Kaduna Civic Space Under Spotlight as PIA Project Seeks Citizens’ Greater Influence
By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
Stakeholders in Kaduna State have commenced a major assessment of the state’s civic space, with a new initiative seeking to determine why many citizens remain disconnected from decisions that directly affect their lives.
The assessment is being undertaken under the People, Influence and Action (PIA) Project, launched in Kaduna through an inception meeting organised by the Tax Justice and Governance Platform (TJ&GP), Kaduna, in partnership with BEACON and supported by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
The project is designed to move community concerns beyond meetings and consultations by documenting barriers to participation and identifying practical pathways through which citizens can influence government decisions.
Speaking at the meeting on Monday, TJ&GP Kaduna State Coordinator, Simeon Olatunde, said the initiative followed growing concerns that civic participation was becoming increasingly restricted and concentrated among a familiar group of participants.
Olatunde said civil society organisations had traditionally focused much of their engagement on taxation and budgeting, but emerging research showed that the wider civic space required urgent attention.
He said another concern was the increasingly strained relationship between citizens and government, which had left some people overly cautious about expressing their views on public issues.
According to him, the PIA project would seek to understand who has influence, who is excluded, why they are excluded and how community priorities can reach the institutions responsible for public decisions.
“This programme is about ensuring that we expand, strengthen and protect the civic space we have today,” Olatunde said.
He said the project would pay particular attention to poor and vulnerable groups, women, youths, children and persons with disabilities whose voices are often missing from policy and decision-making processes.
The Kaduna engagement is expected to generate evidence on civic space, exclusion, power relations, rights, participation barriers, threats and opportunities across government, civil society, communities, religious institutions and informal economic groups.
It will also examine how gender, age, disability, livelihood, faith, location and socioeconomic status affect citizens’ ability to access services, make their voices heard and influence public decisions.
Representing the Kaduna State Ministry of Women Affairs, Mercy Madaki welcomed the initiative and called for knowledge generated from the engagement to be translated into practical action in communities.
The Kaduna State Disabilities Affairs Board also pledged to partner with the project, while commending the organisers for incorporating accessibility considerations into the meeting.
Representing traditional institutions, Alhaji Garba Danlami Umar, Garkuwa of Sabon-Gari, said traditional leaders could provide a critical link between government and communities because of their proximity to grassroots concerns.
He urged the organisers to sustain the process beyond the inception meeting to ensure that community voices are continuously captured and followed through.
The project will culminate in a Kaduna Context and Actor Analysis, providing evidence on the state’s civic environment and the relationships among key actors.
It will also identify safe, accessible channels for information, feedback and complaints, forming part of a community accountability mechanism intended to strengthen citizens’ engagement with government.
The Kaduna initiative is part of the broader “People in Action” programme being implemented across several African countries, with Nigeria adopting the local “People, Influence and Action” identity.
Olatunde said the findings from Kaduna would feed into national and regional processes aimed at developing a broader position on strengthening civic participation and citizen influence across Nigeria and Africa.
