Stakeholders in the Niger Delta Region in Nigeria have expressed optimism that with continuous engagement with critical government agencies the region will be able to overcome the inherent challenges that have deviled the area and the country at large in the past due to corruption.
It is no more a secret that one of the issues that is on the front burner at every discourse when the dwindling fortune of Nigeria, especially the oil rich region is being articulated is corruption amongst the government agencies and politicians in the corridor of power.
At the center of this colossal waste of the nation’s wealth is the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the six oil producing states of Edo, Abia, Delta, Imo, Rivers and Ondo state and the National Assembly where the elected members take care of their own interest more than their constituents
To address reforms and issues of transparency and accountability in NDDC and the oil producing states as well as promote and engage in anti-corruption policy reforms the Africa Network for Environment Justice, ANEEJ held the Enhancing Anti-corruption and social inclusive reform initiatives in Nigeria project inception meeting at Abuja recently with stakeholders in attendance
In the words of the facilitator, Rev David Ugolor, Executive Director of ANEEJ, this important project seeks to promote and engage in anti-corruption policy reforms at both the national and sub-national levels as well as designed to enhance local civil society organizations ability to be positive and responsible change agents in Nigeria
He said, “Enhancing Anti-Corruption and Social inclusive Reforms initiatives in Nigeria is designed following the anchor cluster model adopted by Palladium to promote and engage in anti-corruption policy reforms. ANEEJ is the anchor for the Anti-Corruption cluster under the SCALE project working with eight cluster organizations across six states and Abuja.”
“The Palladium has adopted the cluster approach to identify possible areas of networking, advocacy, lobbying, civic engagement and policy dialogue and we are building that collective action that will put pressure on those institutions that need reforms and at the same time when those institutions are established, there is need for implementation and for implementation to happen there is the need for some level of public awareness.
“These are some of the approaches we are going to be adopting and where the reforms is working we would like to scale it up by using the passivity impact and bringing the result to bear in our advocacy work,” he added
On the issue of lack of accountability and transparency, he noted that it has been governance challenge, stressing, “it is not just in the PADECS, oil and Gas commission alone because there have been reports and assessments that have shown that 13 percent oil money going to all the oil producing states are not properly managed well because of lack of transparency and accountability.
“There are research that have now demonstrated that when there is absence of transparency the tendency is to have accountability impaired. Our message through this project is that we want to work with government agencies to see how the oil and gas commission established to manage this 13 percent are properly run and then they are able to achieve their goal so that people’s livelihood will improve and there will be transparency and accountability in programmes they carry out.
“When that is done, there will obviously be developments happening in the region and this conflict and crises we are seeing engulfing the entire region will reduce dramatically,” Rev. Ugolor added.
He further disclosed that ANEEJ has the history of working in the region in the past 20 years, and has developed governance index which is systemizing where there are possible improvement and opportunity to engage in those selected states which are just pilot states and when it is successful it would be scaled to the entire region and eventually impact across the country.
While expressing profound gratitude to USAID through Palladium for providing ANEEJ cluster the grant to undertake this very important project as a very critical time of the nation’s democratic match, Rev Ugolor added that “Our cluster will also advocate for the mainstreaming of anti- corruption issues into the country’s upcoming 2023 general elections discourse.”
Interestingly, the inception meeting provided the platform for the stakeholders who lauded the initiative of ANEEJ the opportunity to buy in to the project because of its timeliness to curb the huge deficit being experienced in the region which has translated to infrastructural decay and wanton profligacy by some Nigerians who fed fat at the expense of the tax payers.
In the past, ANEEJ was known for coming from the confrontational background, throwing stones. The Civil Society Organizations and Nigerians are quite aware of some of the actions taken, such as demanding the sack of Alison Madueke as the Minister for Petroleum, and other battles against corruption
But a time came, according to the Deputy Director of ANEEJ, Leo Atakpu that they now have to adopt what works in other climes apart from the stone throwing approach even though it is also helpful. They had to use a method which will deliver a better result and they arrived at the conclusion that collaborating with other stakeholders using global initiatives together, like the open government partnership that bring all stakeholders together on the table to procreate policies and drive the implementation with them has been found to be very useful in delivering results.
An Assistant Director of Community and Rural Development in the NDDC, Mrs. Ebi Ake who was delighted to be invited for the meeting said the commission is predisposed to the agenda of the meeting and more inclined to the social inclusiveness that will bring about the much needed reforms in the region.
While pouring encomiums on ANEEJ, the NDDC Assistant Director noted that the commission will be ready to continue the engagement because of its commitment to whatever will bring succor to the region
She was explicit in her choice of words, when she said that with such engagement a lot would be achieved at the National Assembly where critical decisions concerning the region are being taken by the representatives of the people.
“We appreciate what ANEEJ is doing, we are here because we want to further the engagement in whatever that will bring succor to the region and create a sense of responsibility amongst institutions and partnering with persons that have good intentions for Niger Delta region.
“We know what we have been going through as a region, because of the way things are, we are looking at and ensuring that the NDDC constitutional review, the act that set it up need to be looked at again and see how we can meet up with international best practices in service delivery. Having to associate with ANEEJ we know that we would be able to achieve that at the National Assembly,” she enthused.
In the same vein, a key stakeholder in the NDDC and a Civil Society Organization activist, Patterson Ogon who expressed optimism that the result of the project will be positive, advised that all hands must be on deck to improve the lives of the people in the region.
“We commend ANEEJ for what they are doing and we want more stakeholders and development partners to key in to what ANEEJ is doing because it is a collective enterprise. We are certain it is going to be positive at the end of the day to translate to a better livelihood for the people.
Also, a representative of the chairman of Delta State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Communities, DESOGPADEC, Mr. Bayo Iyalaju commended ANEEJ for such a platform to discuss about corruption and he assured that the commission will be ready to Partner on this project to deal with corruption.
On behalf of the cluster members, Mrs. Onose Matha appreciated ANEEJ for working with the cluster organizations on the anti-corruption project noting that they are very anxious to see what is in the package for them in the next two years that the project will last.
The representative of Mr. Sulayman Dawodu, Executive Secretary of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee, Joshua Dada disclosed that they have a good working relationship with ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev David Ugolor, adding that they are looking forward to working at the legislative reform of the project.
“We supervise criminal justice in Nigeria with particular interest in anti-corruption that has been the path we have thread with ANEEJ
The interactive session was in-depth as Civil Society Organizations represented made indelible inputs during the meeting. For instance, Comrade Taiwo from Publish what you pay, observed that the theory of change presented by Deputy Director of ANEEJ, Leo Atakpu captured the inclusiveness of the project and Ismail Opeyemi from 24 Century advised on the intentional involvement of youths who are critical stakeholders.
In the words of Anne Bisi Ojugo, representing Joint Association of persons with Disability, JONAPWD, the persons with disability have never had it so good because they are always been carried along by ANEEJ.
“We thank ANEEJ for including the people with disability in this project, we have never had it so good. A forum like this to build the capacity of people with disability is commendable,” she noted.
The project has developed six indicators that will assist ANEEJ measure results achieved and this will be centered on three objective of the project, which are capacity building, advocacy engagement and public awareness activities.
According to Sandra Eguagie, the second indicator to be measured in this project is the total number of anti-corruption commitment and oil commission mandate and policy documents reviewed. There will be a number of researches that will be done in line with the commitment of the OGP and the London anti- corruption commitment and other policy that will be used to review the PADECS.
“We want to know the number of commitments that will be secured through the review of this Project and We are going to be measuring it by the time we are doing our presentation. Secondly, We are not only going to be looking at the number of documents reviewed, we are going to be looking at the number of laws that will be passed because we have some pending bills before the National Assembly,” she added.
