By Luminous Jannamike

ABUJA – Federal Government has trained over 537 public servants on Open Government Partnership (OGP) with a view to reducing secrecy in governance.

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The training, which focused on compliance Nigeria’s OGP initiatives, sought to equip the officials with the required skills to drive transparency, accountability and citizen-centred ideals across the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Director-General, Ethics and Corporate Compliance Institute of Nigeria (ECCIN), Sir Agabaidu Jideani, said: “The program explores what it means for governments to become more open; how that openness benefits the people and the process through which the open government declaration would be implemented in Nigeria.”

He explained that if Nigeria handles its OGP initiatives properly, they would eliminate the citizens’ reservations towards some controversial government policies like the Ruga settlements drive.

“The essence of this is to bring the government and the governed at a meeting point where trust can be built for the growth of the country,’’ he said.

Speaking also, the National Coordinator of the Nigeria’s OGP, Benjamin Okolo, said the federal government’s anti-corruption fight can best be won when critical government information on budgets, procurement and contracts are made open for the citizens to evaluate.

“The trend now is that state actors and non-state actors have an equal stake in the affairs of government and we must ensure that the government becomes more accessible to the citizens.

“We are working toward the direction where all laws that stand the way of OGP like the Official Secret Act, CAMA and the Public Service Rules are amended to encourage open governance instead of negating it,” he said.

Ms. Obialunanma Nnaobi, in her paper titled: “Open Government Partnership and Citizens’ Engagement,’’ insisted that the government could only earn the trust of the citizens if the right things were done.

Vanguard