CEDI urges Governor Okowa to embrace Open Government Partnership

The Community Empowerment and Development Initiative, CEDI, a non-governmental organization based in Warri, Delta State has called on Delta State government to immediately sign on to the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

CEDI Executive Director, Onose Martha, made the call in the wake of her participation in the policy dialogue on OGP organized by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ.

Onose said since the global initiative was introduced in 2011, over 70 countries have signed on with many more countries are expected to join. She said state governments in Nigeria embraced the initiative in line with their counterparts in other parts of the world. She listed Kaduna, Anambra, Kano, and Edo are some of the states that have joined noting that it was important Delta state joined without delay.

“OGP remains a tool to secure concrete commitments from governments to her citizenry to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. As a result of this, the OGP can help to ensure that non-state actors including civil society organizations have access to critical discussions around open government reforms and are able to engage with public officials to implement such reforms”, Onose Martha noted.

She said CEDI is prepared to work with Delta State government to ensure that the state signs on to the initiative and also help the state design an action plan, which will be jointly implemented and monitored to bring about the needed change.