Oladimeji Ramon

There was jubilation, particularly among media practitioners and civil society organisations, when in May 2011 former President Goodluck Jonathan gave his assent to the Freedom of Information Act.

The then new law was “to make public records and information more freely available and provide public access to public records and information.”

Its signing into law was to mark the end of a long battle for transparency and accountability in government institutions by the media and CSOs.

But eight years after the FOI Act was passed, the victory scored by the media and CSOs may have become pyrrhic, as the dream of free access to information is still far from being realised.

Speaking recently at a public hearing on the FOI Act organised by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Prof. Ayo Atsenuwa, named the failure of government to repeal the Official Secrets Act as one of the major setbacks for the FOI Act.

The law professor also listed “tedious administrative processes of application for information” and widespread disobedience to court orders for FOI Act request enforcement as other factors frustrating citizens.

Atsenuwa added that despite the provision of the FOI Act mandating governmental institutions to be transparent by making information available on their websites, many such websites were “maintained more for public relations goals than to serve FOI standards.”

She said the FOI Act had not worked because after it was passed, the government failed or neglected to “retrain and structure a programme of debriefing of public officers to internalise a paradigm shift to make for more willingness to make information available to citizens.”

Atsenuwa said whereas the FOI Act was a beautiful law, the identified obstacles had hamstrung it.

“The FOI Act can particularly benefit citizens advocacy for good governance in provision of education, health care and water to citizens in the following ways — Expose and fight corruption; gain access to information needed to engage in informed advocacy with institutions of government; and enforce compliance with FOI standards by reporting on failure to comply,” Atsenuwa said in the paper she presented at the SERAP’s public hearing with the theme, “Building the Capacity of Citizens in Use of Freedom of Information Act as a Tool for Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Nigeria’s Health Sector.”

But for the obstacles, Atsenuwa said with the FOI Act, citizens ought to be able to “request allocation, procurement and projects implementation.”

“This information will enable them to track information or documents relating to budgets and finance and what is being done.

“If citizens identify impropriety through the search of records, such findings can be forwarded to the police, the EFCC or the ICPC for further Investigation,” she said.

The law professor explained that any citizen can request information under the FOI Act irrespective of age and notwithstanding any physical disability.

She said all public institutions had been mandated to make such information available within seven days of the formal request.

She said the law mandated all public institutions to oblige all requests for information except if the disclosure of such information will be “injurious to the conduct of international affairs or the defence of the Federal Public of Nigeria.”

She said even at that such information may be made available to the applicant if the public benefit of disclosure outweighs the injury that may be caused.

Atsenuwa said though the FOI Act gives citizens the right to sue any government institution which fails to oblige their requests for information, the enforcement of court orders had been difficult due to widespread disobedience to court orders.

Also speaking at the SERAP public hearing, Dr Fassy Yusuf, a Senior Fellow at UNILAG, said it was regrettable that despite the euphoria that greeted the signing of the FOI Act in 2011, “its implementation has been Herculean and quite challenging.”

He said, “Some of the issues bedevilling its implementation include: unwillingness by public officials to release information to the media, civil society groups and citizens; corruption in low and high places; cumbersome and expensive legal processes; unnecessary bureaucracy/red tape; absence of transparency and accountability in our body polity; lack of democratic ethos and open attitude to information dissemination by public officials, and bad governance.”

Yusuf lamented that as a result of corruption and lack of accountability, public service in the country had brought the citizens no joy.

“SERVICOM (service compliance) that was introduced during the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo died shortly after the euphoria that greeted its birth. It is to be noted that the disposition of the civil service to any law or project would determine its success or otherwise,” he said.

He also bemoaned corruption and bad governance in the country.

He said, “Bad governance has brought the country to its knees and it is responsible largely for the past and present misfortunes. One can only pray and hope that the current administration would be in a position to institutionalise good governance. This is because good governance brings about accountable and responsive democracy, effective and efficient system, egalitarianism and sustainable democracy instead of a token democracy. With good governance, we would have had better implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.”

He said for the FOI Act to serve its purpose, the government of the day must embrace transparency and accountability.

He said, “They are two important elements of good governance. Transparency is a powerful force that when consistently applied can promote accountability in government and assist tremendously in the procurement of information about the health sector from government sources. Lack of accountability has been largely responsible for the distrust of the citizens.

“When public officials realise that their activities are subject to public scrutiny, they become more circumspect in their affairs leading to transparency and accountability in the health sector.”

In order for the FOI Act to succeed, Yusuf said CSOs and citizens must continue to demand its full implementation.

Culled from Punch