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Senate to Hold Public
Hearing on FOI Bill on March 15
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Senator Wada,
Chair, Senate Committee on Information |
ABUJA, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2005:
The Senate Committee on Information is planning to hold a one-day public
hearing on the Freedom of Information Bill on March 15 to seek public
input into the proposed law before presenting a final text to the full
house.
Following the conclusion of the
second reading on the Bill at the Senate on February 22, the upper house
of the National Assembly referred the Bill to the Committee on Information
and National Orientation for more detailed examination and recommendations
ahead of the third and final reading which will take place subsequently.
The Senate gave the Committee three weeks to complete the assignment.
The Committee’s Chairman,
Senator Tawar Wada announced yesterday when its members met with a
delegation of the Freedom of Information Coalition that the Bill required
a public hearing and outlined a time-table for it. But he added that
the time-table was subject to the availability of funds as the 2005
Appropriation Bill had only just been passed and the Committee was not
certain how quickly it could get the money to organize the public hearing.
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| Senator
Rufus Spiff, Vice Chair, Senate Committee on Information |
The Committee was led at the
meeting by Senator Wada (PDP, Gombe South), a former Attorney-General of
Gombe State and former Chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Other members of the Committee present at the meeting included its Vice
Chairman, Senator Rufus I. Spiff (PDP, Bayelsa East), who was the
Secretary to the old Rivers State Government; Senator Nshi Christopher
Ucha (PDP, Ebonyi North), a former Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of
Assembly; Senator Usman K. Umar (ANPP, Kano South), a former
Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service; and Senator Saleh
Usman Anboyi (PDP, Taraba South), a former Deputy Governor of Taraba
State.
Members of the FOI Coalition
delegation which visited the Committee members at the National Assembly
Complex in Abuja were Mr. Edetaen Ojo,
Executive Director of Media Rights
Agenda (MRA); Mr. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, law lecturer at the London School
of Economics (LSE) and Africa Programme Director at the Open Society
Justice Initiative (OSJI); Mr. Fabian Okoye, Senior Program Officer at
Global Rights – Partners for Justice; Miss Mimidoo Achakpa,
Executive Director of Women’s Right to Education Program (WREP);
Mr. Maxwell Kadiri, Programme
Coordinator at the OSJI; Dr. Oji Ogbureke,
Program Advisor on Public Finance Analysis at Actionaid International
Nigeria; Miss Ene Enonche, a Project
Consultant at OSJI; and Mr.
Osaro Odemwingie, Coordinator of the FOI Coalition.
Speaking on behalf of the FOI
Coalition delegation, Mr. Ojo told the Senators that the purpose of the
meeting was to find out what process the Committee intended to adopt in
carrying out the assignment given to it by the full house and how civil
society organizations could intervene in the process to add value to the
work of the Committee. He said the Coalition was anxious to know
what the Committee’s plans were because it was aware that the Senate had
given the Committee three weeks to complete its task and that only two
weeks were now left before the deadline given to the Committee.
He added that the FOI advocates
also wanted to use the opportunity to address any concerns members of the
Committee or other senators might have about the Bill.
He explained that the FOI
Coalition is an alliance of 136 civil society organisations and thousands
of individuals across to country campaigning for the enactment of a
Freedom of Information Act in Nigeria. He said the Coalition was
pleased with the support that the Committee’s chairman and some of the
members had demonstrated for the Bill since it was introduced to the
Senate, particularly during the second reading.
Mr. Ojo said: “In a sense,
talking to the Chairman and some of the members of the Committee about the
Bill is almost like preaching to the converted. But we want to see
if there are areas where there
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From L to R Sen. Umar,
Sen. Anboyi, Sen. Ucha, Sen. Wada and Sen. Spiff |
are concerns and anxieties
so that we can explain the rationale and principles behind these
provisions and find ways of addressing the concerns.”
He said the Coalition was keen
to support the Committee in its work, but wanted to be guided by members
on what kind of assistance would be useful or helpful to their work.
He added that members of the Coalition had a tremendous amount of
expertise on freedom of information issues, including comparative
experience from different parts of the world, which they could put at the
disposal of the Committee and the Senate.
Referring to a "Memorandum on
the Freedom of Information Bill" submitted by the FOI Coalition delegation
to the Committee, Mr. Ojo said its purpose was to explain the rationale
behind some of the more important issues in the bill in the hope
that it would provide guidance to members of the Committee in their
deliberations on the issues.
Senator Wada expressed the
Committee’s appreciation for the commitment which the Coalition had shown
towards ensuring the passage of the Bill. He recalled that even
before the Bill was passed by the House of Representatives, a delegation
of the FOI Coalition had met with him to solicit his support for the Bill
and had continued to engage him on it said then.
He said although an initiative
as the Freedom of Information Bill ought to have come from the law-makers,
they were nonetheless appreciative of the fact that members of the civil
society had initiated the process and shown impressive commitment to it.
He observed that the Committee’s members were conscious of the fact that
the Bill would bring about a better and more democratic Nigeria and that
the present efforts by members of the Coalition and the Senate Committee
were not for their own interest, but for the benefit of posterity.
Senator Wada welcomed the
“consultancy services” which the Coalition was offering saying although
the Committee ought to conduct research into a number of areas and issues
arising from the Bill, Senators were too busy to be able to undertake such
research on their own. He said the Committee would require the assistance
of a consultant to help it collate the information which will be presented
by members of the public during the public hearing and provide them with
expert information on the subject, which he described as somewhat
technical. He therefore accepted the offer of assistance from the
Coalition.
A discussion followed the
comments, during which all the members of the Committee expressed strong
support for the Bill and promised to support its passage. However,
while some members fully supported the underlying principle behind the
Bill and all its provisions, others questioned the logic and rationale
behind a number of provisions. They called for a strengthening of
the Bill in some areas.
Some of the areas include:
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The need to
expand the scope of the Bill to ensure that it covers both government
and the private sector, including multinational corporation, private
companies and civil society organizations so as to ensure that the
entire system is more transparent.
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The
implications of the Bill for some other laws such as the Official
Secrets Act, the Criminal Code, etc., which have provisions prohibiting
access to certain sensitive information.
A debate ensued between members
of the Committee and the FOI Coalition delegation, at the end of which the
FOI delegation promised to conduct further research on these areas and
provide the Committee with a number of options for their consideration.
Senator Wada thereafter outlined
the plan of action of the Committee. He said the Committee would
place advertisements in newspapers next week to call for memoranda from
members of the public on the public hearing and formally announce the date
and venue of the event. He said members of the public would be given
one week to submit memoranda to the Committee and that a one-day public
hearing would subsequently be held on Tuesday, March 15, 2005.
He said after the public
hearing, the Committee would set up a technical committee to review the
presentations at the public hearing and put together a draft report which
the Committee would finalise and submit to the Senate.
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