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WORKERS' SUPPORT FOR INFORMATION
FLOW IS UNCONDITIONAL
PRESENTATION BY
JOHN E. ODAH
GENERAL SECRETARY, NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS
TO THE
SENATE PUBLIC HEARING
ON THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL
ON
APRIL 26, 2005
On behalf of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), I wish to
thank the leadership of the Senate and in particular the Senate Committee
on Inforn1ation for holding this public hearing on the Freedom of
Information Bill.
The Congress will also want to thank the House of
Representatives which passed this in1portant bill. Of course, there are
the numerous groups and Nigerians who over the years have fought for this
bill. Without them, this public hearing might not be taking place today.
We only hope that the Executive will demonstrate good faith
and the political will to sign this bill into law. But we are confident
that whatever happens, there are enough patriotic, democratic-minded and
courageous men and women in the National Assembly to transform this bill
into law.
The state which is a developed form of human civilisation
and governance can also be a roadblock for the citizenry. No state can run
without bureaucracy, but that in itself if not minimised and checked can
easily become an arm of oppression.
A degenerate bureaucracy can easily entrap the citizenry
and become an easy tool in the hands of dictatorship. We have gone through
this path before; from colonisation to military rule. The joke is that
even files on distribution of tea materials in a small office may carry
the stamp “Top Secret”.
Subsequently, people who are supposed to provide service
become the lords; interest of any government in power is assumed to be the
national interest. On the other hand, the national interest becomes
subsumed in a Tsunami of laws, imposed policies and selfish interests.
THE CITIZENRY AND POWER
Sovereignty belongs to the people from whom all power flows
is a basic provision in our constitution. But how does the citizenry
exercise sovereignty if it is put in the dark? How does a sovereign
exercise power and authority if he does not know? If servants keep vital
information on which important decisions be taken, who then exercises
power but the servant?
So we are subjected to the perverted logic where the
servant actually exercises authority. So information is very vital. No
other group in our country has tried to exercise so much power over
information than military regimes.
Recall the General Muhammed Buhari and Babatunde Idiagbon
regime which imposed an ancient style dictatorship on the country. Here
was a regime so powerful that it set aside the constitution, banned all
political parties, rallies and mass meetings and exercised absolute power.
Yet it was afraid of the little information that would flow to the people.
So it enacted Decree 4 of 1984 under which even if a report is true, but
causes embarrassment to a public officer, the reporter and his editor go
to jail and the media can be given hefty fines.
Since we run a democracy, information on public matter must
be available on request, hence the importance of the FOI Bill.
THE STRUGGLE FOR INFORMATION AND AGAINST CORRUPTION
If information flow is restricted, corruption will thrive.
In 2003, the News magazine ran a cover story on the Inspector General of
Police Tafa Balogun. In it, the publication accused him of corrupt
dealings. If we had the right to call public records on the deals and
contracts of Mr. Balogun, it is likely that his inglorious career might
have been cut short and the country would have been saved two more years
of bare-faced criminality under this cop. When scandals broke, the public
has a right to information. That is why we must give credit to those
Nigerians who at the risk of their lives fought that those things the rich
and powerful want closeted are made open. We have never been short of
people like Air Iyare, the late school teacher in Benin, former Governor
Apet Aku, politician-businessman Godwin Daboh and late Prof. Ayodele
Adejobi.
With the role these men played, particularly under military
regimes, the country was the better for it.
LABOUR AND THE FOI
The labour movement is an interestingly democratic system
which thrives best under democracy. Democracy itself thrives best under an
open society where the people exercise their right-to-know.
Let us take the industrial relations system. Under our laws
and the preferences of labour, industrial matters should be settled
peacefully. The Process of negotiations has to be open; lack of
information merely leads to trouble. So the employer and the union must be
open on the negotiation table.
In the absence of these, rumours develop wings and fiction
takes over in the factory.
The cause of many industrial problems in the public sector
today from Monetisation to mass retrenchment has to do with the lack of
openness, government's attitude of arrogance and secrecy. An FOI can
therefore ease industrial relations problems.
Also, given the position and role of labour in society,
meetings with government and its agencies are inevitable. Labour's
concerns with openness, accountability and contractocracy are also
constant. With an FOI, we will be better positioned to articulate and
advance the interests of NLC's five million members and general populace.
Our affiliate unions in the media, the Nigeria Union of
Journalists (NUJ), the Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union (RATAWU)
and the National Union of Printing and Paper Product" Workers Union (NUPPPROW)
will perform better and more professionally with an FOI.
The Country has invested so much in information
dissemination as to make an FOI inevitable. The executive will have no
moral right to run networks like the Nigeria Television Authority (NT A),
Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
and the plethora of external inforn1ation services like the Voice of
Nigeria (VON) and the information centres of our embassies unless it
supports the FOI.
LABOUR'S COMMITMENT TO FOI
The NLC suffered a lot under military regime. The Murtala-Obasanjo
regime banned it in 1975, the General Ibrahim Babangida regime proscribed
it in 1988 and the General Sanni Abacha dictatorship banned it in 1994. So
the NLC is wedded to democracy. We are committed to defending and
expanding the democratic space. The freedom of expression, freedom to hold
or disseminate ideas are basic to democratic sustenance. This is why we
are committed to the democratic system. Also, the NLC wants a radical
restructuring of the economy. All these might not be possible unless we
have an FOI which will give us the right to information and to source for
information, no matter how hard those in power wish to block such
information.
The NLC wishes to assure all workers especially in the
public service, that they have nothing to fear in the passage of the FOI
as Section 30 of the bill adequately ensures their protection. So, were
they to give information as required by the FOI, they will not run foul of
the criminal code, penal code, the Official Secrets Acts or any other such
law or policy.
The NLC wholly supports the FOI and call on all patriots to
do so.
Thank you. |
