I have not less than twenty-three years’ experience as a civil society actor with a human rights background working for Amnesty International and later with a stint in CAFOD. I have been in the mainstream development sector since 2002 while I have been involved in conducting training and implementing projects in the area of advocacy for over a decade and a half. The development process should be viewed holistically, both theoretical and practice, without which there will be no results for accountability.  There is a nexus between town and gown – the latter representing academic and former society – facilitating sustainable development. The civil society actors often tap from the resources of the academia in terms of theoretical exercise and research leverage to strengthen their advocacy development work while the academia relies on civil society for joint actions to achieve the very essence of the objective of producing the manpower need of a nation. Therefore, the development of a nation hinges on both theoretical and practical approach. In this regard, we have implemented result-oriented projects in conjunction with academia either in practice or in theory. Few among these are Irregular migration –Filling the information gaps; “Think Tank Group” on achieving sustainable development; CSOs’ capacity building on engaging the political leadership on mainstreaming SDGs into national plans and programmes; Civil Society Handbook on Advocacy, to mention but a few. The first two projects were jointly organized with the university. In order to implement our activities, we have come up with different platforms of engagement in Nigeria including Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development (www.cscsdev.org); Southwest Freedom of Information Act Network; Civil Society Partnership for Development Effectiveness; Child Protection Network; Migrationaware etc.