The Federal Government has called on all government Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to help promote accountability and transparency in governance.
Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba, OON, mni, made the call in her opening remarks to mark ‘’Thirteen (13) years of Advocating the Implementation of the Freedom of Information(FOI) Act,2011 in Nigeria in Abuja on 31st May,2024.
Agba explained that the ministry is encouraging all public institutions to ensure compliance with the Act by training their staff on citizen’s right to access government information and make information readily available to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online sources etc.
Represented by the Assistant Director, FOI Unit of the Ministry, Godwin Garba Sunday, SGF/PS said The Theme of this year anniversary is “Evaluating The Role of Freedom of Information Act and Its Implementation Towards Building Strong Institutions for Good Governance”, where the FOI stakeholders will deliberate on the achievements, milestones, challenges and the unique opportunity to review the Act and its instrumentality.
“The success of the event will lead and improve the implementation of the Act and make the citizens participation in the government possible”.
She further explained that the Act serves as a guide through which the public can access vital information or record from government and when government officials refused to share information with the public, it makes citizen’s participation in governance defeated.
Jedy-Agba added that those actions aid corruption and protects incompetence in governance.
“While it is undisputed that the essence of the Act is to guarantee the right to access to information held by government institutions as well as to deepen governance and government reforms by addressing corruption and improving the credibility of the country.
“It also recognizes that not all government information is for public knowledge/consumption by the inclusion of the Exemption clauses (Sections 11,12,14-19 and 26).The Act also protect public officers who disclose official information without authorization, when such disclosure is in good faith and public interest”, SGF/PS pointed.
The Permanent Secretary commended the courts on their prompt rulings on FOI matters which have deepened its implementation; nonetheless, the implementation of the FOI Act in the last thirteen years has come with series of benefits and challenges.
She highlighted those benefits as follows improved level of awareness, increase in the creation of FOI units /committees to handle matters related to FOI in public institutions while some challenges includes lack of functioning record management system in public institutions, lack of political will on the part of leaders to ensure the prompt release of information or records and amongst others.
Representative of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, Mrs Shola Alabi in her goodwill message said that the commission understands that for the Act to reach its full potential, continuous efforts are required to address challenges and improve its implementation.
Alabi hinted that the commission is currently working on the reform of FOI Act, which is the major capital project in 2024. She added that the questionnaire has been developed to gather feedback from stakeholders to identify the Act’s deficiencies and to know the level of awareness of the public of the law.
She said that the questionnaire is to be administered in the 6 area councils of FCT.
Representative of the Development Bank of Nigeria Shofola Osho in his goodwill message said there are about 900 institutions covered by the Act, and this is the time they should look inward and retrospect on Act for implementation.
Osho pointed that as a country, that the concept of open government and accountability is important.
The Program Officer, Right to Know (R2K), Vicky Etim noted that the annual FoI report has grown over the years but that experiences still needed to be shared and challenges overcome.
“Public Service handbooks not being updated or reviewed to meet new laws and regulations makes it difficult to achieve more.”
Jubril Shittu, CEO Public and Private Development Centre, said with the Open Government Partnerships coupled with good working relationships, the Ministry FoI Unit has made significant progress.
“We started with the Public Procurement Act campaign and it worked. Now this too is work in progress.”
In attendance were representatives from the media, National Orientation Agency, National Primary Health Care, CSO’s, and National Judicial Council and among others.
Modupe Ogundoro
Director (Information)
