YMonitor: Cross River residents score LGs low in performance survey

…call for better local governance

Residents of Cross River State have expressed dissatisfaction with the state’s local government administrations, scoring the administrators low in social, economic, and political functionalities in the last three years.

This was recently revealed in the Local Government Performance Survey conducted by YMonitor to assess the delivery of public goods and effective services by local governments in the state.

According to the survey report, many residents of Cross River were unaware of the activities of their local government administrators in the last three years. They considered their local governments to be distant from the people at the grassroots.

The Net Promoter Score test showed that many of the 1225 respondents, who are mostly educated young adults between 24-48 years, were dissatisfied with the state of affairs in their communities and are unlikely to recommend their local government chairmen for higher public offices.

Recommendation of local government chairman for higher position NPS rating

The survey report further revealed that despite being registered voters, many residents at the grassroots do not know the name of any public officials elected in their local government in the last three years.

Education was also shown to be a key factor in residents’ likelihood to vote in the coming general elections, as residents of Cross River with a secondary and above level of education exhibit a higher likelihood of voting in the forthcoming elections.

The report recommended bringing governance closer to the grassroots, sensitization citizens on the significance of local government and approaches to holding the local administrators accountable, as well as provision of corruption-checking systems, among others.

Likelihood to vote base on level of education

–  YMonitor accountability project is an initiative under The Future Project (TFP), a developmental organization dedicated to building a network of empowered citizens – through jobs, entrepreneurship and active citizenship. The full report of Local Government Performance in Cross River can be gotten here