Citizen Engagement with Open DataEvidence from media monitoring in the ODDC case study-

“Investigation of the Use of the Online National Budget of Nigeria”

BY

ODDC Research team: (University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria)

Dr. Omenogo Veronica MEJABI;Dr. Adesina L. AZEEZ;

Mr. Adeyinka ADEDOYIN; andMr. Muhtahir O. OLOYEDE

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The funding for this work has been provided through the World Wide Web Foundation 'Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries' research project, supported by grant 107075 from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (web.idrc.ca).Find out more at: www.opendataresearch.org/emergingimpacts

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Research goalsThe study attempts to determine:

– how the public engage in the discussions of the national budget because public awareness of the available data is unclear

– the degree of awareness of open data– potential of open data to drive good governance– identify the intermediaries in the flow of budget

information– identify challenges to effective use of such open

budget data.

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Budget Office website

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MethodologyA range of approaches, including:• Institutional survey (in progress)

– incl. respondents from the Budget Office and Ministry of Finance

• Stakeholder survey (in progress)– survey & in-depth interview: journalists, Key persons

in NGOs, online networkers, professionals, visible budget analysts

• Media analysis (concluding)– newspapers (from 2009 – 2013)– online social networks (around the 2013 budget)

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The Major Approach to Media AnalysisAnalysis of content published in Newspapers in Nigeria

- 6 Nigerian national Newspapers selected using the criteria of circulation, readership status, and geographical location

- Daily Trust, The Guardian, The Punch, This Day, The Nation, Tribune.

- all newspaper editions from December of the preceding year to May of the following year (6 months)

- extracting news items on the annual budgets of Nigeria from 2009 to 2013 (5 years)

Analysis of discourse around key search phrases on Online Social Networking sites – Facebook & Twitter

- extracting discourse on the 2012 & 2013 annual budgets of Nigeria

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Preliminary Findings – Newspaper Analysis

• Analysed newspapers

have average page

number’s of:

– This Day (60)

– The Guardian (72)

– Daily Trust (60)

– Tribune (56)

– The Punch (72)

– The Nation (64)

• Data from The Nation

is still being collated.

Total editions scanned so far:

This Day (714), The Guardian (869), Daily Trust (702), The Punch (961), Tribune (613)

This Day The Guardian Daily Trust The Punch Tribune0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

51%

45%

39% 38%36%

Proportion (%) of Analysed Newspapers with story items re-lated to Nigeria's budget is 50% or less

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Assumed or established sources for the news items

SOURCENo. of

stories %

Top Government Officials 1,040 44.20

National Assembly 467 19.85

Others 350 14.87

Non-governmental sources 238 10.11

Government Spokespersons 94 3.99

Minister of Finance 73 3.10

Budget Office 51 2.17

Ministry of Finance Officials 40 1.70

Total 2353 100.00

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68% News stories

9% Features

5% Opinions

4% News commentaries

14% Others

Relevant news items

Capital projects/exp.

Fiscal policies in the budget

Exp. Dev. & Revision

Recurrent exp.

Others

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Themes

41% Inside page minor

40% Inside page major

7% Front page minor

6% Front page major

6% Others

Prominence Other categories Results•Direction of stories Informing (36%)

Critical (27%)

Favourable (22%)

•Tone of the stories Moderate (51%)

Soft (35%)

Harsh (13%)

•Quality of the reports Comprehensive (53%)

Scanty (30%)

Expert analysis (16%)More from Newspapers

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Preliminary Findings – Social Media

• Twitter: Criticism of sectoral

allocations in the budget– Our great country spent only 3.2% of

its national budget on health at the federal level in 2010. Of this, 83% was spent on paying salaries! - EiE Nigeria(@EiENigeria)

– A country that spends 5% of its budget on education and 30% on security is doomed. But common sense isn't so common. #publicaffairs - VEEG Communications (@VEEGGroup)

– Shocking: 23 per cent of National Budget Spent on Salaries/Allowances of 18,000 Top Government Officials... http://fb.me/1chL7vb8g - Information Nigeria(@infonaija)

• Facebook: Distrust of govt, to

implement the budgetPrompter – Announcement of 2013 budget

presentation by Dr Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of

Finance attracted 210 Likes

Comments:  

- Budget is well planned,it requires sincere

implementaction & God's approval. -

Nwabam Ugochukwu Goodluck

- ds may be bugdet of hope,if implimented.-

Adeniyi Olusegun Godwin

- Well presented.This is paper work.Nigerians

are expecting the action part of it.-Paul

Owojori Olugbenga 

Search phrase: Nigeria 2012, or 2013 budget

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Implication of findings …1

• Less than 10% of the assumed or established sources for the news items in newspapers can be attributed to non-governmental sources.

• Less than 10% of the stories made the major front page news with majority of the stories carrying a soft/moderate tone.

• This is surprising. Given the hue and cry about corruption and lack of good governance, availability of the budget as open data should have generated more reactions from citizens outside of government.

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Implication of findings … (contd.)2• The study examined the discourse on social networking sites

because social media are the most uncensored public domains for discussion of governance and public issues.

• Analysis of extracts from social media showed criticism of sectoral allocations in the budget and distrust of government to implement the budget.

• Civil society/non-governmental organisations such as Budgit (@budgitng), EiE Nigeria( ), @EiENigeria VEEGCommunications ( ), @VEEGGroup Information

(Nigeria @infonaija) were active contributors to social media discourse.

• The analysis also revealed an emerging call for full disclosure on the various data sources during the process of National budgeting.

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Implication of findings … (contd.)3• Groups such as Budgit (www.yourbudgit.com),

Resourcedat (www.resourcedat.com), EiE Nigeria (http://EiENigeria.org) and Citizens Wealth Forum (identified from the newspaper analysis) now provide simplified versions of the published budget with the aim of helping citizens understand the contents of the budget and hold Government officials and politicians accountable for non-implementation.

• Social media content shows evidence of citizen engagement with the budget data of Nigeria but reveals the discussion is limited to a few individuals and NGOs.

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Some conclusions…

• From the preliminary findings we conclude that citizen engagement with the open budget data of Nigeria is still at its early stages.

• The open budget data is not presented in the best possible way.

• Intermediaries are involved in repackaging the budget data but the impact at the grassroots is unclear.

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Recommendations…• Civil society has a role to play in:

(i) creating awareness amongst Nigerian citizens(ii) building capacity of journalists (especially the niche of

data journalism) in data analysis to take better advantage of availability of open data.

• Advantage should be taken of the open data value chain in order to ensure sustainability of intermediary operations.

• The open budget data & indeed any open government data should not be released as PDF files, but instead as CSV, Excel, etc., files and with copyright attributions for openness.

• The data should have devoted web pages, properly tagged, & show the different data sets in the budgeting through to the expenditure/contracts processes.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the mentoring from our Peer Supporter:

Dr. Maurice McNaughtonUniversity of the West Indies,

Kingston, Jamaica

THANK YOU

In addition to acknowledging the funding for this work, we appreciate the research support from the ODDC team at the World Wide Web Foundation.