From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Civil society groups working around Open Government Partnership (OGP) with support from Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) met at the weekend to check whether the concerns they raised at the public hearing on Kaduna State 2022 draft budget were captured in the approved copy.
These civil society groups working in different thematic areas of OGP had gathered on November 16, 2021, to check and raise concerns about interested budget lines in the drafted budget earlier submitted to the state House of Assembly by Governor Nasir El-Rufai.
State Lead Facilitator, PERL, Abel Adejor, noted that the reflection meeting became necessary to know whether to commend the state assembly or otherwise based on its promise during the budget town hall meeting held in November 2021.
Co-chair, citizen arm of OGP, Hadiza Umar, remarked that since the beauty of good work is assessment, it was important for civil society in the state to look back and see whether they are doing well or not.
There were presentations and discussions by representatives of Open Budgeting Technical Working Group, Local Government Accountability Mechanism (LGAM), Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC), Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism, Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) and Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM).