Centre LSD Strengthens Open Government Practices in FCT
In furtherance of its commitment to deepening Open Government practices in the six Area Councils of the FCT, the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) under its project “Promoting Transparency and Accountability in the Governance Process through the Implementation of Open Government Partnership in Nigeria” on Friday, commenced a two-day peer learning and lessons sharing session.
A press statement released by the Programme Coordinator and OGP Project Lead of Centre LSD, Mr. Lawal Amodu, stated that peer learning exercise will afford the three Area Councils that have joined the OGP (AMAC, Gwagwalada and Kwali) to share their OGP journey so far while the other three who are yet to join the partnership (Abaji, Bwari and Kuje) have the opportunity to take home lessons that will not only improve governance in the Councils but also deepen their resolve to sign up to the OGP.
Beyond the peer learning exercise, the event is expected to equip the Area Councils actors with tools and knowledge that will strengthen their open government practices in their different localities. He noted that the event is in furtherance of the transparency and accountability objective of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria.
To achieve this, a total of 45 participants made up of top actors in the respective Councils, civil society players and experts were invited to share experiences and challenges from the OGP implementation process. Lessons from the participatory budgeting process in the local councils in Kaduna will also be shared at the event.
Amodu recalled that apart from AMAC, all the five other FCT Area Councils were onboarded and sensitized in 2023 on the OGP through advocacy and orientation workshops which ultimately led to Gwagwalada and Kwali Area Councils signing up to the OGP fold.
“The task before us now is to work hard to get the yet to sign Councils to do so in the interest of their people. The objective of signing up to the OGP is to make the governance process open, transparent, accountable and citizen driven,” he said.
The statement enjoined well-meaning citizens to engage the Centre LSD OGP Project through the various social media channels:
Hashtag: #OGPOpenNigeria
Facebook: @centrelsd
Instagram: @centrelsd
Twitter: @centrelsd