The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that access to
\ninformation and data is the right of citizens and not a privilege, stating
\nthat any institutional effort to deprive citizens of this right would
\nconstitute a serious impediment to good governance and development.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a forum organized by the Global Initiative for Fiscal
\nTransparency on the role of data standards and international initiatives
\nin mobilizing and monitoring financing for development commitments, on the
\nsidelines at the ongoing Third International Conference on Financing for
\nDevelopment today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Vice President observed
\nthat with the right political will, governments can ensure that citizens’
\nrights of access to data and information is upheld with appropriate
\nsanction where it is denied.<\/p>\n
Prof. Osinbajo gave introductory remarks alongside the former Prime
\nMinister of New Zealand, and current UNDP Administrator, Ms. Helen Clark.
\nAfterwards\u00a0 other distinguished panelists including ministers from Belgium
\nand Bangladesh spoke at the forum to appraise the importance of openness
\nof information in the mobilization of resources for development.<\/p>\n
The Vice President noted that such a culture of openness is a basic
\nprerequisite for governments to achieve transparency and accountability in
\ngovernance.<\/p>\n
He informed stakeholders of efforts by the government of Nigeria to foster
\nthe culture of open data through mechanisms such as the National
\nExtractive Industries and Transparency Initiative (NEITI) project and the
\nFreedom of Information Act. He averred that both have contributed greatly
\nin promoting openness and accountability thereby removing secrecy from
\nvital sectors of the nation’s economy particularly in the petroleum sector
\nof the oil and gas industry and government business in general.<\/p>\n
The Vice President lauded the achievements recorded so far in this
\ndirection observing that the progress underscore citizenship participation
\nin governance. But he was quick to add that the current regime of access
\nto information needs to be expanded and issues such as quality of
\ninformation and data available must be addressed.<\/p>\n
Commending the Openness Initiative, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo opined that with
\nthe entrenchment of the open data and information flow, the goal of
\nsustainable development can be easily achieved. He thus pledged the
\ncommitment of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration towards
\npromoting this culture stating that it can go a long way in fostering the
\nmuch desired objectives of good governance and virile development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that access to information and data is the right of citizens and not a privilege, stating that any institutional effort to deprive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n