NGO urges Ugwuanyi to implement Open Govt. Partnership in Enugu

Mon, Jun 17, 2019 | By publisher


Politics

AN Enugu-based Non Governmental Organisation, Divine Era Development and Social Rights Initiative, urges Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to start the implementation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in the state.

The group said that the implementation of the OGP which the state government signed up to was long overdue.

The Executive Director of the group, Mrs Ogechukwu Enwelum, disclosed this on Sunday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu.

Enwelum said that OGP was a global hub aimed at enthroning development and good governance in countries and states that signed up for it with the aim of positively changing the lives of the people.

She said the OGP had four thematic areas which included fiscal transparency, anti-corruption, access to information and citizens engagement and empowerment.

She, however, said it was sad that the state government had not taken any other meaningful step for the implementation of the project apart from the inauguration of the steering committee.

“Beyond the inauguration of the steering committee, there should be a State Action Plan which is a blueprint on how to achieve what the government signed up for.

“Unfortunately, there is no such plan,” she said.

Enwelum, who is a member of the steering committee, said other states as well as the federal government that signed up for the OGP had come out with success stories.

She said  the state government needed to show more commitments in improving the lives of residents of the state, adding that the implementation of the OGP was one sure way of doing that.

She said that the people expected Ugwuanyi to waste no time in putting the necessary machineries in place in order to implement it in his second term in office.

The executive director said that signing up for OGP was beyond inauguration of the steering committee.

“I am thinking that in this second tenure the state government will  look at how to implement what it signed up for in order to change the lives of the people.

“OGP is working at the national level and we have seen many states that have come out with success stories about how they are implementing it.

“Enugu state is taking the lead in so many ways and we also want it to take the lead in the OGP.

“We expect the state to look inward and to leverage on its resources to implement it,” she said.

Enwelum said the state government would do well by involving its people in the process of governance. (NAN)

– June 17, 2019 @ 9:25 GMT |

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