NGO: Involving citizens in government planning processes will ensure good governance

“When the citizens are adequately integrated into the government planning process in Nigeria, the budget would deliver services to the people.”
The Federal Team Leader, Engage Citizens Pillar, Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn, Greg Anyaegbudike, said this while addressing members of the civil society at a meeting in Abuja on Monday, preparatory to a public hearing by the National Assembly on the 2020 Budget of Nigeria on Wednesday and Thursday.
Anyaegbudike reiterated that the aim of PERL is to facilitate the process of making government and citizens solve the problems of citizens as partners.
The meeting was organised by Open Alliance with support from ECP-PERL, a programme of UK- Department for International Development.
Anyaegbudike said PERL is happy working with Open Alliance, which has more than 200 civil society bodies in the country as members. 
He said it is expected that more civil society groups would be part of the alliance.
The Senior Programme Officer, BudgIT, who is also the National Coordinator of Open Alliance, Ayomide Faleye, said the intent was is to strengthen Civil Societies in the country to collectively engage to make government open and ensure actualisation of Open Government Partnership in Nigeria.
Faleye said as civil societies would have the opportunity to speak to some salient issues in the 2020 proposed budget during the public hearing by the National Assembly on October 23 and 24, they must come up with a standpoint adequate enough to engage the legislators
During the meeting, the Research Coordinator, Development Strategy Centre, Enugu, David Onyinyechi Agu, in his presentation focusing on contextual analysis of the 2020 Budget of the Federal Government, charged Civil Society to be strategic in the budget engagement.
David said: “In analysing the budget, it is important to critically look at projections in the budget in the light of current realities. Considering current realities, the assumptions underlying revenue projections in the 2020 proposed budget are very weak and there are no bases for expecting that that can be realised. The non-realisation of projected revenues has consistently been blamed for the low level of implementation of the capital component of budgeted expenditures in recent years.
“The National Assembly is trying to get the input of the citizens through the budget public hearing on the 2020 budget proposal which was presented by President Muhammadu Buhari a couple of weeks ago.
“This is a process that we believe if it is opened and the voices of the citizens enter the budget, then we would have been living up to the point where the citizens are part of government planning process.
“Civil society must study and dissect the content of the budget, understand and be part of the processes in both the National Assembly and the ministries. This must continue up to the point of passage, mobilization and implementation.
“Part of the implementation is procurement and mobilization. Civil Society must do quality engagement to ensure that budget deliver the goods and services that the budget is meant to deliver.”
Participants who spoke at the meeting expressed worry that the previous budgets of the Federal Government over the years have not really addressed the critical needs of the citizens, particularly as affecting the poor.
They however expressed the hope that the 2020 Budget would be transparent, properly implemented and deliver services to the people.
Some of the Civil Societies at the meeting included the Budget Working Group; Centre for Gender and Social Inclusion; BudgIT; Justice, Development and Peace Commission, Nnewi; Accountability Lab Nigeria; Africa Centre LSD; Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice; Publish What You Pay; Follow Taxes; Basic Rights Watch; BhondIT Solutions Intiative; Youth Foundation Initiative; Cleen Foundation; Kimpact Development Initiative; Citizens Right Concern; Coalition of Association of Leadership; Peace, Empowerment and Development; Centre for Inclusive Development; Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Order Paper; Action Aid; and Citizens Connect.