From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has said it is set to engage the National Assembly on constitution review, electoral reforms, anti-corruption and other critical legislation relating to governance.
The Executive Director of FixPolitics, Anthony Ubani, stated this on Monday in Abuja at a press briefing organised by the coalition.
Ubani explained the CSOs, which includes FixPolitics Initiative, CISLAC, OrderPaper Advocacy Initiative among others, are interested in legislative governance, with the aim of elevating the citizens to their rightful place in the country’s democracy and legislative accountability for the common good.
According to him, the group has decided to organise “around the seminal and exclusive” midterm reporting of the National Assembly delivered by an online news portal, OrderPaper from July 2021 to date.
‘We hold the view that constructive engagements with the National Assembly can result in productive partnerships in the common interest of citizens. As CS groups, we hold the mandate of constituents and citizens to mount oversight over those elected into public office.
‘We also acknowledge that legislators are elected by citizens to promote their interests. There is therefore a convergence in the roles we as civil society play with those played by Members of Parliament. Accordingly, we believe that both spectrums can collaborate and partner together instead of maintaining adversarial relationships.
‘We are optimistic that such collaboration can happen as is the case with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria where state and non-state actors are actively joining forces together to advance good governance and effective service delivery.
‘We hereby serve notice that this cohort has outlined measures and activities to move our advocacy forward, including engaging with the leadership of the National Assembly on critical governance themes, like electoral reforms, Constitutional amendment, anti-corruption, extractive transparency, and public finance management, among others,’ Ubani stated.