MUCH has been said on how the newly enacted Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) could engender openness and accountability in governance. Commentators have also underscored the possibility of the new legislation providing cleansing effect for the perceived ?transformation? from the Fourth Estate of the Realm to the Fourth Realm of the Estate that the media has allegedly become lately.
Prof. Adebayo Williams, at a recent media outing in Lagos, alluded to this phenomenon as he argued that top editors and publishers appeared to have embraced the maxim that ?discretion is the better part of valour? in the discharge of their constitutional duty as drivers of the watch-dog of society.
The result, Prof. Williams said, ?is that even if they do not like a particular embodiment of the state or its current incarnation, mainstream newspapers, magazines and top editors seem to have moved away from active confrontation to passive or active collaboration with the state.?
According to the newspaper columnist, ?even nominally oppositional newspapers also play safe knowing fully well that whatever the occasional huffing and puffing, their sponsors are part of the loyal opposition actively implicated in the federal project.? He thus declared: ?From being the fourth estate of the realm, the press has become the fourth realm of the estate.?
Specifically, Mr. Tunde Akanni, Journalism teacher at the School of Communication, Lagos State University is emphatic that the radical effect of the Act on the media will not be limited to boosting investigative journalism alone, it will also assist the media planners, for instance, to have access to statistics such as the print media run, circulation figure as well as readership and viewship strength. Akanni described the law as a wake-up call for all.
?Apart from the matter of circulation figure, what about tax details on advert earnings and all. I should tell you, even the universities need to wake up to the reality. The other time, Education Trust Fund (ETF) published an advert in the newspapers indicting universities on their refusal to come and collect funds waiting for them because they could not retire previous collections yet these same institutions are quick to excuse away lack of certain facilities for lack of money. The unions-students and workers?- in those institutions did nothing about it. Even the visitors to those universities did nothing. This is rather sad. You now begin to wonder what we are likely to do with enhanced access to information with this recent enactment FOIA,? Akanni said.
But Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), the advocacy outlet that championed the campaign for the enactment of the Act, Mr. Edetaen Ojo reckoned that ?a freedom of information law by its nature is targeted at public information, that is information held by public bodies. The scope of the Nigerian Freedom of Information Act is broader than most other laws around the world in terms of its application to private bodies or non-governmental entities. The Nigerian law also applies to private entities ?providing public services, performing public functions or utilizing public funds?. It will therefore apply to non-government entities (including media establishments) whenever they fall within any of these categories.?
Ojo recommended ?vigorous and effective implementation? as the next step for the Act to become real in Nigeria.
?Obviously, for this to work, a number of policy and institutional reforms as well as attitudinal changes will have to be effected in all aspects of the Nigerian society, particularly the public sector.
?For instance, virtually all Nigerian public institutions would need to improve upon their existing record storage and management systems or adopt new record management systems if they are to be able to process requests for information from members of the public within the timeframes specified in the Law.
?Also, all categories of public institutions are now required to proactively publish certain categories of records and information in many different ways, online and offline, even without anyone asking for the information, to facilitate the process of implementing the Act.
?They need to start doing this immediately. A number of organizations that have collaborated over the years to ensure that the FOI Act became a reality are continuing their partnership and are in consultations to address the possible challenges that might limit effective implementation. Already, we have drawn up a blueprint for effective implementation, which would guide our activities over the next 18 months, in the short term, and beyond.?
Mr. Lanre Arogundade of the International Press Centre (IPC), another strong partner in the FoI coalition reasoned that ?the FOI has the supply and demand sides. Government is the supplier of information, so it should proceed to build the capacity of all public institutions to respond to FOI requests. Nigeria could borrow from the example of the US where such institutions have officials responsible for FOI requests.
?On the demand side, the next step is for civil society, professional and media groups to also build their capacity on FOI use. For the Act to become real, the citizens should simply start sending FoI requests because the law is already in place. If the road passing through your area is in deplorable state, write to your local government for information on whether contract for its rehabilitation has been awarded and to whom.?
On his part, Akanni wants ?primary stakeholders to undertake a thorough study of the Act so we can all take maximum advantage of the Act for the progress of this society. The Act for instance requires certain duties of public institutions such as, without prompting, making certain basic information about them available. These institutions should also make maximally public specifics of officers to be contacted for information requests sent to their organizations. These are steps that the Internet will readily assist us do but how alive are public agencies to their websites? How regularly do they update their websites? This where the media comes in by undertaking website monitoring of public agencies for the public to know the deviant.?
The communication scholar faulted limiting the advocacy for the passage and enactment of the Act to 12 years, ?It?s not twelve years. This journey began way back under the military,? while recommending proper documentation of the struggle for the new legislation. ?The lessons are actually what should be documented in a book that some of us should come together to write. I mean Abdul Oroh, Edet Ojo, Lanre Arogundade, myself, Dr. Ismail Ibrahim, Lade Adunbi, Tunde Aremu and Tunde Fagbounlu.
?You see, it?s rather unfortunate that not many of these names are remembered again in the history of the struggle. Particularly of Fagbounlu, who did the first draft and the rest of us for sustaining the campaign all thorough. One cannot afford to also commend the inspiring leadership provided by Olisa Agbakoba and Ayo Obe. Such was their farsightedness that they even led us into starting another complementary project, Ethics in Government, was it.
?The goodwill we had then was such that people like the former nation?s foremost banker, Ola Vincent elected to be part of the initiative. Abacha?s goons however stalled it. ?Lessons? Be resolute when you believe in a cause because the situation under the military was most suffocating yet we persisted. There was no such thing as the Internet yet CLO, MRA and NUJ, the primary promoters persisted and carried on together. We thank God that we are alive to savour the joy of the victory,? Akanni chronicled.
The MRA head however isolated two main lessons: ?The first is that when we work together as civil society to initiate processes for new policies or advocate policy reforms, we can be a very powerful force in engaging government authorities. Secondly, we need to be consistent and ready, if need be, to wage long struggles. Change may not always come easily or quickly so if we have no appetite for long struggles, we may have difficulty achieving much.?
For Arogundade, ?it pays to be consistent, persistent, principled and focused,? was his answer to question on lessons learnt from the struggle.
Edetean Ojo is point-blank, saying the FOI Act is revolutionary as it has overshadowed ?other obnoxious laws?, especially, Official Secret Act of 1962 that inhibit free flow of information. Its potential, he however argues, ?lies in what Nigerians ? all Nigerians ? do with it.?
He explains further, ?The 6th National Assembly and President Jonathan have put this powerful tool in our hands. We must take advantage of it to change our country for the better.
?The law is very clear both in its opening provision and in subsequent other provisions in the Act that it supersedes and overrides all other laws, except the Constitution and those laws which have constitutional flavour.
?Section 1(1) of the Act provides that ?Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act, Law or Regulation, the right of any person to access or request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described, is hereby established.?
?It goes further to provide specifically and points out in Section 28(1)that ?The fact that any information in the custody of a public institution is kept by that institution under security classification or is classified document within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act does not preclude it from being disclosed pursuant to an application for disclosure thereof under the provisions of this Act ...?
?It is therefore clear from these and other provisions in the Act that wherever and whenever there is a conflict, the FOI Act will prevail. It is therefore really up to Nigerians to put the Act to good use.?
Ojo?s hope over the next 18 months to two years, operating the new legislation, is that ?government institutions would be willing to make the institutional and policy reforms that are necessary to enable this law to be effectively implemented.
?I also hope that ordinary citizens will make an effort to read the Law and enlighten themselves about the Law and how to use it. We will, of course, remain engaged in trying to get the public institutions to make the necessary changes and in trying to get citizens better enlightened and educated about the Law.?
Tunde Akanni expresses similar optimism as he envisages ?Improved information flow regime for the nation?s development. Improved working environment for researchers and media professionals in particular. On our part as drivers of the initiative, I would recommend that the coalition should look at the possibility of setting up an Action Committee that will help to drive the implementation across all sectors and regions. SERAP started well with its request from some four states on how they expended their allocations from UBEC.?
Arogundade expected that the law would make elected politicians more accountable.
However, challenges that could limit implementation and therefore inhibit the realization of the objectives of the Law, according to Edetaen Ojo, include: lack of political will at the leadership of many public institutions to comply fully with the requirements of the Law; inadequate awareness with the general population about the Law and lack of proper understanding of its objectives and how to use it, the high level of illiteracy in the country; poor records management systems and practices in public and private institutions, including poor record keeping and maintenance; the bureaucratic nature of the public service at federal and state levels; the dominant culture of secrecy in the public service; lack of capacity and relevant skills in the public sector in a number of vital areas, including using new media to gather, store, share, process and disseminate information; the slow pace of adjudication cases by the courts, especially where the FOI Act requires that cases arising under the Law should be dealt with summarily; high level of corruption in the public and private sectors which would create an incentive for some people to try to frustrate the success of the Law; and absence of or inadequacy of the necessary support infrastructure, including electricity supply and suitable communications platforms, to support this new regime of freedom of information in the age of the information superhighway.
Arogundade added ?government officials hiding behind national security to deny information? as another challenge, while Akanni underscored ?Ignorance or feigned ignorance on the part of public institutions of this Act.?
These challenges, Ojo councelled, could be tackled through policy and institutional reform; reform of court rules and procedures; public enlightenment for a range of stakeholders and actors in the implementation process; training and capacity building for public sector officials as well as civil society and citizens; monitoring of implementation, among other activities. ?We will naturally continue to work to address these issues,? he insisted, while Akanni warned FOI campaigners not to go to sleep yet. ?Awareness campaign should commence across all sectors to facilitate better corporate governance and all.? Arogundade would want promoters ?to continue to argue that public interest overrides so-called national security.?
On a final note, Tunde Akanni congratulated ?all colleagues who were there at the beginning and those who came later including the relentless activist lawyer, Maxwell Kadiri. This struggle may also not have come to a successful end without the efforts of late Chima Ubani and others. To God be the glory after all.?
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