Business
Stakeholders Want Interpretation Of FOI Act
Stakeholders in the information sector have stressed the need for a proper interpretation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to ensure full compliance by all states.
They spoke in separate interviews with newsmen shortly after the opening session of a workshop on the FOI Act.
The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
They said that the debate on whether or not to domesticate the act in all the states was untenable, noting that the act was a national law that was binding on all public institutions in the country.
The stakeholders said that states should not be allowed to re-enact the same law and come up with versions that might be at variance with the issues addressed by the law.
The President of NUJ, Malam Garba Mohammed, said that the applicability of the law in the states and local governments had remained a major issue of discussion.
Mohammed said that there was need for the appropriate authorities in the system to make further clarifications on the eligibility of the law in the various states of the federation.
He said that the FOI Act was a federal law which is supposed to be binding on all public institutions in the country.
Mohammed, however, urged stakeholders to focus more on sensitisation to increase awareness and popularity among stakeholders in the system.
“I think these are very serious areas of contention and probably we need to be advised on the interpretation of the law either by the judiciary or members of the National Assembly.
“But whatever it is, we have the Freedom of Information Act and everybody knows that the act is for accountability, it is our responsibility as it is now, to intensify the sensitisation of the content of the act,’’ he said.
He urged stakeholders in the states to jettison the idea of re-enacting another act, saying that it would not be in the interest of genuine access to public information.