Seye Joseph
The wife of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Mrs. Bisi Fayemi has urged Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) not to give more charges to non-government organisation as they do to corporate organisations in the country.
Fayemi who was the guest speaker at the 15th year anniversary of Nigeria Network of Non-Government Organisations that was themed Global Good Practices in NGO regulations of Nigeria Network of NGOs in Lagos said that non-governmental organisations are not profit centric organisation where a significant amount of money is being declared.
“Even if they declared a substantial amount of money at the end of year, it is meant to take of the care of the people in the society and they will still account for it”, she said.
She said that NGOs have played increasingly prominent role in the development sector, with strengths, innovation and grassroots driven organisations with the desire and capacity to pursue participatory and people centered forms of development and to fill gaps left by the failure of states across the developing world in meeting the needs of their poorest citizens.
She stressed that in a society where states cannot provide sufficient goods, services or enabling environments that help citizens in securing livelihoods, or where disadvantaged groups are excluded from existing state institutions, alternative channels of service provision and/or holding governments to account must be found and it is into this gap that NGOs have neatly fitted.
“Early criticisms of NGOs persist, however, and their activities have been more concentrated in service provision than in advocacy and empowerment. Their difficulties in promoting long-term structural change have led to the recognition of broader civil society organisations within the good governance agenda, given their stronger position for transforming state-societal relationships”, she said.
Fayemi highlighted two distinct roles for NGOs as service providers and advocates for the poor. According to her, “the service provider advocate differentiates between the pursuit of ‘Big-D’ and ‘little-d’ development ‘Big-D’development sees development as a project-based and intentional activity, which tangible project outputs have little intention to make foundational changes that challenge society’s institutional arrangements”
In contrast, she stated that ‘little-d’ ‘development’ regards development as an ongoing process, emphasizing radical, systemic alternatives that seek different ways of organizing the economy, social relationships and politics shape of NGOs has changed over time.
“While many NGOs, particularly in Africa, were created around the explicit intention of addressing structural issues of power and inequality and expanding civil society against weak and unrepresentative states, they have seen a shift in their organizational character and in the nature of their work, instead adopting technical and managerial solutions to social issues such as poverty through service delivery and welfare provision. Ninety percent of registered NGOs in Kenya, for example, are involved primarily in service delivery”, she mentioned.
Part of the activity used to mark the event is to honour individual who has shown exemplary leadership capacity in the development sector, the Nigeria Network of NGOs announced the three short listed winners of the ‘’Yemisi Ransome-Kuti Leadership Award 2015’’ and launched a delegates voting campaign for the award’s favourite winner at the event.
The short listed winners were Ndifreke Andrew-Essien, Mandela Washington Fellow and Executive Director FAECARE Foundation, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Crystal Chigbu, Executive Director, The IREDE Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria and Aremu Stephen Akinyele, Executive Director, Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI), Osogbo, Nigeria
Crystal Chigbu, Executive Director, The IREDE Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria was honour after the voting that was in her favour with the prize money of N50,000.
The Leadership Award aims to honour outstanding Nigerians working in the not-for-profit sector who exemplifies the leadership ideals of Ms. Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, a civil society activist and founding Executive Director of the Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNNGO).
Congratulating the winners, NNNGO Executive Director Oyebisi Babatunde Oluseyi emphasized that ‘’for decades we have witnessed how the civil society sector has continued to contribute as an important stakeholder to the development of Nigeria. Intervening in various sectors from health, education, poverty reduction, entrepreneurship through to agriculture, environment, gender, ICTs and lots more, the three short listed winners are striking examples of how Nigerian non-governmental organisations are helping to bring about development to the poor and vulnerable in our societies.
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