Government officials, civil society organisations, and development experts have commended the
impact of the United Kingdom-funded Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn, PERL, programme, which officially concluded on Tuesday after eight years of implementation.
Launched in 2016, PERL has been implemented at the federal, state, and local government levels, aiming to foster collaboration between governments and citizens in addressing governance challenges and improving service delivery.
At the programme's closing event in Abuja, themed "Lasting Legacies: 8 Years of Elevating Governance for a Sustainable Future," Cynthia Rowe, Director at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), assured Nigeria of the UK government's continued support for reform programmes in the country, despite PERL the conclusion of the program.
Reflecting on the programme's achievements, Rowe noted that UK PERL's technical support has empowered partner states to significantly boost their internally generated revenues.
"For instance, one of our partner states achieved an 80% revenue increase between 2019 and 2023. This has had a tangible and positive impact on citizens' lives -- their feedback suggests that the increased revenue has transformed health services in the state, improving Primary Health Care facilities and increasing the number of health workers in communities," she stated.
Rowe further explained that in Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa states, citizen participation in public resource allocation is now standard practice due to this partnership. She also noted that two out of three FCDO focus states were rated as the most transparent by the Nigeria Subnational Budget Transparency Survey and the World Bank's fiscal transparency programme.
During a panel session, former Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, pointed out that the biggest obstacle to reforms in Nigeria is the mindset of citizens, who often resist changes to established ways of doing things.
"The biggest challenge we face in driving reforms is the resistance to change. When people are accustomed to a certain method, they are often unwilling to give new approaches a chance and tend to reject them immediately," she remarked.
Also speaking at the event, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Executive Director of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy, and Development, urged the government to strengthen its social security programmes to lift more Nigerians out of poverty.
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He also said that reforms are challenging in a country where a small elite controls most of the nation's wealth, leaving many citizens with little.
"Social protection programmes must be prioritized, with budgetary allocations directed towards health, education, infrastructure, and agriculture. This is how we can begin to see meaningful changes because the ultimate goal of governance is to deliver essential services to citizens," Igbuzor asserted.
