Government Is Not a Private Estate: How Centre LSD Is Challenging the Culture of Closed Governance

For too long, citizens have been kept at the margins of decisions made in their name and with their money. Through its MacArthur Foundation-supported Open Government Partnership programme, Centre LSD has helped challenge this narrative, creating spaces for citizens' participation, strengthening accountability structures and advancing the demand that government must answer to the people.

By Monday Osasah

There is something deeply wrong when citizens must beg to know what government is doing with their money.

They pay taxes. They endure failing services. They bear the consequences of decisions taken in offices they may never enter. Yet, when they ask how resources are allocated, who receives government contracts or why a promised project remains unfinished, their questions can be treated as an inconvenience.

Public information becomes a privilege. Participation becomes an invitation extended to a few. Accountability becomes something officials promise at election time. This culture has a human cost. Communities receive projects they did not prioritise. Residents struggle to understand budgets prepared in their name. People whose lives are affected by government decisions remain outside the rooms where those decisions are made.

For the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), challenging this relationship has been central to its implementation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The premise is straightforward: government exercises authority on behalf of the people. Public resources belong to the people. Citizens have a right to influence decisions and demand explanations.

Government is not a private estate.

Opening the Doors of Governance

Nigeria joined OGP in 2016, committing government and civil society to jointly develop and implement reforms promoting transparency, accountability and participation.

Centre LSD’s MacArthur-supported intervention began in 2017. Across successive phases, it supported the development and monitoring of national action plans, strengthened civil society participation and encouraged states and local councils to adopt open government practices.

The challenge was to make these commitments matter beyond conference rooms.

Citizens needed information they could understand, institutions they could engage with, and commitments they could follow. Public officials needed to recognise participation as part of their responsibility to govern.

Centre LSD pursued this through advocacy, training, technical assistance, monitoring and sustained engagement with government and civil society.

A Reform Footprint across Nigeria

The programme’s expanding reach reflected the spread of open government across different political and administrative environments.

The 27-state adoption footprint reported in 2024 comprised Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara.

Within this broader movement, Centre LSD helped secure commitments, build capacity, establish administrative structures and support action-plan development. The work involved government institutions, civil society networks and other development partners.

The experiences were uneven. Some states advanced implementation; others required renewed engagement after losing momentum. Each stage matters, but adoption must ultimately produce changes citizens can experience.

Strengthening the Citizens’ Side of the Table

One early success was Centre LSD’s support for the Nigeria Open Alliance, the civil society platform engaging the OGP process.

The Alliance faced financial constraints that limited meetings and participation. Centre LSD supported consultations, coordination, advocacy, regional training, newsletters, and secretariat capacity. Its published success account records membership reaching 270 organisations by October 2018.

A stronger Alliance meant more organisations could contribute to reform discussions and scrutinise implementation. It also helped extend engagement beyond Abuja.

Centre LSD complemented this with reviews of laws relevant to transparency and anti-corruption, working with the Federal Ministry of Justice and other organisations. A roundtable convened with the National Orientation Agency created space to discuss the findings.

The independent OGP assessment recognised the collaborative review while recording that legislative changes had not yet followed at that stage.

The lesson was clear: opening a conversation is valuable. Changing institutional practice requires persistence.

Northwest: From State Commitments to Local Accountability

Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina formed the Northwest’s adoption footprint within the reported 27-state account.

Kaduna South provided a significant example of taking the reform closer to residents. Centre LSD supported its Local Action Plan, while earlier programme records captured letters of intent from 21 other Kaduna councils.

That interest pointed towards a wider demand for accountability at the third tier of government.

In Sokoto, Centre LSD provided hands-on support for action-plan development and administrative structures. In Katsina, advocacy helped secure a letter of intent; the national OGP register subsequently recorded the state’s sign-up in 2024.

Jigawa’s continuing engagement is reflected in the register’s record of work towards a third State Action Plan.

Kano, Kebbi and Zamfara also adopted the framework. Their inclusion widened the geographical reach of the movement, although adoption alone cannot establish that reforms were fully implemented.

The regional experience demonstrates why follow-up matters. Citizens need functioning institutions long after the signing ceremony ends.

Northeast: Reviving Reform and Building Ownership

In the Northeast, the reported footprint included Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba.

Taraba’s experience illustrates the danger of allowing reform to lose momentum. Earlier project records described a process stalled for five years. Centre LSD’s mentoring helped revive engagement, reconstitute working groups and renew attention to action-plan development.

In Gombe, the Centre supported OGP structures and transparency initiatives. Project records documented procurement information tools, including a website, dashboard and contractors’ portal.

Its published success account also recorded civil society representation in the state’s Fiscal Responsibility Commission.

That representation created an opportunity for civil society to participate within a formal accountability institution.

Bauchi was among the states supported to adopt OGP, while Adamawa’s experience demonstrated the importance of continued collaboration.

Centre LSD’s success account identifies follow-on engagement by partners, including Oxfam and USAID’s State2State, in Taraba and Adamawa.

These stories show that institutional change depends on continuity. Advocacy can open the door; sustained partnerships help keep it open.

North Central: Rebuilding Channels for Participation

Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi and Plateau featured in the North Central footprint.

Earlier programme records captured Centre LSD’s support for restructuring Niger’s OGP Steering Committee and reviving engagement in Nasarawa.

These interventions addressed a recurring problem: commitments can remain in official documents while the structures responsible for implementation become inactive.

Kogi received direct technical support for action-plan development and administrative arrangements.

Plateau’s progression included participation in the global OGP Local programme, while the national register provides links to action plans for both Plateau and Kogi.

These developments created platforms for collaboration and public engagement. Their continuing value depends on implementation, monitoring and responsiveness to citizens.

Southwest: Making Budgets More Visible

The Southwest footprint comprised Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo and Osun.

Ekiti offers a measurable example of progress within the wider reform environment. The state government reported that Ekiti rose from 24th to fourth position in the 2020 Nigerian States Budget Transparency Survey.

At the associated OGP engagement, officials highlighted renewed practices and civil society participation, while Centre LSD called for collaboration to strengthen implementation and public trust.

The improvement involved several actors and should be understood as a shared achievement. It nevertheless illustrates the practical importance of making public budgeting more open.

Centre LSD’s engagement also secured gubernatorial support for extending OGP to Ekiti’s local governments.

In Ondo, stakeholders at the Centre’s Southwest regional meeting described experience with citizen budgeting and digital information management.

The Akure meeting brought Ekiti, Ondo and Osun together to compare progress and challenges.

Oyo was among the states supported to adopt the framework. Osun’s later entry broadened the regional footprint, with the national register recording its sign-up in 2024 and providing access to its action plan.

Southeast: A Regional Commitment That Needs Sustained Action

All five Southeast states, including Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, appeared in the adoption footprint.

This represented an important regional opening for government–civil society collaboration.

Ebonyi’s experience included engagement around improving service delivery, while the wider process created opportunities to discuss public priorities and accountability.

However, the region also demonstrates why a feature on impact must acknowledge unfinished work. Centre LSD’s project account identified stalled implementation in Abia and Anambra, among other states.

The task is to sustain participation through political transitions, renew action plans and keep administrative structures working.

A commitment to openness carries a continuing obligation. Citizens should not lose their place in governance because an administration changes or a programme slows down.

South South: Delta’s Budget Line and the Question of Sustainability

Within the reported footprint, the South-South states were Cross River, Delta and Edo.

Delta provided an important institutional development: a dedicated budget line for OGP implementation. Some participating states made similar provisions.

This matters because commitments require resources. Citizens must be engaged, meetings convened, action plans implemented and progress monitored.

A budget line brings these responsibilities into government’s own financing arrangements.

For Delta, it represented a concrete step towards ownership beyond donor-supported activities.

It also created a new accountability question. How much was allocated? What was released? What activities were financed? What did citizens gain?

Cross River and Edo’s adoption similarly created a basis for engagement. The continuing challenge is to translate those commitments into sustained implementation and accessible public information.

Open government must eventually become part of how institutions operate and finance their responsibilities.

Abaji and the FCT: Bringing Governance into the Wards

Centre LSD’s local work also reached Abaji, Gwagwalada and Kwali Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory.

In Abaji, programme records captured town halls across all ten wards and support for Local Action Plan development. Residents had opportunities to bring community concerns into discussions about council commitments.

OGP’s international platform highlighted the Centre’s Abaji action-plan workshop. It also featured Centre LSD’s collaboration with DEAN Initiative on citizen participation in FCT council budget processes.

For a resident, the meaning of participation is practical: can the council hear a need, include it in planning, and explain what happened afterwards?

A town hall gains value when citizens can follow the commitments made there.

Ensuring Openness Reaches the Excluded

Centre LSD supported grassroots partners through microgrants, including DEAN Initiative, IRIAD, and Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution.

These partnerships helped extend engagement to women, young people and persons with disabilities.

Through IRIAD, the programme also supported young people’s engagement with the Open National Assembly initiative.

This addressed a fundamental concern: participation can reproduce inequality if only those with existing access and influence are heard.

The quality of open government must be judged by whose concerns enter public decisions.

Taking Nigerian Experience to International Platforms

The programme connected domestic reform with international learning.

Records captured Centre LSD’s participation in the 2025 OGP Africa and Middle East Regional Meeting in Nairobi and the Global Summit in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

The official events took place on 25–27 March and 7–9 October, respectively.

These engagements provided opportunities to exchange experience, build relationships and examine approaches to transparency and participation.

Their value rests on bringing useful learning back into the institutions and communities where reform is needed.

The People Must Be Able to Ask, and Receive Answers

The story across these states is one of progress, interruption and renewed effort.

Centre LSD helped strengthen a national civil society coalition, support state adoption, revive structures, develop action plans, expand local participation, and encourage government ownership.

Delta’s budget provision, Gombe’s institutional inclusion, Taraba’s revival, Ekiti’s budget transparency progress and Kaduna South’s local engagement illustrate different dimensions of change.

But no honest account should present every sign-up as a completed success.

Government must implement. Institutions must remain active. Information must be usable. Citizens must receive responses.

A government that collects from citizens must account to them. A government that makes commitments must explain its performance. A government that claims to serve the people must make room for their voices.

Public office is held in trust. The people have a right to know what is being done in their name, and the power to influence what happens next.

Monday Osasah is the Executive Director of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), Abuja.