The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria, Tuesday in Abuja, kick started a 3-day training of 44 persons within the FCT on social audit.

Speaking, the Country Director ActionAid Mrs. Ene Obi charged the trainees on the importance of participating in the program to help them know their right in their various communities as well as making their community leaders accountable to them.

“If you don’t leave a stage better than the way you met it, then consider yourself a failure, and one would be in a system of failure of leaders and a lot of insanity. You have to be insane when you see so much from other people and yet the investment in Nigeria youth is poor, then what kind of investment, training, and flagships do we have available for our youths? Leaders aren’t doing citizens a favour carrying out responsibilities to their Communities,” Obi stressed.

peaking, the Social Mobilization Manager ActionAid Mr. Adewale Adeduntan said the aim for the training is to apply social audit as an approach to engender good governance and relationship between the led and the leaders because.

“We realised public holder officers take people of the Community for granted like they are doing them a favour.

“It is another channel to create an approach of interaction between those in power and the Community in terms of project intervention and not dump it and to get community information for community to engage constructively,” Adeduntan stated.

Speaking to journalists, he said that confidence lies in the quality of participation. “It is one thing to be trained and another to be able to transfer knowledge and skills to others. But above all, it will be a collective engagement on a platform that would be formed at the end of the workshop. Governance is suffering at the community level and development should be demanded driven.”

Earlier in an interview, the Programme Manager CITAD Ms. Salmat Abdulwaheed disclosed the training to have covered participants from the four Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, i.e. Kwali, Kuje, AMAC and Bwari Area Councils respectively.

According to her, that at the end of the workshop, the participants should be able to train others pulling a number of people to join in the advocacy of their community development and also engage their community leaders in the challenges faced by the people without taking bribe or sweep it under the carpets.

Also speaking, the Partnership and Local Right Advisor Action Aid Mrs Hajara Opaluwa-Adamu said the objective of the training was to teach each representatives of the Communities how to access government intervention projects to facilitate the youths on how to audit and hold their representatives accountable.

Speaking, two of the participants, Mallama Jamila Inusa of Guto Community under the Bwari Area Council and Mr. Ishaya Jonathan Gbashe of Kilankwa2 of Kwali Area Council respectively, collectively acknowledged the training to be an eye opener for them all to be patriotic in the demand for the rights of citizens.

“For me, it was difficult to differentiate between financial audit and social audit. But the class today has given me an edge to ascertain the implementation policy project in my Community and I have learnt that it is crucial to approach them for the project document politely and this would be done collectively as a community, making an enquiry to ensure a quality work is been done,” Gbashe stated.