By YUSUF GOJE –
“Both the government and CSOs are to implement the OGP and are accountable for its success or failure. The logic is that if government and citizens embrace open government principles in a tailored stakeholder engagement, then the blockades will be dealt with and reform will take place that will lead ultimately to effective policy and budget implementation” – Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), during the Kaduna State Open Government Partnership-Civil Society Day, held on the 25th September, 2017, in Kaduna.
Governance in a democratic system loses its essence without meaningful citizens’ involvement in informing and influencing decision-making processes at all levels. The primacy of the involvement of those affected by a decision taking part in the decision-making process cannot be overemphasized. It takes two to tangle, in respect of the demand (citizens) and supply (public servants) side of government, to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Therefore, to institutionalize and strengthen the culture of good governance the co-creation and co-responsibility principle involving interested stakeholders must be in place and adhered to.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a body of international reformers initiated to uphold the characteristics of good governance that has expanded and deepened stakeholders’ engagement in about 96 national and local governments. This has created the needed cordial environment for civil society organizations (representing the citizens) and the government to view each other as equal partners in progress. This is exemplified in the co-creation process adopted in the development of the National Development Plan (NAP) or State Action Plan (SAP) in the case of sub-nationals.
This assertion was aptly captured by President Muhammadu Buhari in the foreword to the OGP Nigeria National Action Plan (NAP), who stated, “the co-creation effort of civil society and government in developing the NAP is something I want to specifically applaud. The government considers civil society organizations as partners in our development process”. In May, 2016, Nigeria became the 70th member and the 12th African nation to join the international platform for domestic reformers to make their governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens. This partnership is governed by four key principles of transparency, accountability, citizens’ participation, and technology and innovation.
Exactly 11 months after the development of the NAP, Kaduna state became the first sub-national in Nigeria to commit to the OGP, with the launch and development of the SAP holding from 25th to 27th September, 2017. Out of the 14 commitment areas in the NAP, Kaduna State through a co-creation process selected 7 commitment areas by both members of the State Steering Committee (SSC) and Technical Working Groups (TWGs) made up of equal partners. Mallam Abubakar Malami,SAN, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice during the event commended Kaduna state, “as leading the way as the first to sign into the OGP and in terms of several reforms in governance that has enhanced service delivery”.
To validate the success, in April 2018, only 3 months after operationalizing the Kaduna SAP, OGP international secretariat added the state alongside five other sub-nationals into the OGP Local Program. Interestingly, Kaduna State Government actually indicated interest to join the OGP before the Federal Government expressed its interest to join. However, it was rejected because then sub-nationals had to come under National.
In welcoming the addition of Kaduna into the OGP Local Program, Governor Nasir Elrufai, reiterated that, “Organizations like Open Government Partnership provide a beacon of hope in our attempts to rebuild citizen trust in public institutions. Kaduna State looks forward to participating in this new program and encouraging other local governments across the world to aim for the laudable targets of Open Government Partnership”.
Aside the regular meetings held by the SSC; to demonstrate the government’s commitment to the OGP on ensuring citizens’ participation in the entire budget circle; the first of its kind citizens’ consultation on the 2019-2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was held in line with the Kaduna State Fiscal Responsibility Law 2016. While on the part of CSOs, on the 5th May, 2018, a continuous capacity building engagement was organized for the OGP community in partnership with the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL, Kaduna) to enhance effective participation.
Now that the euphoria of the initial progress recorded in our journey through the OGP process is settling down, all partners need to tighten their seat belt as it is not yet uhuru due to gaps still existing in the process.
From all indications, CSOs need to up our game, as we cannot continue to only largely ride on the initiatives taken by government. This is necessary if we are to test the elasticity of government’s commitment to the OGP. We (CSOs) should develop an open, accountable and responsive internal communication strategy adopting a permanent dialogue mechanism that demonstrates with evidence how we generate citizens-issues that we bring to the table. This is in order to prove that we are truly amplifying the voice of the voiceless and not our interests. He that comes to equity must come with clean hands!
We must not forget too quickly the advice offered by Edet Ojo – Co-Chair, OGP National Steering Committee and Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, that, “ the CSOs needs to be organized and also engage in the implementation, monitoring and reporting stages. There needs to be a framework that will harness the ideas of other citizens that are not participating in the SAP, so that they do not feel left out”.
Granted that funding is a huge limitation to the effective participation of CSOs in the OGP process; it is critical that we hold a resource-mobilization parley with both available and potential funders to develop a sustainable funding mechanism. As organizations, we should also leverage on our existing programs to preach the gospel of and deepen the OGP. Also, since government is mandated to manage and control state resources on behalf of the citizens, we should demand that a budget line item be created to fund the Kaduna OGP secretariat.
To increase wider interest and participation, CSOs should partner with the government to develop a portal/webpage to serve as a data central bank on all information regarding all the OGP commitment areas. This will guarantee easy access to credible information on OGP real time to all citizens in the state. Of equal importance is our objectivity in generating our independent reporting mechanism to ensure we reflect the reality on ground and not our bias.
While the government-side should be commended for promoting transparency through proactive disclosure of vital documents on its website and social media platforms; feedback on its responsiveness has remained below average. Presently, CSOs/citizens are not clear on the status of the Freedom of Information Act. This is because there is a subsisting Appeal court judgment declaring that the FOIA is applicable to all states in the Federation; while the State government has sent a bill to the State House of Assembly to domesticate the law. Also, some government partners on the SSC and TWGs seem not to share the same enthusiasm with the Governor and government side co-chair.
A lot needs to be done by responsible public officers especially in fast-tracking the processes of achieving commitments 5 and 6. To achieve wider participation the government needs to expand its scope of engagement by stepping down the co-creation principles to include other sectors (ministries, departments and agencies that are not part of the SSC and TWGs) in achieving especially commitment 1, 5, 6 and 7.
The legislative arm of government needs to draw lessons from Brazil, where they have developed a portal which allows citizens to access information and track activities within the parliament. As an institution, they should also show more enthusiasm by actively participating in the ongoing co-creation process in the state. Subsequently, they need to champion a law that provides a legal framework that will sustain the OGP in Kaduna long term.
Finally, we must commend both the citizens and government of Kaduna state for embracing the OGP process. However, if we are to attain the ultimate goal of improved and people-centered service delivery; then partners must uphold the principles of sincerity of purpose, unwavering commitment and innovativeness.
Goje wrote from Kaduna
Convener,
Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development (CALPED)
Member- Kaduna OGP Technical Working Group on Commitment One
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