The National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust has implored the citizenry to always hold their leaders accountable for their actions if they are to realize meaningful development.
The Trust’s Civic Education Officer responsible for Ntcheu District, Henry Zekeria, made the remarks in Ntcheu during an interface meeting with members of the Lower Makwangwala Area Development Committee (ADC) drawn from the area of Senior Chief Makwangwala.
Zekeria observed that despite the government’s effort in civic educate the citizenry through different initiatives, local leaders should embrace the power to demand concrete explanations from people in authority.
“As NICE Trust we are very impressed with the way people and local leaders are getting acquainted with their roles as citizens to hold duty bearers accountable for their actions. However, the communities should embrace an oversight role and demand transparency and accountability from their leaders,” zekeria said.
Chairperson for Lower Makwangwala ADC, James Konzaufe, applauded NICE Trust for the initiative. He described it as a revelation as they lacked the knowledge to hold accountable people in power.
He lamented that, as citizens, they lacked information on how the district council operates in terms of various development projects.
“As citizens, we are concerned because we are always sidelined by the district council in terms of decision-making and implementation of projects,” Konzaufe lamented.
NICE Trust is implementing the “Boma lathu” Programme which seeks to empower communities especially community structures to hold duty bearers accountable and ensure that authorities are responsive to the concerns raised by their subordinates.
He was optimistic that, the programme would enable various community structures to appropriately monitor their leaders in terms of development projects in their areas.
NICE Trust is implementing the programme with support from the European Union (EU).
