From Danjuma Attah, Gombe
Gombe State’s Citizens Accountability Report dialogue has continue to attract more attention from the public as more people are now demanding from Government what they rightfully deserve in their communities.
This interest has drawn commendations and applause to the Gombe State Government for the infrastructural projects particularly executed in health and education sectors and also for engaging the people in its development plans.
The citizens however decried the lack of commensurate development in the areas of adequate and skilled manpower in the same health and education sectors.
This observations came to light following an elaborate grassroots citizens engagement meeting held separately for the people of Gombe North and Gombe South Senatorial zones respectively.
The meetings were mobilised and conducted by the Gombe State Network of Civil Societies (GONET) in collaboration with the State’s Ministry for Budget and Economic Planning.
Our Correspondent who monitored the meetings, observed the high interest shown by the citizens who commended the Inuwa Yahaya administration’s grassroots consultative meetings before executing its citizens generated projects. This initiative has progressively existed in the State over the past few years.
In Gombe LGA, the centre for Gombe North Senatorial zone, what stood out from the discussion after the Director, Final Accounts in the office of the Accountant General of the State presented a summary of the 2024 budget performance, the participants were unanimous in calling for more manpower and training of health and education personnel.
One of the participant said, “many primary health care centres (PHC’s) have been upgraded with many new ones established in the zone including primary and secondary schools but the greatest problem is lack of manpower in both sectors.
“Many PHC’s have been reactivated but with few or non qualified personnel to mann the facilities. The same case exists in the primary schools and few secondary schools. Up till now, many primary school teachers are not NCE holders while some are Diploma holders and unrelated professionals. There is no training and retraining of these teachers in ages past”, he complained.
Director Budget, in the State Ministry for Budget and Economic Planning, Mohammed Adamu, had earlier told the gathering that the engagement was necessitated on the need for continuous enlightenment of the citizens on their rights to make input and ensure that whatever was captured in the budget from their submission was executed.
He reminded them on the need to utilise and be fully armed with the citizens charter of demand, a document where their expectations and demands will be legally captured in the State budget.
In Kaltungo LGA, centre for Gombe South Senatorial zone, the same interest was exhibited by the citizens with more emphasis on the need for more manpower in the health and education sectors.
One of the participants said, “we welcome the intention of the State Government to upgrade the Kaltungo General Hospital to a Specialist Teaching Hospital”, noting however that when the PHC’s are well manned with enough professionals, drugs and other equipments, it will reduce the pressure of people going to the secondary health facilities.
Chairman of Gombe Network of Civil Societies (GONET), Ambassador Ibrahim Yusuf, facilitators of the engagement urged participants at both venues to demand and fill the citizens charter of demand.
He also called on them to always approach CSO’s for guidance on how to make their voices reach relevant authorities as well as participate in how they are governed. The participants were drawn from all walks of life.
End.
