Peer review gets underway

Lagos-- Consultations are being made with various stakeholders to ensure that the process is a success. To this end, 10 technical research institutions have been mandated to spearhead the self-assessment process by examining the good governance initiatives in the country. The institutions are the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) and the African Leadership Forum (ALF). Others include the Institute of Governance and Social Research (IGSR) Jos, Centre for Advanced Social Science (CASS), Port Harcourt, and Centre for Democratic Research and Training (CDRT) Bayero University, Kano.
Others are the NISER, Shehu Shagari World Institute, Sokoto; Centre for Public-Private Cooperation (CPPC), Ibadan and Institute for Development Research (IDR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on NEPAD (External), Ambassador Isaac Aluko-Olokun, revealed this in a statement in Abuja on 21 September at the end of a one-day stakeholders' consultative workshop at the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF), Ota in Ogun state, Western Nigeria.
Aluko-Olokun said the consultation which is one of the cardinal principles of the APRM process, was designed to ``elicit the input of all stakeholders towards the preparation of a report on national experiences in the implementation of APRM in Nigeria''.
Nigeria's Country Report is expected to be presented at the 6th Africa Governance Forum scheduled to hold in Kigali, Rwanda, in November this year. Aluko-Olokun, who is also the national Coordinator of the APRM, said the consultative workshop considered the opportunities accruable from the APRM in terms of enhancing good governance in the country, and called for the active involvement of all stakeholders including public and private sectors, civil society and political parties in the process.

Nigeria along with 25 other countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Algeria and South Africa, has since acceded to the APR mechanism just as she has embraced liberal democracy as the best form of government.
It therefore becomes a necessity that multi-stakeholder understanding and consensus on the nature and indeed of the operationalisation of the APR process be sought at the National level, as the real acid test will come with the implementation of the Peer reviews.

Analysts argue that political peer review is difficult matter and one may not be too sure of the level of success the review will generate but the centrality of peer review as a catalyst for development and acceleration is not in doubt.
As a response, the Africa Leadership Forum and the Centre for Democracy and Development early in 2005 organised a series of sensitisation workshops for civil society stakeholders in the geo-political regions of Nigeria.
The outcomes of the meeting revealed a stringent need for a series of technical workshops for different segments of society covering both state and non-state actors, at the national as well as the state levels, explaining in clearer details roles and responsibilities of different segments of society in the review process and creating a sustainable basis for the review.
The main objective of the project are to create a conducive environment for monitoring governance and the implementation of the APR process in Nigeria and also to ensure effective domestication and integration of the APR process into national governance process, while linking the same within the National Economic and Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) framework.
As part of the process, a three-day technical workshop involving the National Working Group of APRM, the Steering Committee of the APRM and representatives of the Terminal Research Institute is also scheduled to hold in Ota later this month.
The workshop is a follow-up to the six sensitisation workshops organised for stakeholders in the six political regions of Nigeria. It will seek to redefine the role of stakeholders in the implementation process based on the lessons learned in the countries that are far ahead of Nigeria in the implementation for the APR process, (Rwanda and Ghana).
APRM is a self assessment instrument designed to ensure that the policies and practices of participating states conform to the agreed principles and standards of NEPAD. The participating countries agree to an external review every three years to assess how well they are fulfilling Democracy and Political Governance Initiative obligations.
Addressed in the APRM are conditions for sustainable development, among them peace and security, good economic, political and corporate governance.