Accountability
By Diana Orouvie-Omueza
Abuja, May 10, 2018 (NAN) The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) on Thursday urged Nigerians to leverage the Open Government Partnership(OGP) initiative to hold government accountable and curb corruption.
Executive Director of the Group, Dr Otive Igbuzor, made the call at a Town Hall Meeting in Abuja as part of activities to mark the Nigerian OGP week.
He explained that OGP was an international initiative intended to make sure that governance was not masked in secrecy, thereby enabling citizens to be fully aware and be abreast of the activities of government.
According to Igbuzor, OGP is an international mechanism for ensuring that government engages in reforms and use the process to promote open and transparent governance to enhance accountability.
He said that Nigeria joined the group as the 70th country in 2016 and that the national action plan in Nigeria was approved in December, 2016, with implementation commencing in January, 2017.
Igbuzor said that the event focused on accountability, adding that there were many reasons for holding government to account for its activities.
He said that holding government accountable was very important in a country like Nigeria where the level of corruption was quite high.
“The problem of corruption is as old as society itself and cuts across nations, cultures, races and classes of people.
“It is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of our times, leading to underdevelopment and poor service delivery.
“Corruption has a lot of negative consequences on every sphere of societal development whether social, economic or political.
“Corruption not only leads to poor service delivery but loss of lives,’’ he said.
The director said that accountability placed a responsibility on government to acquire the necessary ability to perform the obligation of providing information, explanations and justifications.
He said that it also meant that the necessity to absorb the consequences of unaccountable actions should include disciplinary measures.
“We can distinguish between four forms of accountability – political accountability, administrative accountability, professional accountability and democratic accountability.
“ Political accountability requires government to act following the political and programmatic provisions adopted by the government.
“In practice, these positions are usually encapsulated in the annual budgets, declarations and commitments.’’
Igbuzor said that long years of military rule in Nigeria entrenched executive lawlessness and abuse of power, adding that there was, therefore, need for tools to hold government accountable and prevent abuse of power.
According to him, it is necessary to have tools to hold government accountable in order for citizens to make demand on government as it is meant to meet the wishes and aspiration of the people.
He said that OGP tools would help to make demand on government and that they provided a framework to promote accountability in Nigeria.
The director added that the task of holding government to account involved stakeholders, including the parliament, citizens groups and the media.
He expressed hope that the town hall meeting would further demonstrate accountability and improve public trust and confidence in government and governance in Nigeria. (NAN)
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