Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The African Centre for Leadership, Strate‎gy and Development (Centre LSD) has said that proper implementation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), being funded by MacArthur Foundation, would prevent and detect corruption and strengthen Nigeria’s asset recovery legislation.
The OGP is an international multi-stakeholder initiative, which brings together government and civil societies organisations to‎ ensuring that government activities are open rather than being shrouded in secrecy.
The Project Coordinator of the Centre, Mr. Monday Osasah gave the hint recently in Abuja at a press conference on ‘Accountability in Nigeria through the Implementation of OGP’
He explained that the federal government in its efforts to deepen institutional and policy reforms joined the OGP in July 2016 as the 70th country, stressing that the OGP National Steering Committee (NSC) was constituted, with the Ministry of Justice as the Coordinating minutes and Co-chair, while a Co-chair was also nominated by CSOs.
He explained that the NSC is made up of representatives of government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), CSOs ‎, organised private sector and professional associations, who worked together to co-create the 30-month National Action Plan.
Osasah stated: “‎NAP seeks to promote fiscal transparency through more participation in the budget process, implementation of open contracting in the outfit sector, enhancing disclosure in the extractive industries, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the tax system and improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“It will ensure that corruption is rooted out, the development of a platform for sharing information between government MDAs‎ to detect and prevent corrupt practices, the strengthening of Nigeria’s Asset recovery legislation and taking appropriate actions to coordinate anti-corruption.”
The Project Coordination said that people are calling for restructuring today because the present system is not working, stressing that OGP implementation would open up government, improve governance, while also laying the issue of restructuring to rest.
He stated categorically that if Nigeria fails to meet up with the implementation of OGP target, it means the federal government was not committed to digesting corruption in the country.
