A Civil Society Organisation, Naija Connect, has stressed the need to build a bridge between the people and government to foster national development.
Its Convener, Iretidola Ojekhoa, made the call at a news conference in Abuja on Saturday.
Ojekhoa said that the group was set to hold a 10-day programme in Abuja for Nigerians to identify various challenges facing them and articulate practical solutions to the identified problems.
Accroding to her, the programme titled ’10 day sit out’ aimed to bring together progressive minds, patriotic Nigerians for the good of our great nation.
She said that the initiative would help to collate Nigerians’ thoughts on what they actually want government to do about certain things, saying government at any time would only try, but only with the people that they are able to do what they want to achieve.
‘Nigeria is a beautiful country blessed with abundance of wealth – the people, the resources, and the diversity of thoughts through multi-ethnic groups speaking over 500 dis
tinct languages.
‘People in every corner of the world have problems they deal with on a daily basis. What determines the consistency of the problems across the lands is resilience of its people towards finding solutions and a resolve towards a common purpose.
‘Nigerians are not satisfied with a lot of things – the economy, security, food supply, inflation, exchange rate, high cost of transportation due to high pump price. Yet, they don’t have a common front to project their voices and concerns.
‘There are questions to be answered, such as: What do people want the government to do? How do they envisage solutions to the problems? What will be the people’s role in making the solutions a dream comes through and the likes?
‘To answer these questions, it has become pertinent to draw out the people to pour their energies into a constructive nation building project.
‘This project is targeted at building a bridge between the people and government. This will be a platform that acts as a bridge between government a
nd the governed,’ Ojekhoa said.
She described the initiative as non-political, non-religious, and non-ethnic based, but solely for national building.
‘The Naija Connect project and the planned sit-out is non-political, non-religious and caters to no ethnic persuasion. It is #NIGERIAforNIGERIAN.
‘The aim is to bring together progressive minds, patriotic Nigerians for the good of our great nation,’ he said.
The Head Mobilization, Naija Connect, Queen Zara Oyinye, said that whatever idea generated from the initiative would be channeled toward appropriate authorities and stakeholders in the nation building for required actions.
‘Most of the time, what happen is that after all of the advocacy, people find it difficult to take it to where it supposed to get to.
‘What makes this project different is that because we are in the game, we are in the channel, and we will be able to know that this is how things ought to have been done.
‘Then we will take it to that same place so that action can be taken in some of
the resolutions we reach at the end of the project,’ Onyinye said.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria