Monitoring of activities of State Houses of Assembly for transparency and accountability in four states will soon commence.
Young activists and content creators in the states have been empowered to live-tweet and live-stream activities from parliaments in the states.
Founder Connected Development (CODE), Hamzat Lawal, who made the submission while speaking with newsmen in Abuja said the initiative was launched by Open Parley Magamba Network Zimbabwe.
“Leveraging eight years of experience working in youth engagement and social accountability, Connected Development (CODE) in partnership with Magamba Network, Zimbabwe’s leading creative & digital media organisation, has launched an initiative to mobilise youth to influence and to promote transparency and accountability of state governments.
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Both organisations will mobilise youth civic activist networks to monitor State House of Assemblies’ performance.
“Over the years, reports have pointed to several factors hindering the promotion of public good and effective service delivery in the country; including a lack of accountability and transparency in all levels of governance – resulting in redundant institutions and ineffective leadership. Fundamentally, citizens and the media (regarded as the fourth estate) are strategically left in the blind and frustrated with bureaucracy to prevent holding the government (at any level) to account.
“The new Open Party Nigeria project, supported by National Endowment for Democracy (NED), plans to close the information gap between state governments and young citizens.”
“The project will also provide capacity strengthening to the parliament and all the states CODE is working in. Open Party is a groundbreaking initiative launched by Magamba Network in Zimbabwe in 2015. The project empowers young content creators, to tweet live and live-stream from parliaments and break complex bills in order to engage young people in national political processes.