Ekiti indigenes demand better representation at National Assembly

Some Ekiti State indigenes have demanded more quality and better representation from members of the National Assembly from the state.

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The indigenes made the demand through the Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Church and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Ekiti State council on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

The two organisations spoke through their leaders while delivering the citizens’ watch report on the performance of the lawmaker representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Cyril Fasuyi; the lawmaker representing Ikole/Oye federal constituency 1, Akintunde Rotimi and his counterpart in Ido-Osi/Moba/Ilejeme federal constituency II, Kolawole Akinlayo.

Ekiti State, South-west Nigeria, is represented in the National Assembly by three senators and six members of the House of Representatives.

Delivering the report, the Director of JPDI, Emmanuel Akingbade, a reverend father, noted that the report was a result of the responses received from the random citizens interviewed across the constituencies.

While noting that the lawmakers were in office to advance the course of their constituents with quality legislative inputs and constituency engagements, the cleric explained that they should be more accessible and available towards impacting their constituencies positively.

He acknowledged the various interventions of the three federal lawmakers in the area of empowerment and projects, but noted that there is a need for them to follow up with contractors and agencies on the projects in the budgets for effective implementation.

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“The findings apparently show that the representatives whose performances have been examined need to work on the quality of their representations. The system of democracy which we practice in Nigeria is ‘Participation Through Representation’.

“This practice requires back-and-forth at all times between the representatives and the people they are representing; otherwise, the representatives might just be representing themselves and their cronies while they think that they are representing the people.

“In the light of this, we recommend the following, the representatives need to put a clearly defined methodology in place as regards how they connect with the people they represent in an inclusive manner. Periodic Citizens’ Engagement is non-negotiable,” Mr Akingbade said.

The cleric said nominated projects for a constituency must align with the needs of the constituents.

“The people need to be more concerned with the projects being nominated for their Senatorial District and Federal Constituencies now that a Senator is entitled to nominate constituency projects worth Two Billion Naira yearly for his/her Senatorial District, and a Member of the House of Representatives is entitled to nominate constituency projects worth One Billion Naira yearly for his/her Federal Constituency.

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“Our collective efforts can achieve responsive and responsible governance, electorates should continue to ask their representatives questions,” he said.
For his part, the Chairman of the Ekiti State NUJ, Kayode Babatuyi, reiterated the constitutional role of the media to hold leaders and representatives of the people accountable in the interest of the people.

He added that the partnership between the NUJ and the JPDI was aimed at calling the attention of the lawmakers to the areas that need improvement and not to attack their personalities.