Gwagwalada Area Council signs up for open governance initiative
By Aluta News
The Secretary of Gwagwalada Area Council, Mr Mohammed Saba has urged all 774 Local Government Areas in the country to sign up to the Open Gwagwalada Area Council signs up for open governance Partnership (OGP)
Saba made the call in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday after submitting the council’s letter of intent to join the OGP.
He said that the OGP is out to help the Area Council, Local Governments and indeed government at all levels to improve on its accept acceptability, inclusiveness and its trust.
“I am urging the remaining Area Councils in the FCT and in fact, all the local governments in Nigeria that it will be a beautiful thing if all 774 local governments in Nigeria will be part of the OGP family.
“There is a lot of benefits that will come to the grassroots; the method of administration will be highly improved, transparency will be the watchword and finally a lot of errors will be removed.
“There may be something a government will be doing thinking that is the best method, but by the time you are exposed to the latest method of doing such things, you realise that it is long overdue for you to abandon your old method of doing things and accept the new thing.
“So it’s my wish that all the Area Councils in Abuja, and in Nigeria, for that matter, will accept and join OGP,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr Uchenna Arisukwu, the Civil Society Advisor at the OGP National Secretariat in Abuja, explained that the OGP is a global platform where government and civil societies work together to make governance process open, transparent and accountable.
He said that the initiative that started in 2011 by eight funding countries by eight founding countries and that Nigeria joined in 2016 as the 78 member.
According to him, as at today, there are 75 countries across the world that
Arisukwu explained that the essential reason while Nigeria joined OGP was to enable the fight against corruption and ensure effective governance.
“If you look at the nature of corruption, it strives when things are shrouded in secrecy, so OGP wants to open up the governance space, shine a light on those areas things are done in secret so they can be transparency and accountability and when that is entrenched, corruption will be reduced,” he said.
Mr Michael Semiye, Executive Director of DEAN Initiative, an NGO interested in OGP said that they have been engaging in constructive dialogues that underscored the importance of OGP in fostering transparency and collaboration.
Represented by the by Mrs Rebecca Odugbose, Semiye said that they started by organising an OGP onboarding session for Local Government Chairmen and parliamentarians.
He said that the aim was for enlightenment and sensitisation to foster awareness and understanding on the significance of OGP.
He said they had follow up the OGP initiative with a Local Action Plan Orientation Workshop, which heightened stakeholders’ knowledge on OGP principles and practices.
“We would like to extend heartfelt gratitude to the Gwagwalada Area Council for their courage and unwavering efforts to follow up this commitment and being the first to step forward with an Expression of Interest Letter.
“This sets a remarkable example,” he said.
The OGP Sub-National Adviser, Mrs Ramatu Bello commended Gwagwalada Area Council for the bold step to ensure transparency in its dealings.
She said that the secretariat will speedily act on the letter submitted by the council and give favourable response soon.