By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
KOGI State has incorporated the Open Government Partnership (OGP) State Action Plan into its budget, allocating a total of N165.1 million, across the five commitments to demonstrate it’s commitment to open government principles.
This was disclosed at a One-day Dissemination Meeting of the Kogi State 2024 Budget Analysis to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) on Thursday in Lokoja.
The meeting was organized by Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in partnership with Initiative For Grassroots Advancement In Nigeria (INGRA), supported by Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
Amb. Idris Ozovehe Muraina, Co-chair of OGP State Action Plan Steering Committee, while presenting “A Review of the Kogi State 2024 Approved Revised Budget, OGP- Related Budgetary Allocations”, commended the government for the action taken.
Amb. Muraina said the Kogi 2024 budget aligned with the OGP five commitments across the four thematic areas as he highlighted the importance of fund release and implementation.
While acknowledging the budget allocation for OGP initiatives is currently small (less than 1% of the total budget), the Co-chair expressed satisfaction with this initial baby steps as he emphasized the need growth.
Hamza Aliyu, Executive Director, INGRA said the meeting enabled engagement with the Kogi State House of Assembly regarding accountability and citizens’ participation in public finance and service provision.
The Budget analysis, he said, revealed that the budgetary allocation to OGP commitments was relatively small.
“When we compared the budget allocated to OGP commitments with the total state budget, we found a significant disparity of 0.09 per cent.
“We believe the percentage of resources allocated to OGP commitments should be increased to align with citizens expectations and ensure a balance between OGP objectives and other state expenditures”, he said.
Aliyu revealed that the OGP has four thematic areas including Citizen Engagement, Fiscal Transparency among others adding that the analysis had shown that government spending touches upon these areas and aligns with the five commitment areas within the OGP framework.
He said that one specific commitment highlighted is extractive transparency, with a focus on working with communities in the extractive industry to address environmental pollution concerns.
“Additionally, we are pleased to see a commitment to capacity building. Notably, there is a commitment by the House of Assembly to engage with citizens in the budgetary process”, he said.
Idris Miliki Abdul, Executive Director, Conscience for Human Rights And Conflict Resolution (CHRCR) said budget remains an important component of government and urged that citizens must be involved in its processes.
Miliki commended the present administration of Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo adopting the OGP saying, “The current government has taken significant steps towards OGP compared to the previous administration.
The involvement of citizens through civil society organizations and the government’s commitment to OGP are expected to bring significant benefits to Kogi state.
Ms Eunice Abimbola AGBOGUN, Executive Director, Challenged Parenthood Initiative and member of OGP commended INGRA and CSO Situation Room for the initiative to embark on the Budget analysis.
Alhaji Alfa Ndagi, Deputy Clerk, Kogi House of Assembly in his remarks said the present 8th Assembly was poised to promote accountability, Transparency for good governance to evolve as pledged the cooperation of the House with the OGP members
Also speaking, Alhaji Isah Adeboye, Secretary, Jama’atu Nasru Islam (JNI) in Lokoja said the society would be a better place with less challenges if government and the people were more open, accountable and transparent in their dealings. (Ends)