FG Commences Implementation‎ OGP Process‎, as Three States Declare Interest

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Federal Government has revealed that ‎the implementation of Open Government Partnership (OGP) in order to increase openness in governance while also preventing and detecting corruption as commenced, even as three states; Kaduna, Anambra and Kano‎ have formally declared interest to participate.

The OGP is an international multi-stakeholder initiative which brings together government and civil society organisations to‎ ensuring that government activities are open rather than being shrouded in secrecy.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami‎ disclosed this at the training of members of open alliance organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) in Abuja recently.
The AGF, who was represented by Special Adviser, Justice Section Reform, Barrister Julie Ibekaku‎-Nwogu, noted that the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) that was co-created by the civil societies and government has commenced in earnest.

This, according to him, has led to progress and success stories recorded in several areas, including open contracting, led by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), open budgeting, led by the Ministry of Budget and Planning and Budget Office, beneficial ownership transparency, led by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) among others.

The minister stressed that the two recently signed executive bills both on the promotion of ease of doing business and also on the Voluntary Assets Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo ‎speak to two commitments (4 and 5) in the NAP

Malami revealed, “‎let me also inform you that the three the States- Kaduna, Anambra and Kano have formally decided to join the OGP. I am particularly delighted about the participation of the states because they are the tier of government that is closer to the people. It is our view that increased openness at the state level will impact more directly on the benefits that citizens will derive form good governance.”

Earlier, the Director of the Centre, Dr. Otive Igbuzor said the OGP process was started in 2011 by eight countries‎, noting that presently more than one third of humanity are engaged in this process.

According to him, “for Nigeria, the problem is that the resources that we have not translated into services for citizens and President Muhammadu Buhari understood that ‎one of the major problem is corruption. So, the OGP is meant to promote openness, transparency and accountability in the use of resources.

He added that, “the challenge is the citizens of Nigeria, government and indeed ‎everyone need to have a change of mindset and a change of orientation to implement its transformative commitment, (fourteen of them), government has made and that resources of the country will deliver services to the people.”

Igbuzor stated that it has been shown all over the world that when citizens engaged, then transparency, accountability and openness would increase, stressing that it was a commendable move that ‎government has signed up to the OGP

The Executive Director emphasised that it was a good thing that CSOs and government are coming together to make a commitment to improve transparency and accountability in Nigeria using different methodologies including physical transparency; adding that “the way we get our money through budget and‎ the way we spend through procurement must be open‎.

“Corruption thrives when there is no information, through doing specific things to prevent corruption, through having beneficial ownership register, so that we know who owns what and if you own what cannot be accounted for by your income then we can know that corruption has taken place,” he said.

‎The Co-Chairman of OGP, Mr. Edet Ojo said the training provides the opportunity to CSOs to put in place reforms they have been clamouring for over the years through the OGP implementation.

He said for a long time governance has been left to the government alone, stressing that the CSOs have realised that it wasn’t working and that it was time to try a different approach.