TheCable

As part of measures to fill observed gaps in citizen engagement occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, OrderPaper Nigeria has designed a virtual platform for convening conversations between representatives in parliament and citizens.

The platform, entitled OPEN – Online Parliamentary Engagement Nigeria – is a specially-created window to bridge the gap between citizens and the national assembly, as well as state houses of assembly in the country.

A statement by Oke Epia, executive director of OrderPaper, noted that the initiative is a response to the need to “allow increased citizen engagement with the legislative arm of government with regards especially to the consideration and passage of bills and constituency interfaces.”

“The OPEN series has found a vital usefulness in filling the gap of citizen engagement that in the Covid-19 era where parliaments across the world are struggling to keep their doors open for business, with the consequence of closing spaces for public engagements becoming an inevitable corollary,” the statement added.

OPEN Series, the organisation said, will be implemented as webinars and meet-ups hosted on appropriate virtual platforms as “a series of online engagements whereby lawmakers and the legislative institution will have a window to reach out to constituents and citizens generally and through which the latter can demand and receive participation in lawmaking.”

The first in the OPEN Series will hold on Monday, May 18, 2020 on Zoom and will feature, Akin Alabi, chairman, committee on inter-governmental affairs of the house of representatives, and Nimah Arigbabu, a public policy expert.