Oluremi Serrano
Nigerian NGO’s have been a sustaining arm of development and without them, the country would have plunge into worse disasters.
These were the submissions of panelists at the November edition of the development dialogue hosted by Ideation Hub on the 25th November 2015 in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Addressing the gathering at the start of the dialogue, the Executive Director of Ideation Hub, Mrs Debola Deji-Kurunmi said that even though NGOs are supporting governments effort, one would have expected an increased level of development from the numerous ones that exist.
‘According to figures from CAC, the country has about 46,000 registered NGO’s. However, this enormous figure is the only thing we see, the level of development is not commensurate. We are currently experiencing so many social challenges which ordinarily you will expect an NGO to solve but that seems not to be the case. Could it then be that the NGO’s are not effective enough?’ she questioned the panel of discussants.
In his response, Chude Jideonwe remarked that NGOs are the only organizations keeping Nigeria from falling into chaos as they stand as buffers between the effects of the non existence of government presence in some areas and the hardship that would generally have resulted but for their presence.
“NGOs in Nigeria are the only ones preventing the country from plunging into a more chaotic state than what we have right now. A good instance is what we are experiencing in the northern part of the country where government has failed,NGOs have stepped in and prevented further breakdown of society,” he noted.
Also speaking, Mr Akin Olukiran of the Institute of Voluntary Sector Management emphasised that the activities of the NGOs across Nigeria has been a great complement to government effort. He enjoined NGOs to make collaborations with one another in order to have greater advantage.
Other panelists at the dialogue include; Ndidi Nwuneli, Founder LEAP AFRICA, Mosun Ladoye, E.D WIMBIZ, Iyioluwa Aboyeji, CO Founder at Andela, Mr Dele Osunmakinde of Enterprise Nigeria Project, Mr Akin Fatunke of Exxonmobile and Dr Ousmane Dore, Country Director of the Arfrica Development Bank.
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