In order to drive greater accountability in the governance process as it pertains the delivery of democratic dividends to the people of Plateau State and Nigeria at large, “Ready to Lead Africa” with support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has organized a two-day training to youths across the 17 Local Government Areas of Plateau State in its Accountability Project in order to equip them with the requisite skills on how to track the implementation of government policies and programmes as contained in their campaign promises to the People.

Global President of Ready to Lead Africa, Mr. Godbless Otubure hinted that the objectives of the training is to provide better knowledge to the participants who are to become “promise Followers” on governance process, how they can promote transparency and accountability in governance.
He disclosed that the project also seek to provide better understanding and equip the participants on the need to seek accountability from political leaders saying election is not the only component of democracy that matters, but providing good governance through responsive leadership that seeks to provide better living condition, security, social amenities and improved economy for the benefit of the citizenry.
He averred the Participants are also being trained on how to report through a designed application the consistency of projects being executed by government in their respective Local Government Areas. He hinted that they have been able to have good information about challenges being faced and ideas being deployed in project execution and the platform also enables government to provide reports on what they have been able to achieve.
According to him “We are collaborating with government Institutions to get real-time data on what government is doing in all the Local Government Areas. We are also following the promises made by the Governor’s during the electioneering campaigns to ensure they don’t derail”
He said the days of fake camping promises are gone, as the era of young people getting involved and citizen’s action is here to stay.
He said at the end of the training, the Participants are expected to have sufficient knowledge and skills on how to use the application and technology to engage community Leaders, track and report progress of projects in their domains which will be used to form a full report that would assess government performance.

In his remarks Project Manager of Ready to Lead Africa, Mr. Okechukwu Ehieze said the “Follow the Promises” training is aimed at equipping Promise Followers who are Representatives across the 17 Local Government Areas in the State to be more knowledgeable on how to measure the progress of the implementation of project and report same to promote transparency and accountability by government especially in line with its campaign promises to the people.
He said “Follow the Promises Project” is being implemented in six (6) pilot States namely Plateau, Gombe, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Sokoto with the intention to spread to other States of the Federation subsequently.
He said the idea is to step down the training to other persons in their local government areas to make the project more effective and impactful. He disclosed that the project would spark accountability by making Governors work in line with their manifestos which in turn he said will benefit the Citizens. He further stressed that the Promise Followers are expected to provide accurate data and information that would assist in the drafting of comprehensive reports.

Mrs Rosemary Simi Paul and Valentine Kefas who are participants lauded the initiative of the organization and said they have been enlightened on the governance process, how to ensure that the manifesto of the government is being executed and report same which they said will promote transparency and accountability.
They said they will step down the lessons learnt during the training to other Ambassadors of the Follow the Promises Project and make effective use of the application to report progress of all projects being executed in their domains.
They said the training is impactful as it has provided them with the required knowledge to hold government accountable for their manifesto and equipped them with the technological skills to use the application to report government projects.

The training which held from Monday 11th to Tuesday 12th September, 2023 at Novel Suites and Resort Rayfield Jos, the Plateau State Capital drew Participants across the 17 Local Government Areas of Plateau State who are trained to become Promise Followers to achieve the core objective of the Follow the Promises Project.

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Ready to Lead Africa Trains Plateau Youths on Project Tracking and Accountability Drive