By Danjuma Attah, Gombe
Gombe Network of Civil Society Organisations (GONET) has fixed the 9th of January, 2025 for the election of a new executive that would steer the affairs of the organisation for the next four years.
The election which was initially scheduled for December 21, 2024 according to Yahaya Atiku, the election committee chairman, it was however the decision of the majority of the members to postponed it to January 2025.
He explained that the organisation had been led by an interim caretaker committee for the past six months, stressing the need for election.
He said, “Although the plan was to hold an election for a new executive committee to serve a four-year tenure, more than half of the members felt that the current interim leadership should continue, given that the organisation is still in its early stages.
“However, this decision was deemed constitutionally incorrect, as an interim administration should only last for six months.
“As a result, the 17 members present unanimously agreed to allow the interim committee to continue, with a two-week window period (December 21 to January 9, 2025) for them to fill out forms and pay fees to formalise their roles.
“The organisation will then affirm the interim committee as the full executive committee on January 9, 2025, pending no objections from members, ” he explained further.
Atiku emphasised the importance of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity in the decision-making process, noting that everyone will be carried along and grievances addressed.
He stated however that more than half of the members were of the opinion that since it’s a ‘baby organisation’ this present interim leadership should continue in full capacity as the exco but constitutionally. “We said it’s not correct because if it’s an interim administration it has to be six months”, Atiku pointed out.
“We don’t want anyone to be offended we want to carry everybody along; we want to do things differently, we don’t want to deceive anybody we want to be as transparent as possible.
“We are accountable to ourselves, God and society that is why we have given this room for opinions for grievances to be sorted out so that everyone will be carried along and grievances sorted out,” he noted.
Atiku also noted that the current leadership especially the Chairman, Yusuf Ibrahim, was compelled to participate in order to nurture the organisation before relinquishing the post.
The electoral chairman added, “We have to compel them to do so especially the chairman (Yusuf Ibrahim), is not willing to continue. However, there is so much pressure from all the other members for sacrifice as ‘baby organisation’ to work to bring it to a level of progress before they can give power to others.”
