Ekiti NUJ Chairman, Babatuyi
Residents of Ekiti State have reacted to the performances of federal lawmakers representing the state in the National Assembly, in terms of their constituency engagement.
Senator representing Ekiti central senatorial District,Opeyemi Bamidele, Hon. Fatoba, representing Ado/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency I and Hon. Omoleye, representing Ijero/Ekiti West/Efon Federal Constituency II were rated in areas such as accessibility, community engagement and public awareness of constituency projects.
This assessment was revealed on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti during the public presentation of a performance report on National Assembly members representing Ekiti Central and facilitated by the Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, in collaboration with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti State Council.
During the event, JDPI Director, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Akingbade, explained that a seven-member assessment team was deployed to randomly interview residents across the district.
According to him, a total of 200 residents were interviewed one-on-one, with responses analyzed using a Pivot Table and interpreted with the Likert Scale method.
According to the report, 99% of respondents said Hon. Omoleye was inaccessible, 94% said he failed to engage with constituents and 83% were unaware of any projects he had executed in the constituency.
Similarly, 91% of respondents described Hon. Fatoba as inaccessible, 90% reported no engagement with constituents and 78.3% were unaware of any constituency projects linked to him.
In contrast, Senate Leader and Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, received a “fair” performance rating of 66.7%.
However, 79% of respondents said he was inaccessible, 72% noted a lack of engagement and 53.2% were unaware of his projects.
The report also raised concerns about the mismanagement of empowerment materials, stating that many of the items did not reach the intended beneficiaries, thus limiting their impact on the communities.
Rev Akingbade also called on the federal lawmakers to construct constituency offices in their respective jurisdictions so that constituents can have access to them and make responsible and impactful demands.
The report read in part, “On Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB): 200 persons were randomly interviewed – 108 were women (54%) and 92 were men (46%). 48% of the interviewed persons were Farmers/Traders/Artisans, 24% were Self Employed/Private Sector Employed, 13% were Civil Servants/Public Officers/Government Employed, 7% were Traditional Rulers/Clergies/Retirees, 4% were unemployed, and another 4% were students. In terms of political affiliation, 82% of the interviewed do not belong to any political party. Their responses were as follow:
“Awareness and accessibility of the people to the representative – 79% of respondents know the Senator representing the district. However, 84% do not know whether the Senator has a constituency office.
“Engagement with the constituents – 63% of the people interviewed said that the Senator has not held any town hall meeting with the people of the district. On the question of whether the Senator has at any time interacted with the people of the district to explain any policy of the government to them, 72% responded in the negative. On closeness to the people of his senatorial district, he was rated fair, however, in terms of overall performance, they rated him 4 over 6.
” Peoples’ awareness of the Federal Government’s Projects for the Constituency – When asked on whether the respondents in the senatorial district were aware of any constituency project initiated in the district by the Senator, 53.2% of the 200 respondents answered in the affirmative.
“On Hon. Olusola Steve Fatoba: A total number of 85 persons were randomly interviewed, 40% of whom were men and 60% were women; 43% were Farmers/Traders/Artisans, 19% were Civil Servants/Public Officers/Government Employed, 19% were Self Employed/Private Sector Employed, 5% were Traditional Rulers/Clergies/Retirees, 8% were unemployed, and 5% were students. 78% of the interviewed do not belong to any political party. Their responses were as follow:
“Awareness and accessibility of the people to the representative – 68% of respondents know the Honourable. However, 91% do not know whether he has a constituency office.
“Engagement with the constituents – 78% of the people interviewed did not know whether he has held any town hall meeting with the people of the constituency. On the question of whether he has at any time interacted with the people of the constituency to explain any policy of the government to them, 90% responded in the negative. On closeness to the people of his constituency, he was rated poor. In terms of overall performance, they rated him 3 over 6.
“Peoples’ awareness of the Federal Government’s Projects for the Constituency – When asked on whether the respondents were aware of any constituency project initiated in their constituency by the Honourable, 78.3% of the respondents were not aware.
“On Hon. Biodun Francis Omoleye: A total number of 115 persons were randomly interviewed, 42% of whom were men and 58% were women; 51% were Farmers/Traders/Artisans, 7% were Civil Servants/Public Officers/Government Employed, 28% were Self Employed/Private Sector Employed, 8% were Traditional Rulers/Clergies/Retirees, 1% were unemployed and 3% were students. 85% of the interviewed do not belong to any political party. Their responses were as follow:
“Awareness and accessibility of the people to the representative – 51% of respondents know the Honourable. However, 99% do not know whether he has a constituency office.
“Engagement with the constituents – 97% of the people interviewed did not know whether he has held any town hall meeting with the people of the constituency. On the question of whether he has at any time interacted with the people of the constituency to explain any policy of the government to them, 94% responded in the negative. On closeness to the people of his constituency, he was rated very poor, and in terms of overall performance, they rated him 2 over 6.
“Peoples’ awareness of the constituency projects implemented in the Constituency – When asked on whether the respondents were aware of any constituency project initiated in their constituency by the Honourable, 83% of the people interviewed were not aware”.
In his remarks, the Ekiti NUJ Chairman, Comrade Kayode Babatuyi said the public presentation was to enforce and perform the responsibility of the fourth estate of the realm to bridge the communication gap between the government and the governed.
He added that it’s a mechanism to put the Lawmakers on their toes and not to discredit their efforts in their various jurisdictions.
“What we are doing today is basically enforcing and performing the responsibility that the Media is saddled with to ensure that we bridge the communication gap between government and the governed.
“The presentation of the report was without bias, it’s only the opinion of the masses. It’s a mechanism to put leaders on their toes to be able to more for the society. This is to propel them to do more so that we can have a society we can be proud of”
The Oluyin of Iyin-Ekiti, Oba Adeola Ajakaye, urged the Journalists to engage more in investigative journalism, saying this would further expose the ills of political leaders and force them to do the right things for the people.
Also, the Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ekiti State Branch, Reverend Emmanuel Aribasoye implored Ekiti residents to hold the leaders accountable, saying the Association is ready to partner with NUJ and JDPI to carry out further researches.
Ekiti NUJ former Chairman, Comrade Rotimi Ojomoyela equally solicited the engagement of Lawmakers in making sure that the empowerment materials get to the right audience.