Open Government Partnership engage CSOs in South-South

A town hall meeting/ engagement on Open Government Partnership (OGP) process for CSOs in South-South to engage citizens and government in governance has been held in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State on Monday.

Speaking to newsmen, the National Coordinator of Open Alliance and the Program Manager, Budget Nigeria, Mr Abayomi Akinbo said the world bank has made available the sum of twenty-one million dollars grant for state governors in Nigeria, especially in the south-south part of the country to aid the development of their states.

He said that the grant is tied to the implementation of a physical transparency commitment in governance and in Open Government Partnership.

He added that in a bid to ensure/ encourage state governments in OGP, Open Alliance Nigeria is engaging Civil Society Organizations in South-South to co-create commitments and the implementation of OGP with State governments and their citizens so as to ensure citizens’ inclusiveness/ citizens’ participation in governance in the region.

Mr Akimbo said OGP allows citizens, government and CSOs to come together to decide on what reforms they want to carry out in their communities.

He said ” We understand that there is an issue of lack of transparency in governance in South-South. So we are looking at some of these commitments that government is going to be making in Partnership with CSOs to open the budget to the people.

“The government is not just only going to open the budget to the people but to also ensure citizens’ participation in the budgeting processes from the budget formulation stage down to the audit report.

“Citizens and CSOs will be included in this particular process. Also, on the issue around tax, CSOs and government will come together and identify a common goal on what they want to work on.

“Also, on the issue of contracting and procurement, where there is a lot of corruption, it is now going to be an open process where contract processes are going to be open for people to bid for contracts. Also, physical responsibility bill will be passed and states will ensure judicious use of public funds.

“So we are pushing this OGP to ensure good service delivery in all of the states so that South-South can now identify some of the issues that are very particular to their states and work on those commitments.

“OGP is an initiative that is not a confrontational approach. It is an approach where when CSOs understand it, the best way to actually get it is to do constant engagement with people in government and make them understand the benefits.

“And the good thing about it is that no state government is an alien to the OGP. The reason is due to the fact that the world bank has engaged them through the OGP secretariat on what the OGP is.

“We have civil society organization such as, Social Action and others who are going to be targeting key persons in government that they can work with to ensure the implementation of OGP in the state.

“Corruption in Nigeria is based on the lack of transparency. It is possible to reduce corruption to the barest minimum. Wherever there is opacity, there is lack of transparency. If there is openness in governance and the citizens know how their money is being spent, there will be timely reports and accessibility to budgets and citizens’ feedback mechanisms.

On his part, Stanley Achonu, the CSO adviser for OGP at the OGP National Secretariat, said that the OGP process hopes to build active citizens’ engagement with government in governance which also involve the daily running of the government.

He said, “One of the challenges is the division, the lack of trust between the people and government based on the assumption that government does not listen to citizens”. He said OGP hopes to change that.

He said OGP hopes to provide citizens with regular frequent access to engage government through interactive processes.

He emphasized that at the federal level, few things are changing. Now citizens can give feedback on budget implementation in their communities using an eye monitor on the website of the budget office.

He also said that the National Orientation Office is hosting more town hall meetings, the bureau for public procurement is now building a platform where all contract disclosures will be made. At the moment they are at a pilot stage with seven (7) ministries. These are the things that government is doing to renew trust and engage citizens in governance so that there will be openness, because if citizens are aware, they can then question government’s expenditure, tackle corruption, be actively involved in the fight against corruption and also ensure that quality service delivery is rendered to their communities.

On his part, Mr Prince Ekpere, the Program Officer, Social Action (a non-governmental organization) in Rivers State, said that the OGP process is a process like the open budget campaign which has been on for the past five years. They are all governance program aimed at improving the lives of citizens.

“This program is aimed at trying to get a closer relationship between CSOs, citizens and government for a better development of the people.”

“The idea is to bring what it offers to the table for government to sign off for and of course, there are lots of advantages for state governments who are interested in the quest to build a good relationship and good service delivery to their people.

“The OGP has a lot of processes, that if state government sign unto it, they have a lot to benefit. At this point, what we are doing is for the state government to get to the grassroots and let the grassroots say what they want. When you convert 2.1million dollars to naira, it is 2.5billion naira free from world bank. It is a grant and the only thing is to open up your process”

Mr Kentebe from the Environmental Right Action/ friends of the Earth Nigeria stated that ” the rate of poverty in Nigeria is very high. The process is about having a people-oriented government. Anything that has a little secrecy, know that there is stealing in it”.