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Senate Suspends Third Reading of the FOI
Bill
ABUJA, Tuesday, 20 December 2005:
The advocacy for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill into law
suffered a setback today as the upper legislative chamber of the National
Assembly, the Senate, suspended the third reading of the draft law, which
would have led to its passage.
Following extended and heated debates on some provisions of
the revised bill proposed by its Committee on Information, the Senate
suspended debates on the bill after dealing with only four of the 55
sections.
The Senate directed the Information Committee to conduct a
further review of the bill and reconcile areas of disagreement identified
by senators. It will continue debates on the bill when it resumes plenary
sitting next year.
The Bill was passed by the lower chamber of the National
Assembly, the House of Representatives, in August 2004 and transmitted to
the Senate the following month for concurrence. After the second reading
of the bill in the Senate last February 22, it was committed to the
Information Committee for more critical evaluation and recommendation to
the plenary.
The Information Committee held a public hearing on the bill
on April 26, during which a broad range of stakeholders, representing a
wide variety of sectors within the Nigerian society, including business,
trade unions, the academia, religious bodies, the media, the legal
profession, other professional bodies, the civil service, and human rights
groups made presentations and expressed unanimous support for the Bill.
Following recommendations made at the public hearing, the
Information Committee revised several provisions of the bill originally
passed by the House of Representatives. The Committee’s chairman, Senator
Tawar Wada, presented its report and the revised version of the bill to
his colleagues today at the plenary session. The Senate constituted
itself into a “committee of the whole house” to consider the report and
began debating the revised bill clause by clause.
The first four clauses of the bill were adopted, but when
the Senators reached the fifth clause, opposition began to build up.
Opposition from the Senate Minority Whip, Aba Aji, was hinged on the
argument that “a foreigner can come into the country, get licensed by the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and thereafter apply for information
under the guise that he is a Nigerian citizen”.
This was in reference to the Section 5 of the Bill which
provides that “Every citizen of Nigeria may request for information or
access to a record in control or custody of a public body and shall, in
accordance with the provisions of this Act, be given access to such
information or record.”
The section defines “citizen of Nigeria” as including
“association of such citizens” or “bodies corporate constituted under the
Laws of Nigeria.”
Other Senators who opposed the bill argued that the report
submitted by the Committee on Information was verbose and contained
questionable technical flaws which were not in the nation’s interest. They
argued that it would provide members of the public easy access to
classified information about the nation.
Following this trend, Senator James Manager urged the
Senate not to allow itself to be stampeded into passing the Bill. He said:
“We must not allow ourselves to be stampeded. We should not do what we
will regret in future. Even other members of the committee have spoken and
with what they have said, I am even more confused about this bill. It
should go back to the Committee so that they can take a critical view of
it before bringing it back to the whole house for consideration.”
Senator Jubril Aminu also argued that provisions of the
Bill could "paralyse the government" if passed.
Some Senators were opposed Sections of the Bill which also
grant members of the public a right of access to information held by
private bodies when such information is required for the protection of a
human right, to ensure the performance an obligation under contract with a
public body or for the investigation of corrupt practice.
Others disagreed with the introduction into the bill of
sections which stipulate that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
will be the administrative body in charge of monitoring the implementation
of the bill, when it becomes law, and resolving disputes arising from
denial of access before such disputes are taken before the courts.
In response to his colleagues, Senator Wada argued that
provisions of the bill reflected the recommendations and desires of
stakeholders in the media and “the generality of Nigerians” that submitted
memoranda to the Committee or made presentations during the public
hearing.
He said: “With every humility, I take all the corrections of my
colleagues. But first and foremost, my colleagues should know that this is
an important bill. A public hearing was held where we invited stakeholders
and collated their views. This bill is a compilation of their views. This
is what the industry wants. One of the problems we have is that we have
not read the bill and some of us seem to be harassed by the content of the
bill.”
Despite Senator Wada’s explanations, Senator Nuhu Aliyu
moved a motion that consideration of the bill be suspended because of the
reservations being expressed by most senators.
Although some Senators also argued that despite the alleged
flaws, the report should be debated by the Committee of the Whole House
and the perceived errors corrected, Senate President Ken Nnamani, ruled
that the consideration of the bill be postponed till next year, when the
Senate would resume from the Christmas and New Year holidays and the
Information Committee would have reviewed the report submitted on the
bill.
He explained that the postponement was to enable the
Committee carry out a concise review of the bill and reconcile areas of
disagreement identified by senators in the course of the debates.
Senator Wada agreed to undertake the review as directed,
but promised that the substance of the bill would not change when the
committee completes the review.
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