The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology under
the leadership of Dr. Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu has
been inducted into the ‘FOI Hall of Shame’ by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) for alleged
blatant disregard of the Act Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011 in the past
seven years, reports ITRealms.
MRA’s Legal Officer, Ms Morisola Alaba, announced the
induction in a statement in Lagos, saying “In the last seven years since the
enactment of the FOI Act, the ministry has not submitted a single annual report
on its implementation of the Law, thus violating section 29 of the Act and the
Guidelines for the Implementation of the FOI Act, issued by the
Attorney-General of the Federation pursuant to his powers under the Act.”
She noted that the ministry whose vision is to make
Nigeria one of the acknowledged leaders of the scientifically and
technologically developed nations of the world deliberately disregards the FOI
Act which is aimed at enabling citizens to be aware of the
operations, businesses and activities of Government, including all public
institutions, in order to make informed decisions in all aspects of their
lives.
Although the ministry has
published on its website a description of
the organisation and its responsibilities, including details of the
programmes and functions of each of its departments, it nonetheless failed to
publish a list of description of documents containing final opinion including
concurring and dissenting opinions.
Ms Alaba added that “there is also no indication
whatsoever that the ministry has provided the appropriate training for its
officials on the public’s right of access to information or records held by the
ministry or trained them to effectively implement the Act, as it is required to
do by section 13 of the FOI Act.”
She further said that the ministry, whose mandate
includes acquisition and application of science, technology and innovation
contribution to increase agricultural and livestock production; creation of
technology infrastructure and knowledge base to facilitate its wide application
for development; and application of natural medicine resources and technologies
for health sector development, among others has failed to acknowledge the FOI
Act in order to make information relevant to its mandate readily available.
According to Ms Alaba, the ministry failed to
proactively disclose list of files containing applications for any contract,
permit, grant, licenses or agreement, reports, documents, studies, or
publications prepared by independent contractors for institution; and materials
containing information relating to any grant or contract made by or between the
institution and another public institution or private organisation, as required
by section 2 (3) (e) of the FOI Act.
She stated that although the ministry has names and
profiles of its management staff on its website, it failed to
disclose the names, salaries, titles and dates of employment of all
employees of the institution, as required by section 2 (3) (d) (vi) of the
Act.
Ms Alaba said the ministry also failed to disclose
information on documents containing final planning policies, recommendations,
and decisions as well as information relating to the receipt or
expenditure of public or other funds of the institution in violation of section
2 (3) (iii) and (v) of the FOI Act.
She added: “Although we cannot determine at this point
the scale of non-responsiveness by the Ministry to requests for information
from members of the public owing to its failure to submit annual reports for
2011 to 2017, which would have provided that vital information, we know for a
fact that it has failed to respond to FOI requests from civil society
organizations such as the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) and
Paradigm Initiative. Instead of providing the information in
accordance with the Law, it has opted to waste public funds defending the
refusal to disclose the requested information in court.”
Ms Alaba said there was no indication on
the ministry’s website or anywhere else that it has designated an appropriate
officer to whom applications for information should be sent, and accused the
ministry of also violating Section 2(3)(f) of the Act, adding that even the
Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the oversight body for the
implementation of the FOI Act, which maintains a database of such FOI Desk
Officers of public institutions, has no record of compliance by the ministry.
Launched by MRA in July 2017, the “FOI Hall of Shame”
highlights public officials and institutions that are undermining the
effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances, and
decisions.
Uj. N. Dominic/GEE
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