By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Justice Development and Peace Caritas (JDPC), Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, has sought the cooperation of government officials to enable the group pull through with its Community Resilience Engagement and Management (CREAM) project in Anambra State.

Director of the organization, Rev Father Ben Chima Okolo, made the request during an advocacy visit to the Director of Planning in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Arthur Iwuanya, with representatives of communities.

In his speech, Rev Fr Okolo said the purpose of their visit was to solicit cooperation that can promote the reach and impact of their intervention which targets to address the increasing difficulty in accessing health and education by citizens in Anambra regardless of the laudable policies of the State government in the health and education sector.

He said Nigerians have been through a lot of socio-economic problems and many more people have been thrown into abject poverty. As a result, an increasing number of residents could neither attend to their health nor cater for the education of their children.”

On his part, a team member, Onyekachi Ololo, said that due to the nature of the organization, some of the citizens come to ask for favours and support, mostly in areas of their health and education.

He added: “JDPC Nnewi therefore designed the CREAM project as what we can do on a larger scale that can benefit all and sundry. So, it’s aimed at helping the citizens across the communities to build resilience and cope better with the economic realities of the time.”

Ololo explained that the CREAM project, which is being piloted in six local government areas across the three senatorial zones in Anambra state, “is targeted at assessing the impacts of existing laws and policies in the health and education sectors.”

While saying that the CREAM project is being piloted in 12 communities in six local government areas, he noted that two local governments in each senatorial district were selected.

He said: “We have two communities under each of the local government areas. We are executing this project with the support of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room with funding support from Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

“Certain information is needed to successfully carry out the project especially in the area of Health and Education Budgetary allocations and implementation of the state.

“We felt that as partners with the government, we can source that information and seek clarity from your office and other relevant MDAs.

“For instance, we observed that across all the secondary schools, a sum of N150,000 was budgeted in 2022 while each of the primary health centres has a N130,000 budget. We needed clarifications on that, though we are aware that agencies under the ministries of education and health have their budgets also.

“You are the expert in this area, we come to see how we can be rightly directed to get the right information which will help us to achieve the goal of CREAM,” Ololo concluded.

In his response, the Director Planning, Mr Arthur Iwuanya, gave an overview of the process of budget preparation to presentation and implementation.

He maintained that the civil society had been deeply involved to enhance transparency and accountability.

Iwuanya added: “We have in Anambra State what we call Community Charter of Demands which has eliminated a top-bottom approach to budget preparation. So, you can say that our budgets are people-oriented.

“However, On the N150,000 and N130,000 allocated to each secondary school and Primary Health Centre, only the concerned ministries will be able to explain the reason for that. So, I will also advise that you interface with the Ministries of Education and Health on that.”

He further advised the organization to also seek an audience with the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning as well as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, saying: “the civil service rule respects hierarchy upon which I can only attend to you the way you want, but without the permission of the two bosses, I will be restrained.”

The Advocacy Meeting was held with five representatives from the CREAM’s pilot communities in attendance.