FCT Minister commends launch of citizens’ engagement platform

. RCSI Director says agencies’ collaboration will address residents complain

By Taofeek LAWAL, Abuja

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, has commended the public presentation of the FCT Citizens’ Engagement Platform by the Reform Coordination and Service Improvement Department (RCSID).  According to the minister, the platform will address the issue of fake news by establishing authentic information to the benefits of the residents and promote ethnic, religious and tribal harmony among Nigerians living in the territory.  

 Represented by the Minister of State, FCT, Hajiya Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, Bello said the role of communication cannot be over emphasised as it enhances good and efficient service delivery.

“The platform is a good avenue to showcase laudable projects to benefit the people and afford the citizens to keep eye on national assets and report the activities of unscrupulous elements to those in authority,” the minister said.

Engineer Umar Gambo Jibrin, the Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Agency (FCDA), said his agency has deployed technology to monitor the activities of the vandals and asked the residents to report the activities of vandals to government.  Jibrin said the vandals have damaged over 25,000 manholes across the territory.

The Acting Director RCSID, Dr Jumai Ahmadu, said the platform will afford residents and visitors of the FCT and Nigeria citizens the world over the opportunity to be able to connect with FCT. She said communities such as Gwarinpa, Wuse, Kubwa, Abaji and others across the FCT will create their accounts and periodically upload the information that the FCTA will act on with support from other FCT agencies.

“If there is any complain, you can come to the platform to create your account. Different communities will have their accounts. For example, the likes of Gwarinpa, Wuse, Kubwa and even up to Abaji can have their accounts because there is no part of the territory that we don’t have network. If there is no network in your community, local government headquarters will have where somebody can come, create the account and periodically upload the information that the FCTA needs to act upon. There is also the inter-agency collaboration which is an opportunity for all our departments to work together which is purely at our level and when to act and when to draw the attention of other departments to do what is needed to be done,” the director said.

“At the end of 2019, the FCTA started to develop this platform that will give the residents and visitors of the FCT and Nigeria citizens all over the world the opportunity to be able to connect with FCT. There is no way you can claim to be running a city without a say from the people you are serving because we are all here to serve the residents. And if they don’t have the first-hand information about what you do, it will be difficult to honestly say that we have deployed the needed services to them, the reason for the creation of this platform launched by the Minister of the FCT, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello. With this, residents will not have any excuse for not being part of how they are being administered.”

“If there is any complain, you can come to the platform to create your account. Different communities will have their accounts. For example, the likes of Gwarinpa, Wuse, Kubwa and even up to Abaji can have their accounts because there is no part of the territory that we don’t have network. If there is no network in your community, local government headquarters will have where somebody can come, create the account and periodically upload the information that the FCTA needs to act upon. There is also the inter-agency collaboration which is an opportunity for all our departments to work together which is purely at our level and when to act and when to draw the attention of other departments to do what is needed to be done.”

“There is also the mobile app that people can take pictures of happening around them and upload for the desk officers of such agency to see and take prompt action without any delay. Of course, it will be a continuous process because things happen every day and change is constant. The moment we receive any alert from the public, we are going to build on that and be sure that we are up-to-date in the services we render on this platform. I want to call on the residents to have a look at it, engage with each other, keep improving on our part and see how it can become perfect. Although, it is not a platform for land-related issues but the inclusion of the Director, Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) is deliberate. The AGIS director is the chairman of the ICT infrastructure because they have a more robust platform which is GIS-based. For now, we are going to work together (with AGIS) but a time will come that land-related issues will be resolved on this platform. It is a limitless platform where people can ask frequently answer questions (FAQs) as well. The platforms are www.myfctagov.ng for citizens’ participation and the www.myfctaconnect.gov.ng for inter-agency collaboration FCTA Response App. These are the three distinct features of this platform.”

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