By Sonala Olumhense
It is two years since Nigeria’s Freedom of Information
(FOI) law, a wonderful tool that empowers citizens to seek and receive vital
public information, took effect. Here are some of the occasions in which it has
been set into motion:
On June 8, 2011, the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP) challenged the governments of Enugu, Kaduna, Oyo
and Rivers States to release information and documents on the spending of their
States on the Universal Basic Education Commission since 2005.
On July 18, a court ordered the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) to substantiate its allegation that the Committee for
the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) compromised itself and received the sum of
N52 million from suspects being investigated by the commission to campaign
against it. The decision of the court followed a suit by Olasupo Ojo, President
of CDHR, urging the court under the FOI to compel the EFCC to make the
requested information available to him. The substantive matter was to be
heard by the court two weeks later.
On July 28, 2011, the African Centre for Media &
Information Literacy (ACMIL) wrote to the chairman of the ICPC to request
confirmation of a 2006 petition filed by a former chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Audu Ogbeh, that “a top government official” received a N60
billion gratification in Nigeria’s debt relief deal with the Paris Club.
ACMIL
requested access to the petition, if it existed, as well as any accompanying
documentation. It also asked: What has the ICPC done since the
receipt of the petition? Did the ICPC meet with Mr. Ogbeh during its
investigation of the said petition?
In the same month, ACMIL filed an FOI request with the
CCB for access to the 2007 assets declaration of President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan; at the end of his tenure on May 28, 2011; and upon assumption of
office on May 29, 2011. In October, ACMIL sued the CCB for failing to
comply.
On September 26, SERAP asked the Accountant General of
the Federation to disclose “details of the spending of recovered stolen public
assets since the return of civil rule in 1999.” In a response dated
October 11, the Accountant General, Mr. Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, said he was
looking into the request. That pledge not being honoured, SERAP filed a suit in
December against the federal government.
On October 19, SERAP asked the Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) for up-to-date information on government
spending in 2011 relating to fuel ‘subsidy.’ On November 3, following PPPRA’s
failure to honour the request, SERAP went to court seeking an order compelling
the defendants to disclose the information. Joined in the action were the
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Muhammed Adoke, and
the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
On January 17, 2012, Human and Environmental
Development Agenda (HEDA), on behalf of SERAP, Women Advocates Research and
Documentation Centre (WARDC), Partnership for Justice, and Citizens Assistance
Centre, asked the Minister of Information Minister for relevant documents
supporting the controversial subsidy of petroleum products.
On February 19, following an earlier request, SERAP
and WARDC sued the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi, for refusing to release requested information and documents concerning
the bank’s authorization of over N1.26 trillion as “fuel subsidy” in 2011.
Joined in the suit was the AGF, Mr. Adoke.
On June 13, following an ADC plane crash earlier that
month, civil rights lawyer Bamidele Aturu requested of the Minister for
Aviation information on 36 air accidents, air incidents and/or crash reports in
Nigeria between November 20, 1969 and March 14, 2012.
On June 27, SERAP filed a request asking Sam Saba, the
chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, to release documents on President
Jonathan’s assets declaration. That request being ignored, SERAP filed a
suit on July 12 seeking an order compelling the CCB to release the documents.
On June 23, human rights advocate Femi Falana wrote to
the Minister of Aviation to disclose the name of the VIP who prevented his Arik
flight into Abuja on June 19 from landing as scheduled, to enable him sue the
individual for endangering the lives of the over 150 passengers on board.
On June 25, the Federal High Court in
Abuja ordered the Clerk of the National Assembly to release
to the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), within
14 days, details of the salaries, emoluments and allowances collected by national legislators
between 2007 and 2011.
Justice B.B. Aliyu asserted that
the FOI Act permitted non-governmental organizations to demand such
information, stressing that the information was of public interest because it
concerned public funds. He overruled the objections of National Assembly
lawyers, saying that every citizen is entitled to public information under the
FOI.
The ruling followed a September 2011 suit filed by
LEDAP in which it claimed that the legislators were being paid beyond
the rate approved by law. LEDAP had previously sent an FOI request to the
clerk for the information, but that request was ignored.
On June 26, following President Jonathan’s famous
“don’t give a damn” television appearance, SERAP sent an FOI request to him
asking for his “assets declaration details between May 2007 and May 2012; it
asked him to publish the information widely on a dedicated website.
The group reminded Mr. Jonathan his statement was “a
clear violation of the Nigerian Constitution and the UN Convention against
Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party, and entirely inconsistent with
your oft-repeated promises to prevent and combat high-level official corruption
in the country.”
On August 13, SERAP sent an FOI request to Professor
Onyebuchi Chukwu, the Minister for Health, asking for information on Nigeria’s
spending on maternal health care delivery in the country in the previous five
years, and that its recent study suggested progress may have been compromised
by high level official corruption.
What is happening to these cases? Why are officials of
the federal government, including the same president who signed the Act,
routinely breaching the law? Why are more citizens and organisations not taking
advantage of the FOI? If the press truly understands that its role is to
reveal, not conceal, why is it not waving the FOI flag at every public door?
The FOI law is the Nigerian citizen’s most powerful
cudgel yet. Dear compatriot: You can scratch with it, lift with it, read with
it, ask with it, listen with it, defend with it, attack with it, poke with it,
lunge with it, strike with it, dig with it, plant with it, harvest with it, rip
with it, puncture with it, yanga with it, lead with it, live with it. I
wouldn’t leave home without it.
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