Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, says he believes in an open<\/p>\n
government where the identities of looters are revealed.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Abuja during a stakeholders meeting on the London summit on
\nanti-corruption and the Open Government Partnership (OGP), Amaechi said
\nsuch system would prevent corrupt persons from contesting elections in
\nfuture.<\/p>\n
He challenged Nigerians to hold government accountable by asking relevant
\nquestions and demanding satisfactory answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in name and shame and an open government. What name and shame
\ndoes is to prevent such people for vying for public office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, Amaechi said it is disservice to any public official when people
\nto make unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against them.<\/p>\n
Zainab Ahmed, minister of state for budget and national planning,
\ndescribed Nigeria\u2019s confirmation by the OGP as a participating country as
\na milestone.<\/p>\n
Ahmed said Nigeria\u2019s admittance into the OGP was instructive, particularly
\nas the current administration is committed to transparency and
\naccountability in governance.<\/p>\n
She said her ministry was working towards ensuring an open budgeting and
\nplanning process in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to ensuring that the budget process from the preparation
\nto the implementation and the monitoring and evaluation is open,
\nparticipatory and inclusive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Simon Shercliff, deputy high commissioner, British High
\ncommission, noted that corruption is the cancer at the heart of so many of
\nthe world\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo country is immune from corruption and so governments need to work
\ntogether to tackle it successfully,\u201d Shercliff said.<\/p>\n
He said the problem of corruption needed to be faced with all sincerity
\nand not mere lip service.<\/p>\n
The meeting is aimed at bringing together public and private sector, and
\ncivil society organisations.<\/p>\n
This is to enable them to work with the ministry of justice in ensuring
\nthat the commitments to end corruption are turned into actionable plans.<\/p>\n
The Cable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, says he believes in an open government where the identities of looters are revealed. Speaking in Abuja during a stakeholders meeting on the London summit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n