The National Coordinator, Open Government Partnership (OGP), Dr. Gloria Ahmed, has reiterated that one of the key commitments of Nigeria’s membership in the OGP is to build a better relationship between government and the Civil Society, by creating various avenues of engagements and collaborations in the spirit of co-creation.
While delivering a keynote address during a one day Citizen’s Open Dialogue on Participatory Budgeting and Planning for OGP-Local held in Abuja recently, Dr. Ahmed commended the Development for Educational Action Network (DEAN) Initiative for their unrelenting commitment to push for the adoption and implementation of OGP principles in the Sub-National level, particularly at the Local Government and Area Councils.
She
revealed that the budget is a veritable tool, not only for propelling national
growth and development, but also for stimulating participatory budgeting which
provide citizens the opportunity to identify and prioritize projects and
programmes for the fiscal year; thereby deepening democratic culture in the
society.
In
her words, “In 2022, the Federal Government through the then Federal Ministry
of Finance, Budget and National Planning constituted the Participatory Budget
Advisory Group, chaired by my humble self, the group held consultative fora in
geopolitical zones with technical support from the Global Initiative for Fiscal
Transparency; these meetings received and collated citizens' preferred method
of participation in the budgetary process. The report on this engagement was
forwarded to the Budget Office of the Federation. This further strengthened
Nigeria's resolve to engage with citizens in every budget cycle and ensured that
the budget itself has the foot prints of a co-created document.”
While
delivering his welcome address, the Executive Director, Center LSD, Mr. Monday
Osasah, informed participants that about 26 states have been visited while executing
their OGP State Action Plans; he urged the government to focus more on citizens
budgeting; saying the Local Government Council need to have a human face at the
grass-root level for maximum participation.
Mr.
Osasah who was represented by the Programme Officer of the Center, Mr. Lawal
Amodu therefore pushed for a participatory budgetary process as it is in
agreement with democracy.
The
immediate past Chairman of the AMAC Area Council, Hon. A.A Candido, while
speaking, revealed that AMAC joined the OGP because it is people centered, he
extolled the role of OGP during his tenure as the Council Chairman, saying OGP
brought a lot of solutions to the Council, he said he was able to deliver the
people’s priorities.
He
reiterated that the budget is expected to be transparent, accountable, people
oriented and available for easy perusal by citizens.