Communities must cease to be regarded as beneficiaries of reform, but co-creators, writes HAMZAT LAWAL
Every community has a story government files rarely tell. It is the story of the mother who knows why the newly built primary healthcare centre remains deserted despite millions spent on its construction. It is the story of the farmer who can predict flooding long before official forecasts arrive because he has watched the river change its temperament over decades. It is the story of young people who understand why an expensive skill acquisition programme attracted applause during commissioning but silence afterwards.
I know this story from personal experience. In 2016, Follow The Money tracked a Federal Government intervention under the World Bank-supported Saving One Million Lives programme after the government of Kogi, my home state, confirmed receipt of $1.5 million. Among the projects was the rehabilitation of Okengwe PHC, one of several primary healthcare facilities in Okengwe, Okene Local Government Area.
Yet it quickly became clear that what was being delivered did not necessarily reflect what the community needed most. The people who would ultimately use the facility had not been meaningfully involved in identifying the priorities or shaping the intervention. Most community members were not even aware that the project was taking place. Without their voices to help guide implementation, a well-intentioned government intervention risked solving a problem on paper rather than addressing the needs that mattered most to the people it was designed to serve.
