CSOs want Nigerians to Leverage `open government partnership’ to expose corruption
The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) on Thursday in Abuja urged Nigerians to leverage on Federal Government’s open partnership initiative to expose corruption.
A member of the group, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, made the call at the Citizens and Media Roundtable on “Anti-Corruption Commitments of Open Government Partnership (OGP)’’ in Abuja.
The OGP is a multi-stakeholder initiative that focuses on improving government transparency, accountability and responsiveness to citizens through technology and innovation.
It was founded in 2011, and had grown from presence in eight countries to 75 countries by February, 2017, with Nigeria joining in 2016 as the 70th country to commit to the initiative.
Nwagwu, who is one of the conveners of “Say No Campaign’’, said that what was important was for Nigerians to hold the government to the commitment it made to OGP.
He said that since the government made the commitment by saying “look, I am ready to be open, I want you to look at me and check my books, so if you don’t check, whose responsibility is it’’ he asked.
He said that it behoved citizens to expand the frontiers of accountability, transparency and openness.
“If something is shrouded in secrecy, there is the Freedom of Information Act to reveal it; so, citizens will have to take the responsibility to speak out and demand for information.
“Government has done what it should do by committing to the initiative by saying `I am ready to be open; I want to be transparent’. So, if the citizens do not make that demand, it won’t work.
“My sense is that we are not testing out some of these practically because if we were, now issues can’t go under the table even if some people want them to.
“For example, it took the resilient of the media to be able to burst the issue of Maina and once it was burst, it raised others issues.
“If we didn’t do that, Maina will be sitting pretty in an office in spite of the fact that he is a fugitive. So, we must take credit that it is a citizens’ responsibility.’’
Nwagwu said that was why the CSOs were pushing the OGP to the front burner and saying “look, let’s all do it together because the more you talk about it, the more the impunity will stop.
He said that it was citizens’ advocacy and noise about the impunity in SARS that led to the recent talk about the reorganization of the squad.
“So it is true that anytime we wake up as citizens, get out of our aloofness, insensitivity and lack of interest we will bring the change that we want in our country.’’
Mr Jaye Gaskiya, Convener, Protest to Power, said that there was need for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be more open with information.
Gaskiya said that though Nigerians needed to play their parts to fight corruption, the information from various sectors of the polity was limited.
He said that most of the websites of MDAs had scanty reports on their activities and that some websites were not regularly updated, slowing down progress.
He said that though MDAs had created websites, they needed to populate them and give them content for the benefit of the people.
Mr Uchenna Arisukwu, Programmes Coordinator and Head Northern Regional Office of Centre LSD, said that the OGP was about reforming and deepening governance in Nigeria.
Arisukwu said that opening up the process for transparency and accountability would aid citizens’ participation in governance and give them a voice to hold duty bearers to account.
He said that though Nigerians were grateful for the initiative, there was more duty for the government in order to strengthen the OGP.
He said that one of such duties was to strengthen the acts of MDAs to upscale them to match OGP demands.
“For example, Cooperate Affair Commission’s Act needs to be upgraded to capture the establishment of beneficial ownership register so as to know who owns what in Nigeria.’’
Arisukwu said that the National Orientation Agency’s budgetary allocation needed to be increased so as to help them achieve the aim of helping the citizens to understand and buy into the OGP.
Via.... News Agency of Nigeria
A member of the group, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, made the call at the Citizens and Media Roundtable on “Anti-Corruption Commitments of Open Government Partnership (OGP)’’ in Abuja.
The OGP is a multi-stakeholder initiative that focuses on improving government transparency, accountability and responsiveness to citizens through technology and innovation.
It was founded in 2011, and had grown from presence in eight countries to 75 countries by February, 2017, with Nigeria joining in 2016 as the 70th country to commit to the initiative.
Nwagwu, who is one of the conveners of “Say No Campaign’’, said that what was important was for Nigerians to hold the government to the commitment it made to OGP.
He said that since the government made the commitment by saying “look, I am ready to be open, I want you to look at me and check my books, so if you don’t check, whose responsibility is it’’ he asked.
He said that it behoved citizens to expand the frontiers of accountability, transparency and openness.
“If something is shrouded in secrecy, there is the Freedom of Information Act to reveal it; so, citizens will have to take the responsibility to speak out and demand for information.
“Government has done what it should do by committing to the initiative by saying `I am ready to be open; I want to be transparent’. So, if the citizens do not make that demand, it won’t work.
“My sense is that we are not testing out some of these practically because if we were, now issues can’t go under the table even if some people want them to.
“For example, it took the resilient of the media to be able to burst the issue of Maina and once it was burst, it raised others issues.
“If we didn’t do that, Maina will be sitting pretty in an office in spite of the fact that he is a fugitive. So, we must take credit that it is a citizens’ responsibility.’’
Nwagwu said that was why the CSOs were pushing the OGP to the front burner and saying “look, let’s all do it together because the more you talk about it, the more the impunity will stop.
He said that it was citizens’ advocacy and noise about the impunity in SARS that led to the recent talk about the reorganization of the squad.
“So it is true that anytime we wake up as citizens, get out of our aloofness, insensitivity and lack of interest we will bring the change that we want in our country.’’
Mr Jaye Gaskiya, Convener, Protest to Power, said that there was need for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be more open with information.
Gaskiya said that though Nigerians needed to play their parts to fight corruption, the information from various sectors of the polity was limited.
He said that most of the websites of MDAs had scanty reports on their activities and that some websites were not regularly updated, slowing down progress.
He said that though MDAs had created websites, they needed to populate them and give them content for the benefit of the people.
Mr Uchenna Arisukwu, Programmes Coordinator and Head Northern Regional Office of Centre LSD, said that the OGP was about reforming and deepening governance in Nigeria.
Arisukwu said that opening up the process for transparency and accountability would aid citizens’ participation in governance and give them a voice to hold duty bearers to account.
He said that though Nigerians were grateful for the initiative, there was more duty for the government in order to strengthen the OGP.
He said that one of such duties was to strengthen the acts of MDAs to upscale them to match OGP demands.
“For example, Cooperate Affair Commission’s Act needs to be upgraded to capture the establishment of beneficial ownership register so as to know who owns what in Nigeria.’’
Arisukwu said that the National Orientation Agency’s budgetary allocation needed to be increased so as to help them achieve the aim of helping the citizens to understand and buy into the OGP.
Via.... News Agency of Nigeria
Comments
Post a Comment