The concept of open governance encourages transparency. No wonder the Federal Government saw in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Week an opportunity to lay bare its fight against corruption, reports Deputy Editor Olayinka Oyegbile.
IT was a platform to discuss transparency and accountability in government and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami did not allow the opportunity to slip by. The occasion was the Open Government Partnership (OPG) Week.
Also at the event which held in Abuja from May 7 to 11 were Minister of State for Budget & National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, British High Commissioner to Nigeria Paul Arkwright and United States Ambassador to Nigeria Stuart Symington.
The issue at hand was serious: transparency in government. It is being promoted by the OGP, a multi-stakeholder initiative with its focus on improving transparency, accountability and citizen participation in government affairs.
OGP’s modus operandi is bringing together the government and civil society organisations to champion reforms and recognise that governments are more likely to be more effective and credible when they are opened to public input and oversight.
It was launched in 2011 when five countries – Brazil, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (U.S.) – endorsed the Open Government Declaration.
Subsequently, each of the countries announced its action plans. The plans were to provide platforms for activists committed to making their governments more accountable and more responsive to citizens in their quest for transparency.
The initiative was, however, not just a case of adopting the one-size-fits-all approach. A domestic policy mechanism was further introduced at the various national and country levels.
This has allowed the government and civil societies to dialogue on effective transparency policies at the local level. At the international level, the OGP provides a global platform to connect, empower and support domestic reformers with commitment to transformation in governments and societies through openness.
Since its debut, the OGP has operated as a multilateral initiative aimed at securing solid commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen good governance.
The President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which rode to power with a promise of fight corruption and run an open government, the week was an opportunity to present its scorecard.
Prof Osinbajo, who stood in for the President, said the administration had succeeded in “pushing the frontiers of transparency and accountability in government.”
He listed the steps taken by the administration to tell Nigerians that the era of ‘business as usual’ in government was gone for good.
According to him, the establishment of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) was the administration pill for the hydra-headed monster of corruption.
The committee, he explained, has a mandate to coordinate the reform efforts of governments and see to the success of the war against graft.
Besides, the vice president listed the full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) system as one of the several prongs of action to eliminate fraud.
Admitted that the TSA was the idea of the last administration, Osinbajo said its implementation was done by Buhari-led government. He said the scheme has yielded so much gain for the government because of its near-total compliance.
Since 2016, when the Nigeria enlisted in the world body as its 70th member, the Federal Government has opened itself up to scrutiny at the local and international levels as a way of demonstrating its seriousness with the war against corruption.
According to Osinbajo, a national action plan to improve transparency, accountability and citizen participation at all levels of governance has been developed with the setting up of agencies such as the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) under the Federal Ministry of Finance.
PICA’s mandate is to clean up the federal payroll and pensions systems, across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Its establishment has helped the government to save over N200 billion through the elimination of ghost workers.
Coming on the heels of PICA was the introduction of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), to block payroll fraud.
Osinbajo said: “Our government adopted a two-step approach to deal with systemic corruption – stop grand corruption and accompanying impunity, and create a self-sustaining system for transparency and accountability.
Our story
Taking the baton from Osinbajo, the SGF said the week created an opportunity to review the progress of the implementation of the national action plan. He said this would enable participants and government to chart a new direction and move forward.
Mustapha said: “More than any other time in the history of our nation, government is waging an unprecedented fight against corruption through asset recovery, prosecution of acts of corruption, instituting new socio-economic system and culture and rebuilding of institutions to prevent future recurrence.”
Admitted that attaining the feat was herculean, the SGF faulted the statistics of corruption index often used by some international organisations.
He observed: “Many of the institutions that produce these statistics do not understand the context and the peculiarity of the corruption problems in Nigeria. They make generalisation which paint a picture that is far from reality.”
Mustapha believed the week-long forum would hopefully generate a reliable indigenous, professional and objective mechanism for measuring impact and information on the state of corruption in Nigeria.
He said: “Through this mechanism, we will generate reliable figures we can craft out policy interventions. Our story is best told by us. We should never expect others to see our corruption problems better than ourselves.”
Malami, whose ministry supervises the activities of the OGP in Nigeria, said Osinbajo’s presence at the forum showed the level of seriousness attached to transparency and accountability by the Buhari administration.
He called on government agencies and civil society groups to work together and draw out plans for open government.
According to the AGF, all government agencies have been directed to implement all components of open government on all fronts.
Ambassador Symington spoke of the need to have a strong and vibrant media. According to him, only a free press can guarantee openness and transparency in government.
The envoy said a government that acknowledges the partnership of the press ensures open government, noting that like Americans, Nigerians are proud of their country.
Arkwright traced long-standing relationship between his country and Nigeria, which he started with the colonial era to the days of the commonwealth.
The UK envoy noted that the relationships have been beneficial to both in terms of tackling challenges.
He said there was no option to running an open and transparent government.
“When people can see how their funds are spent, citizens would have confidence in their government and be encouraged to pay tax. People don’t pay taxes because they don’t believe their money would be spent properly,” Arkwright said.
He reiterated that tax would be easy to collect and that many citizens would volunteer to pay once the government is open and transparent.
Noting that transparency drives growth and development, the envoy observed that the deployment of technology has made open government inevitable and that Nigeria, where about 90 million people use the internet, has no option but to be open and transparent.
He emphasised the importance of civil societies in the polity, saying countries that have strong culture of civil society have less corruption.
“This is why open government is necessary and the United Kingdom prides itself as a pride of open government.”
Government as willing partner
For civil society engagement to be successful, those in government must be interested and be ready to embrace it, Sam Amadi, former chair of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said. He was a participant at the forum.
On the other hand, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Executive Director, Centre LSD, there have been declining trusts in governance across the world and that the OGP was a process to return trust to governance.
Jude Ilo, Country Director, Open Society West Africa (OSIWA), said every effort to get citizens involved in open government should be encouraged.
He lauded the Buhari administration for buying into the initiative, adding that the essence of the initiative was to improve how governance is monitored and that citizens must be encouraged to be part of it.
The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigeria communication Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, who spoke on ‘improving service delivery through the use of technology’, observed that with digital technology, society is becoming more open.
“How do we achieve an open and cohesive society?” he asked rhetorically.
His answer: “It is by allowing citizens to participate over the various social platforms. Open government is practicable not only by talking about it but by putting things in place to make this possible. The NCC is doing this by making the infrastructure possible.”
Danbatta listed how digital technology has broken down barriers and made so many things easy.
Communication Minister Adebayo Shittu narrated how the government has made available Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which is at the heart of all transactions and relations in the 21st Century, as catalyst to achieve economic revival.
According to him, all government data that has been not linked with security are made available to all and sundry.
No doubt, the OGP week offered an opportunity for the government to take the stock of how far it has gone since 2016 when Nigeria became a signatory and member of the comity of nations who are ready to do business transparently.
Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, Special Adviser to the President on Justice Reform, who doubles as National Coordinator of OGP in Nigeria, described the week as successful and fruitful.
She said with the appointment of President Buhari as the African Union’s 2018 ‘Anti-corruption Champion’, it is hoped that the National Council on Public Procurement, (NCPP) as required by the Public Procurement Act 2007, would be inaugurated soon.
The NCPP, when in place, will relieve the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of its weekly rituals of approving federal contracts.
