From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Accountability in Extractive Sector (AES) Cluster, comprising 10 partner organisations, has advocated effectiveness, transparency and accountability in the use of the revenue that accrue from the extractive sector in Nigeria.
The cluster, anchored by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), within the framework of the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project with support from USAID and implemented by Palladium made this known at a learning event to x-ray the cluster’s focus and to educate the members of the public on how much progress has been made with regards to issues.
The issues, it noted, are majorly the journey towards Nigeria’s beneficial ownership disclosure reform; contract transparency disclosure and the implementation of the Petroleum industries Act provision.
It added that the progress measured is situated within frameworks of the implementation of the third National Action Plans (NAP III) of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards; the provisions of the Petroleum Industries Act 2021 and within the stipulated objectives of the project.
The Program Manager of CISLAC, Chinedu Bassey while speaking at the learning event yesterday, said the cluster is creating awareness about all the existing initiatives to campaign around them and sensitise the public to lend their voices.
He added that the cluster is looking at entrenching some of the initiatives that Nigeria had signed on to, which include the contract transparency Initiative, the beneficial ownership disclosure, commitments within the OGP and also pushing for a strict implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act.
“This project presents an opportunity for us as one of the auspices for which we want to make sure that we throw this information out to the open and elicit citizens’ opinions and push towards having government make good of what they committed to doing.
“We have already identified public knowledge gap around sector-specific issues as well as lack of multi-stakeholder coordination in advancing expected outcomes, as a challenge from the beginning. So as one of our strategies, we seek to build and strengthen the ecosystem which will support what we do.
To this end of course, we’ve been working with the responsible institutions, like the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) whom we have a cordial relationship with as champions and promoters of relevant transparency and accountability reforms in the sector.
“We also have a good relationship with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) who have been crucial to the BO transparency progress made so far, and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), who in fact, went a step further to create civil society liaison desk in their office for whom we can always be going to seek some information”, he added.
The Personal Assistant to the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Auwal Ibrahim Sani, who spoke on the Commission’s efforts and progress so far in the BO reform process, noted that technical requirements for the BO register to meet Open data standards had been met and the register is to be deployed on May 25, 2023.
He acknowledged the strategic relationship between the Commission and CISLAC and the Cluster, while appreciating the significant role they had played in supporting the process all the way.
The Accountability in Extractive Sector (AES) Cluster, anchored by CISLAC, comprises 10 organisations- Community Conciliation and Development Initiative (CCADI) in Rivers state, Support for Training and Entrepreneurship Program (STEP) in Akwa-Ibom state, Good Governance Team (GGT) Nigeria in Abuja, Connected Advocacy for Empowerment & Youth Development Initiative (Connected Advocacy) in Edo state, Speak Out Africa Initiative in Abuja, Policy Alert in Akwa-Ibom state, Social Development Integrated Center (Social Action) in Abuja, International Centre for Women Empowerment and Child Development (ICWECD) in Delta state, Institutional and Sustainable Development Foundation (ISDF) in Abuja and Lagos state and Better Community Life Initiative (BECOLIN) in Imo state.