By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The CS-Legislature Engagement & Accountability Platform (CLEAP) was established to serve as a link towards ensuring improved service delivery.
CLEAP’s Yusuf Ishaku Goje disclosed this, at the two-day session, organised by the Partnership to Engage, Reform & Learn (PERL-ECP), which supported CLEAP, in Zaria from September 11 to 12, 2023.
“The establishment of CLEAP is a child-of necessity to build and
strengthen the linkage between horizontal and diagonal actors to
champion social accountability towards improved quality of service
delivery and living standard for residents in Kaduna State
“The platform seeks to bring together legislators, Assernbly Staff, civil society, media and development partners through a permanent dialogue platform to build a community of practice that leverage the legislative mandate and process to engage the executive with focus on social accountability in the areas of development plan, sector
implementation plan, policies, reforms, budgets, procurement
service delivery and monitoring, evaluation and audit processes,” he said.
According to Goje, objectives of CLEAP include promoting Open Government Partnership (0GP) principles and practices in the legislative processes to enable more openness and participation and engagement and effective citzens.
“Facilitate platforms for dialogue and partnership between the legislators and civil society to enable more effective horizontal and diagonal accountability
Increase interaction between
constituents to strengthen the legislative process and
legislators and strengthen and deepen the culture of open government through law-making. oversight and evaluation,” he added.
According to him, the legislature is at the heart of democracy.
“The representation that the legislative arm provides is
an expression of the peoples’ sovereignty.
“The primary role of the legislature – in terms of representation, law-making and oversight of the executive arm – is central to good governance, law and order,” he explained.
He said however, the continuous inability of representative democracy to effectively meet the expectations of the people has increased demand for direct citizens’ participation.
