The Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) Dr. Salihu Moh Lukman has called for more collaborations between the government and civil society organizations.
The PGF Director-General noted that most of these organizations are working to improve the welfare of the citizens and should be seen as partners in progress by the government.
He made the call in a statement on Monday titled ‘Civil Society and Nigeria’s democratic development’ in which he emphasized the need to develop the relationship between CSOs and the government.
Lukman also challenged his party, the All Progressives Congress as well as political leaders in the country to facilitate how the government and the CSOs can have a better working relationship which will impact the lives of the citizens.
The statement which noted that his call is in line with international best practices reads: “In many respects, the thesis of victimhood as a political strategy to attract patronage or preferential access to support by foreigners who have basically nothing to lose if Nigeria is bad, is the dominant orientation of civil society in Nigeria.
“It could be debated if without the risk of losing anything, foreign support can come with any superior commitment to Nigeria’s democratic development.
“A rational assessment will suggest that commitment of foreign organizations and governments would need to be balanced with corresponding support to push Nigerian government to strengthen engagement with civil society.
“To be fair to most of the foreign organizations and governments providing support to Nigerian civil society groups, there is evidence of support to government as well. Whether the support is balanced such that it is facilitating improved relationships between Nigerian government and civil society is completely a different matter.
“May be, as part of the strategic goal of pushing most of these foreign organisations and governments to support Nigerian civil society to overcome current victimhood mindset, an appeal needs to be made to these foreign organizations and governments to also ensure that support to both Nigerian government and civil society include initiatives to negotiate improved relationship between Nigerian government and civil society.
“Collaboration between government and civil society, if structured and organized and the independence of civil society groups are guaranteed, could facilitate strengthened engagement between Nigerian government and citizens and will be an important requirement for the development of Nigerian democracy.
“How can political initiatives to negotiate improved relationship between Nigerian government and civil society organization be introduced? As a party founded on the vision of change, there is no reason APC should not prioritise development of initiatives towards improved relations with Nigerian civil society.
“Developing improved relations with Nigerian civil society should be part of the strategic goal of developing Nigeria’s democracy and ensuring that Nigerian politics is being refined and new democratic frontiers, which should promote engagement between Nigerian government and citizens are created.
“Inability to refine Nigerian politics and create new democratic frontiers would continue to legitimize the mindset of opposition to Nigerian government by civil society.”
He noted further in the statement that all stakeholders including relevant government agencies must work together to ensure actualization.
“Political leaders in the country should be encouraged to develop a more positive disposition towards civil society in the country. To achieve that, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should be able to provide leadership in initiating and implementing activities to facilitate negotiations for improved relationship between Nigerian government and civil society.
“Part of the objective should also be to enhance processes of political leadership recruitment in the country, which are hardly planned and largely impulsive. This can be achieved if political parties in Nigeria broaden membership mobilization to include engagement with Nigerian civil society as a strategy for leadership recruitment?
“Improved relationship between the Nigerian government and civil society groups can be designed to reorient civil society to return to being membership based with high measure of democratic control by the members.
“Being democratically controlled by members should mean that activities of Nigerian civil society organizations accommodate the priority needs of Nigerians. This should translate to high impact on levels of welfare of citizens from activities of Nigerian civil society. Capacity for policy engagement will be high,” the statement further read.
This article was originally published on Naija News