From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Nigeria has been elected to serve for another three-year term on the Open Government Partnership (OGP) International Committee.
Minister of State for Finance Budget and National Planning Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, who announced this in Abuja, said that the election was because of Nigeria’s global recognition of its reform agenda in an open, transparent and accountable governance process.
The minister called on the civil society organisations and the senate committee members for their efforts to operationalise and institutionalise the reform agenda of the government anchored on open, transparent and accountable governance.
‘Nigeria’s efforts are being recognised globally especially its recent nomination to serve a second tenure of three years on the OGP International Committee,’ he stated.
It was not so much of a nomination. It was an election. We went along with others and we came out victorious. We will be starting a second term from tomorrow (October 1) for another three years.
‘Nigeria has emerged the most impactful under National Action Plan (NAP) 1 and the outcome will be announced in the global OGP summit scheduled to hold in December 2021.
‘We have also put in nomination for the position of co-chair on the international steering committee and the election comes up on October 14, this year. Hopefully, we will be successful and we will take over the co-chairmanship in October 2022,’ he assured.
‘In a related development, Nigeria’s entry for the most impactful commitments under NAP I has been sent to the International Reporting Mechanism (IRM) for assessment. The outcome will be announced in the global OGP international summit scheduled to hold in South Korea in December 2021,’ the minister further said.
Nigeria, which signed up to the global initiative in 2016, is currently implementing the second successive National Action Plan.
The first NAP was implemented between 2017 and 2019, while the second is being implemented between 2019 and 2022.
The International OGP body has an Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM that monitors all action plans of countries to ensure governments follow through on commitments.