By Angela Atabo
The Accountability in Extractive Sector Cluster led by Social Action and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC),has trained students on awareness creation to deepen transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.
The CSOs at an outreach to build the capacity of students at Nile University Abuja, said the gesture was within the framework of the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement project implemented by Palladium with support from USAID.
The theme of the outreach was “Transformative Impact of Accountability in the Extractive Sector on Education.”
Mr Chinedu Bassey, the Programme Manager, CISLAC, said the event was aimed at sending the message of advocating for an effective use of resources accrued from the extractive sector.
Bassey said it also aimed at mobilising, sensitising and stimulating young people to engage in conversations toward strengthening the sector.
He said that the objective of the outreach was also to equip students toward advocating for an effective and efficient use of resources accrued from the extractive sector.
“We know that in as much as the students might not understand the development angle of it, we have the duty to imbibe this into their subconscious.
“This so they can start understanding how the use of the resources that comes from this sector even affects their educational sector and also in the long run, what happens to them after graduation and join the labor market.
“This campaign aim to also ensure to that every penny counts in the extractive sector and we are poised to reach as many schools as possible especially tertiary institutions.
“This is the second and we intend to expand this to geographical spread of the country,” he said.
Mr Bote Isaac, programme coordinator, the Social Development Integrated Centre(Social Action), said the engagement with students was against the backdrop to have a sector that works for all and meet the aspiration of Nigerians.
“This is a sector that we solely depend on as a nation for generating revenue, for foreign earnings and even for driving governance process.
“Governance is about service delivery and the resources to deliver such services are gotten from this sector, so to what extent are we utilising this to better the lot of the people?’’
According to Isaac, the cluster understands that youths are imperative in lending their voices to make demands and an extension of that passion in demanding accountability in the extractive sector in Nigeria would be great.
This ,he said was because such demands in the extractive sector was about their future and about how revenue processes would impact on their lives.
“These are the things that informed the need to have all hands on deck and especially the generation that is affected to speak with one voice to ensure that we have a sector that is transparent and accountable to meet the needs of Nigerians.”
The Program Officer CISLAC, Mr Muna Ugochukwu, said the student outreach was one of the group’s initiatives to spur their interest and get them involved in accountability process.
Ugochukwu said the group earlier, met with students of the Niger Delta Science School,Rivers ,to engage them on the same issue.
“ I have to say that it was very impressive because it was just a pilot and at the end of that they went ahead to establish an extractive club of 39 members .
“They also produced 44 videos , so we are proud to be part of young people’s development and interest in this conversation.’’(NAN) (nannews.ng)