By Philip Yatai

Stakeholders in Lere Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State have commended the chairman of the council, Mr Abubakar Buba for executing 108 capital projects within 12 months in office.

The stakeholders comprise of traditional and religious leaders, political parties, elected office holders, community development associations, unions, women and youth groups, civil society organisations, local government staff, contractors and media.

They made the commendation in a communique signed by representatives of civil society organisations and officials of the LGA and made available to newsmen in Kaduna on Saturday.

The signatories were Mrs Ladi Makama of Coalition of Civil Society, Lere LGA, Yusuf Goje of Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development, Ahmed Lere, secretary of the council and Shuaibu Garu special adviser to the council chairman.

“Following the laudable evidence of 108 projects executed within a year in office, we commended the chairman of the LGA for delivering the dividend of democracy to the people.

“We will work closely with the council to ensure improve internal revenue generation so that more projects can be delivered to the people of the area,” they said.

The stakeholder added that civil society partners would equally continue to support and effectively hold the council accountable towards ensuring that the government work with and for the good people of Lere LGA.

The council had on Friday held a one-day quarterly budget performance review town-hall meeting with stakeholders. The town hall meeting was organised to publicly present the revenue and expenditure performance of the council in the first and second quarter of 2019 and to get feedback from critical stakeholders.

This was part of efforts to strengthen the culture of transparency, accountability and citizen’s engagement in the provision of quality of service delivery in the LGA.

The council chairman had announced at the meeting that the LGA had over the last 12 months invested a total of N500 million in 108 projects and programmes, which were at 98 percent completion.

“We have focused more on the social sector because we belief that our people deserve quality education and healthcare, including infrastructure and agriculture,” Buba said.

In its policy of putting people first, the local government area has adopted the Open Government Partnership (OGP) to ensure effective citizens engagement.

The council also keyed into the Local Government Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability programme in a bid to provide transparent and quality services to the people