Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
In a bid to enhance the services of its work force, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Nigeria office, has organised a training for its directorate cadre.
The training for the NEPAD directors was a continuation of an earlier workshop organised for its junior level officers.
Speaking in Abuja, NEPAD’s Director of Department of Planning, Research and Statistics, Alhaji Abdulkarim Ahmed Ibrahim, said the programme had to do with the sensitization of the directorate cadre of NEPAD.
Ibrahim said training and retraining of staff which is synonymous with staff development, was a necessary thing that is inevitable in any organization that wants to move forward and key into the modernization efforts going on around the world.
“NEPAD had taken the issue of training very seriously. I must let you know that this training has been done for junior cadre. It is the senior cadre that is going on now. And very soon, another batch of training will commence,” Ibrahim said.
Reacting to remarks by one of the resource persons that for over six years, no report from NEPAD office was submitted to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, in implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, Ibrahim said the revelation was not only shocking, but strange to NEPAD.
“I see NEPAD as an organization that complies with such requirements. Be that as it may, I believe that as soon as this workshop is over, we are going to check out our records and make sure that we comply as soon as possible,” Ibrahim added.
On the openness of NEPAD in making information available to the public, Ibrahim said NEPAD had no reason to hide any information that is sought after, especially when it conformed with the regulation.
“So, I would not agree to any thinking or inkling that NEPAD wants to hide any information. Any information that is sought from NEPAD, once it is in line with due process, I believe it will be released,” Ibrahim stated.
Speaking earlier, one of the resource persons, Ichibor Gowon Joseph, said the lecture was an overview of the Freedom of Information Act.
Ichibor, a staff of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Freedom of Information Unit, said the programme was to give a rundown of what the Act is all about, especially for ministries, department and agencies who recently enrolled on its implementation.
“Recall that I did mention that they have not been part of the implementation process. They are probably aware of the existence of the law, but don’t know how to go about the implementation. What we have done was to streamline the process of implementation,” Ichibor said.