TMG Organises Dialogue Session on Citizens Charter of Demand, Set Agenda for Elections

By Jide Afolabi, Abuja

The Centre for Civic Education popularly known as Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, has organised a Two-Day Dialogue Session on Citizens Charter of Demand and Agenda Setting for Elections in Nigeria for its members.

The programme held on Thursday and Friday at Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja, the nation’s capital brought together members of the group from the North Central region and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory was supported by the UKaid.

In her welcome presentation and agenda setting for the programme, the Chairperson of the group, Dr Abiola Akiyode Afolabi made remarks on the contentious primary elections held by various political parties as the nation prepares for 2019 general elections. She noted that TMG was broadening its focus beyond election management to other development programmes.

She said that the goal of the dialogue session was to improve citizens engagement and the outcome was to draft Charter of Demand and strategy document towards the people’s charter.

In his opening remarks, the Consultant of Partnership to Engage, Reform and Lear, PERL, Dr Otive Igbuzor said that PERL has three pillars which are Accountable, Responsive and Capable, ARC; Engage Citizens Pillar, ECP; and Learning, Evidencing and Advocacy Partnership, LEAP.

He said that the approach was to follow the electoral cycle which involves pre-election, during the election, transition and post-election. The North Central Coordinator and other Board members of the group also gave their remarks.

During the presentation, State Coordinators give State Political Economy Situation: Opportunities, Threats and the Implications for 2019 Elections in each state. The Chairperson of the group later gave a presentation on Mobilising and Advocating for Transformative Change in Nigeria – Building a Sustainable People’s Charter Movement: Setting Agenda for 2019 and Beyond.

While analysing political economy of each state, the states were grouped for discussions and draft of State Specific Charter of Demands using the adopted templates and later made their presentations.

Mr Abdiel Kude also made a presentation on Mobilising around the Charter of Demand, Key Advocacy Tips. After questions and answers session, participants were again grouped to draft their states final action plan which was later presented.

At the end of the dialogue, participants resolved to actively engage the system in their various states.