FG To Involve High Political Leadership In OGP Process ― AGF, Malami

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) on Tuesday hinted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will continue to involve high political leadership in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process in the country.

Malami gave this assurance yesterday while addressing the delegation of OGP international support unit to Nigeria.

Represented by the Solicitor General of the federation/ Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Dayo Apata, (SAN), the minister described the visit as historic, saying that it came about the same time Nigeria was entering her 2nd Cycle membership of OGP.

As one of OGP member to deliver action plans in 2019, he reiterated that the visit was a confirmation of the organization support for the Nigeria OGP process.

He said: “Nigeria joined the Open Government Partnership as part of the Unit’s mandate to engage high-level political leadership and stakeholders on OGP implementation in member’s countries.

s you are aware, Nigeria joined OGP in 2016 to further deepen institutional and policy reforms already initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

“The OGP 1st National Action Plan (NAP) 14 commitments centred on four thematics was implemented from Jan 2017-June 2019 in areas of; Fiscal Transparency, Anti-corruption, Access to Information and Citizen engagement.”

The minister added that a lot of progress and achievements were recorded in the implementation of the 1st NAP, saying that lessons and learning took place during the period of implementation.

Speaking on behalf of the visitors, the CEO of Open Government Partnership, Sanjay Pradhan congratulated Nigeria for the OGP accomplishment.

According to him, since Nigeria joined, nine other countries and twenty local governments have equally joined OGP.

He said: “I want to also congratulate you on the second action plan that you are about to launch. Both are a very important accomplishment, I must congratulate and acknowledge your government for coming this far.”

As principal supporter in the global stage, Pradhan nevertheless urged Nigeria to raise her ambition even further as she unveiled its second action plan for the betterment of the citizenry.