LINDI: THE ruling party CCM's Vice-Chairman (Mainland), Abdulrahman Kinana (Mainland) has stressed the need for engaging citizens when making decisions regarding their development.
According to him, it is high time issues concerning people's development must come from the citizens themselves and be given an opportunity to make decisions.
Mr Kinana said although there are citizens' representatives, including parliamentarians, councillors and councils, but they are not capable of changing the existing situation without engaging people in decision making, especially on issues which are crucial to them.
Mr Kinana made the remarks recently when addressing CCM members in Mtama Constituency, Lindi Region after launching the CCM's cell at Majengo Sokoni.
Explaining further on the importance of engaging people deciding for their development, Kinana recalled when he was serving as the CCM Secretary General during a rally while accompanied by Nape Nnauye in Ngorongoro District.
"While at the area, I saw that the people are in need of water, but when we asked the residents, they said that their problem is not water but internet services," he said.
"You can go to an area and think that people are in dire need of a school or water, but they needed something different, thus we must involve them when deciding for their development... we should not take the authority of making decision for them ... it is important to sit and discuss with them about their needs and priorities," he said.
Kinana explained that when you tell citizens to volunteer in road construction, they can tell you that they need a school first, stressing on the importance of delegating power to the citizens.
"Therefore, the formation of villages and hamlets are crucial for citizens' development...consider the situation of our country between 1960 and 1970, we had only nine regions, but to date we have more than 30 regions ... we had 50 districts but to date we are approaching 200 districts," he said.
Kinana further commended the execution of CCM election manifesto in Mtama constituency through the supervision of ward councillors and council leaders.
"I commend your MP, he is a strong leader ...I have been working with him for seven years," he said.
Kinana said he has heard the party and government report concerning various development projects being implemented in Lindi region. He said the region performed well in rural electrification, whereby according to the report, all the villages will be connected to electricity before December 2025.
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" I had an opportunity to visit various regions in the country, I have been to Geita and Kagera recently, and before that I visited Manyara, Tabora and other areas ... I want to assure you that all villages will have electricity come 2025," he said.
The Mtama MP who is the Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology, Nape Nnauye asked the government to revisit the decision to expand administrative areas, especially at village and hamlets levels.
According to him, there are some areas which face difficulties in serving the citizens due to large size of the areas and high population, thus it was important for the government to expand administrative areas.
Nape said that following such factors, he requested the party to accept the establishment of new villages and hamlets in order to facilitate provision of services to the citizens.
