on authority, to ensure their needs are being provided including the construction of rams for the persons with disabilities in the public facilities.
Lending more stances, Dr Nnamdi Okereke, the Program Officer of the Parent-Child Intervention Centre, implementing the USAID-State2State project in Ebonyi LGA, said the program was anchored on promoting public finance management in all the local government areas including Abakaliki, Ebonyi, Ohaukwu, Ezza South, Ikwo, Afikpo South, Ohaozara, where the agency works.
He said that the USAID-State2State targeted to make the council areas where the citizens especially the women, vulnerable persons and youths would have a say and participate in government policies and programs formulation and implementation.
Okereke urged the participants of the program to sustain their tempo while commending the level of their enthusiasm to carry out the USAID-S2S activities in the area.
NATIONAL PANEL also gathered that in Ebonyi Local Government Area, there are inadequate teachers in the public schools, with a lack of desks, chairs teaching aides and dilapidated buildings in some schools in various communities.
According to the Head of the Department of Education and Social Welfare in Ebonyi Local Government Area, Mr Paul Nwanchor, even though the council has 725 primary school teachers working in 88 public primary schools, many of the teachers have begun teaching some private schools, and doing some businesses, especially farming to make a better living because of their poor remuneration by the government.
Nwanchor who acknowledged that the development had reduced quality teaching in public schools, noted that many teachers have died, while some have retired and no replacement yet after the last recruitment which took place in the year 2010.
Also, Chukwuemeka Emakpa, Chinelo Onwe, Felicia Ogbuleke, Boniface Mgbabor and many participants of the revalidation exercise who aligned with Mr Nwanchor identified that Ekebeligwe Ishieke Community Primary School to be precise, has no single government-funded building, even though it had produced many professionals working home and abroad.
They noted that the school buildings of the Okpoduma, Mbeke Ishieke and some other villages are currently in a very sorry state, as the students/pupils study under trees in the area.
The people lamented the lack of medical doctors, nurses and other trained health workers in the primary health facilities, calling for their standard equipment in their various communities.
The participants commended the USAID-State2State for their training which they said had empowered them to make their inputs toward citizens' engagement in inclusive governance, accountability and transparency in budgeting, policies and programs formulation and implementation for the development of their communities and villages in the council area while urging the agency to provide them with mobility.
Meanwhile, the Leader of the Legislative Council of Ebonyi Local Government Area, Hon. Ifeanyi Ogwonu noted the program has brought awareness to both the government in power and the citizens, saying the identified challenges would be addressed appropriately by the relevant authorities as he called on the council people to continue to do their best in developing their area.
Ogwuonu assured the people, that as a leader of the council, he would continue to contribute positively by making legislation to touch humanity, and improving community development, especially in the areas of education, health, budgeting and citizens' engagement in governance, among others.
