One of the best ways to root out corruption in the country is through citizens participation in the governance of their respective communities according to anti-corruption experts.
Citizens participation is one of the fundamental principles of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international multi-stakeholder global coalition of voluntary reformers (from government and civil society) who are working to make government transparent, participatory, and accountable.
Although Nigeria has signed up to be a member of the coalition, not much has been achieved as far as tackling corruption is concerned.
Former Coordinator of Open Alliance (OA), Abayomi Akinbo, while speaking at a just concluded media training on Open Government Partnership (OGP) which was organised by the Centre LSD at Lokoja, Kogi State, confirmed that Nigeria had signed up to the coalition in 2016, adopting four thematic areas.
The thematic areas: Fiscal transparency, Anti-corruption, Access to information and Citizen engagement and empowerment were further spread into 14 commitments that formed the National Action Plan (NAP).
However, a civil society shadow report on Nigeria’s self-assessment in the execution of its NAP published by the Centre LSD shows that Nigeria has not been able to observe fiscal transparency or make noticeable headway in the fight against corruption.
Cross section of participants at the OGP media training, organised by Centre LSD recently in Lokoja, Kogi state.
According to the report, access to information, citizen engagement and empowerment have not recorded much progress. Treasury looters have been allowed to move about freely without being fully prosecuted.
It’s no longer news that political leaders keep awarding to themselves huge monies in the name of constituency projects which never see the light of the day or done haphazardly with substandard materials or left uncompleted.
The negligence of the health and education sectors is so alarming that some communities do not have access to healthcare except they travel miles to other local government areas or to the nearest urban settlement.
By findings, most public hospitals in urban settlements are not well equipped so Nigerians are either left to patronize private hospitals or take the unimaginable as their fate. Nigerians are left to fate.
Investigations by media professionals reflect brazen stamp of corruption as uncompleted ‘community projects’ litter the country. Dilapidated school structures, health care centres, bad roads, badly or half installed boreholes are found in every nook and cranny of the country.
Again, through media investigations, these were projects for which monies had been appropriated. But somehow, political thieves and their allies had thrown in their nets to catch ‘bountiful fishes’, while they shamelessly steal from the people.
Although a second review of Laws and Policies, Processes and Procedures for Open Government Partnership in Nigeria shows that a few policies co-created to curb corrupt practices and improve transparency have been passed, quite a good number of the policies have not been transformed into laws.
The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), while addressing media practitioners at the training, emphasized, that one of the viable tools in combating corruption is citizens’ participation in processes of governance in their respective communities.
Programme Coordinator (Centre LSD), Uchenna Arisukwu presents a paper at the OGP media training
The organisation’s programme coordinator, Uchenna Arisukwu explained that the concept of co-creating and co-owning of community action plans and projects execution is bound to spur the curiosity of citizens into following up on appropriated projects, while demanding explanations on how resources are being spent, especially when necessary.
“Corruption is about the greatest problem in Nigeria. If we are able to root it out, then we have solved about 75 per cent of our problems and OGP is basically about transparency. We all know that corruption thrives in secrecy,” he said.
Arisukwu stated that membership of the OGP is expected to spur citizens into participating in decision-making processes by the government, while becoming advocates of anti-corruption.
The OGP is also a coalition that empowers citizens through membership with capacity on how to participate in co-creating of action plans that are peculiar to their different communities which will enhance needed improvement in standard of living.
Presenting a paper on the role of media in enhancing Open Government Partnership in the country, Lead Media, OGP, Kaduna State, Joshua James, pointed out that while it’s a known fact that journalists have been playing their role as watchdog of the society, there is the need to improve on reporting issues that will bring about development and foster leadership accountability in the country. He said it was imperative to train journalists on the need to be data driven and hold leaders to account and to also ensure national development.
A group of participants discuss on possible media interventions at the breakout session during the training
According to him, “Part of the role of the media is to be a watchdog and set agenda. This training is to enable journalists properly fit into that role on the platform of OGP because its about openness, the ability to hold government to account.”
According to James, if OGP commitments were diligently implemented, it would make Nigeria a better place, following the fact that the National Action Plan (NAP) cuts across different sectors of the country.
Speaking on the benefits of being a member of the coalition, he revealed that Kaduna as a member has been a beneficiary of the Coalition, given its readiness to be transparent and accountable in its governance.
He said the act has made it easy for the state to obtain loan and donor funds to execute state projects. “In fact, Kaduna State intends to domesticate OGP at the local government level by 2021 though some reform minded chairmen have keyed into it already,” he noted.
“It is a bottom to top approach where the citizens now generate their input, submit to the government, who now sends it to the respective MDAs such as ministries of health and agriculture, so the budget and planning commission articulates all of the needs of the different communities, sends them to the appropriate MDAs at the state level and these informs the budget so that, at the end of the day, the state budget only reflects the needs of the people.”
He added that most of the ongoing state projects are donor funded.
Report by Doyin Ojosipe/AFRICMIL.
