In the past weeks, OST has conducted town hall meetings in Agura community Ikorodu, Lagos state, Oredo Local government area in Edo state and Okigwe in Imo state. The town hall meetings are aimed at sensitizing the people on the role of local governments and encouraging genuine civic participation. The town halls have been quite successful as most attendees showed interest in the subject matter but are either unaware of how to demand accountability from those who govern them or are simply not ready to participate actively in local governance.
A common factor of all these town hall meetings with the exception of Oredo was the mad scramble for souvenirs – t-shirts, jotters, pens after the meeting, which makes one wonder why we are so caught up with instant gratification and not the long term benefits to be gained from a functioning local government. It is fair to say that we, the governed have not woken up to our responsibilities.
- Nkeiru
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Well, in my opinion the effects of poverty and insecurity can cause an entire people to be unable to see beyond today.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, but bad governance invariable causes long term poverty which in turn causes people to become short sighted (instant gratification) thereby further entrenching bad governance in our society.
Thank you
COSN