WHY THE FOI BILL MUST BE PASSED.
|
|
BY IJENDU IHEAKA
May 04, 2008
|
|
An attempt for
any cooked-up reason not to pass the Freedom of Information bill currently in
the federal legislative chambers is invariably, an attempt to move Nigeria 100
years backwards. Any argument on the contrary cannot stand the heat of
evidential proof required to convince reasonable people in that crooked
direction.
This assertion is supported by the fact that Nigeria, in spite of the abundant
natural endowments it has, is still toddling behind even some African and third
world countries that are not half so blessed as Nigeria.
From World Bank’s development assessment indices, Nigerians live under $1dollar
a day which is grossly inadequate for keeping some zoo animals.
In spite of trillions of Naira that are budgeted for development and poverty
alleviation activities year on year, the impact is just as unfelt as the touch
of confetti.
The reason why the resources in the country are not getting to the places where
they should and serving the purposes they were deployed for is traceable to
corruption.
From the foregoing, it is pretty obvious to even the blind that Nigeria needs to
fight this foremost enemy of her development.
To do this effectively, she needs this law to fight that wicked enemy of
progress called corruption.
However, it would be unbelievable of any government wishing to fight corruption
not to enact the FOI law which opens up governance while encouraging
accountability and integrity.
Thus it becomes very clear why Roumeen Islam and Joseph Stiglitz writing in a
World Bank publication “The Right to Tell” argued that enacting the FOI law
could be a signal of a government’s commitment to openness and transparency.
Secrecy in government is a big problem for everyone more so in a democratic
setting where citizens depend on unbiased and factual revelations through
information to join in making informed decisions required to move their society
forward.
Decisions such as whom to vote and who goes for re-election during an election
season, where the government needed to act precisely and quickly or refrain was
germane to the use of the FOI law.
Now the question is if Nigeria’s President Umar Yar’Adua and the legislators
mean well for the electorate, why will they not ensure the passage of this law?
How else could they show their commitment to the wishes of the constituencies
that elected them and to national development and the fight against corruption?
What picture of “the rule of law” which both the executive and the legislature
tout as the watchword of this present political regime would they be painting?
From 2006 to date Nigeria has been consistently declared unfit for doing
business by World Bank for reasons that are corruption influenced, having
consecutively ranked below the comfort range.
It is also worthy to note that contrary to the notion held by anti-FOI act
citizens, the act does not only support the work of the journalist alone. It
also to a large extent supports business developments in countries that have
them.
Arguing for its business development supporting capacity, Roderick Macdonnel, a
noted American Journalist, writing in World Bank’s Development Outreach magazine
said “FOIA enables business to find out more about the real needs of its public
sector customers and the proposals and performance of its competitors”.
This spurs healthy competitions as only the best is encouraged while the worst
is pushed aside for the good of the race according to Andrew Carnegie.
Besides, the culture of secrecy which flourishes in countries without FOI act
fights the organs created by government to fight corruption by opening them up
to corruption hence the holy book of the Christians is true in it’s principle of
“Contact results to impact”.
This principle implies that as these anti-corruption agencies deal with corrupt
persons by the second, the tendency to be open to the lures of corruption
through culprits’ willingness to close their tracks by hauling the filthy lucre
on these agents cannot be ruled out.
The secrecy culture also creates its own class of oppressors. This happens when
the culture of official secrecy breeds leaks who would either give away
information for money or to fight a course they believe in which many a time
satisfy only their selfish desires.
It must be told the Nigerian anti-corruption and yet
pro-secrecy-culture-in-government proponents that they are working at
cross-purposes with development hence there is no country where secrecy thrives
that can effectively fight corruption.
Chief Mike Ozekhome, a prominent Nigerian Lawyer once told journalists during an
interview that “What the House of Assembly has done by throwing the bill out is
not what Nigerians wanted at this time.
“We want transparency, accountability, openness of government to the people. We
are tired of too much corruption that has underdeveloped Nigeria”. This view
represents the view of many Nigerians this time.
Then if a country then fails to fight corruption, it is a foregone conclusion
such country will forever be immersed in the cesspit of backwardness and this is
where Nigeria’s leaders’ do not want to take the country to.
Given that this writer’s assumption in the preceding line is right, then the
Houses of Assembly and Senate and the President should heed the plea of
Nigerians to endorse the FOI bill now.
IJENDU E. IHEAKA, is a media scholar and Nigeria journalist and photographer
working presently with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
|
|
