The National Coordinator, Nigeria Open Government Partnership (OGP), Dr. Gloria Ahmed, has called on civil servants to play their role in ensuring that government becomes more transparent and accountable to the citizenry.
Dr. Ahmed, who is also the Director, Department of Special Duties, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, made this call at the Sensitization organized for officers of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on Open Government Partnership initiative, in Abuja.
She noted that civil servants were known for promoting good governance and development.
“In the same vein, Open Government Partnership, which is a global multilateral initiative seeks to reform public sector performance with emphasis on improved service delivery,” she stated.
The National Coordinator pointed out that one of the key focuses of Nigeria’s membership in the OGP was to build a better relationship between government and Civil Society Organizations by engagement and collaboration in the spirit of co-creation.
She observed that there had been increased citizens’ participation in budget cycle and other fiscal transparency measures and that civil servants needed to work with Civil Society Organizations to infuse citizens’ participation from the beginning of a budget cycle to the end.
Dr. Ahmed assured that the National Secretariat of the OGP would work assiduously to support OGP process both at the National and Sub-national levels in order to meet the demands encapsulated in the second OGP National Action Plan ( NAP) 11.
Also speaking, the Civil Society Advisor, OGP Secretariat, Mr. Uchenna Arisukwu, said “opaque governance promotes suspicion and mistrust between government and citizens”, adding that OGP would expose corruption and illicit financial flows and also enhance citizens’ participation in governance.
