Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, has called for more access to information and data on activities of the various tiers of government.

Chidoka made the call in a statement issued on Saturday in Awka by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Ikechukwu Okafor.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain said the information gap between governments and the people was partly responsible for the country’s development challenges.

He said that youths, especially social media influencers, should deploy their energies towards enriching dialogue between the government and the people by providing policy data and information available to them.

Chidoka advised federal and state governments to emulate Rwanda where budget for the city of Kigali was made public with details of revenue and expenditure for a budget period.

He regretted that no such information could be accessed in the official website of state governments including Anambra.

He said: “In Kigali the city website has information about vacancies, test results with scores and names of those finally chosen.

“The website has information about procurement plans, budget and implementation status, the city masterplan is also online.

“Can we start from today to demand information from our states?

“In Anambra my State there is no information on budget, recruitment, procurement and masterplan.

“A search for 2019 budget on the website brought up issues except budget.

“While we are waiting for the new restructured Nigeria, we have to hold our states and agencies to basic standards of openness.

“Our young educated social media commentators miss the issues and allow false narratives to control the dialogue about National and sub national government activities.

“Anambra State is richer than Kigali yet it is now trending for its failed governance model.”

Update news