By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Youths in Plateau State have been urged to take advantage of the State’s Open Government Partnership to constructively engage government officials on accountability, responsiveness and inclusive governance.

The youths at a town hall meeting, organized by the Jos Green Centre held at the weekend were equally tasked to see themselves as co-creators in governance and development processes. 

A former State Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, David Wuyep gave the charge while addressing the about 250 youths’ influencers, activists, entrepreneurs and others who participated in the meeting.

Wuyep, represented by Geraldine Rimven of the Programme Management and Results Delivery Office, Office of the Governor, explained, “The OGP is a multilateral initiative that brings together governments at various levels and Civil Society Organizations from across the world to participate in governance that is open, transparent, accountable and serves the needs of the people.

“The OGP is hinged on four cardinal principles; accountability, transparency, inclusion and the use of technology and innovation.

“Nigeria signed up for the OGP and was admitted in 2016 while Plateau State submitted its application to join the OGP Local in October 2020 and was accepted as part of the 2020 intake being one of the only three states in Nigeria admitted into the OGP Local (which is for subnational governments) with Kaduna State and Abuja Municipal Council being the other two.

“Since then, the Plateau State Government has worked together with various CSOs in the state to develop Plateau State’s first OGP Action Plan which is underpinned by five thematic areas.”

He listed the areas to include; fiscal transparency (in open contracting and participatory budgeting); citizens’ engagement (establishing citizens’ dialogue mechanisms for improved accountability and transparency); extractives transparency, gender; peace and security.

His words, “… we are establishing the Plateau State Extractives Transparency Forum to ensure that mining is done in a sustainable manner and that we are properly harnessing our mining potentials.

“The Gender thematic area is to establish the Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission to improve gender equity in Plateau State. In Peace and Security, the commitment is to establish an Independent Peace and Security Trust Fund to address peace and security issues in the state…

“This is a particular area where I think that young people can actively participate in the OGP. One of the activities for this commitment is the development and deployment of a citizens’ engagement app called click n tell where all Plateau citizens and residents, especially the youths can share their concerns, complaints, and comments on government projects, programmes, policies and get feedback.

“The youths are a unique resource that can develop innovative solutions for economic growth and national development as they hold an enormous potential for change and positive action…”

In his remark, the Deputy Country Director of Tearfund Nigeria, Joseph Aloo at the occasion titled “Engaging Youth through Open Government Partnership (OGP),” said the State signing up to the OGP in 2020 reflects its commitment to prom,ote transparency, inclusiveness and citizens’ participation in good governance.

According to him, “One of the central lessons from the #ENDSARS riots of 2020 was the critical need to create the enabling space for conversations that supports inclusiveness, participation and

constructive engagement of Nigeria’s massive youth population.”

He expressed joy that “Jos Green Centre is pioneering the deployment of the OGP Platform to create the space for constructive engagements with youths and has also put in place a robust process for online together with an accessible online toolkit that equips youths to participate and promote accountable, responsive, and inclusive governance.

“This is a significant contribution to enabling the Plateau state model to the Nigerian nation on how to transit from the path of ‘demographic disaster’ to ‘demographic dividend’ as it reaps from, youth perspectives, creativity and inventiveness.”

The Team Lead, Jos Green Centre, Fwangmun Danladi noted the event was to “Strengthen youths’ capacity on the advocacy, movement building, as open government will be beneficial for engaging leaders positively, voting responsibly and getting involved in social activities that support credible governance such as advocacy visits, peaceful campaigns, encouraging policy dialogue, cooperation, networking, and the exchange of best practices.”