A Kaduna-based Information Technology organisation, Ihifix Technologies, on Wednesday, inaugurated a citizens’ demand website and mobile application to deepen Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Kaduna State.
The application website, https://citizensdemand.org/ was inaugurated in Kaduna, during the Ihifix Digital Summit for Development, with the theme, “Leveraging Digital Technologies for Sustaining the Gains of OGP”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit was organised in collaboration with Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development (CALPED) and OGP Technical Working Group on Citizens Engagement.
The event was supported by the Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn, a governance programme of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Ihifix Team Lead, Mr Emmanuel Adikpe, explained that the website and mobile application were designed in partnership with CALPED to enable citizens to upload their needs with a view to inform the budget.
Adikpe said that applications, developed in line with the principle of OGP, were to deepen citizens engagement in governance by ensuring that their voices were heard, and needs captured in the state budget.
According to him, citizen participation is critical in ensuring transparency and accountability in governance and a key attribute of good governance, critical to Nigeria’s development.
He said that the effort was to deploy digital technology to deepen citizens’ engagement in the governance process, particularly the Community Development Charter (CDC).
He explained that the CDC process involved the generation and prioritisation of community needs, to inform the state and local government budget.
He added that the website and mobile application were parts of leveraging digital platforms to automate the CDC process for effectiveness and efficiency.
“The app was developed to ensure citizens participate in governance, upload their needs for responsible government agencies to access digitally and capture them in the budget.
“It is not enough to complain on the sideline; get involved; join the conversation in your community to prioritise your needs and submit to government for consideration in the budget.”
Inaugurating the application, Hajiya Umma Aboki, Commissioner, Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), commended Ihifix and its partners for supporting the government to deepen its reforms on citizens engagement.
Aboki said that the state government joined the OGP as part of its commitment for a transparent and accountable governance driven by active citizens participation.
She said that the success of the OGP in the state was largely due to available technology platforms like social media and citizens’ application for monitoring the delivery of government projects.
The OGP Point of Contact, Mr Tara Jeremiah, PBC, also lauded the initiative, stressing that the application had significantly improved the CDC process.
Jeremiah explained that the application enabled the CDC champions across the Local Government Areas (LGAs) to submit their needs to PBC from six LGAs in 2022 to 20 LGAs in 2023.
Dr Adiya Odeh, National Team Lead, PERL – Engage Citizens, said that the governance programme would continue to support platforms for citizens and government to work together for improved service delivery.
Odeh expressed hope that the next government would adopt the available digital platforms to deepen citizens’ engagement in the governance process for ownership and sustainability.
Mr Yusuf Goje of CALPED, said that the summit seeks to facilitate stakeholders’ experience-sharing to generate lessons for adaptation.
This, according to him, will address blockages hindering meaningful citizens’ involvement and public accountability in the governance process.
“The summit is also to brainstorm and document strategies towards increased leverage on digital technologies and data utilization for promoting and sustaining the gains of OGP.
“We also want to share success stories on how innovation and technology is deepening citizens’ participation, transparency, and accountability in public governance
“The summit was equally organised to initiate a Tech Community of Practice in sustaining governance reforms.”
