By Tony Obiechina Abuja
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu has called on the Civil Society Organizations and other Development Partners to sensitize citizens on the need to participate in the budgetary processes of government in order to ensure transparency, accountability and better understanding of governance.
The Minister made the call on Wednesday in Abuja, when members of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Support Unit, led by its lead person, Maureen Karuki, paid him a courtesy visit.
Bagudu, who is also the in-coming OGP State Actors Co- chair, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to encourage transparency, through courageous reforms like, The HOPE initiative on Governance, Education and Health among others.
He explained that in a constitutional Federalism like Nigeria, democracy, particularly, the preparation of budget, places a high demand on the legislative body with additional challenge of constituency prioritization of projects.
He said, “The citizens could be judgmental when there is no clear understanding of why specific projects are placed at various locations during budget preparation. It is therefore important for OGP and other development partners to assist the country in sensitizing the citizens, through informed narratives, to ensure better understanding of the government, its structures and other countries willing to take difficult decisions to ensure higher revenue to GDP ratio”.
He said advocacy could also encourage citizens to stress quality requests through their representatives to ensure their needs are given priority in the budget.
“These are areas that can help to boost citizen participation in governance,” the minister emphasized.
Speaking earlier, the leader of the delegation, Support Unit Global lead of Partnership for Accountability OGP, Maureen Kariuki, announced that OGP was at its best when it was headed and coordinated by the Ministry.
She also said that the visit was aimed at seeking the political will and leadership that the Ministry could bring to OGP, considering the fact that OGP enjoyed a significant leap when its office was located within the Ministry and to collaborate with the Ministry in strengthening Budget transparency.
She supported the minister’s stance that citizens’ participation in their Budgetary processes should be encouraged. According to her, “I will like to see it demonstrated in the next Action Plan of 2025 – 2029. Fiscal transparency and citizen participation around budget processes ensure that budgets serve what benefits the citizens.”
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