In celebration of
the Right to Know Day 2014, The Right To Know (R2K), Nigeria is renewing its
call for Nigerians to take advantage of their right to access information, in
the use and full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
R2K notes the
progressive successes of the FOI in the past three years in consolidating the
exercise of the public’s right to information under the FOI Act, including the
favourable decisions of the Nigerian Courts that have upheld and continue to
uphold the rights of the public to information.
Especially notable
are the decisions upholding the right of Nigerians to access information under
the Act from all tiers of government – Federal, State and Local government, and
from private institutions performing public functions and services, or handling
public funds on behalf of government, in keeping with the provisions FOI Act.
Furthermore, the
Courts have consistently maintained that the FOI Act is binding upon public
officers in the conduct of their official duty. Increasingly, across a broad
range of matters in the public foray, more cases are been ruled in favour of
disclosure of information.
Thus, demonstrably,
the FOI Act gives all Nigerians the means of knowing how tax-payers’ money is
spent, and a basis to refuse arbitrary use and abuse of power by public
officers, thus placing in the hands of the people a tool to curb corruption and
enshrine good governance practices.
R2K thus encourages
Nigerians to take ownership of the FOIA process as an expression of citizen’s
sovereignty. Mrs. Ene Nwankpa, R2K National Coordinator stated that, “Nigerians
continually agitate for transformation in governance, and now, for the past 3
years, we’ve been given the FOI Act – the tool for transformation.
Yet most successful
initiatives for change using the law – such as the removal of the illegal, and
now defunct Abuja Park and Pay Scheme – have been largely at the instance of
civil society organizations.
We are calling on
members of the public to move beyond the rhetoric, and to actively participate
in using the FOI Act to entrench accountable and transparent processes in the
business of governance in Nigeria.”
R2K joins the global community of freedom
of information advocates today to further call for more open, democratic
societies where there is full citizen empowerment and participation in
government with greater commitment to the provisions of the FOI Act by
government and public institutions.
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