Politics
Group Tasks Govs-Elect On Open Govt
The Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), an NGO, last Saturday urged the newly elected governors across the country to adopt the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative.
Programme Coordinator of the Centre, Mr Uchenna Arisukwu,made the call in an address to mark the global celebration of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Week on Saturday, in Abuja.
Arisukwu said the call had become imperative because since Nigeria joined the OGP process as its 70th member globally, and 12th in Africa, not much had been done to ensure effective implementation.
He said the OGP initiative was launched in 2011 to provide platform for governments to be accountable and responsive to citizens and assist in achieving the desired governance goals.
The coordinator, however, said that so far only 10 states namely, Kaduna, Kano, Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu, Niger, Edo, Adamawa and Jigawa, out of 36, had signed up and domesticated OGP in the country.
“Since the country signed into the OGP in 2016, Nigeria has recorded appreciable successes in open budget, open procurement, assets recovery, access to information, citizens’ engagement and open technology.
“The national budget is now accessible online through the citizens’ budget portal, where citizens can engage the budget and also get involved in the entire budgetary cycle.
“The procurement portal established by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) provides citizens the access to engage the procurement process, making it open and transparent.
“In spite of these modest achievements and others not listed here, much is left to be achieved with OGP in Nigeria as we begin the second term of the partnership implementation in Nigeria,’’ he said.
Arisukwu said that the two years of OGP’s National Action Plan, which contained 14 commitments, with four areas of concentration; namely, fiscal transparency, access to information, anti-corruption and citizens’ engagement and empowerment, would be achieved by December.
He urged governments to demonstrate political will to the process, ensure access to information and use of technology to minimise discretion and deepen citizen’s engagement in anti-graft war in order to achieve set targets.
Also speaking, Acting-Executive Director of the Centre, Mr Monday Osasah, urged governments and stakeholders of the OGP to also exercise the political will to fast-track the project implementation in the second phase.
He said that it was imperative for government to make deliberate policy to include OGP in its Federal Executive Council discussion to encourage MDAs to implement the policy objectives.
“Government talking from their end to citizens also will help. Look at what OGP represents, it approximates good governance which happens when government policies and programmes meet the expectations of citizens.
“To achieve that, government requires citizens’ partnership, openness and transparency, it also makes it important for citizens to be part of the documentation of the second National Action Plan,” Osasah said.
He urged states yet to sign up to OGP to do so in order to bring about a holistic fight against corruption in Nigeria.
National Coordinator, Open Alliance, an NGO, Ms Ayomide Faleye, In her remarks at the event, called on stakeholders of OGP to ensure that the second phase of the plan reflected issues that affected citizens.
According to Faleye, the most important step is to ensure that citizens’ engagement is being captured to reflect inclusiveness as the 2019 theme for celebration of the week globally implies.
The Commission disclosed the figure in its weekly update for week 14 of the second phase of the exercise, which ended on Friday, April 17, 2026.
According to the breakdown, 2,259,288 Nigerians completed their registration through the online pre-registration portal, while 1,489,416 finalized their registration physically at designated centres nationwide.
INEC noted that the figures remain preliminary and are subject to further verification and data cleaning processes to ensure accuracy ahead of the consolidation of the national voter register.
With the conclusion of the registration phase, the Commission has now shifted focus to the display of the Register of Voters for Claims and Objections, a statutory stage aimed at strengthening the credibility and integrity of the voters register.
The display exercise is scheduled to hold from April 29 to May 5, 2026, across designated centres nationwide, providing citizens the opportunity to verify their details and raise objections where necessary.
The Commission urged all registered voters from the concluded phase to take advantage of the exercise to confirm the accuracy of their information and assist in identifying ineligible entries, including duplicate registrations, deceased persons, and non-citizens.
INEC explained that the Continuous Voter Registration exercise is being conducted in phases, with the first phase running from August 18 to December 10, 2025, while the second phase commenced on January 5, 2026 and ended on April 17, 2026.
The Commission further stated that the date for the commencement of the third phase will be announced in due course.
Reaffirming its commitment to credible elections, INEC stressed that maintaining a clean and accurate voter register remains central to ensuring free, fair, and transparent electoral processes in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of IPC, Mr Lanre Arogundade, informed the journalists that the dialogue was sponsored by the European Union, under the auspices of the EU-Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN II), Component 4: Support to Media.
According to the veteran media practitioner, the programme is aimed at strengthening the capacity of the media to promote credible elections through factual, accurate and fair reporting.
He explained that the programme is part of a broader five-year intervention designed to support democratic governance and improve the role of the media in Nigeria’s electoral process, stressing that fact-checking and inclusive reporting are critical responsibilities for journalists, especially during electioneering.
He described the media as a central role agent with regard to upholding transparency and accountability in the democratic process.
A resource person and Director of Journalism Clinic, Lagos, Mr Taiwo Obe, enjoined journalists to embrace the evolving technology so that they would not be in the backwaters in the practice of the profession.
He advised journalists not to downplay Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their bid to remain relevant in the media environment by being abreast of the changing patterns of news consumption.
The journalism teacher explained that with digital transformation of the media industry, it had become imperative for journalists to constantly upgrade and update their skills, stressing the fundamental place of attitude and self-development and underscored the dynamic nature of media consumption in the digital age, thereby compelling journalists to embrace tools and platforms, but without much reliance on AI.
In his lecture, a Professor of Mass Communication at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Adebola Aderibigbe, advised journalists in Ekiti State to ensure that coverage of the upcoming governorship poll is issue-based rather than dwelling on personalities.
He added that sensationalism should not occupy the front-burner of any discussions concerning the 2026 election, admonishing that sustenance of democracy is anchored on responsible journalism.
”Journalists must prioritise accuracy, fairness and balance in their reports by verifying facts and giving all parties involved in political matters the opportunity to present their views”, he said.
According to the university don, the election will not be defined by personalities, but by issues. ”Let issues be the pivotal ring upon which every discussion should be made. Sensationalisation of issues should not be the bedrock of discussions in the 2026 election”, he added.
“Do not hear from Party A without hearing from Party B, otherwise the report will be skewed to one side and once issues of elections are skewed, problems will naturally arise”, he stressed.