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NGO Seeks Grassroots Participation in Governance

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
May 29, 2004
Posted to the web June 1, 2004
Lagos
Human Support Services (HSS) a non-governmental organisation (NGO), yesterday
in Lagos flagged off a campaign for grassroots participation in governance and
peaceful co-existence among the citizenry.
HSS, in partnership with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, is aimed at
encouraging political participation of local communities and effective
monitoring of elected officers.
Speaking at the occasion, Lagos State Director of National Orientation Agency
(NOA), Alhaji N. A. Kaka, said the country needs an attitudinal change to stem
crisis that often poses threat to our nascent democracy.
He said after 35 years of military misrule in Nigeria, "we must be ready to co-
exist peacefully so that this democracy will not slip away from our hands,"
adding that government cannot do everything, therefore NGOs are partners in
progress to sensitise and empower grassroots participation in politics.
"The quest for national rebirth is borne out of attitudinal change, to
reorientate the youths and those at the grassroots. Thus, civic education is a
must for all citizens to know their rights and coexist with others peacefully,"
he said.
Project Coordinator, Mr. Emeka Nsofor, said the dearth of development has
provoked many politically motivated conflicts at the grassroots level and this
has largely threatened the sustainability of democratic transformation, urging
that necesarry institutions of governance must be built to empower and engage
the grassroots communities more meaningfully.

   

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