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Senate President Restates Commitment to
Passage of FOI Bill
ABUJA, THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2005: Senate President
Ken Nnamani, said today that he is committed to ensuring that the Freedom
of Information Bill is passed in a form that will actualize the right of
Nigerian citizens to know and sustain efforts to develop a prosperous and
stable nation.
Speaking at a one-day interactive session for committee
secretaries, legislative aides and other staff members of the Senate
organized by the Freedom of Information Coalition in collaboration with
the Office of the Senate President, Senator Nnamani, said he believes that
“access to information is a fundamental right and a veritable instrument
for qualitative development,” adding that “in fact, right to critical
information is a condition for meaningful citizenship.”
The interactive forum, held at Valencia Hotel in Abuja, was
attended by about 75 legislative aides, committee secretaries, management
staff of the Senate and civil society activists campaigning for the
enactment of the Bill.
Represented by Senator Tawar Umbi Wada, the Chairman of the
Senate Committee on Information, the Senate President described the
meeting as a special one because three important categories of people
engaged with legislative business have come together to share perspectives
on the Freedom of Information Bill.
He said: “Today, we have management staff, committee
secretaries and civil society legislative advocates gathered together to
review the freedom of information bill. We should remember the importance
of these persons to the work of the National Assembly. We cannot make
effective laws if management staff in the National Assembly, the committee
secretaries and other legislative aides do not work harmoniously with
Senators. And no matter how harmoniously these groups work, they would
require the participation of civil society leaders for popular legitimacy
and democratic accountability. The cooperation of these groups of
Nigerians is necessary for the National Assembly to legislate for the good
governance of the country.”
The Senate President also described the interactive session
as timely saying he was delighted that the Senate now had an opportunity
to expose its legislative aides and management staff to critical issues
that Senators grapple with in discharging their responsibilities under the
Constitution.
According to him, “Because of many years of military rule
in this country, the legislative branch of government is underdeveloped.
We did not have the opportunity to develop the culture of engagement with
civil society groups in engendering responsible legislative interventions
in solving socio-political and economic problems in the country. Military
rule also deprived us of the opportunity to build the capacity of
legislative officers and committee secretaries to understand the
challenges of legislating for development and good governance.”
Senator Nnamani said he also considered the interactive
session very important because “it enables the sort of synergy we want to
develop between civil society and professional groups and the leadership
of the Senate. This synergy is necessary for effectiveness in our
responsibilities as Senators.”
He observed that the essence of democracy is collaboration
and consultation, saying the “new Senate” had carried out a needs
assessment of governance and identified the greatest challenge to
legislators as understanding the complexities of the social and economic
crisis in the country as well as the intricacies of legislative programmes
that can solve them.
In his view, members of civil society and professional
groups have the expertise and research insights that the Senate can tap
into in order to enact laws that will help to resolve the problems of
economic and social development.
In his own comments, Senator Wada described the meeting as
a milestone in the development of Nigeria, saying “this event will go a
long way in shaping the destiny of this country.”
He told the legislative aides and Senate staff that the
Senate holds them in high esteem and acknowledges the strategic positions
they occupy in the law-making process of the country.
Senator Wada said: “Without you people, nothing is going
to work in the Senate. You people should consider yourselves as our
deputies.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the Coordinator of the
Freedom of Information Coalition, Mr. Osaro Odemwingie, commended the
Office of the Senate President for collaborating with the Coalition to
organize the interactive forum, saying it was a clear indication of the
belief of the current leadership of the Senate in civil society and its
willingness to partner with civil society in the efforts to take the
country forward.
He observed that legislative aides and other staff of the
Senate play an important role in the legislative process and that the
decision of the Coalition to organize the forum was in recognition of this
fact.
Mr. Odemwingie identified the objectives of the interactive
session as:
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To formally
introduce the Bill to legislative aides and other relevant staff of the
Senate who may not be familiar with the Bill and thereby ensure that
they have a better understanding of its purpose and importance;
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To solicit
their support for the Bill and, through them, influence their principals
to support the passage of the Bill; and
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To create a
three-dimensional synergy among the legislative aides, various cadres of
administrative staff within the Senate and the civil society advocates
for the Bill.
He expressed the hope that the Coalition will have a
fruitful working relationship with the legislative aides and other staff
members of the Senate.
The Senate President’s Special Adviser on Research and
Strategy, Dr. Sam Amadi, explained and analyzed the vision and mission of
the Office of the Senate President. He said for credibility of the
process and maximal political capital, the department of research and
strategy in the Senate President’s Office will collaborate with civil
society organizations with research ability in executing research
programmes.
Thereafter, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, the Executive Director of
Media Rights Agenda (MRA), reviewed the Freedom of Information Bill, the
campaign so far and explained the link between the Bill and good
governance.
He told the legislative aides and Senate staff that they
constitute the engine room of the Senate and therefore play a critical
role in its effective functioning, adding that their active support for
the Bill and involvement in the processes leading to its enactment would
have a positive influence on it.
Mr. Ojo explained why the Bill is important for democratic
governance in Nigeria, arguing that “It is only when people have access to
information about government activities and policies that they can
participate in the process of governance. “
He also stressed that the prospects of
the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade would be greatly enhanced
by the enactment of a Freedom of Information Act in Nigeria and that
without it, a critical tool in this battle
remains missing.
Besides, Mr. Ojo said, the Federal Government itself had
already identified an access to information law as being central to the
successful prosecution of its economic reform agenda as “Chapter 6 of
National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) document
prioritizes a Right to Information Act as one of the two major laws
required to underpin Nigeria’s economic transformation, the other being
the Fiscal Responsibility Bill.”
Observing that the Right to Information Act ought to have
been adopted in 2004 under the NEEDS calendar, he argued that a Freedom of
Information Act will assist the Federal Government in achieving this
strategic milestone.
Mr. Ojo allayed fears that the Bill would give members of
the public access to vital national security information and other
sensitive information, saying “The truth is that although the Bill seeks
to grant a right of access to all public records in conformity with the
principle of maximum disclosure, it nonetheless recognizes that some
information and records need to be exempted from the general access.” He
cited the types of information that had been exempted from the general
right of access under the Bill and noted that “the Bill sufficiently
protects sensitive government and other private information.”
He urged the legislative aides and Senate staff to support
the efforts to pass the Bill into law in order to ensure that Nigeria’s
attempt at promoting participatory democracy, openness and transparency in
the conduct of public affairs yield positive fruits. He suggested that
they could support the efforts by:
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Explaining the
purpose and importance of the Bill to their principals, their
representatives in the Senate, and other Senators with whom they work or
have contact who may not be aware of its importance and thereby
influencing them to vote in support of the Bill; and
The presentation was followed by a lengthy discussion of
issues relating to the Bill during which scores of legislative aides and
other Senate staff expressed their support for the Bill.
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