From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
African Union Development Agency/New Partnership for African Development (AUDA-NEPAD) has commenced a review of the outcome of the second peer review process in Nigeria.
Chief Executive Officer, AUDA-NEPAD, Princess Gloria Akobundu, who addressed journalists at a workshop on harmonization and finalization, monitoring and evaluation framework for the implementation of the second National Programme of Action (NPoA) in Abuja, commended the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders that resulted in the successful second peer review of Nigeria.
She said: “We worked together with all stakeholders in government and private sectors to conduct the country’s self-assessment and produced the report which was validated. So, the objective of the workshop is to train the people that would implement the report of the exercise.
“We need to harmonised all the documents and produced a National Programme of Action (NPoA) in line with the global SDGs 2030, AU-Agenda 2063 and Nigeria’s National Development Plan for smooth implementation in line with global best practices.”
She said the primary objective of NPoA is to guide and mobilize the country’s efforts in implementing needed changes to improve its state of governance and accelerate its economic development. It is therefore utmost importance that significant issues are addressed to enable full realization of the goal of the NPoA framework.
“Having successfully conducted the country self assessment which produced the Country Self Assessment Report and the Country Review Report (CRR) prior to the successful validation by the Country Review Mission (CRM) led by APRM Panel of Eminent Person and Continental Secretariat, Nigeria is currently drafting its NPoA taking into consideration all the APRM panel of eminent person’s recommendations as well as all the overarching issues.”
She urged participants to tap into the gains of the meeting as well as effectively track, monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of the NPoA for a build up of the country’s progress report.
Chairman, APRM Governing Council, Senator Abba Ali, in his remarks, commended the commitment of Princess Akobundu, to the cause of the peer review process for the general benefit of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, who was represented by Adeosun Peter, said that Nigeria is set to implement the outcome of the peer review, which is the National Programme of Action.
He explained that the peer review mechanism was set to attain the pan African vision of a prosperous and integrated peaceful Africa that seeks to reckon itself within global politics, and it has recorded great milestones in providing a platform for the AU member states that have acceded to the protocol to share information, knowledge, and experience as they review each other’s performance within the framework established by the institution.
He said: “As a self-monitoring mechanism in all aspects of governance, the initiative places the people at the centre of the development discourse for the benefit of Africans in the Continent which is in line with AU Agenda 2063.
“APRM promotes best practices that will lead to sustainable economic growth, infrastructure development, political stability as well as an accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration of the Continent.”
Similarly, the representative of the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Babatunde Bernad, in his remarks, said that the government was fully committed to promoting good governance practices enshrined in the ideals and vision of the NEPAD which gave birth to the APRM.
He said that Nigeria as a whole is proud of the progress being made in the APRM as a self-monitoring tool to address governance deficit in Africa and in Nigeria, as conform to shared values in the areas of democracy and political, economic corporate governance, and socio-economic development.