Transparency and accountability in the extractive sector will not be possible without the active involvement of citizens, Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (CentreLSD), Monday Osasah, has said.
He spoke at a three-day capacity-building session for the board of trustees and steering committee members of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Nigeria.
It was CentreLSD’s Ford Foundation-supported Strengthening an Intersectional Approach to Natural Resource Governance project.
Osasah, newly elected chairman of PWYP Global Council where he represents Anglophone Africa, said the training was part of efforts to reposition the coalition in Nigeria.
He told reporters: “PWYP is a global organisation campaigning and advocating for extractive resources to be beneficial to citizens.
“Transparency and accountability in the extractive sector cannot be achieved without citizen participation in the process.
“Nigeria has signed up to the Open Government Partnership, so the civil society and citizens should be part of everything the government is doing.
“That, to a large extent, will help to deal with the issues of trust and mistrust between government and citizens over the years.”
Osasah noted that the government was working on developing regulations for the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
According to him, PWYP has a major role to play in the process.
Osasah added: “This capacity building will equip PWYP members to be able to engage where necessary for Nigeria to have a regulation that will resonate with the people and bring in regime transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.
“Right now, there is weak governance. The situation is such that if you go to extractive communities, you will see poverty amid this huge endowment that God has given to us, which is not supposed to be so.
“With a weak governance regime, one thing that is bound to happen is the growing incidences of inequality, and a lot of people, especially the women and children, being left behind. And we don’t want that.
“That is why we must continually be at the vanguard of ensuring that the extractive industry delivers prosperity for all.”
The objective of the session, he added, was to empower the leadership of PWYP Nigeria to harmonise its strategies and procedures in delivering on the mission of the coalition in a more impactful way.
He said PWYP should be the reference point in pushing for transparency but it has not been as strong as it ought to be to play a leading role in Africa, so it became imperative to equip the members.
National Coordinator of PWYP Nigeria, Mr Taiwo Otitolaye, was optimistic that the training would re-ignite the fire of advocacy in members.
“International oil and companies and every extractive entity ought to publish their revenues and what they pay to the government from our resources.
“There should be full disclosure, which will enable citizens to follow the money.
“We hope the capacity of our members will be built to help tackle corruption in the extractive sector and to engage in advocacy for governance reforms,” he said.
PWYP is the worldwide campaign for open and accountable extractive industry.
It is the only global movement working to ensure that revenues from oil, gas and mining are used to drive inclusive development.
The capacity-building session was the first in a series of engagements with the leadership of PWYP and other similar coalitions in the extractive sector aimed at repositioning them to do more strategic advocacies and campaigns for improved natural resource governance in Nigeria.
The Centre LSD is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that builds strategic leadership for sustainable development in Africa.
Its mission is to work with forces of positive change to empower citizens to transform society.