Features of the week:The imperative of endorsing the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill by President Olusegun Obasanjo before leaving office, would stand him out as an advocate of good governance and a boost to democracy, even as a pathing gift to Nigerians, writes REMMY NWEKE.
“The themes of transparency and information pervade good governance and reinforce accountability,” according to the World Bank: New Agenda in a changing world, authored by Michelle Miller-Adams in 1999.
Preamble:
THE importance of information cannot be over-emphasised at this time in history, and the above extract from Miller-Adams piece did not mince words as to the essence of information in 21st century human existences and nation building.
Hence, it was not out of place for the media to be awash at the weekend both locally and internationally, with the reports that President Olusegun Obasanjo has ignored the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill due to inability of the National Assembly to accommodate his observations, which currently awaits his assent in what he called ‘mistakes’ before it could become an Act.
Although the FOI bill was reportedly passed last October at the lower house followed by its sailing through the Senate in February this year, it was said to have reached the Presidency on March 23, 2007, that is, about 67 days before the expected date of handing power by Chief Obasanjo to the newly elected President, Alhaji Umaru YarAdua on May 29.
Equally, the Obasanjo purported refusal to assent to the bill has been described by many media rights activists globally as “disappointing,” even as he was not so comfortable with the term ‘freedom of information bill.’
What’s information?
Severally, information has been defined based on different situations and obviously, Miller-Adams was not alone on efficacy of information as Mr. Robert M. Losee of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in a Journal of the American Society for Information Science, stated in a piece titled A Discipline Independent Definition of Information, “Information may be defined as the characteristics of the output of a process, these being informative about the process and the input.”
According to an online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, “information is a term with many meanings depending on context, but is as a rule closely related to such concepts as meaning, knowledge, instruction, communication, representation, and mental stimulus, information, therefore, is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver.”
Basically, Wikipedia stressed that it’s the context in which data is taken, that affords information as a concept to bear a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings.
Nowadays, however, many speak about the ‘Information Age’ as the advent of the Knowledge Age or knowledge society; where the information society and information technologies are placed at forefront, bringing to bear the likes of informatics, information science and computer science often in the spotlight, hence the word “information” is often used without thorough consideration of the various meanings it has acquired for itself.
The FOI bill:
The FOI bill had been with the National Assembly since 1999 unpassed; traversing between the House of Representatives and the Senate until February this year, thus leaving Obasanjo with a few days to sign it into law.
Though it is in harmony with President Obasanjo’s anti-corruption campaigns and reforms, a media freedom and freedom of expression based non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Nigeria, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) reported, that the President is “letting it slide.”
In an effort to ensure that the Obasanjo strengthens the system especially the evolving democracy in the country, MRA led a team of activists to Aso Rock Villa on a visit to Mr. President, urged him on to pass the law as anticipated.
According to MRA team led by its Executive Director, Mr. Edetan Ojo, the bill would have put Nigeria in the league of some 70 countries around the world that have such laws, and the fourth on the continent of Africa, after South Africa, Angola and Uganda.
“By signing the Freedom of Information bill, this government would have earned for itself credibility from the Nigerian people and the world by demonstrating its seriousness about its widely acclaimed fight against corruption in Nigeria,” he informed RAP 21 an off-shot of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
FOI, an end to secrecy:
Lots of meanings have been given to FOI bill, of what it will eventually become when signed into law.
For this, Mr. Ojo asserted, “The bill would have ended the culture of secrecy in government, which has allowed for corrupt practices and abuse of positions and privileges in government.”
Experts on public issues and media rights activists alike pointed out that with the development, that is the refusal of Mr. President to endorse the bill, it is expected to be returned to the National Assembly, where it will be voted upon again. Then, if passed by two-thirds majority of each house, it will take effect without the requirement of the president’s approval.
But due to the fear of some factors in the nation’s polity, the National Assembly may not be able to reconsider the bill and the process may be required to start from scratch all over when the next dispensation takes over on May 29, mainly because indications have emerged that even the incoming Yar Adua government may not assent to it due to what some industry watchers described as Obasanjo’s impact in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and on the new leadership in the country.
In which case, MRA said, it’s now focusing crusade on access to information on the National Assembly before it winds up this May, emphasising that all hope is not lost yet, because MRA intends to centre attention on advocacy and lobbying of National Assembly.
“We’re now working to ensure that they get the bill passed by two-thirds majority so that it can become law regardless of the President’s stance on the bill,” Mr. Ojo stated in RAP 21 website, even as he solicited for international support to ensure that the FOI bill’s ultimate goal is achieved.
FOI education for Obj:
Disturbed by the delay in endorsing the FOI bill by President Obasanjo, MRA during the visitation took time out to explain issues to Mr. President.
During the early hours of Friday, April 27; a month and three days after it was originally sent to the President through his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, Chief Obasanjo claimed ignorant of it. MRA team while on visit took time out to educate Mr. President on some of his fears on why or not the FOI should be endorsed.
According to the report, President Obasanjo had informed his guests that he would not sign the Freedom of Information Bill into Law in its present form because he has some “serious problems” with the bill.
Although he claimed ignorant of the bill being sent to his office, Obasanjo noted however, he had two reasons why he will not put his signature on it, namely, that he is opposed to the title of the Bill, which is “Freedom of Information” adding that the Bill should have been called the “Right to Information Bill” and he had communicated this opinion to the National Assembly, complaining that they refused to change the title and, retained the “Freedom of Information Bill.”
Mr. Ojo was said to had explained to Mr. President that the title of the proposed law was not all that significant and that what should be paramount was the text of the bill and what it seeks to achieve.
Chief Obasanjo was said to had disagreed, stressing that the title of the Bill is very important as here in Africa, what ought to be discussed is the right to information and not freedom of information, insisting that the idea of ‘freedom of information’ was simply imported ‘from somewhere.’
And in order to prove to Mr. President that even national security information has been rightly accommodated in the proposed bill, a copy was given to him, especially the harmonised version of the Bill, pointing out to him the appropriate sections containing the exemptions.
Yet, after glancing through the bill and precisely reading Section 13 (1), he disagreed with the bill, which stated thus, “The head of a government or public institution may refuse to disclose any record, the disclosure of which may be injurious to the conduct of international affairs or the defence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
For President Obasanjo this context depicts an exclusion from public access records, which may be injurious to the defence of Nigeria, but not the exclusion of records, which may be injurious to the “security” of Nigeria, stressing that defence and security of Nigeria mean different things.
When reminded that before the Bill was passed by the Senate, the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Freedom of Information Bill, had invited all law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies in the country to make input into the Bill and that most of them responded without objecting to this provision. President Obasanjo retorted that their inability to object was because “none of them practices security at the level at which I practice it” and therefore, they did not understand the implications.
In addition, Mr. President pointed out that he was completely opposed to Section 13(2) of the Bill, which provides: “However, in the interest of the public the court may override the refusal by the head of the government or public institution to disclose the information applied for.”
Mr. President had argued that this means that he could be compelled by a court to disclose any information another head of state may had told him in confidence, maintaining that he would not sign it and was quoted as saying that the National Assembly “should have come so that we can sit down and discuss these things.”
A charge for Nigerian civil society:
Following the purported refusal to endorse the FOI bill, the United States of America (USA), weekend, charged the nation’s Civil Society groups especially the media to mount pressure on the out-going president to sign the bill, stressing that it would reduce the enveloping corrupt practices in the country.
Speaking via a former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Eduardo Cue, in a tele-conference at the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General in Lagos, noted that signing the bill into law would curb the prevalent corruption in government and give credence to democracy.
The event held May 3 in commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day, Mr. Cue said, “the more freedom of information, the more open debate of issues and the more mistakes could be prevented in government decision-making.”
He cited an instance of a former US president, John F. Kennedy, who had censored certain information made available to the press in the name of “National Security” and which eventually backfired.
As explained by Mr. Cue who currently represents US News and World Report in Paris, that when the problem arising from the censorship began, Kennedy, had to apologise to the public for stopping the publication of the information and the media too.
“National security won’t be in danger if such information was released because it would have been properly debated,” by the citizens. He added that freedom of the press stabilises democracy, saying “freedom of expression is the pillar that holds democracy.”
Also speaking, the guest speaker at the event, Dr. Reuben Abati in his paper entitled “Freedom of Information bill: Panacea for Free Press” said freedom of information law regime would expand the coast of press freedom in Nigeria, underscoring that the main raw material of the press is the information that it makes available to various publics, while the public’s right to know is made possible by the media’s right to tell.
Dr. Abati highlighted the fact that the FOI law, as proposed is revolutionary and “will free Nigerians from a subsisting culture of exclusion and alienation from their own governments and society,” emphasising that it gives protection for “whistle blowers,” while encouraging the Nigerian public to blow the whistle of malfunctioning, the media’s right to tell will be further enhanced and the temptation to assault journalists will also hopefully be reduced.
He noted that signing the bill into law alone would not address the challenges of press freedom in Nigeria, but the journalists too must be proactive while the institutions in the industry must focus on welfare of journalists, deepening of competitive edge, capacity building, professional ethics and matching freedom with responsibility.
Sum Up
A deduction of the on-going currents on the FOI bill would be for Obasanjo to assent the bill or at best, advocates of information liberation in the National Assembly should stand aright by gathering their pals around this bill to prove its importance, because based on what Mr. President reportedly said, it is difficult for him to change his mind except if his aforementioned observations are met.
So, as we look forward for the FOI bill becoming law in Nigeria, more is equally expected of media practitioners to ensure that even the media and precisely, journalists understand the onus this law imposes on them and like a good driver, taking the right lane to make certain that transparency, accountability and good governance prevail.
Above all, hopes are not lost because even if eventually neither Chief Obasanjo endorses the bill nor the National Assembly uses its two-third majority veto, industry watchers believe that although the road to its passage has been long, it is not likely going to take us another eight years to get it endorsed, the pressure like the American, Mr. Cue urged, must continue, because there is light at the end of the tunnel, for an end to criminal treatment and prosecution of journalists is simply near.
But one significant point here is that if Obasanjo signs FOI bill, he would be remembered in the history of the country as the foremost friend of freedom, media and above all, the anti-corruption crusader among equals, thus a plus to his personality, the party and the nation as well as for the electronic government project to thrive.
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