Politics
MANJI Wilson, Chief Technical Advisor on Development Partnerships and Diaspora Engagement to the Plateau Governor, says the state government is committed to ensuring transparency and accountability in governance.
Wilson, who is the government’s point of contact for the Open Government Partnership (OGP), stated this on Friday in Jos, at the end of the OGP three -day workshop to review the Plateau Government Strategic Plan.
The chief technical adviser said that because of the Gov. Caleb Mutfwang led administration’s resolve to be accountable to the people, the state was one of the few sub-national governments in Nigeria, that had signed up to the global OGP.
According to him, OGP focusses on the key values of transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to citizens’ actions.
“For the past three days, we’ve had a convergence of civil society experts as well as government counterparts, discussing and dialoguing on key issues that should compose the Plateau Action Plan.
“The first state action plan expired sometimes in 2023, and now these partners are together in a process we call the co-creation process of developing the second state action plan.
“This plan will identify key priorities of the Plateau government within the strategic development plan towards ensuring that the openness of government operations, transparency, and accountability mechanisms are activated across key sectors of the state’s administration.
“Over the past three days, we have been identifying priorities across legislative engagements, how citizens are involved in governance, and what we do in terms of including marginalised demographics such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
“We have also been looking at how we can ensure that projects around the environment, climate change, and sustainability of livelihoods are addressed,” he said.
Wilson stated that the workshop was also looking at how to ensure the digitisation of government operations and how citizens were engaged through the utilisation of digital platforms.
Mr Charles Dickson, co-consultant for the OGP, said that Plateau was carry out the review of its strategic plan, after its last two years of practicing the same OGP thematic areas and commitments.
Dickson stated that the OGP was basically a platform, where civil society and citizens came together to work with governments to create policies that could be implemented for the betterment of communities.
“You would agree with me that over the last few decades, conversations around peace and security have being very pertinent on the Plateau.
“You can also agree with me that climate change is a bonding conversation. Most of our farmers in the interior have complained about the rains and why they haven’t come.
“We’re also having conversations around what is called open governance, an open parliament system, where people are part of the governance structure.
“One of the arguments and debates over time is that people just hear about policies; they’re not part of them. Nobody brings them into the conversation.
“Additionally, one of the things we’re doing is having conversations around the agricultural space,” he said.
Mr Gad Peter, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) point of contact for the OGP, said all key non-governmental practitioners, cutting across all thematic areas of the CSO, as well as good representation from the Plateau Government, attended the workshop.
Peter said that the workshop would give them the opportunity to think through their thought processes and come up with a realistic action plan.
“For us, one of the innovative approaches for this season is what we call an open parliament, meaning that we’re going to encourage citizens to engage more with the government.
“We want to see government officials talking to the citizens about what the government is doing, so there is no room for speculation or rumours,” he added. (NAN)
A.I
Aug. 24, 2024
Tags: GOV. Caleb Mutfwang Mr Gad Peter Mr Manji Wilson
