|
A PRESENTATION BY THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN TRADERS (NANTS)
AT THE PUBLIC HEARING ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL BY THE FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA,
26TH APRIL 2005
Distinguished Senators,
Invites and Participants
Members of the Press,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are poised to make input today to facilitate the speedy
passing of Bill before the National Assembly, given the importance of
unhindered access to information particularly in our contemporary world
which has virtually taken over by multifarious economic activities both at
the domestic and global levels.
It must be realized that apart from oil, revenue generated
from traders via imports and exports has become the main sustenance of the
Nation’s budget and the economy in general. This has therefore given us
the locus standi; as well as the experience fit for intervention in such
an issue of National importance as Freedom of information.
With this background, Distinguished Senators, one would
quickly make bold to correct an erroneous impression that Freedom of
Information Bill or the intended law is a property of or instrument for
the Media.
All the hue and cry for popular participation or
inclusivity in governance can only be realistic and relevant if people
know; and how can they know if there is restriction or closed door to what
they ought to know if these brings to fore, the question as to the right
to know, freedom of access to information and its compatibility with the
provision of the supreme constitution of the Nation which succinctly joins
other International Declaration and Charters to support human rights.
Indeed, as the nation has presently taken a broom to clear
off corruption from the political and socio-economic corridors of our
daily lives, without being pessimistic we in NANTS believe that there is
little that could be achieved if the freedom of information law is not
enacted. Our experience with regard to our relationship with the customs
is a case in hand. Although we do not intend to condone evil, let it be
however made clear that the magnitude of corrupt practice going on within
the customs is unrivalled when juxtaposed with the bribery scandal at the
National Assembly. Had there been any legal instrument like the freedom of
information Act available to mirror the activities of customs and other
agencies of trade facilitation in the country, Nigeria would have
blossomed in terms of economic prosperity. By this we mean, FOI Act
becoming a mirror to x-ray the activities at the border posts, ports of
entry and the internal domain. A freedom of information Act that would
give everybody access to know the quantity of goods that came in or go out
of the shores of this country, who are responsible, through what means,
how much that was realized, how much went into individual pockets and how
much went to government coffers.
We need a freedom of information Act that would help us to
know or reveal to us why and how commodities in the long list of import
prohibition or ban still find their ways in our markets and stare at us
everyday. Who is the tailor that made the wings with which those goods
flew into our markets?
Distinguished Senators, we need a legal instrument that
would assist us to know or reveal to us why despite all the funds dumped
in NEPA over time, the organization has remained in coma, thereby drowning
the productive sector of the Nation’s economy and burying our heads in
shame. We want to know, as we ought to know who and who and what are
responsible. Until we have access to records, we may have to remain
standing in the dark.
Again dear participants and Distinguished Senators, until
we begin to have unhindered access to information that would help
Nigerians understand the policemen as a law enforcement agent, the
ignorant, poorly educated average Nigerian trader would continue to pay
illegal tax to a mystified policeman on the road. It is the freedom of
information that would embolden the trader to say no to aiding bribery and
corruption because he/she then realizes that in case anything ugly happens
to him, it is open to the society.
Freedom of information Act would empower the society to
demand application of the rules of law and good governance. Furthermore,
our relationship as traders with the third tier of government makes the
passage of freedom of information Bill an imperative. Distinguished
Senators, in line with section 7 of the fourth schedule of the 1999
constitution, the role of local government includes the establishment and
maintenance of markets within their jurisdiction. The local government’s
largest source of revenue apart from federal allocation is the market
where poor traders are made to pay more than five different taxes
including costly rents of shops. Unfortunately, the local governments in
Nigeria are interested in maintaining arbitrary rents, taxes and other
permits collectable on regular basis. The markets are dirty, unkempt, and
refuse-packed, there is no provision of facilities like water, motor
parks, accessible road network etc, while local government officials keep
constructing and allocating attachments; and aiding street trading/hawking
by collecting money and issuing official receipts distorting market master
plans. Unfortunately, when these illegal creations are demolished, the
poor trader beers the brunt. The LG officials are nowhere to be seen. A
clear indication that such collections did not find their ways into
government purse.
Similarly a catalogue of more than 30 markets have been
gutted by fire in the past 3 years, there have been cases where some of
these are traceable to official of local government who intend to
reconstruct and create more shops and more money for themselves and
perhaps their political supporters. Billion of Naira belonging to the
Nation’s already ailing economy have been gulfed in fire, unfortunately,
no inquiry, no information has been made available to the public on this
fundamental issue.
Ironically, when markets re constructed or reconstructed,
it is local governments officials that allocated 95%of the shops to
themselves only to sub-let same to traders. We believe in the FOI Act that
would enable Nigerians to access and validate/verify records as to who own
shops, who are the beneficiaries of market fires. FOI Act would equip the
average Nigerian trader to step into the LG and demand to know how much is
realized by the local government, and how much is put into government
coffers.
We are in full support of FOI Act. If the government has
engaged in full liberalization, privatization, commercialization,
deregulation and all the global economic jargons, information should also
be deregulated. Let everyone have a legal backing to investigate others,
to know and to maintain transparency and accountability in the Nation’s
polity. That is what every average harmless and poorly educated trader
understands as that system of checks and balances.
Distinguished Senators, part of your roles in the oversight
function of the National Assembly is to ensure that all are equal before
the law. It is through self-expression freedom to access information that
we could win the anti-corruption war. Nigerians are watching with key
interest. You must not let down your electorate who you represent.
Thank you and God Bless
Ambrose Enebe (Deputy National PRO)
For: President-General (NANTS). |
