Members of the National Assembly from Ekiti State have been tasked with delivering more robust, quality and responsive representations to their constituents.
This came to the fore during the presentation of a series of the citizens’ watch reports on the performance of the federal lawmakers representing Ekiti North senatorial district in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
This report, presented by the Director, Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Akingbade, in conjunction with the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), highlighted some of the lawmakers’ activities.
The lawmakers apprised included Senator Cyril Fasuyi, the lawmaker representing Ikole/Oye federal constituency 1, Hon Akintunde Rotimi, and his counterpart in Ido-Osi/Moba/Ilejeme federal constituency II, Hon Kolawole Akinlayo.
Rev. Fr. Akingbade, who noted that the findings were the results of the responses from the citizens randomly interviewed across the constituencies, said the lawmakers were in office to advance the course of their constituents with quality legislative input and constituency engagement.
JDPI stressed the need for lawmakers, as representatives of the people, to be more accessible and available to positively impact their constituencies.
While acknowledging the three federal lawmakers’ various interventions in empowerment and projects, the cleric called for regular follow-up with contractors and agencies on the projects in the budgets to ensure their effective implementation.
He said, “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 always requires back-and-forth between the representatives and the people they represent; otherwise, the representatives might just be representing themselves and their cronies while they think they are representing the people.
“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 N2 billion yearly for his/her Senatorial District, and a member of the House of Representatives is entitled to nominate constituency projects worth N1 billion yearly for his/her Federal Constituency.’’
In his remarks, Kayode Babatuyi, chairman of the Ekiti State NUJ, reiterated the constitutional role of the media in holding leaders and representatives of the people accountable in the interest of the people.
