Hardship: Group Urges State Govts To Be Responsive To Masses’ Needs 

The Community Advocacy for Peace and Strategic Leadership Initiative (CAPSL-Initiative), has urged the state governments to deliver on the welfare of the masses, with a view to dousing tensions and agitations that have the potential of threatening public peace and safety.

The group said until Nigerians begin to demand accountability from their respective state governments, human capital development will remain largely elusive.

In the release signed by its chairman, Akwuobi Emeka Francis, and secretary, Pius Pamela, CAPSL-Initiative said its investigation has so far revealed a steady increase in revenues from the federal allocation account committee (FAAC) to the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to the group, a reduction on the cost of governance by governors, and other elected/public office holders will free resources, which will subsequently be deployed to critical areas of needs such as employment generation, infrastructural development, credit opportunities, among other basic amenities of life.

Part of the statement read: “A situation where governors, and other elective and political office holders display opulence amid biting hunger and excruciating economic realities, provokes the poor, many of whom need as low as N100, 000 to establish themselves.

“We have it on good authority that allocations to states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been on the increase for months now, without corresponding improvements in the lives of the ordinary citizens.

“It is worthy of note that the recent protests that happened in parts of the country, might have been averted had many of the states been sensitive to the basic needs of their peoples.

“We daresay that there is a nexus between insecurity and absence of opportunities needed to better the lots of the ordinary Nigerians, whose demands are as basic as pipe borne water, cottage industries, access to education and health, feeder roads for farmers to convey their produce to markets, among others.

“It is a no-brainer to state that where development exists, there will be no need for rural-urban migration, which has continued to put strains on infrastructure in cities.”