DELAY TO FOI BILL EXPOSED

By Kingsley Rufus

The passing of the Freedom of information bill is like the fish borne in the throat a bee in the ear while licking the honey respectively by our representatives.

The attempt Is to Strike at the very thing balance which the government must draw between the nice ties Freedom of expression as the orchestrated human right in democratic society on the one hand, and the painfully, dissensions and criticism, that the government has to be generated with by the media be it the electronics, print, or oratory, on the other hand no thanks to our house of representatives leaders which seems to be suffocating the innocent freedom of information bill after the humiliation it went through 8 years of the past President Olusegun Obasabjo administration.

Thought the supporters of the bill might have lost some confidence after the recent drama acted by the lower chamber by throwing the bill to the recycle bun. Lets quickly remind them that on this day May 3^rd 2000. a workshop was organized by the Media Rights Agenda on the push for the Freedom of information Act in Lagos which attracted many supporters and endorsement for the MRA’s initiative, the workshop was organized in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC0 in Lagos, the Limited Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO), other United Nations Agencies in Nigerian, and cultural organization (UNESCO) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 10, it was held to formulate a plan of action for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act In Nigeria. All the Participants agreed to the following 10 point resolution.

§ That the freedom of information Act is for public good and therefore desirable.

§ That public understanding of the freedom of information Act is imperative and that multi-media approach should be adopted to publicize it.

§ That the well-meaning Nigeria and credible professional groups among others should be involved in the process of enlightenment of the public on the need for the freedom of information Act.

§ That in order to enforce the Freedom of Information Act. The Office of Ombudsman should be instituted to monitor the implementation of the Act.

§ That judicial Independence must be guaranteed for effective implementation of freedom of information Act and in order to prevent for seeable obstacles to the implementation national security interests should be properly obtained and given limited interpretation.

§ That denial of access of information should attractjudicial sanction while members of the public should take advantage of prerogative orders, such as the order of mandamus to enforce their right of access to information.

§ The judicial, including all categories of court officials, and legislative, including legislative aides, are important Act.

§ That training for the judiciary and members of the legislature, particularly legislative aides, with regard to the freedom of information Act is a necessity and should be supported by the United Nations and other International organizations as well as non-governmental organizations.

§ That the recruitment of legislative aides should be depressurized to place emphasis on merit for hole-performance with regard to information Act.

§ That the National Assembly should promptly enact the Freedom of Information Act as a legislative tool that would encourage transparency and accountability in governance and strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.

§ A free press is one makers of freedom in this country and in a clear define democratic society ---for reason that if Newsmen were compel there sources of information they will soon be brief of information which is the public interest to know, that there sources of information will dry up (wrong doing will not be disclosed – charlatans will not be exposed unfairness will unremedied and mistakes or serious fault in the corridor of power and else where will never be made known to public.

The passage of freedom of information bill might be reasonable but not necessary justifiable in a democratic society.

Then a serious question that should be slammed to our house of representative members “is there any thing hiding in there cupboard”? If not let them fasting up and sign the FOI bill in order to avoid questioning of there competence from there various constituencies in other ways it may be termed a sublet of debt under the intellectuals which defines there attitude as not mainly the absent of effective and regard but also disloyalty enmity and hostility against the media industry and the entire Nation at large.