Stakeholders in built industry in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State have decried the low social amenities in the area despite having representatives in both state and National Assemblies. Speaking to PropertyMart, Mr. Ugwonwa Okafor, a stakeholder said that all those representing the area were only busy amassing wealth, building houses and riding big cars at the expense of their poor constituents. They decried the attitude of abandoning projects started by their predecessors because they will not benefit from such.
Okafor said that the local government has the potential to feed the whole nation with rice produced from the River Basin in the zone but that lack of good access road and other infrastructures were hampering the effort.
“We don’t have good roads, no light, no water for the public yet, they have clean borehole for their immediate families. This is sheer wickedness. Very soon they will come again seeking our mandate and promising us heaven on earth. It is high time we started cutting them to size for them to learn lessons, “he said.
In the same vein Mr. Chukwujekwu Obiora, said that government should start making allocations and allowances to local governments through their legislative representatives open so that people could check the way and manner they expend them. “This is the only way they can start living up to their expectations. They should stop using us as spring boards only to dump us when they get to their destinations,”he said.
Meanwhile, tracka, a transparency platform run by BudgIT, which allows citizens to collaborate, track and give feedback on public projects in their communities, has observed that a higher percentage of the N100 billion allocated for zonal intervention projects in 2020 approved budget were allocated for empowerment projects in lieu of infrastructural projects.
Considering the challenge of service delivery in the country, Tracka ensures that allocated public funds for projects nominated by members of the National Assembly, are effectively disbursed for the good of the people in local communities.
Lack of transparency and citizen inclusion in the nomination of the capital projects has led to an increasing number of abandoned projects in various communities across Nigeria, and despite the huge funds allocated for capital expenditure over the years, some projects are either left uncompleted, mismanaged or worse still, abandoned.