APRM Hails Nigeria

(Afriquenligne)—The Country Review Team (CRT) of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has lauded Nigeria’s self-assessment report, which is expected to be validated by the CRT ahead of the peer review of Nigeria in July.

"Nigeria’s self-assessment report surpasses all other assessment reports we have received so far,’’ said the leader of the CRT, Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat, during the launch of the Nigeria Country Mission of the APRM by President Umaru Yar’Adua in the capital city of Abuja Tuesday.

Kiplagat said the review was ‘’thoroughly done’’ by the institutions charged with it, and that the coverage was extensive, covering up to 22,000 households.

``It has been done according to the requirements of the (CRT) panel members, and we are satisfied that apart from the (70 million) copies being circulated; it has been translated into some local languages. No other country has done that before,’’ he told journalists.

President Yar’Adua had told the CRT members that Nigeria was ready to "adjust in areas the review may find us lacking, while we would continue to do those things that are right for our citizens’’.

He also expressed the country’s full commitment to the APRM, ‘’because it will enable us to serve our people better, ensure democratisation, good governance and optimum utilisation of national resources’’.

Yar’Adua extolled the APRM - an instrument voluntarily acceded to by AU member states as an African self-monitoring mechanism - as one of the most important instruments to help Africa fast-track the development of the continent.

The CRT team is expected to spend one month in Nigeria, after which the country will be peer reviewed by the AU heads of state and government during its July meeting.

The Country Review Team includes Graca Machel, former First Lady of Mozambique and wife of the former South African President Nelson Mandela, and former Sierra Leone’s President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

The external validation of the Nigeria’s self-assessment process will culminate in the production of the Country Self-Assessment Report and National Programme of Action.

The two documents underwent nationwide validation in November/December 2007, and were endorsed by the APRM national working group and the Federal Executive Council 28 December 2007 and 9 January 2008.

The APRM, a programme of the AU, is designed to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practice.

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