CITAD trains Bauchi CBOs, CSOs on budget tracking for improved citizens’ participation in governance
By Ahmed Ahmed
A non-governmental organisation, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has trained Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) and Civil Societies Organisations (CSOs) in Bauchi State on budget tracking for Improved citizens’ participation in governance.
The one-day training, conducted with support from USAID through State2state, drew participants from six local governments Alkaleri, Bauchi, Katagum Misau Ningi and Toro
Senior Programme Officer of CITAD, Isa Garba, disclosed that the objectives include enhancing the capacity of CITAD partners to effectively participate in governance and coming up with ways CSOs and CBOs can participate in the governance process of the state.
In his opening remarks, the Executive Director of CITAD, Y. Z.Ya’u, welcomed all the CBOs and CSOs partners to the training.
Ya’u hoped the participants would use the knowledge acquired to improve the governance process of the state.
He assured that CITAD would continue to support them in the process of their engagement and especially in the area of technical support needed in the process of their participation in governance and engagement with public officers in the state.
Garba in a paper entitled “Improving Citizens’ Participation in Governance,” noted that citizens’ participation in governance has increased over the years from the military era, which attempted to carry out some forms of public engagement to a more robust engagement with the return to democracy in 1999 and more improvement at the state level in recent years.
According to the paper, the Nigerian civil society has made efforts to create and expand the space for citizens’ participation in governance as a follow-up to the pro-democracy movement.
It stressed that citizens’ participation in governance was based on the democratic principle of the rights of individuals and citizens to participate in taking decisions that affect them.
“There are constitutional and legal frameworks or provisions for citizens’ participation in governance while the UN Declaration of Human Rights recognises the rights of every citizen to participate in taking decisions affecting them,” the paper pointed out.
Participants learnt that forms of participation in Nigeria include support to candidates and parties, voting during elections, and periodic briefings among others.
The CBOs and the CSOs were therefore encouraged to identify stakeholders and establish working groups as well as carry out design and implementation to involve more people in their communities to participate in decision-making.