No cheers for Freedom Of Information Act, 10 years on
When in May 2011, the then President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, assented to the Freedom of Information Bill, the Fourth Estate of the Realm was celebrated its passage with a lot of expectations. Many stakeholders anticipated the positive impact the bill would have on the country.
The journey was fraught with challenges. The bill had been pushed from 1999 to 2011 when it was finally signed into law.
The general notion was that it would promote good governance and better welfare for all residents in Nigeria, drawing inspiration from climes where FOI Act made meaningful impact in the polity and well being of the people.
With that excitement, President Goodluck Jonathan was applauded for taking the bold step of signing the bill into law. The commendation was also based on the fact that the several attempts to enact the Act were met with brick walls from those who should be working to promote good governance.
It would be recalled that many who were working on the need to pass the bill by President Jonathan almost lost hope considering that the bill was only signed a day to the expiration of the tenure of Jonathan’s administration.
The bill was first introduced to the National Assembly in 1999 and was not passed into a law by the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo that terminated in 2007. The House of Representatives and Senate passed Freedom of Information Bill in August 2004 and November 2006 respectively with a harmonised version sent to Obasanjo for assent but he did not sign till he left office in 2007.
This did not deter those promoting the FoI bill, they kept pushing and started the process all over again, before it landed in President Jonathan’s table again in 2011 and luckily it got signed. It should also be noted that the introduction of the bill in 1999 was a fall out of the conceived Freedom of Information Law for Nigeria by three different organisations, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO). These bodies, especially MRA, were also at the forefront of the passage of the bill and worked tirelessly until President Goodluck Jonathan passed it.
