By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) on the success of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative.
In a letter to the NESG, the President also thanked the OGP National steering committee chaired by the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba and the Chief Operating Officer/ senior fellow, public policy and strategy management of the NESG, Dr Tayo Aduloju for taking the lead in making the OGP a reality.
Buhari assured the development partners and the international community who supported the process of developing the OGP action plan of Nigeria’s commitment to fostering more inclusiveness to policy approaches that strengthen institutions for the remaining period in office.
The President also reiterated the need to rebuild the trust of stakeholders in public institutions, noting that this can be achieved through the implementation of the OGP National Action Plan III, which will help increase transparency and accountability and eventually help achieve national prosperity.
It will be recalled that on the 19th of December 2019, representatives of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning became substantive Co-chairs of the open government partnership (OGP) Nigeria for the next two years.
The representatives of the NESG served 2 years as incoming Co-Chair, 2 years as Substantive Co-Chair Non-State Actor with the term expiring in August 2022 before the President graciously asked the NESG to continue to serve until after the general elections.
The OGP is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and subnational governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
In the spirit of multi-stakeholder collaboration, OGP is overseen by a steering committee, including representatives of governments and civil society organizations.
OGP participating countries co-create a National Action Plan (NAP) with civil society. The action plans are “the driving device” for OGP as it is the instrument through which government and civil society develop their agreed reforms, or commitments, every two years.
