PRESS RELEASE: NEITI CONGRATULATES ALL NIGERIANS ON DEMOCRACY DAY!

Fellow Nigerians,

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) wishes to congratulate the government and all Nigerians on events marking this year’s Democracy Day.

As an agency set up to, among other things, develop a framework for openness, transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from Nigeria’s extractive sector, NEITI views its existence and mandate as one of the many benefits which only Democracy can guarantee in our nation.

NEITI is also aware that its role in pushing boundaries of freedom for the people to know, ask informed questions, discuss, and debate how extractive revenues can be prudently managed and used to reduce poverty and ensure development in Nigeria can be enhanced only by democratic principles of choice, accountability, free speech, press freedom and citizens’ right to information.

This year’s Democracy day therefore offers, NEITI, the rare opportunity to remind every Nigerian that Democracy can only make meaning in our lives if and when “we the people” understand the powers we have to demand accountability, due process and transparency in managing revenues from our abundant extractive resources.

For NEITI, this is a fundamental duty of all Nigerians under the principle of global extractive industries transparency initiative which Nigeria voluntarily subscribed to since 2003.

NEITI believes strongly that enhanced public interest in demanding accountability through responsible citizens participation and engagement are major duties required to make democracy deliver the kind of results that we all expect.

Besides, this culture if nurtured will not only keep public officers in check but will serve as a constant reminder that in a democratic society like Nigeria, power belongs to the people.

NEITI particularly notes that information and data contained in its independent audit reports of the oil and gas sector over a ten – year period(1999-2008) remain vital tools which the people need in a democracy to hold government and companies to account and thus ,reverse the syndrome of “resource-curse”.
We therefore call for deliberate measures to strengthen all anti-corruption agencies with necessary capacity, legal framework, resources and political will.

However, NEITI is encouraged that it has continued to receive and enjoy necessary support and from the Federal Government, Legislature, the industry and civil society in carrying out its independent audits, its dissemination and remediation efforts.

This multi-stakeholder’s approach on issues of extractive revenue transparency and accountability is a major requirement of the global initiative.

Finally, NEITI renews its appeal to all Nigerians especially the media and civil society to keep faith with our country on issues that will unite the nation, deepen our democracy to deliver peace, social justice, development and prosperity to all our people.

ZAINAB AHMED
Executive Secretary

Communique Issued at the end of a five-day experience sharing visit to Cameroun ON THE EITI PROCESS Yaounde, Cameroun May 14 and 18, 2012.

Yes….we can!

A five-day working visit on experience sharing between delegates of Civil Society Organisations and Media from Nigeria and their Cameroun counterpart as well as the stakeholders in the EITI process: an exercise that took place between May 14 and 18, 2012. This visit which involved meeting with different officials and stakeholders was to build awareness and support the development of strategies to enhance citizens participation in EITI validation process in Cameroun as well as achieving validation.

The visit was organized by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre on the platform of Publish What You Pay Nigeria, with support from Oxfam.

The visit engaged a variety of EITI Stakeholders drawn from various sectors of the Cameroonian society including EITI Technical Secretariat Coordinator, Publish What You Pay Cameroon, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the Media, and Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) involved in the extractive sector.

In a series of meetings held featured presentations from the Nigerian delegation that led to robust discussions with participants on the EITI process.

OBSERVATIONS

After the series of meetings and discussions, participants and stakeholders made the following observations:

• That there is a need for a law to entrench the EITI process in Cameroon and guarantee the autonomy of the initiative.

• That while CSOs are currently engaging the EITI process in Cameroon, there is a need to strengthen the platform and build the capacity of CSOs for more robust engagement in the process.

• That for the EITI process in Cameroon to have the desired impact of enthroning accountability, empowering the people and translating into better life, mechanisms for communicating the process and ensuring community engagement of the EITI process must be developed.

• That there is the need for the ongoing and current working relationship between CSOs and the Cameroonian EITI Committee to be further strengthened for the purpose of ensuring that the EITI process delivers on its potentials of better management of the extractive sector and resources for the benefit of the Cameroonian people.

• That the current efforts at ensuring the validation of Cameroon as an EITI compliant nation is not being pursued as a national priority that requires the collective efforts of all stakeholders.

• That there is the strong need to build the capacity of the media as a veritable organ to popularizing the EITI initiative in Cameroon

• That there is the need for the capacity of the parliament to build with regards to the EITI process as a veritable means to play their role in entrenching the process in Cameroon

• That there is the need for more interactions between African CSOs within the continent for the purposes of experience sharing

• That development partners are not currently viewing the extractive sector in Cameroon as a priority which deserve the requisite support of civil society organizations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In response to the above observations, stakeholders in the course of the meetings and interactions made the following recommendations:

Cameroonian Government

• The Cameroon Government should take urgent steps to give effect to the EITI process in Cameroun by seeing it as a National priority which must be addressed by working collectively with all the major stakeholders. That beyond the EITI validation, the government should embrace the transparency, accountability and citizens engagement that EITI promotes as a requisite practice of democratic norms and as such entrench these in all its practices
• The government should see the CSOs as partners in progress towards nation building and not as enemies and as such carry them along in its development planning and execution.
• The government should relax the requirements for attaining the status of NGOs so as to accommodate more players with its attendant positive impact of promoting transparency, accountability and popular participation in government.
• The government should develop strategies for engaging the communities in order to ensure the grassroots ownership of the EITI process

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)

• CSOs should work together in reinforcing and strengthening themselves by building common platforms for collective action, advocacy and engagement through collaboration and sharing of expertise and resources for the purpose of greater impact.

• The Civil Society Organisations should increase their awareness and mobilization programs in communities. Such programs should also include educating citizens on their fundamental human rights as well as to demand for accountability from their representatives.

• Considering the technicality in the EITI process, the CSOs should build their capacities on this and other issues of national discourse to be able to engage the government effectively and more constructively.

• While the ongoing CSO and Government working relationship is crucial, CSOs should ensure that their independent platforms do not lose focus so as to play their civic responsibility as societal watchdogs.

• CSOs should target the grassroots so as to ensure that the communities on whose behalf they advocate are not reduced to mere onlookers in the EITI process.
International Community/Development Partners

• Development partners should see the extractive issue in Cameroon as a top priority deserving support especially to the CSOs in the areas of capacity building and institution strengthening.

Signed

Auwal Musa Ibrahim (Rafsanjani) Faith Nwadishi
Executive Director National Coordinator
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) Publish What You Pay Nigeria

Cyrille TIPANE MBARA
Technical Secretary
Publish What You Pay Cameroon