Akwa Ibom Rep urges Nigerians to call public officers to account

By Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo

The Lawmaker representing Etinan/Nsit Ibom/Nsit Ubium Federal constituency, in Akwa Ibom State in the House of Representatives, Mr Onofiok Luke has advised Nigerian citizens to always call public officers to account through proper monitoring and questioning of government policies and programmes.

Luke made the call yesterday in Uyo while delivering a keynote speech at a Sit-out organised by Citizen’s Outreach NG with the theme “Redefining Citizenship for Good Governance”

His words, “We need to ask the right questions, else we may have dictators ruling us. Citizens participation is the very essence of democracy. Therefore you must ask the right and proper questions, using campaign promises. The more you give us space, the more we invade your privacy.

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Our problem in this part of the world is that we don’t have the staying power to demand accountability for so long. That was why we could not have an endpoint to #ENDSARS protest. We would have left the street to where we would have intellectual discourse to drive home our demands.

“Call public officers to account. As citizens, we must identify our strength and how to channel it and get results. We must understand that all forms of deprivation on our rights and privileges is a contest on our citizenship rights”.

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The former Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly who applauded the various ongoing empowerment and social investment schemes of the Federal government, however, expressed reservations on the management of such funds.

In his brief remarks earlier, the convener Mr Thomas Etuk said the initiative was designed to give citizens and communities a voice on matters regarding their development

According to Etuk some of the objectives of the organisation to includes; connecting with people, fostering strong relationships between leaders and followers, designing a new thought pattern for leadership, influencing political action and decisions in favour of the masses.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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