EU, CHARS-Africa, RoLAC counsel media on transparency, good governance promotion
The African Centre for Human Advancement and Resource Support, in collaboration with the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption, and the European Union at the weekend, encouraged the media in Nigeria, particularly in Abia State, to promote transparency and good governance in the country and the state through access to extant legal frameworks.
At a round table forum with the theme ‘Support to Civil Society Advocacy towards Strengthening Key Legislative Frameworks for Increased Accountability and Good Governance in Abia State,’ the Executive Director, CHARS-Africa, Mrs. Amaka Biachi explained the need for the media to establish innovative strategies that will enhance accountability in Abia State governance, and promote good governance.
Reviewing the status of the extant legal laws as applicable in Abia State and the need for human rights lawyers to join the media in Abia State to that effect, she explained that the forum was intended to allow the media in the state to exchange ideas, knowledge, explore opportunities and fashion out the way forward for good governance in the state.
The forum ex-rayed the factors that incapacitate the media in Nigeria, particularly in Abia State, from doing the right check on the government to include inadequate financial encouragement and material support to media practitioners by their employers, as well as the inaccessibility of key government functionaries to newsmen as major constraints in the practice of journalism and mandated relevant authorities in the state, including the three arms of the government to always avail journalists copies of relevant laws to enhance their working abilities.
As a result, therefore, stakeholders in the campaign for good governance agreed on the need to intensify efforts and apply every available legal instrument to hold state actors accountable to the masses.
Noting with concern the unwillingness of state actors to comply with the provisions of the various legal frameworks put in place to promote accountability and good governance, the CHARS-Africa Executive Director, Biachi expressed her worries about the prevailing situation in Abia, where government project contracts were devoid of local contents and are awarded in the dark, in violation of Part VI, Section 25(2)(ii) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which stipulates inter alia that “the invitation for bids shall be advertised in at least two national newspapers.”
She called for the assistance of the media in helping to hold the state actors accountable, pointing out that with effective synergy between the media and the CSOs, state actors would not escape public scrutiny and accountability.
In his presentation, the Project Director of ROLAC, Mr Peter Chuka Okoye commended the media and the CSOs in Abia State for their efforts in promoting good governance and accountability, lamenting that there was always the tendency to put much blame on state actors for not doing enough to promote good governance while the people remain indifferent, as if it does not concern them, and called on the people to “play their part to make the balance.”
