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Freedom of Information Goes to
School in South East
Participants at a grassroots
workshop in Enugu, Enugu State, have said that they will take the concept
of Freedom of Information to schools in South Eastern Nigeria as a way of
creating greater awareness about the Bill. According to them, students
would be a very good sources of enlisting their parents in the campaign.
Outlining the procedure for
effective implementation of the school outreach, the participants said
members of the FOI Coalition would make periodic visits to schools after
consultations with school authorities, to organize talk sessions on the
FOI Bill for both students and staff and indeed all members of the school
community. This way, they maintained, a great deal of people would become
familiar with the contents of the bill. The corps of civic educators and
development information officers working with Civil Resource Development
and Documentation Center (CIRDDOC) in fifteen centers across the South
Eastern region will carry out the coordination.
A unique achievement of the
Enugu workshop that was facilitated by CIRDDOC’s Executive Director, Mrs.
Oby Nwankwo was the translation and reduction of “Freedom of Information
and the word Document” to the level at which it could be understood by
majority of participants who were more literate in the Igbo language. What
was considered to be the best explanation of Freedom of Information out of
nine different opinions was “Ikeke Inata Ozi” while “Ime ka oha
mara (letting the people know) was regarded as second. “Document” was
Akwukwo Nnkowa in the best of four translations.
Enthusiasm peaked and
interaction level rose when the participants were given the opportunity to
express themselves in Igbo as well as make comments, ask questions and
contribute to the discourse. The Enugu workshop attended by sixty-eight
participants is the third in the series of workshops aimed at bringing the
content of the Bill to the average Nigerian and in the process strengthen
the Freedom of Information Coalition. It was organized by Media Rights
Agenda (MRA), in collaboration with Civil Resource Development and
Documentation Center (CIRDDOC), Nigeria with support from the Partners
Agency Collaborating Together (PACT Nigeria).
According to Tive Denedo,
Coordinator of the workshop one crucial reason for holding the workshop in
Enugu is to enable even those who are prospecting for minerals like coal
and who work most times in the dark bowel of tunnels to hear about the
Bill that will ensure that their days underground are accounted for in a
transparent and open manner, when it becomes law.
He said that civil society in
Enugu and other Nigerians in the Southeastern zone collaborate to insist
that this Bill becomes law to see that a Nigeria of our dream becomes a
reality saying that there is a lot that Nigerians can gain if we have a
law that will make it possible for the proceeds of our mineral resources
to be accounted for at all times.
In her contribution, Mrs.
Nwankwo said she was attracted to the cause of campaigning for an FOI law
because of the immense benefits of empowering even rural communities to
track budgets and expenditure of public officers who hitherto enjoy some
degree of immunities because of the prevailing legal environment. She told
the participants that the task ahead is enormous but with persistence the
situation would change. She also suggested the use of children in protest
marches to any state that the President might want to visit in the near
future.
Other strategies from the Enugu
workshop included the collection of signatures of Friends of FOI for
delivery to the President and the Senate, a collaborative effort of
religious groups for their the use of Sunday schools and their influence
with their congregation and politicians. It was also agreed that women
organizations should be co-opted for the campaign especially as they have
proven to be very effective in coordinating rallies and demonstrations
that were successful.
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