Mr. Rommy Mom is the President of Lawyers Alert, Member Police Service Commission and the Civil Societies’ Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee Chairman in Benue State. In this interview with the Next Edition’s DOOSHIMA HIR, the Lawyer, who is leading the campaign for the Benue State Government to sign up on the partnership, said OGP is important because it brings the citizens to sit at the table with government as equal partners. He also spoke on the OGP process and other sundry issues.
TNE: What is Open Government Partnership (OGP)?
Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international framework where nations have come together and have agreed to bring the citizens much more into governance, using accountability as a watch word and engagement of the citizens. Nigeria signed up to it under the current administration as the 70th member nation. Today, a lot of nations have signed up to OGP. When a nation signs, states can also join through what is known as sub-national framework or sub-national action plans.
Nigeria is now in its third year of the partnership. Each year you come up with a true action plan that is supposed to be implemented and after the implementation another action plan is developed. For Nigeria, this is the second action plan that we are implementing. About 13 states have signed up on OGP in Nigeria today; Benue is yet to sign.
TNE: Why is OGP important?
OGP is important because it brings the citizens to sit at the table with government as equal partners. So, government selects what it calls its steering committee with a co-chair and the civil society or citizens also select their own committee with a co-chair. These two committees sit together and are in charge of implementing the action plan that is developed, either at the national or sub-national – that is state level. These action plans are done through what is called co-creation. Co-creation in the sense that government and the citizens sit together and draft these plans together. There is no superior partner; all are equal and that is the basis of the OGP: It is co-creation, equality, citizens driven, accountability, Information Technology and all of that.
I think OGP is a beautiful idea and today, especially the World Bank is supporting states that have signed up with a lot of assistance whether grants or aids. It shows that the government is open, it shows that government is accountable and it draws donors and international development actors into a state and it helps the state a great deal. OGP is what the people of Benue State needs and we hope that the State Government will eventually sign up on to it.
TNE: You’ve mentioned that the Benue State Government is yet to sign up on the partnership. As the State Chairman of civil societies Steering Committe on OGP, what are you doing to ensure that government signs up on the partnership?
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Benue State, at the risk of being immodest, is having the most and the best process of signing up to the OGP. Signing on OGP is a process. While any government can get up and sign without understanding what it truly means for you to get the best out of OGP, you need to follow the process. The process means understanding what it is all about. It is citizens’ driven. Right now the citizens of Benue are going through series of capacity building towards understanding what OGP means. I dare to say that as we speak now there is much understanding of what OGP means by citizens and citizens groups in Benue State.
The next thing now is to approach the government. A letter has been written to the Governor, requesting to see him so that we can begin to discuss the possibility of government signing. We are hoping that at the soonest convenient time, we will be meeting with His Excellency to discuss the need for Benue to sign up to the OGP.
Once His Excellency hears us, I hope we can convince him on the series of capacity building plans especially for the state government officials, and in particular, the persons he is going to select as the State Government Steering Committee so, that State Steering Committee and the civil societies steering committee will come together and develop an action plan. After the development of the action plan, we will then approach the national secretariate of the OGP, with a letter to allow us also to join. They will come, look at the preparations, what we have done and if they are satisfied we will join. Once we join, we will begin to talk to even international actors and partners for them to come to assist deliver the action plan that we would have drawn together. And that is going to bring about citizens and government engaging with each other; it can open channels for resources to support us and so on. I do hope that the Governor sees and I am sure he will see the essence for us to be part of the global movement.
TNE: What would you say are the importance of this partnership?
The most important benefit of the partnership, for me, is the transparent manner government is going to be run; Open and transparent. That is, citizens knowing exactly what is coming in to the government, citizens knowing exactly what is being spent and governmemt will not be under the kind of attacks it gets sometimes because citizens will be much involved in governance.
The second important benefit is that we can have development that will be monitored by both citizens and government because you are going to have an action plan that is contextualised on the needs of the Benue people and the needs of Benue State. So, once you have this action plan that will run for two years and is being faithfully implemented, the standard of living will improve; development will also increase.
Lastly, for me would be this issue of development partners coming in to support the state.
We are a state where resources are hard to come by. So, if the World Bank, if the European Union (EU), for example and others come in to help us because we are running a transparent and open government, which is a yardstick for measuring how transparent a government is for donors to come in, then, it might make more resources available to Benue State.
We feel it is time we start to play at the international and world best practices level, in terms of government and governance principles, so that we can have the needed support from international actors and development actors.
TNE: Are there criteria that states are expected to meet before signing up on the partnership?
Yes, there are. First, you must have a civil society steering committee and a state steering committee. Both of them must come together on the principles of equality and co-creation; both of them must again develop an action plan, that covers two years, contextualised to meet the needs of the people.
Most importantly, to also show very, very, critical and cardinal signs of openness and transparency. Those are the basic requirements that will enable us get into Open Government Partnership.
Someone would say that government has always run things in a transparent manner; budgets are published and all of that. True, but OGP is different in the sense that it visualises an action plan that is put together by both citizens and government; it visualises equal partners sitting together at a table and it visualises a situation where implementation will be done within two years and thereafter, you come back to look at how well you have been able to implement that plan and how well you will develop the next plan.
So, it is a living document that upgrades the present transparency or engagement between the civil society and government in Nigeria.
TNE: Given the fact that often times, government agreements and contracts once signed, implementation becomes the problem. How ready are you in getting this partnership to be a success in the state, if the state eventually signs on it?
Very good question. And that is why I have been talking about what OGP is all about. In terms of planning, government and citizens will sit together and draw up a plan, that is realistic and achievable within two years and the two of them must work hand in hand, within two years for its implementation and there is a time for review of those action plans which is in six, 12, 18 and 24 months, in terms of reviewing it. And you must constantly go back to it.
So, it is not government working alone. There is that basis of always partnering and oversighting and that is the beauty of OGP. Nobody is going to be left behind; it is government and civil societies working together to see how they can do it. And in that way implementation is much more assured. And again, this plan that you are drawing, you also make sure that you have enough resources to finance it. It is not like a situation where you know that your income; both Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and what comes in from the Federal Government is 13b then, you go and pass a budget of over N20b without knowing how you are going to finance it. OGP is different; it has to be realistic, it has to be based on what you can actually do. That is the thing about it and with civil societies, citizens and government implementing together, the chances of implementation are much more higher than leaving it to either civil societies alone or to government alone.
TNE: What would be your advice to citizens groups and or citizens, with respect to OGP?
For the citizens groups who are yet to understand it, I urge that we all understand what OGP means because government is also going through the same process to understand what it means.
I think in Benue we should avoid signing up for the mere purpose of signing on. Let the citizens understand what OGP means; that is, we understand the process and we are committed to it. And let the civil societies act the part of a watchdog along with the legislature in oversighting and overseeing that the executive does the right thing; and I am sure that we will have open government partnership that would work for Benue. It is all about commitment, understanding and participating. So, let it not be that we are doing this just because we want the World Bank to come in. Even if they (World Bank) come and discover that these things are not working so well, it will still not give us any result. So, it is about true commitment to the process.
TNE: There are concerns that nearly nothing seems to be working in Benue State. Do you think OGP will provide a new thinking that will catalyse development in the state?
Yes, I strongly do believe that whatever state that you are in, in this country, there is still a lot of room for improvement. I think whether the government is working or is not working, depending on which side of the coin you are on, the most important thing is that OGP offers us a new opportunity; it offers us a deeper opportunity to begin to push forward in trying to develop our state. For me, I like to look at it in terms of a cup half full than a cup half empty. Let us build on what we have in ensuring that we get better as a state.
