From Mathew Jwantu,
Minna
A popular radio program called ‘Office Of The Citizen, (OOTC)’ has been commended by Nigerlites for helping citizens of the state to get government and leaders attention.
The program which is funded by Enough is Enough, Nigeria (EiENg) in partnership with Initiative for Social Development in Africa (iSODAF) has drawn government’s attention to the deplorable state of roads, epileptic power supply and constituencies projects.
The Convener, Niger Accountability Group, Mr. Mathew Oladele told Journalists on Saturday that, the program provides opportunity for listeners to call-in nd vent their views on issues of concern about the state, governance, transparency and accountability, services provision and other issues.
According to him, “the OOTC Niger is aired on Ultimate FM 103.9 FM Minna Niger State as a weekly phone-in program that hit the airwaves every Friday at 7pm to 8pm. ”
Oladele said the effort of the program geared the Governor to address the issue of power supply in the State most especially Minna which is the commercial and state capital on the state.
“The Governor of Niger State Abubakar Sani Bello setup a committee headed by his Deputy Alh. Ahmed Ketso and other members to meet with the management of AEDC so as to find a lasting solution to the poor power supply in Niger State and report back to him within 24hours.
“They also discussed the supply of pre-paid meter to eliminate estimated billing system in the state, and installations habe started”.
Furthermore, he said “it is the effort of the program that the city of Minna has recorded 12 hours of power supply; an improvement from the previous daily supply of 4 to 6 hours which was not usually stable.
On the poor power supply engagement, Oladele said “we had help two episodes specifically on improvements where we had the Director General, Strategic Projects, ICT and Public Enlightenment, Abdullberqi Ebbo at the Governor’s Office, and Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure and the Director Electrical Engineering Services.”
He however disclosed that the trio assured that, before the end of October the State Government would provide 15,000 meters to cushion metering challenges, but yet to fulfil the promise.
“We will step up engagement with a courtesy call to the trio including the representatives of the AEDC.”
Also, Oladele said “the delay in payment of NECO fees that resulted to results being withheld by the examination body, was addressed and got the Government to release the sum of N200million and the examination body has since released the results”.
Consequently, he said “the program has made positive impact and improved the life of citizens in the last 9 months, educating them on how to know and demand for their rights.
