An Activist Turned Governor on Partnership—and a New Transparency Portal
This piece is excerpted from remarks delivered during a roundtable on local governance at the Open Government Partnership Summit, a global gathering held this October in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the Basque Capital.
Kaduna State is home to over 10 million citizens, and we are shaping the future of Open Government by pursuing an Agenda that aligns with the Open Government Partnership through the Nurturing Citizens Engagement pillar in our SUSTAIN Manifesto. Just so you know, before I entered active Politics, I was a civil rights activist for so many years, after graduating as an engineer. I was one of many others who fought for the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria.
As the Governor of Kaduna State, I’ve led by example and sacrificed 50% of my salary to a special Trust Fund for the benefit of the poor, underserved, and vulnerable people in the state. I signed an executive order on financial inclusion, and today, we have assisted over 2.5 million poor and vulnerable citizens of Kaduna State to open bank accounts. This integrated the poor, underserved and vulnerable in Kaduna State into the financial ecosystem to benefit from the State and Federal Governments' social investment programmes, as well as donor agencies' interventions.
Participation and rural transformation constitute the main policy thrust of our administration. We have executed many infrastructure projects in the areas of Education, Health, Agriculture and rural roads to connect rural dwellers to markets and opportunities to directly impact rural livelihoods.
We have also institutionalised and expanded participation through the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) of CoST Infrastructure Transparency Initiative which increased participation of players from the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Contractors Association.
During an international side event at this summit, we unveiled the first sub-national Infrastructure Transparency Portal. This portal will also be officially launched in Kaduna State, Nigeria, upon our return. Within two days, we’ve published over 1000 projects on www.ipdata.kdsg.gov.ng, the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS) and Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) from across eleven (11) Infrastructure procuring MDAs with support from CoST Infrastructure Transparency UK, who are very strong partners of OGP. The dashboard, by desig,n leverages Artificial Intelligence to analyse data and provide insights for Government to address inefficiencies, mismanagement and corruption in the procurement process, empowers CSOs to use data for advocacy and provides data for private sector in real time to bid for contracts without knowing anyone.
We provided free housing for displaced persons, free CNG bus transport for low-income families, to prove that open government isn’t just about policies—it’s about people. The enabling environment to hold Government accountable supported the Civil Society to collaboratively develop the first sub-national Participatory Audit framework, Community Engagement Framework for climate related shock responsive social protection and the Youth Engagement Power plan to institutionalize an accountability system across the Audit cycle, Climate Change and Youth Engagement.
Next, we are expanding open government, and our OGP agenda, to local governments. We have with us the Chairman of Kaduna South Local Government, who is the Head of Government for one of the metropolitan Local Governments made up of over 1.3 million people. The Local Government Association inaugurated its OGP Steering Committee and have developed its first action plan that focuses on service delivery in the health sector.
We are also working regionally, having established and driven the Open Government Partnership Northwest Regional Network, which is made up of seven states, and is modelled after a network in the Africa MENA region.
Open government helps us address complex interrelated challenges of Governance and climate Change that requires active participation and collaboration of all segments of society. This helps us identify Governance and Climate-related blockages that hinder effective service delivery in our dear state.
As the Governor of Kaduna State, I join fellow leaders in advocating for the revitalization and increased funding of the OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund, which supports World Bank client countries and local entities. I urge other multilateral donors to establish similar innovative financing mechanisms to strengthen open governance. Such mechanisms, co-created by governments and civil society, have demonstrated significant impact through the effective use of allocated funds, driving transformative results in transparent and inclusive governance.
Thank you for listening. Kaduna is ready to lead, ready to learn, and ready to partner. Let’s make democracy real—together.
