We are a post-insurgency watchdog – Sadiq

Twenty five-year-old Sadiq Muazu Abubakar is one of those youths who embarking on social mobilisation with a view to helping victims of insurgency to overcome the trauma in Borno state. In an interview with SADIQ ABUBAKAR, he says youths in particular are the centre-piece of the programme.

Who is Abubakar Sadiq?

My name is Abubakar Sadiq Muazu. I was born in 1994 to a middle-class civil servant family of eight children. I am currently the chief executive officer of the Centre for Advocacy, Transparency and Accountability Initiative and also Borno state chapter leader of Pan African Movement on Transparency and Accountability popularly known as ‘Follow the Money’.

 What specifically is your organisation doing in Borno?

Our organisation has been doing quite a lot in Maiduguri by engaging actors towards enhanced service delivery and through that empower communities with basic needs of life through advocacy, research, impact and innovation. We also embark on outreach and advocacy for institutional reforms. Our work revolves around three major pillars of humanitarian support, good governance and social accountability. In our humanitarian support pillar, we focus on strengthening the resilience of the affected communities within some thematic areas of health especially focusing on sexual reproductive health, education, livelihood and water sanitation and hygiene. In our good governance and social accountability pillar, we use technological tools to build the capacities of young people and grassroots communities in holding their elected representative and official responsible for implementations of projects accountable. This also gives them opportunity through our ‘Follow the Money’ model of Connected Development Initiative to engage in tracking government and international aid spendings across various communities in line with reconstruction rehabilitation and resettlement. Our organisation is currently strengthening local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate and building capacities of citizens on catalysts for their societal issues through our innovations to amplify their voices with independence and integrity while providing the communities with social, economic and environmental progress.

 Has it made any impact or success so far?Indeed, in our Journey so far, we have made impact in the lives of many grassroots communities especially through our ‘Follow the Money’ initiative where we track successfully the constructions of blocks of classroom in Jere Federal Constituency and also advocated for an additional construction of a classroom facility. Today, these communities have classrooms erected in their communities hosting over a thousand pupils. Also in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, we tracked the construction of a healthcare facility which today awaits commissioning. The uniqueness of our intervention is giving communities the opportunity to take ownership of what we do. We build their capacities and also establish a good feed-back mechanism between them and government where they can engage constructively in demanding for developmental projects.

 How long have you been in this project and who are the beneficiaries?

We started our project in Borno around 2017 by engaging with the grassroots in affected communities as a result of insurgency. Our works are centered in making the lives of children, women and the elderly better. We also focus on the teeming population to see that service is being enhanced with healthcare facilities provided, adequate knowledge to adolescent and youths on things that can affect them with potable water supply, quality education and good educational facilities. We are giving priority to making the lives of affected population and host communities better.

 What aspect of humanitarian action plan does your NGO also engage in?

With almost two million internally displaced persons across the North-east where 60% of them are children and women of child bearing age with little or no access to sexual and reproductive health services. Our organisation is placing emphasis on creating a platform for young people to have knowledge about sexual reproductive health. On the other hand, youths and adolescents are consistently demanding for their rights and privileges in order to attain their full potential and become significant in the society. The major plan we would focus on in our humanitarian pillar would be centered around health, education and providing livelihood support to affected population. While our social accountability would be centered on mobilising citizens and young people to take action toward tracking international aid spending and government spending in their various communities. I want our young people to be focused and determined. I started engaging with what I am doing as a volunteer to connected with development but today I have passionate young people looking up to me and volunteering in our organisation. We need to take action and think out of the box to bring solutions to our problem by tapping from the small potentials and looking at the minimal resources we have to make impact to the life of our people.

Leave a Reply