By Enweliku Kent,
The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development recently trained Journalists across the state on how to play their role effectively in the Open Government Partnership and strengthen the process in Nigeria.
The two day training program held between April 20th and 21st in Calabar, Cross River state and was facilitated by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, with support from MacArthur Foundation, geared towards enhancing the insight of media practitioners on their role in Open Government Partnership.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance around the world.
In his welcome remarks, the Executive Director of Centre LSD, Mr. Monday Osasah, noted that the training was designed to build capacity among Journalist to fortify them to create and raise awareness amongst the citizens and State actors in order to promote Open Government both at the national and the subnational levels.
Resource person, Mr Edetaen Ojo, a former Co-chair of the OGP in Nigeria, took journalists through what OGP is all about, the role of the media in the OGP process, overview of Nigeria’s National Action Plan, OGP Nigeria Governance and Management coordination Framework among other relevant topics.
In a separate interview, Ojo disclosed that the media have to be involved in driving the OGP process, adding that media freedom have to be restructured.
“Many journalists been attacked by government or individual, we have to reformed media law in Nigeria, established concrete legal backing for Media practitioners to excel in reporting OGP process”.