Proactive Vigilance: How Citizens can hold their government accountable
Oludotun Babayemi
July 18, 2016
“Abeg, you cannot come and fix a programme that will start at 8 am on a Saturday morning, I will not be able to attend, please postpone it for another day or cancel it” responded Ijiwere to her colleagues, who wanted to visit another friend; “Let me tell you, If you want me to come for that ‘owambe’ party on Saturday, then you should let it start at 10 am” affirmed Giringori, to his friends who were planning an event for Saturday.
“Imagine, those my friend wanted to suggest 8 am as a time for that party, I totally disagreed, and told them Jigida will be aired on radio at that time, and that is the only way I can report the lack of water in Kagara” said Giringori to his elder brother – Ijiwere.
These are the kind of conversations that go on in Kagara community, with everyone looking forward to Jigida, a weekly, one – hour radio programme that allows for citizens to call – in and express their community needs, which afterwards are been documented and sent to the various local government chairmen, and State House of Representative for response and decisions to be made. That’s not all, the first 30 mins of the programme is dedicated to the Councillor of the community sharing with the community, how much and what they will be spending on in the week. This is what proactive vigilance is all about!
Although proactive vigilance or public participation in budgeting or government spending is relatively new, the evidence attesting to its impact on resource allocation and service delivery is growing. Many of the existing findings are based on the well-known Brazilian experience with participatory budgeting, established first in Porte Alegre in 1989, and now replicated in over 40 countries around the world. Nigeria, is not left out as well, as its government hopes to encourage citizen participation, with its recent commitment to joining the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
You might be wondering, how many – landlord associations,vigilante groups, market women associations, community development associations, we have in rural communities. A lot of them! When are we going to start having “project vigilante” in rural communities, that will become voices of several communities, because by the time you wake up tomorrow morning, the news will be agog with “one billion dollars to be released to provide water in Kagara” only to go to Kagara after one year, you will find out that Kagara has no water source or a broken water source. Quite pathetic, and that’s is the way we are – the leaders and followers.
Nevertheless, I am excited that the Story Story writers at BBC Media Action are focusing on how citizens at the local government level, can be proactively vigilant on such issues of government spending in their communities, and I recently had some hours of session brainstorming with the crew, on how citizens can become vigilant themselves, I hope all will be reflected in their popular radio drama coming up sometimes in fall. Thanks to Nkem, our Reseach Lead on government finance, who took some notes on the highlights, and I have added them below:
Citizens can at every stage of this budget cycle engage their various government, but limited participation is expected during during formulation
- There is the local government or state government budget, a document that highlights government spending and revenue which can be for a financial year, or a multiyear.
- The Budget has its on cycle starting from formulation (when Ministry, Department, Agencies, put together their budget), to enactment (when the national or state legislative arm assent to the budget), to implementation (the stage at which contractors start executing projects in your communities), and lastly, the assessment stage (where everyone assesses the implementation of the budget, to provide feedback on how the next stage should look like)
- At every stage of the budget, citizens can make noise about their plight, and join in the conversation. They can form themselves as vigilante group or association, and always knock on the door of their local government officer or Councillor.
- They can forward a freedom of information request letter to the local government chairman to request for their budget immediately it passes the enactment stage, and even ask more question like who is the contractor, what is the work plan for the project, how much is the contractor getting, and when will the project be concluded. Here is an example of a freedom of information letter if you want to write one
- Government at the local government and state government level should starting providing platforms as well, for the assesement stage. E.g. using local radio programmes like Jigida, create a referendum mechanism for your local government area for people to have their say on projects proposed for next financial year. It should not be only during elections, that citizens see chairmen of local government or governors of states canvassing for votes.
- Like I always say, the budget is not only the means by which government declare their spending, in fact 50% – 60% of what’s on it might not be relevant. The other way is to always listen to the state news on your local radio, projects will be announced at all times, especially when they are project funded by other partners, such as the federal government or international donor agencies.
Ijiwere and Giringori have decided to do away with social gatherings, and focus on becoming a vigilante for community projects in Jigida, and if you are reading this, you should be towing same way, and you should share this piece. I look forward to the final drama series on this – If you have listened to Story Story, Voices from the Market program, then you should be more expectant. See you all in Kagara town, listening to Jigida on radio!
From left, Oludotun Babayemi, Nkem and the BBC Media Action Writers
Hello there, You have done a great job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally
recommend to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited
from this web site.
Waу cool! Some extremeⅼy valid points! I appreciate you
penning thіs article and the rest of the site is
reaɑlly good.
My site; cockhead
Hi there to all, how is everything, I think every one is getting more from this
site, and your views are good in favor of new viewers.
my page: zakarianul01
Very quickly this website will be famous among all blog people, due to it’s pleasant content
I think the admin of this web site is genuinely working hard for his web page,
as here every material is quality based stuff.
For latest information you have to pay a visit web and on web I found this website
as a most excellent website for latest updates.
มีหลายแนวทางสำหรับเพื่อการเล่นสล็อตแมชชีน คุณสามารถเล่นเดี่ยวหรือเล่นกับเพื่อน คุณยังสามารถเล่นเหมาะคาสิโนหรือที่บ้านสล็อตแมชชีนเป็นแนวทางที่เยี่ยมสำหรับการชนะเงิน พวกมันเล่นง่ายและมีสมรรถนะมากมายก่ายกองสำหรับเพื่อการชนะ สล็อตแมชชีนยังสนุกและเป็นแนวทางที่ดีในการฆ่าเวลาสล็อตแมชชีนเป็นแบบอย่างหนึ่งของการพนันทางด้านอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ที่มีมาตั้งแต่ต้นทศวรรษ 1900 โดยธรรมดาจะพบได้ในคาสิโนรวมทั้งใช้เพื่อสร้างรายได้
I’m very happy to uncover this page. I need to
to thank you for your time due to this wonderful read!!
I definitely liked every bit of it and I have you book-marked to check out new things on your web site.
magnificent points altogether, you just gained a new reader.
What could you suggest in regards to your post that you just
made some days ago? Any sure?
Good day I am so grateful I found your web site, I really found you by accident, while
I was looking on Aol for something else, Anyways I am
here now and would just like to say many thanks for a fantastic post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time
to read through it all at the moment but I have saved it and also added your
RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back
to read a lot more, Please do keep up the fantastic work.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to
make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
Feel free to surf to my homepage slot gacor hari ini
penis enlargement
I believe everything posted was very reasonable.
But, think about this, suppose you added a little information?
I am not saying your information isn’t good, but what if you added
a title that grabbed people’s attention? I mean Proactive Vigilance: How Citizens can hold their government accountable is kinda vanilla.
You ought to look at Yahoo’s front page and note how they create article headlines to grab viewers to open the links.
You might add a related video or a picture or two to
grab people excited about everything’ve written. In my
opinion, it might make your posts a little bit more interesting.
My webpage how To sell a house fast
My family members all the time say that I am wasting my time
here at web, however I know I am getting familiarity everyday
by reading thes pleasant content.
You really make it seem so easy together with your
presentation but I to find this matter to be really something which I believe I
might never understand. It seems too complicated and very huge for
me. I am having a look ahead to your subsequent post, I will try to get the cling of it!
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get
three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people
from that service? Thank you!
Tienda Nº 1 en Camiseta Inter de Milan
Encontrarás cada inter milan camiseta y ropa de entrenamiento de los clubs y selecciones
nacionales para adultos y niños.
I visited several websites however the audio quality for audio songs existing
at this site is truly superb.
Wow cuz this is great job! Congrats and keep
it up.
p36814
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this,
like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could
do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is great blog.
A fantastic read. I will certainly be back.
Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment
but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways, just wanted to say
wonderful blog!
Good day! This post could not be written any
better! Reading through this post reminds me of my good old room mate!
He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this write-up to him.
Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many
thanks for sharing!
Unquestionably consider that which you stated. Your favourite justification seemed
to be at the internet the easiest factor to bear in mind of.
I say to you, I definitely get annoyed even as folks consider concerns that they just do not understand about.
You managed to hit the nail upon the top as smartly as outlined out the entire thing without having side-effects , people could take a
signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
Hello there, I discovered your blog by way of Google whilst looking for a
related topic, your website came up, it seems great.
I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hello there, simply turned into alert to your weblog through Google, and located that it’s really informative.
I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I’ll appreciate when you continue this in future.
Lots of folks might be benefited out of your writing.
Cheers!
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your website?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of
content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or
2 pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
Hi there friends, its great post regarding tutoringand completely explained, keep it up all the time.
It’s actually a great and helpful piece of info.
I am happy that you shared this useful information with us.
Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for
sharing.
Ich habe diesen Artikel gelesen und mehr Informationen über Kratom gefunden. was
it kratom ? https://superkratom.eu/was-ist-kratom/
Hello to every one, the contents present at this web site are actually remarkable for people
experience, well, keep up the good work fellows. https://www.flickr.com/people/195859815@N05/
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners
and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever
before.
We stumbled over here by a different web page and thought I may as well check things out.
I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to looking over your web page for a second
time.
https://beydoun-lb.com/services/pergolas-more/
Pergolas lebanon
Ahaa, its good dialogue on the topic of this piece of writing here at this web site,
I have read all that, so now me also commenting
here.
My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was entirely right.
This post actually made my day. You can not imagine simply how much time I
had spent for this information! Thanks!
Feel free to visit my web site: เครื่องย่อยขยะ
This is really fascinating, You are an excessively
professional blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look
ahead to searching for more of your wonderful post. Also,
I have shared your web site in my social networks
Quality content is the secret to attract the visitors to visit the web page,
that’s what this web page is providing.
I was suggested this website by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post
is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my problem.
You’re amazing! Thanks! https://socialcompare.com/en/member/ikgn758eruv-6i8lg3iu
I have been browsing online more than 3 hours today, yet
I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you
did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.
It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it is time
to be happy. I’ve read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you few interesting things or tips.
Maybe you can write next articles referring to this article.
I wish to read even more things about it!
When some one searches for his essential thing, thus he/she needs
to be available that in detail, so that thing is maintained over here.
I am really loving the theme/design of your
weblog. Do you ever run into any web browser compatibility issues?
A number of my blog visitors have complained about my blog not operating correctly
in Explorer but looks great in Chrome. Do you have any advice to
help fix this issue?
It’s perfect time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to
be happy. I’ve read this post and if I could I want to suggest you some interesting things or advice.
Perhaps you can write next articles referring to this article.
I want to read more things about it!
you’re really a just right webmaster. The site loading speed is amazing.
It sort of feels that you are doing any unique trick. In addition, The contents are masterwork.
you’ve done a excellent job in this topic!
I seriously love your website.. Pleasant colors & theme.
Did you make this amazing site yourself?
Please reply back as I’m hoping to create my very own blog
and would love to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called.
Many thanks!
We’re a goup of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community.
Your website provided us with helpful info to work on. You have performed an impressive process and ourr whole group will be grateful tto you.
Fine way of describing, and nice paragraph to obtain data regarding
my presentation subject matter, which i am going to deliver in institution of higher education.
Thanks for finally talking about > Proactive Vigilance: How Citizens can hold their government accountable < Liked it!
На нашем сайте можно загрузить
известный шутер Counter-Strike 1.6 совершенно бесплатно.
Мы подобрали {{для вас|вам}} громадное количество
многообразных сборок. Вы сможете подыскать для
себя оптимальную игру как для сильных, так и
для слабеньких персональных
компьютеров. Все сборки испытаны на наличие вирусов нами лично.
Компьютерных вирусов не имеется!
Устанавливайте себе различные версии и конечно выдавайте смачные
хэдшоты. Успешной игры!
Возможности сборки КС 1.6 Расскажем о возможностях игры.
В новоиспеченных играх много функций,
ну а как ведутся дела со старенькыми.
Честно, все, что присутствует в кс 1.6 имеется и в остальных шутерах.
Выделяются дизайн, модели и задачи.
Задача – видишь врага стреляй, работает повсеместно.
Сейчас детальнее.
сайт страйк – https://counter-strike-1-6.ru/
Именитая компания Valve, та что создала Counter-Strike
1.6, обновляет свою сборку, с целью оградить игроков от взломов.
Но, как все знают, скачать без
оплаты с online-магазина Steam нереально.
По этой причине мы приобретаем оригинальную версию Counter-Strike и вставляем действующую защиту в свои сборки для наших гостей.
Следовательно, мы всегда имеем стойкую
защиту от: [+, +записи рекламных материалов в прибавление других загрузки вирусных файлов] либо ломки CS 1.6.
Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to
assert that I get in fact enjoyed account your blog posts.
Any way I will be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you
access consistently fast.
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your website.
Do you ever run into any browser compatibility issues?
A few of my blog visitors have complained about my website not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Chrome.
Do you have any ideas to help fix this problem?