At his inauguration in May 29 2015, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari promised that his administration would prioritise the fight against corruption.
Buhari’s commitment to the anti-corruption agenda was heightened in 2016 when he attended the International Anti-Corruption Summit organised by the government of the United Kingdom.
On this global stage he reaffirmed the determination of his administration to strengthen anti-corruption reforms.
This, he said, he would do by implementing programmes aimed at ‘exposing corruption; punishing the culprits and providing support to the victims of corruption by driving out the culture of corruption out of the nation.
The administration sought to deepen institutional and policy reforms. To further demonstrate its seriousness in that regard Nigeria joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in July 2016 as the 70th country.
Presently, OGP has 75 countries and 106 local governments, representing more than two billion people and thousands of civil society organisations.
On July 20, 2022, at the 15th OGP meeting with the national steering committee members, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, announced that 23 states and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) had adopted the Federal Government’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative.
In 2020, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) joined the OGP Local as the first Local Government Area in Nigeria to join the global platform.
The AMAC which had DEAN Initiative as its Civil Society Organisation (CSO) partner has left no stone unturned to fulfill all that is involved in ensuring transparency and accountability in governance.
To advance the vision of the then Chairman of AMAC, Mr Abdullahi Candido, the Area Council promoted an all-inclusive governance that involved allowing women, marginal groups, and vulnerable people to contribute to the development of the council.
AMAC kicked off her OGP process by harnessing her existing partnership with government ministries, civil societies, and community groups to create an action plan that will contain concrete reforms for development, and accountability.
Of the four OGP thematic dimensions: Fiscal transparency, access to information, public disclosure of assets and citizen engagement, AMAC focuses on citizen’s engagement as its maiden Action Plan Commitment.
The objective was to improve citizen’s engagement and participation in the budgetary process.
This commitment has ensured that information about the budgetary process is made available to citizens in an accessible and timely manner, and citizens were able to make inputs across the budget cycle.
The 2022 AMAC budget captured priority projects listed by the communities during ward level community needs town hall meetings for budget process.
Mr Christopher Maikalangu the current AMAC chairman said his administration will remain focused and committed to transparency and accountability “irrespective of intimidation and harassment from those who feed fat on corruption.”
Maikalangu said the council was working on the digitization of all revenue generation and collection activities, which would be unveiled in no distant time.
He said one of the greatest achievements of AMAC was membership of OGP as it had significantly led to the re-enforcement of good governance and anti-corruption consciousness.
“The seed my predecessor planted is not only yielding positive impact but waxing stronger and producing results, which we are celebrating at the moment.
“Since our induction into this prestigious global body, the council has strived to conduct government business transparently.
“The Council has held town hall meetings; made publications on projects, involved people our major stakeholders from project conception to completion.
“We have, in addition, strengthened our feedback strategy by embarking on a conscious publicity drive that explains our policy direction and programs of action”, he said during a working visit by the CEO of OGP, Nigeria, Mr. Sanjay Phradan
“He said the Council had initiated the process of digitizing of all revenue generation and collection activities.
“The Council has so far, focused on citizen’s engagement as her maiden Action Plan. This is not to say we haven’t fared well in the other three components of fiscal transparency; access to information, public disclosure of assets and citizen’s engagement.
“The objective of this commitment is to improve citizens’ engagement and participation in the budgetary process”, he told his guest.
Phradan commended the Area Council for operating a ‘citizen-centric’ administration.
“It is clear from this that you are committed to transparency, accountability, fighting corruption and I really salute you for that because that is the spirit of OGP,” he said.
In recognition of AMAC’s commitment to ensuring a people-centric administration, leaders of OGP, Global, recognised its focal person.
Mrs Abiodun Essiet, a former Special Adviser to the Chairman, AMAC, was selected among 25 dynamic leaders considered as pioneers of the Open Government Leadership Collaborative (OGLC).
Already, the prudence in management of the Council’s resources is yielding fruits as monies saved have been used to provide more infrastructure in rural areas.
The District Head of Gyadna Community, Isyaku Musa, is excited that his community benefited from rural electrification project of AMAC.
“I lack words to appreciate the Chairman of AMAC for his magnanimity and for ensuring that we enjoy power supply like other communities.
“Though this project was initiated by the past administration but it was not functional until the intervention of Maikalangu.
“We are grateful and we look forward to more projects as we lack good roads, portable water, healthcare facilities and other basic amenities,” he said.
Damgma and Wupa areas of the council have also benefited from the fallout of the initiative.
The Village Head, Damgma Community Mr Ayuba Sunday said the provision of water was very essential and it would ensure that every member of the community was guarded against diseases and water related diseases would be reduced drastically.
“We have waited for the provision of borehole in this community for decades all to no avail. God has brought this chairman that promised and fulfilled it within a short time.
“We thank him and pray that almighty God will protect him, guide him and grant him all the necessary wisdom to lead us,” he said.
A resident of Wupa community, Mr Uzor Daniel, said that Maikalangu has proven his capability by providing the community with the installation of rural electricity in the community.
“We are very thankful and excited as this is what government is all about. Providing the needs of the people and bringing government very closer to the people at the rural areas level,” he said.
The AMAC example is a testimony to what could be achieved by engaging the people, particularly those at the grassroots in governance.
As the new nation welcomes a new administration, it is expected that the incoming leaders will adopt the AMAC model and deliver dividends of democracy to their citizens. (NANFeatures)
