By Michael Oche
Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) has charged mining companies operating in the FCT on the need to implement agreements entered into with host communities.
CTA programme/communication manager, Macdonald Ekemezie made the call at a one day capacity building for Mpape Community, held at the Mpape chief Palace.
He said it has been observed that most communities in the FCT have entered into agreements with mining companies without adequate knowledge of a Community Development Agreement (CDA).
“We discovered that most mining companies and mining operators go into operations and sign agreements that are not most times understood by the community members and leave the communities devastated,” he said.
Furthermore, the CTA programme manager said even when such agreements are signed, the mining companies do not actually implement what is agreed.
He said, “We discovered also that the agreements were signed by a few people. The communities don’t even have knowledge and don’t even have access to the agreements.”
Ekemezie noted that the CTA has therefore decided to take the training to the communities in a bid to ensure that they are no longer shortchanged by mining companies.
He said, “The essence now is to make communities involved in signing CDAs that are beneficial to the communities. For instance, they need to know the process, they need to own the process, they need to be part of it, they need to be representative enough . Then the needs of the community needs to be accommodated in whatever is been signed and there has to be timeframe and they have to monitor the implementation.”
He explained that CDA is a major element in natural resource governance especially when it has to do with communities.
The group said it will be carrying out further training in Kubwa, Karshi and parts of Garki communities as part of its project on promoting the rights of the original inhabitants of the FCT funded by McArthur Foundation through CHRICED.
