The annual report of the National Council for Civil Education ( NCCE) submitted to the Pubic Agencies/ Enterprises Committee recently has highlighted underfunding as a major challenge facing the council.
The NCCE is a very important institution, as it was created by the constitution, and mandated to enlighten citizens on their civic rights and duties.
The council, therefore, deserves to be well funded to ensure its effective operation.
Thus, it needs more budgetary support from the central government.
It is disheartening to see the council struggling with financial challenges.
Considering the importance of the council, apart from the government, it is our view that the private sector and NGOs should all help to provide funding to the NCCE for the interest of good governance and the citizenry.
According to the NCCE report, even the office that is currently housing the Council is not spacious enough, and therefore not conducive for the staff to do their work conveniently.
In our view, the NCCE deserves to be provided with a new office complex.
It was also reported that they are facing the problem of access to the national airwaves to enable them to pursue their mandate effectively.
There is no doubt that some of the airtime on the state media, allocated for entertainment programmes and the like, could be better used for NCCE programmes.
We firmly believe that people can only make informed decisions only when they are well-informed.
The national media should give priority to institutions like the NCCE to educate the people on their rights, duties and responsibilities.
We urge the government to increase the budgetary allocation to the NCCE for the council to do its work efficiently.
Indeed, it is only when people are aware, that they can determine their destiny.
