The Nigerian government has reportedly refused to join tow US anti-corruption initiatives, despite claims from the Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that corruption is being tackled in the country.
According to Premium Times, Nigerian government officials led by Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs rose from the U.S.-Nigeria Bi-National Commission (BNC) meeting on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 without agreeing to be members of the US-led Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the Partnership on Illicit Finance (PIF).
According to the report, African countries like Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mauritius, Liberia, Niger, and Senegal have joined either of the two organizations which are multilateral initiatives that require policy and technology-backed anti-corruption framework in member countries.
Members of OGP are required to develop action plans that elaborate their commitment to defined standards of government integrity, citizen participation, corporate accountability, public safety and effective management of public resources, all of which are to be overseen and verified by a multi-stakeholder international steering committee of governments and leading civil society representatives while PIF is an outcome of the historic U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit which was attended by Nigeria and 50 other countries.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, assistant secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs called on Nigeria to “join the growing global community that is using OGP and PIF to strengthen transparency, accountability, and good governance.”
