Waiting For The FoI Law

Last Thursday, the House of Representatives expeditiously passed the much-talked about Freedom of Information Bill. This was after one week of scrutiny and meticulous review by a joint committee of the House on Information and National Orientation, and Justice, and a consultative meeting with civil society groups to harmonise certain aspects of the bill.

Presented to the National Assembly in June 1999, the bill was first passed by the House of Representatives in August 2006, while the Senate gave its nod to the bill in October 2006. It was subsequently forwarded to former President Olusegun Obasanjo for assent. But the President denied assent to the bill at the expiration of his tenure in May 2007, causing its re-presentation to the National Assembly in 2007. Since then, the bill had been presented for consideration 11 times without success. However, last Thursday, the FoI Bill finally scaled all hurdles, and was thus passed by the House.

Chairman of the Justice Committee, Henry Seriake Dickson (PDP-Bayelsa), who presented the report for consideration on Wednesday, had said that the “bill was intended to increase the availability of public records and information to citizens of the country in order to participate more effectively in the making and administration of laws and policies, and to promote accountability of public affairs”.

After receiving the report, Dimeji Bankole, who presided over the plenary, quickly asked that the plenary be suspended, and moved to committee of the whole to consider the FoI Bill clause-by-clause.

At the committee of the whole, the bill which had 34 clauses, was reduced to 32 clauses, with clauses 12 and 18 deleted.

In clause one, the title, FoI was retained, which implies that the expected change of title to Access to Information was not recommended to the House. All two clauses of the bill, except clauses 12 and 18 were approved. The two clauses were deleted from the bill but clause 12 was said to have been captured in clause 11 of the bill.

The House of Representatives passed the bill after examining the report of its joint committee, to become law.  It immediately afterwards, transmitted the bill to the Senate for concurrence before both chambers will harmonise the new law.

The Tide recalls that the bill seeks to make public information and records more freely available, ensure access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent that is consistent with the public interest, and also provides for the protection of personal privacy.

It also protects serving public officials from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorisation, and further establishes procedure for the achievement of set goals  and related purposes.

In addition, the bill prescribes a three-year jail term for any officer of government found guilty of falsification or destruction of official information. In fact, it explicitly states, “it shall be an offence punishable with three years imprisonment for any officer of public institution to destroy, alter, falsify or deliberately misrepresent information kept in his custody”.

The bill also makes it possible for the public to be denied access to information that has to do with defence, international affairs, and matters under investigation by law enforcement agencies.

It equally makes it possible for people to be denied access to information relating to the economic interest of the country. Specifically, Section 15 of the bill states: “A public institution may deny an application for information that contains: trade secrets, financial, commercial or technical information that belongs to the government and has substantial economic value or is likely to have substantial economic value”.

The bill further makes it mandatory for every public institution to publish certain information concerning its operation even without request by anybody.

The Tide is gladdened by this realisation of the House that the bill is not meant for journalists alone, but for all Nigerians, including the ruling class, at the Executive, Legislative and Judicial spheres of government, as well as other public sector players. As former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, once said, “the truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but, in the end, there it is”.

We are, indeed, satisfied that members of the House of Representatives have realised the need to take the path of honour, with regard to their obligations to the electorate.

We, therefore, charge the Senate to give the bill accelerated hearing, and simply concur to the decisions of the House of Representatives on the bill, so that it could be transmitted to the president for assent.

The Tide also reckons that history awaits to emboss  President Goodluck Jonathan in gold as the bold president who gave Nigerians the long cherished freedom and power to fight official corruption, promote sustainable democracy, good governance, transparency and accountability in government business, by assenting to the Freedom of Information Bill.

Leaders in the Senate and the Presidency cannot let Nigerians miss this opportunity to join the global community, where freedom of information, has been playing a key role in their development process.   The time to act is now.