*2 years behind
*to carry over outstanding components
From Chuks Collins, Awka
The Anambra State Government has been found to be two years behind in the implementation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) action plan.
Despite the state’s visible zeal and commitment to the OGP initiative, her Action Plan(SAP) which was launched to run from 2019 to 2021 was found not to have been implemented half.
This was discovered at the 2-day Mentorship training of OGP Administrators in Anambra State by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) in furtherance of its project -“Promoting Transparency and Accountability in the governance process through the implementation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria”.
The event which was flagged off by the state co-chair of OGP and Commissioner of Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs Chiamaka Nnake, according to Centre LSD Executive Director, Mr Monday Osasa was with the support of the MacArthur Foundation.
The two-day mentorship program, according to the Programme Coordinator of Centre LSD, Mr. Lawal Amodu, was meant to offer opportunities to look into progress reports, concerns and provide guide where necessary to advance implementation of the Partnership principles in the state.
Anambra State, he noted, was one of the twenty-five states that have signed up to the OGP and determined to revamp the discourse on the OGP and move forward with its commitment to enthroning transparency and accountability and citizens participation in the governance processes.
The delay in the pace of the State’s Action Plan which Prince Chris Azor was traced to multiple factors including the debilitating global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has now necessitated rolling over the remaining topic areas to the next action plan.
Mr Uchenna Arisukwu who is the from the National office of OGPand also the Adviser to the state’s Civil Society Organizations(CSO) implementation committee pointed out that packaging a report on the progress so far would enable the committee roll over the remaining areas to the current season.
Mrs Nnake expressed deep commitment of the Anambra state government in deepening the SAP with a view to improving transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and responsiveness to citizens through technology and innovation and the principles of OGP.
Anambra was among the first few states in Nigeria to sign into OGP in 2017 shortly after it was adopted by Nigeria in 2016.
The state launched it with five thematic areas including Fiscal transparency, Ant-Corruption, Access to Information, Citizen Engagement and Climate Change and Natural Resource Transparency.
