HUFFPED, in collaboration with ActionAid, has organised a 2-day workshop on effective governance at the grass-roots level.
The workshop was held on June 5 and 6 at Badagry West LCDA secretariat, where various stakeholders were engaged on the challenges of the local council and the possible solutions to the problems.
Keinde Adebowale, the facilitator of the workshop, said "the government is not practicing what the government of the people should be, People at the grass-roots level often talk about not getting the primary responsibility of the government in relating to public needs."
Keinde onted that, over time, it is discover that it is a result of inequality in the terms of sharing power and resources. There is a need to do more to make government more responsive, responsible, inclusive, and participatory for the people.
"The state and local government managing accounts together, which does not give the local government the power to attend to their needs. This has been a common challenge everyone has been stressing. We believe that with the people striving together, local government autonomy is what we will achieve one day," he added.
Oketeru Pedepo, Member NYCN Badagry West, said "this program is an eye opener, We need job creation in Badagry West for our youths to live fine because if they can put in the effort they put in smuggling into agriculture, they are going to do beautifully well. Let the government provide vocational training. There are many women in Badagry West who need to be skilled.
"In Badagry West, we need our leaders to listen to our cry. Most of the leaders don't invest or stay in Badagry West. How do you expect them to know what we are going through here, Another thing is electricity, These leaders are using solar in their houses. And most people here don't have money for solar," she said.
Ahoton Adefolake, a participant, said, "As we have discussed today, we talked about being responsive, responsible, and inclusive. If we can put all these together, things will work better,"
Elewuro Ajibola, a participant said "this is something that should be encouraged in other local governments so that people will learn. If you think you know it all, you're just deceiving yourself, We should have something like this so that we have different ideas and opinions and from there, we'll collate it together to kickstart good governance,"