By Haruna Gimba
The Kano State Government says it has gazetted the recently signed Executive Order of Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative
A press statement issued by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, said gazetting the OGP initiative shows commitment of Governor Ganduje to the promotion of transparency and accontability in governance.
Acknowledging that Kano being the first state in the federation that signed the Executive Order, is a clear indication that, citizens participation to public documents and other open door initiatives have come to stay in the state.
Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje
The statement added that the governor made the disclosure during the inauguration of OGP Steering Committee and the launching of State Action Plan, held on Friday in Kano.
The representatives of Minister of Justice, OGP National Coordinator and many development partners were in attendance, the statement added. Ganduje was represented, at the event, by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji.
Usman Alhaji said: “Our being the first state in the federation that signs the Executive Order, that onerous commitment signifies our firm belief in making sure that our spending, as a government, is being tracked and that our concern for citizen participation is real and encouraged.”
The governor also maintained that even before the coming up of OGP, his administration found it necessary to strengthen institutions with the necessary requisites to build stronger society devoid of corruption and other related societal ills.
That was why, according to him, they decided to appoint somebody who is known for high level anti corruption stance to head the state anti-graft body, Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who was represented by Barrister Benjamin Ogu Okolo, said that the equal partnership between civil society and government in OGP process entails that every commitment in the State Action Plan are co-created, co-implemented and co-monitored for the benefit of citizens.
Okolo congratulated the state for successfully drafting the Kano State OGP Action Plan and hope that the inauguration of the State SteeringmCommittee will further engage with citizens in order to deliver on themobjectives of good governance.
On her part the regional coordinator of the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UK-AID) and Head of Department formInternational Development (DFID) Kano office, Nafisa Ado, commended the state government for subscribing to OGP initiative.
Assuring that UK government would always assist the state for the good implementation of the signed Executive Order, encouraging that, “UK government provides the sum of £12m to support OGP project in Nigeria. This shows how committed we are in seeing to the effective implementation of OGP Action Plan.”
The state Head of Service, Muhammad Auwal Na’Iya while giving the historical account of how OGP started in Kano, he spoke on similar efforts put by the state government along the line of transparent and accountable regime, where good governance prevails.
