BY NONYE JULIET EKWENUGO
Kaduna
The Legal Awareness for Nigeria Women, (LAWN) and Partnership to Engage, Reform, and Learn, (PERL), yesterday engaged gubernatorial candidates vying for Sir Kashim Ibrahim House on agenda setting and representation of their manifestos to the citizens.
Speaking during the engagement, LAWN Project Officer on the We-You project, Hannatu Ahuwan, stressed the need for the gubernatorial candidates to furnish the citizens with their manifestos and get feedback from them to know their expectations.
Ahuwan who noted the importance of credible elections said the candidates should allow the citizens to know what they have in their kittle before going to the poll, saying the governorship election in the state is for people to decide, hence, the need for agenda setting.
She commended the gubernatorial candidates of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Senator Uba Sani, and that of the New Nigeria Peoples’ Party, (NNPP) Senator Suleyman Hunkuyi, who were physically present during the engagement, and Honourable Isa Ashiru of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) who joined online for finding time to be dialogue.
In his remarks, State Team Lead of PERL, Abel Adejoh, said the era where candidates seeking political offices seat in their comfort zone and determine manifestos are over.
According to him, Civil Society Organizations, (CSOs) and citizens will dialogue with the candidates to ensure an issue-based campaign.
Adejoh disclosed that Kaduna State is the first to have such a dialogue with candidates even though other states are in the pipeline to follow suit.
He added that the CSOs and other accountability mechanisms are having the engagement on behalf of the 9,000,000 Kaduna citizens and the outcome will influence the decision of the electorate.
Similarly, Mr. Yusuf Goje of Partnership for Issues-Based Campaign in Nigeria, (PICaN) said the dialogue was supported by PERL, a Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, (FCDO).
Goje said the agenda setting for the gubernatorial candidates circled health, education, and security because of their high influence on the citizens.
Speaking on behalf of the citizens, the Co-Chair, Citizens of the Open Government Partnership, (OGP) Hadiza Umar, said Kaduna State as the first to key into the OGP needs to carry the citizens along especially allowing them to know the manifestos available to them from politicians who are seeking offices.
