CAPP TO CONDUCT END-LINE SURVEY FOR TEGIN PROJECT

CAPP, is set to conduct an end-line survey in May 2012 for its Transforming Education for Girls in Nigeria and Tanzania (TEGINT) project. The research is being coordinated by the Institute of Education (IoE) of the University of Education, East London, United Kingdom. Others involved in the research process are Actionaid Nigeria and Actionaid UK.

The overall aim of the end line study is to examine changes associated with key project activities since the baseline research was conducted, assess their relationship with project inputs and consider the project hypothesis in the light of the data collected.

The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State has been engaged as the Research Institute to handle the end-line study.   The research activities will be taking place as follows;

The training of enumerators is scheduled to hold between 8^th-11^th May, 2012 for research assistants who will be engaged for the field work. This will commence immediately after the training.   The research team from IoE London will be attending the training in Nigeria.

In 2008, quantitative study of the project was carried out and an accompanying qualitative baseline studies were carried out in 2009 to add depth and detail to the quantitative study findings.

The key areas of investigation are:

•  Whether the obstacles to schooling and solutions that girls identified in 2008/2009 have changed and whether there is a relationship between the pattern of change, knowledge of HIV & confidence in talking about gender inequalities (including sexual harassment or violence) and aspects of project inputs associated with forming girls’ clubs, the activities of school committees (including the appointment of women in significant numbers) and the qualification and training of teachers.
• Whether the gender profiles in enrolment, attendance and progression in the schools in which the project is working have changed, and whether changes are similar or different to other schools in those districts or states.
• How girls view the use of participatory teaching methods and how this relates to teacher conditions – notably class size, qualifications and training, gender – levels of girls’ attainment and extent of participation in girls’ clubs.
• The extent to which teachers consider the schools in which they work support girls’ education and how this relates to levels of teacher qualification, training, the activities of the school committees and the girls’ clubs.
•  Whether the fees charged by schools have changed and how this relate to school gender profiles, girls’ views on their schooling, the activities of the school committees and teacher qualifications
• Whether the views of girls on the obstacles to schooling and solutions are similar or different to those of teachers, members of school committees, and village officers, and how this pattern links with aspects of project inputs associated with forming girls’ clubs, the activities of school committees (including the appointment of women in significant numbers) and the qualification and training of teachers.

THE DELAY IN ESTABLISHING HYPPADEC IS UNACCEPTABLE

GOVERNMENT WITHOUT PEOPLES’ PARTICIPATION IS PRIVATE BUSINESS AT PUBLIC EXPENSE

Chapter two of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states that “the fundamental principle of state policy is to provide for the welfare and security of Nigerians,” One of the principal  instruments for the actualization of this goal is the design and implementation of an annual budget at the Local, State and Federal levels where government espouses its programmes in line with clearly defined goals and deliverables in the interest of the citizens In this light therefore, the citizens in whose mandate the legitimacy of government rests, look up to it because their livelihoods and future depends on it. However, the design and implementation of budgets in Nigeria has become annual rituals for reading of figures, as well as the fanfare that goes with presentations to the parliament.  An analysis of budget implementation in Nigeria in terms of impact, shows that our budgets over the years have failed to meet the yearnings and expectations of citizens who ordinarily hoped for better welfare through the people they elected.

A cursory look at the 2012 budget as presented by President Goodluck Jonathan reveals that about one third of the 4.7 trillion naira budget is allocated to national security which presents an unfortunate scenario, whereby human security issues play second fiddle.  Thus,  emphasis on the provision of employment opportunities for the  unemployed and restive youths, provision of infrastructural facilities to address the challenges posed by  rural-urban drift, provision of quality education,  quality health care for the people, as well as  ensuring participation of citizens in the governance process are far from being realized within the context of the MDGs.

The Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP), sees the social and political insecurity that are currently  bedeviling the nation as  partly a result of the failure of leadership in terms of  meeting the fundamental principles of state policy which emphasized the need for government to provide for the welfare of citizens including their security.

The participation of the Civil Society in the budgetary process, is supposed to provide a sound basis for the design and implementation of a people centered budget. Unfortunately, this has not been given the desired attention and recognition by government, thereby defeating the fundamental objectives in which people’s participation in governance is paramount. Hence, we are increasingly witnessing situations whereby the priority of the people is at variance with that of the same government they elected.

In the light of foregoing, CAPP calls for a radical departure from a budgetary process that places national security far and above human security, as government must be alive to its responsibility in terms of making adequate provision and protection for the people. As the National Assembly take steps to review the Constitution, Nigerians must rise and collectively demand that the provisions of chapter two in the Constitution as it relates to the directive principles of state policy are made justice-able, so as to empower all citizens to seek redress in the event that government fails to live up to expectation in the provision of basic social services.

CAPP HOLDS QUARTERLY PLANNING MEETING

CAPP is holding its first quarter 2012 planning meeting in Abuja starting from Sunday 5^th –Friday 10th February 2012. The meeting comprises all Programme Officers from the State branches and the head office staff.

The main objectives of this meeting would be to review the last quarter, identify successes, challenges and how they were dealt with and to plan activities for the quarter at hand.

There will also be a refresher training for participants on STAR i.e. Society Tackling Aids through Rights at the five days meeting. This will be facilitated by a consultant, Dr. Chinedu Monye.

NIGERIANS DESERVES A BETTER DEAL

Nigerians were in the middle of the day, on January 1, 2012 confronted with an unprecedented and shocking increase in the price of petroleum products from N65 to N150 and in many areas more. This increase obviously will set the stage for a vicious round of price hike for food, transportation and in fact everything that touches the lives of Nigerians, thereby undermining their living standards and well being.

Nigerians are now left at the mercy of a few cabal called oil importers and, of course, the grossly inefficient and highly corrupt NNPC and its subsidiaries that will now seize this opportunity to continue to hike prices in the name of market forces. Every sane person in any clime would know that jerking petroleum prices such as happened with the January 1, 2011 ambush is abnormal, and for this reason should be condemned and rejected.

We are opposed to oil subsidy removal because it will increase hardships the citizens are already facing. We believe that there are cogent options and alternatives to the policy that could be implemented without inflicting punishment on the urban and rural poor and the vulnerable; the unemployed, women and children. We are also concerned that the policy did not follow due process, in terms of consultations with the citizens and the representatives of the people in the National Assembly. The policy is also not transparent because it left so many questions unanswered, such as: how come the government spent 1.3 trillion in 2011 alone to pay oil importers in the name of oil subsidy, whereas for the entire period 2003-2007, we have only used N300 million annually for the oil subsidy; and why the funds appropriated by the National Assembly for oil subsidy was overshot by more than four fold.  The policy also lacks a single ingredient of good governance and democratic tenets.

Oil subsidy, to be sure, is only benefit the common people enjoyed from the government, compensating for bad roads, dilapidated social infrastructure and lack of adequate and regular power. It is inhuman, exposing the populace to further hardships when no effort is being done to ameliorate their deteriorating and debilitating living conditions. CAPP, as an organization connected to the grassroots and the communities knows the feelings of pains and anguish of our communities such an ill-conceived policy has wrought upon them. It is unacceptable that Nigerians are made to feel as if they exist only at the behest of those they put in leadership position in the first place.

By increasing the price of petroleum products in the name of subsidy removal without going after the corruption, the fraud and the misappropriation in the system showed that the government which has supposedly an elected one was not out  to serve the interest of the  of the citizens but those of a few cartel that now monopolize oil importation. By removing the oil subsidy against the wishes and aspiration of Nigerians across the board, including religious and political leaders and elders clearly demonstrated that the government t is fast transmuting into a dictatorship which must be resisted. Nigerians did not shed their precious blood under the military to flight for the enthronement of democracy only to be replaced by another version of a civilian dictatorship. By blatantly refusing to consult and dialogue with the citizens over this very sensitive issue the government has unwittingly broken the bond of trust and social contract with the citizens, which is unfortunate.

We strongly object and condemn in totality the use of brute force by the police and other security agencies on innocent citizens who have come out to legitimately voice out their objection against what they rightly considered as a bad, inconsiderate and obnoxious policy. We call on the authourities to stop forthwith trampling on the fundamental and constitutional rights of the citizens just because they want to force such a bitter pill down our throats.

We, therefore, demand that a high powered judicial panel be instituted to bring all those that violated people’s rights to justice. The callous killings of young protesters in Ilorin and in Kano leaves and sour taste in the mouth and must be probed; those security personnel involved must be sanctioned, only to demonstrate that we are not living in a jungle where might is right, and that human life is sacred. It is ironical that President Goodluck Jonathan that campaigned with the slogan that no political ambition is worth a single drop of human beings is now superintending a regime of police repression of the populace, including loss of precious human lives.

CAPP calls on all Nigerians to rise up and demonstrate absolute support to the ongoing struggle for the reversal of the prices of petroleum products to its original level of N65. CAPP wholeheartedly supports the call of CSOs, the trade unions and all well meaning Nigerians in the current fight against the clearly harsh and dangerous policy and avoid a drift of the country to anarchy and widespread misery. This fight for us is one that would rescue our communities and the ordinary people from further pauperization. It is also a struggle to rescue our country from agents of international finance whose only goal is to continue to enslave our nations and loot our God-given resources. Nigerians must rise to defend their rights and the fact that sovereignty belongs to the people, not some self-conceited agents of external powers masquerading as technocrats and economists.  Nigerians citizens deserve a better deal from their leaders.

TRAINING OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

CAPP is starting this year with training for government officials from State institutions on Rights Based Approach to development and gender issues. Participants to be drawn would include among others, Commissioners of education, States Chairmen and women of States Universal Basic Education Board, Education secretaries from Local Government Areas, and Chairmen of States Houses of Assembly committee on education all from TEGIN states.

This training workshop where about twenty four persons would in  participation, is expected to hold in February this year outside Abuja.

Among the objectives of the training include the following:

1. To get the buy-in of participants because of the strategic positions that they occupy in their States
2. To enable participants have a better understanding of how Rights Based Approach apply to girls education
3. For participants to use knowledge acquired from the training to support gender sensitive policies in their various States.

REMOVAL OF SUBSIDY WILL MAKE NIGERIANS SUFFER

The raging campaign by the Federal government  and now supported by State governments on the need to remove petroleum subsidy based on their own economic reasons, does not have the same meaning and understanding with the people (the electorate) who owns the sovereignty of government. The government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan unlike other previous regimes has called a bluff of Nigerians as unnecessary in the process of making the decision to remove the subsidy by whatever margin. This is an aberration in a country under democratic rule where participation of the people is central to the processes of decision making. If the government can disregard the wish of over one hundred and fifty million Nigerians, where is the respect for the owners of sovereignty? Are we better off as a nation under democracy than under military autocracy?

The government is trying by all means to make us believe that the removal of the subsidy is key to major economic reforms being carried out by the government. The expected revenue from the process, we were told, will be managed by a team of credible Nigerians. Nigerians have heard much of similar rhetorics in the past with much of the accrued revenue going the same way of profligacy as other preceding efforts in that direction. Experience of the past is what is making Nigerians to speak in a sympathetic and pessimistic manner on the deregulation of the petroleum sector. They are beginning to foresee a clear period of hardship ahead as never experienced before because the usual talk about subsidy removal in the past has been a gradual increase. It is with the interest of Nigerians in mind that Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP), a Non-Governmental Organization sees the government action to remove subsidy as an unfair bargain after the Good luck Jonathan was voted to power by the same people the subsidy removal will further impoverish.

CAPP believes that government’s insistence on removing the subsidy to raise more funds is not sincere because the wastages in the administration of government are more than the expected revenue from the removal of subsidy. The government must practicalise its political will to fight corruption in the system. We see the regime as not ready for this, since the leader of government has not even demonstrated the leadership by example by declaring his assets. Yet Nigerians are being told about transformation of our nation. CAPP is of the firm conviction that until there is a value renaissance in Nigeria, efforts at transforming the nation will leave much to be desired.

CAPP also believes that the government has not been able to produce a blueprint on the proposed fuel subsidy removal. The late General Sani Abacha increased fuel price marginally and set up Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). We all know what the organization has been doing since establishment. The judicious use of the resources of the nation is a major crux of the matter since Nigerians are now suspicious of government action. Can the Goodluck Government be trusted like it is asking Nigerians?

Furthermore, CAPP urges the government to revamp the real sector if the effort at resuscitating the economy will be meaningful. In this direction, efforts should be directed at our steel rolling mills across the country, textile companies that are moribund, agric sector should be mechanized, our social infrastructures should be upgraded, our education sector in shambles should be funded; all these sectors will generate employment opportunities to empower Nigerians economically. It is when all these are done that the transformation agenda of the government will be truly transformational CAPP also calls on the mass media to practicalise the constitutional power that empowers them to hold the government accountability. They should increase their investigative capacity to do this job.

Kyauta A.S Giwa

Executive Director

CDPB for Launch in Plateau State

The Community Driven Peace Building (CDPB), a peace building  project funded by MacArthur Foundation will be formally launched in Jos, the State headquarters on the 5th December 2011 at the  Rayfield, Plateau State Government house.

A discussion session is expected to follow the public presentation of the summary baseline survey just conducted in the targeted communities. This will enable the stakeholders notably: Community beneficiaries, Civil Society Organizations and members of the public to make their inputs to the document.

Expected at the occasion are government officials, Civil Society Organizations, members of CAPP in the State and the general public.