By Longtong Ibrahim
Nigerians have been urged to be actively involved in budget processes and tracking so as to ensure its implementation – bringing about transparency and accountability from government.
The call was made during the Kaduna state open budget forum organized by League of Democratic Women (LEADs-Nigeria) held recently in Kaduna.
Speaking during the program, Executive Director of LEADs-Nigeria, Mrs. Rebecca Sako John, said it is important as citizens of a state or country to know what the budget of their state is made up and be well inform about it, saying, knowing and engaging government on issues contain in it would make them work efficiently.
According to her, the forum is to draw attention to contents of the 2017 budget as well as provide simple tools to engage in tracking and advocacy for improved service delivery, noting that, the Kaduna state government has already created an enabling environment for social accountability by making access to information on public policy and budget more accessible to citizens through the use of social media to enhance citizen engagement with the executive.
She said, under the Strengthening Citizens Engagement in Electoral Process (SCEEP) project, they had done series of advocacy strategy and budget literacy trainings for focal communities from which they have started strategic engagement with their duty bearers.
“The open Budget Forum is part of series of activities aimed at creating a platform for communities, government and stakeholders to engage around topical issues.
“Our interest is in seeing citizens, communities and civil society groups constructively engaging duty bearers at different level of responsiveness, efficiency, and quality of public services,” Mrs. Sako noted.
She however urged Citizens to utilized the information provided by government and other stakeholders and be alive to their responsibilities in order to engage government to do the right thing by being responsive, transparent and accountable to the citizens.
In her remarks, representative of the Director of Budget, Kaduna State Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mrs. Linda Abu, stressed the importance of CSOs in ensuring successful implementation of budget, saying they are key partners.
“They promote interest of the citizens to ensure that value for money, transparency and accountability is achieved. They are like the eye of the citizen looking at what the government is doing and also speaking to the government on area they are found wanting, that way, they can take measures and correct whatever tension government has put in place.
She further urged the CSOs to be versatile in knowing and understanding the budget and it processes because that is the only way they can key in properly.
One of the participant at the forum, Aisha Mohammed, while commending the organizers of the program said the open budget policy would allows citizens to participate in the budget process, as such, their participation can make governance progress; adding that, when fully implemented it will encourage grassroots development.
