CISLAC tasks varsity students on holding government accountable

Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, has called on university students to probe into how the government spends its resources, especially in the education sector so that accountability would be institutionalized in governance.

The program officer of CISLAC, Chinedu Bassey, handed down the task over the weekend during a students’ outreach on “Transformative Impact of Accountability in the extractive sector on Education” held at the University of Uyo town campus, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital.

While urging the students to speak up on issues of governance, he regretted that they had been quiet for too long in holding the government accountable, noting that such had contributed to worsening the poor governance in the country.

Bassey further urged the students to do a two or three minutes video capturing their challenges, especially the ones that affect them directly, such as rot in education and post.

According to him, “go out, ask questions and hold the government to account. Tell them to be transparent, that they should use the money for the extractive sector; well, a time is coming we will not be talking of extraction in Nigeria again. That is why we are seeking your support, knowing fully well that collectively, we can achieve good governance in Nigeria that can bring about a good healthcare system, good education and other social amenities.

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“You can do a two or three minutes video challenge capturing the interest of the general public, particularly youths.

“It is about taking the message of sustained accountability within the extractive sector into the next generation because we know the implication of the mismanagement of these resources on the health sector and education.

“When students graduate from school, the level of unemployment, the level of debt profile within the country in the respective states. That is why we are bringing this message today that students should ask questions about the use of these resources.

“Also, they should make government to understand how they use the resources affect them, for instance, for over eight months, lecturers were on strike; why did that happen? Who is using the resources? How is it used? And who is making sure that it is not properly used? That is what they should understand because that is a good example of how misgovernance affects them directly.”

The Program Officer, however, noted that a greater percentage of students were not engaging attributing it to either corruption or ignorance of the right questions to ask.

“Unfortunately, the students have been used as agents of disrupting the right processes because they are promised paltry sums by the system, I can say they don’t understand the issues because no sane and right-thinking person will understand something that will have bad consequences on him in the future and engage in it, the understanding has been low that is why we brought this up for them to know the implications of their actions in the future.”