A non-governmental organisation, Citizens Centre for Integrate Development and Social Rights, has attributed the underdevelopment in some states to abandoned capital projects by successive governments.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Mr Emeka Ononamadu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Owerri that a study in the education and health sectors in some local governments in Imo showed that less than 30 per cent of projects by the state government were completed.
“Our team carried out serious investigation on projects awarded by the state government between 2010 and 2016 and found out that out of 121 projects in the two sectors in nine local governments, only 32 were completed.
“Thirty four of the projects were abandoned, 51 were ongoing while four were not identified,” he said.
He listed some of the abandoned projects to include Community Central School, Obike (over grown with weeds since 2013) and Obokwe Primary School (abandoned since 2013) all in Ngor Okapala and Izombe Unity Primary School in Oguta.
The abandoned projects listed by the group also included a school building at Imo Adapalm, Central School Umuduru in Isiala-Mbano, Community Primary School, Oguta (painted before election yet uncompleted) and Community Primary School, Amaraku (abandoned since 2012).
Ononamadu noted that unless projects were properly and timely executed, the society would continue to suffer from deprivation and poor standard of living.
He called on communities to demand for project information as their right and that they be allowed to participate in the process of monitoring all government projects in their area.
The executive director said the intention of the group was to persuade the government to see the need to complete abandoned projects before embarking on new ones.
“You can imagine what the situation would have been be if we had focused our research on other sectors of the state.
“The government has spent huge amount of money to begin these projects and if no benefit is derived from them, it amounts to waste of resources and economic setback,” he said.
Ononamadu added that governance was a continuous process which demanded
proactive measures to continue from where a previous one stopped.
He said another major focus of the group was to deepen accountability in
governance, saying the group would achieve this through diplomacy.
Ononamadu, who was on a visit to the Owerri office of NAN, appealed for media partnership to enable the group to achieve its aim.
Responding, the State Correspondent of NAN in Owerri, Miss Chidi Opara, commended the group for its “quest for good governance in the state”.
Opara pledged the support of her office and wished the group well in its endeavour. (NAN)
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