The project team began the project by visiting the 12 house of representative members of the 12 constituencies namely: Aguta I, Aguta II, Anaocha I, Anaocha II,Awka south I,Awka south II, Dunukofia, Njikoka I, Njikoka II,Orumba North, Orumba South, having in mind that some of the constituencies now have newly elected legislators where we presented to them a copy of the CLIP project introductory letter each, in order to strengthen the focus of the CLIP project within their constituencies.

Community Legislative Interactive Members Platform (CLIP) it’s a project aimed towards entrenching effective communication between the Legislative members of the constituencies within our coverage areas and the community members on community development project and policy legislation.

ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE STATED PERIOD UNDER REVIEW

1. Project steering meeting
2. Legislative Interactive forum
3. Legislative advocacy visits
4. One hour weekly radio program
5. Legislative Round Table

1. PROJECT STEERING MEETING- The project started with an activity that enabled us to consolidate our relationship with the constituencies. The meeting was carried out in the twelve constituencies. These visits were carried out to vanguards formed during the first phase of the CLIP Project, opinion leaders and influencers in the community such as President Generals (PGs) , women leaders, youth leaders and grassroot members of the communities. The aim of the visit was to strengthen the focus of the CLIP Project and to consolidate on the indicators achieved during the pilot stage.

2. LEGISLATIVE INTERACTIVE FORUM- For the project to be more impactful and to entrench the beauty of democracy we needed to find an avenue to bring the constituencies on the same page with the legislators, therefore we engaged both parties in an interactive forum where the communities can have a quality time to discuss with their legislators and present their charter of demands to the legislators.

3. LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY VISITS- During the course of the project we discovered that there was need to do a follow up of the interaction that we had with the legislators, therefore, we selected eight members of the vanguards from each of the constituencies to pay an advocacy visit to the legislators in their offices. At these meetings, we do a keen analysis of the different core areas that need the urgent attention of the legislators.

4. ONE HOUR WEEKLY RADIO PROGRAM – There was a need to let more people know about the project and enable the legislators to communicate to a wider audience of their constituencies, that was why we started the radio show tagged TOWN HALL MEETING. With this we were able to have callers from different constituencies interact with their legislators live on air and get first hand information from their legislators.

5. LEGISLATIVE ROUND TABLE – Here comes a great opportunity to have the twelve legislators meet with some influential members of their constituencies, like the Igwe, President Generals, admin secretaries that all make up the CLIP VANGUARDS. The Theme of the event was LEGISLATIVE AUTONOMY, OVERSIGHT FUNCTIONS AND EFFECTIVE REPRESENTATION. The paper presentation by Sir Mark Asu Obi Program Manager CCFN and the resource person Hamza Aliyu was the major highlight of the event that made way for the panelists to engage the legislators in an interactive discussion.

             ACHIEVEMENTS / SUCCESS STORIES

The project has witnessed a tremendous success with impactful achievements on the lives of the constituency members and the legislators. The beauty of this project is that the cooperation between the legislators and the CLIP vanguards has made the project record great achievements.

TOWN HALL MEETINGS– During the activities of the project one of the achievements we recorded was the flow of communication we had during the town hall meetings. During the town hall meetings, the twelve constituencies presented charter of demands and they got quick response from the legislators.

The interactive sessions recorded series of achievements, in one of the interactive sessions the member representing Aniocha 1 Hon Ebele Ejiofor made a financial commitment to the women in the constituency. He donated N200,000 to women that put themselves in clusters to gain access to the grant to help boost their small businesses.

At a town hall meeting in Awka North we were able to convince the legislator representing them on the need to have two constituency offices in the constituency. This is because people who live at Achalla cann’t access the constituency office at Ebenebe due to the very bad condition of the link roads. This led to the lunching of a second constituency office at Achalla on the 30^th of December 2019.

Still talking of constituency offices, we are also glad to inform you that ALL THE TWELVE CONSTITUENCIES UNDER OUR COVERAGE HAS CONSTITUENCY OFFICES. This indeed is a great achievement.

BUDGET DEFENCE – One of the greatest achievements we have recorded on this project is the intervention meeting we attended during the Anambra state budget defence with the house committee on agriculture. At the meeting we were able to state categorically that the farm inputs like the seedlings and fertilizers approved by the state government normally get to the farmers especially those at Orumba south and Awka north vey late almost at the end of the farming season. After we called the attention of the chairman of the committee. He immediately made an immediate commitment that the agricultural commissioner set up a task force and include him as part of his oversight function that he is ready to be part of those that will monitor the distribution of those seedlings and farm inputs. Today, as we speak that bottleneck as been taking care of as farmers get their seedlings on time, especially at the lunching of the farming season in March.

VANGUARDS- 

Across all the communities we have been able to build a strong network of vanguards who have been very helpful to execute the project. Our vanguards were carefully chosen, made up of mainly gate keepers of the communities, namely, IGWES, PRESIDENT GENERALS (PGs, WOMEN LEADERS, MEN OF GOD and YOUTH LEADERS.

COMMUNITY PROJECTS -THE EROSION CONTROL CENTER.

A report submitted by UMUNZE, ORUMBA SOUTH to the Federal Ministry of Environment 2018 which was forgotten or thrown away, was during the project resurrected due to constant interaction with the legislato , the President General and through the constant intervention on our radio platform, the project was commissioned by PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI  represented by the minister of state for Environment Mrs Sharon Ikeazor. Orumba south is an agrarian community that depends so much on farming. Today they can now go ahead with their farming activities without the fear of erosion sweeping away their farms.

COMMUNITY CHOOSE YOUR PROJECT-

This is a project designed by Anambra state government for communities to choose a project of their choice and get N20 million naira each. As we speak some communities are on their third phase i.e N60,000 million naira. The major achievement we recorded through our intervention is that during the course of our interaction , we called the attention of some of the legislators in Anaocha, Njikoka and Orumba North to interceed for their constituencies and as part of their oversight functions help to follow up the project. This intervention has helped these three constituencies to conclude their 2^nd phase and waiting for the 3^rd phase of the project. The three communities were able to complete their civic centers with the funds.

ONE HOUR WEEKLY RADIO PROGRAM

The degree of awareness and wild spread engagements achieved during the project was as a result of the radio program. We have been able to draw the attention of the government through the radio program. It has large followership and listenership which helped more communities to discuss their needs with the legislators live on air as they got immediate answers to their questions.

For instance, it was during the radio program that the legislator representing Awka south 1, Hon. Nnamdi Okafor, made a commitment in October and declared an empowerment program that took place 28^th Dec 2019.

With the help of the radio program we have been able to mobilize legislators to extend help to members of the their communities as the world faces a difficult time in the hands of the deadly CORONAVIRUS. The LEGISLATORS were able to take advantage of the radio program to announce the venues where the distribution of relief items like face masks, washing hand basins, hand sanitizers, tissue papers, rice beans etc. They also used the radio platform to educate their constituencies on the need to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic

LEGISLATIVE ROUND TABLE

The achievement recorded at this event was the communiqué that was drafted at the end of the event. The communiqué has been forwarded to the office of the Speaker Anambra state House of Assembly, RT. Hon Uche Okafor, waiting for further deliberations on how to implement some of the recommendations stated on the communiqué.

The speaker, after going through the commuinique commended the effort of JDPC Awka and pledged to work closely with us to achieve some of the recommendations stated on the communiqué.

CHALLENGES

With all the success stories recorded above, its also fair to say that the achievements did not come without challenges. The challenges encountered were-

1. At the the beginning of the project, we were trapped in the mix feelings of religious politics already existing in the state between the Catholics and Anglicans. It took the Anglicans a very critical explaination from us before they were convinced to be part of the project and even become members of the CLIP Vanguards.
2. The discipline of time management was also a major factor. Sometimes we book an appointment with a legislator and by the time we got to his office waiting to see him he calls and tells us that he has gone for an emergency meeting. Sometimes the meeting leads to a postponement.
3. On the part of the community members sometimes they agree to book for a meeting not finding out the market days of the village. This action sometimes make us to postpone the meeting because some villages don’t miss their market days.
4. Another major challenge was the total breakdown of our vehicle. Since the vehicle broke down our access to interlands slowed down and we had to device other means.

LESSONS LEARNT

1. From the activities carried out so far, we have learnt that the best way to attract the legislators and make them listen to us is by inviting them for the weekly radio show as guests. Before we started the radio show, it was quite difficult to get their attention.
2. We have also learnt that it is easier to engage the legislators in a more productive interaction with the use of the CHARTER OF DEMAND, document presented to them by their constituency than engaging them at random without any written document.