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WE ARE WHAT WE KNOW
A MEMORANDUM BY
OWEI LAKEMFA
HEAD OF INFORMATION
NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS
TO THE SENATE PUBLIC HEARING ON
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL 2005
HELD AT THE
SENATE HEARING ROOM 1
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX, ABUJA
ON
TUESDAY 26TH MARCH 2005
“We are what we know” The title of this presentation is
not original to me. Except that I cannot recall where I plucked it from.
However, it aptly encapsulates the kernel of our presentation.
Information is power, and since power in our country can be
everything from governance to looting, those who wield it like the Sword
of Damocles, tend to do so guardly and jealously. In many parts of the
world, humanity has moved beyond such parochial usage of information and
power. However, in many corners of the universe, including ours,
information is still largely a hoarded commodity priced out of the reach
of the general citizenry.
If he who has information has power, conversely he who
lacks information lacks power. It is in order to empower the people that
the NLC joined other progressive forces to democratize information. It is
this objective that explains our presence at this Public Hearing on the
Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill 2005.
The Thorny Path Taken
Democracy thrives in the open, dictatorship in the dark,
hence military governments and their hand maidens have over the years
imposed a blanket over information flow.
We recall that from the late 1980s whenever Government
decided to increase prices of petroleum, the method was to invite various
groups. Usually the groups are invited to the NNPC Headquarters in Lagos
where in turn they were shown slides containing statistics that make such
prices “inevitable”.
After each film show, viewers are invited to ask questions
which obviously are dependent on their retentive memories. We were in no
position to dispute the statistics so beautifully presented as we had not
access to records.
Today, after series of protests and research, we are able
to prise out whatever template is used for such propaganda films. With
this, we have been able to match government’s arguments and their
statistics. So it has become almost impossible for wool to be pooled over
our eyes as far as pricing of petroleum products go. If all along, there
had been an FOI law, we would not have been pulled through this tortuous
path of information acquisition.
Obviously, we are still deep in the woods as government
despite all its propaganda about “Openness” transparency and
“accountability” continues to hoard information not just from the public
but also from you Distinguished Senators and Honourables. For instance,
while the National Assembly has powers of appropriation, while the
constitution empowers you to make and pass budget in the interest of the
populace, like the rest of us the poor, you do not know the actual revenue
profile of the country. The governors who populate the Economic Council do
not know either!
The battle for full disclosure of our revenue profile is
made more difficult for the National Assembly because inspite of your over
sight functions it is difficult, for this Assembly to summon the relevant
Minister to give the needed information. Although oil is the main stay of
our economy and determines the country’s budget, we have no Petroleum
Minister. The President who is in charge of Petroleum, Dey Kampe in
Aso Rock where there is no shaking for him. If you summon him, you
may do so in vain. But with an FOI law, even the common people can drag
him through the courts if he refuses or declines to give us such basic
information.
The tragedy of our situation is that the executive itself
might not know how much oil we produce. The Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR) which is supposed to monitor and regulate oil production
has no functional helicopter of its own or basic tools necessary for the
job. So it depends on the sympathy and generosity of the same oil
companies it is supposed to monitor. Perhaps beyond the “Publish What You
Pay Campaign”. We should pressurize the oil companies to “Publish What You
Earn”, and “Publish What You Do” as some of them commit crimes against our
people and land.
The lack of an FOI has been mainly responsible for rumours
and misinformation. For instance the N2.billion missing oil money
controversy which crept from the Generals Murtala – Obasanjo regime into
the President Shehu Shagari administration might have been easily cleared
if an FOI law were in place. It has also been partly responsible for
government getting away with crimes which they term rumours.
FOI EFFECT HISTORY
FOI acts as checks and balances. Theoretically in a
democracy, we the people give our mandate to those who govern. To ensure
our interests, we have to peep anytime we want, to see what those we put
in power and the institutions we put in place are doing.
The power to call for and receive records, helps the people
to carry out such checks. In the United States such power changed the
course of history. The agents of the quite powerful President Richard
Nixon had burgled the offices of the Democratic National Committee in
order to gain electoral advantage. Nixon could not continue to hide or
withhold the White House tapes; his presidency bit the dust and he had to
kiss one of the most powerful offices in the world goodbye.
Ronald Reagan was set to go the Nixon way when the
electronic mail of Colonel Oliver North were demanded and received. They
revealed how deep the Reagan presidency was in selling arms to Iran and
using the proceed to fund the Contras Fighting the elected administration
of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
In our country, if we had an FOI in place which was obeyed,
our course of history might have been different when back in 1993 the
regime of General Ibrahim Babangida stopped the announcement of election
results. If we had a functional FOI, the Electoral Commission would have
been made to produce the rest of the results. Perhaps with that the
country might not have been faced with the trauma that followed. We could
have been saved the retrogression that was the Interim National
Government. The country might have been saved the long nightmare that was
the General Sani Abacha regime that shed a lot of blood, forced patriots
into exile and liberally looted the national treasury.
Perhaps if we had a functional FOI the General Babangida
regime might not have so wasted our resources including making $12 billion
excess Gulf War oil income disapper from the country’s radar screen. May
be a functional FOI might have made the Prof. Okigbo investigation into
this brazen misappropriation of public funds by the Babangida regime
unnecessary. If we have the FOI today, some of us will demand that this
administration produce the Okigbo Report.
An FOI will also save our judiciary precious time. Some
electoral petitions such as those of Senators Ben Obi and Joy Emordi that
lasted nineteen months were essentially over who were the authentic
candidates of the PDP in the elections. Perhaps an FOI would have resolved
these cases within a few weeks simply by requesting the relevant files
from the Independent National Electoral Commission.
At the level of the Labour Movement perhaps if we had
information or could demand for it when government was firming up the
monetization gambit, the country would have been saved the confusion and
muddle that has followed.
Today, Government has decided to carry out mass sack in the
public sector. With an FOI we might be able to demand records of the
debates, arguments, statistics, criteria and basis for such a mass purge.
Perhaps, we can proffer a better alternative and save the country the
headaches that will follow.
All these conclusions might seem simplistic. But they point
to the varied possibilities an FOI can offer a people.
The Challenges of FOI
The struggle for an FOI in our country has been long. It
has suffered long delays and we can only work and pray for its delivery.
But this is not surprising because in most parts of the world, governments
are at home with deception, official disinformation, cooking figures and
generally covering up their acts.
An American leader tried to explain this unholy culture by
arguing that the truth is so precious that it has to be surrounded by a
body guard of lies.
It is therefore not surprising that in the United States
which prides itself as the freest country, the first FOI was in 1966 and
it was not until 1974 after Watergate and years of deception about Vietnam
that the FOI was given teeth. Until today, the American FOI engaged in
various battles with the executive.
Not surprisingly, the British, our former colonial masters
who took us through the rigmarole of Secrets Act, seditious publications
and “Keep Our Secrets Secret” did not embrace FOI until November 2000 with
law being fully introduced just two months ago.
The FOI Bill we have is quite progressive with the
enforceable right of Nigerians to access information under the control of
a government or public institution (section 2). This includes any grant or
contract not just amongst public institutions and government but also
private organizations (Section 3(o). That any public officer who attempts
to doctor records or destroy them will go to jail for three years (Section
10) is a good deterrent. Also quite progressive is Section 27 that puts
the burden of proof that an officer is authorized to refuse disclosure of
a record, on the government and/or public institution concerned.
However, with ten out of the thirty four sections of the
Bill making exemptions under which government or the institution concerned
is empowered not to make disclosure, there are enough loopholes thorough
which an unwilling government, public institution or officer can slip.
What this means is that the passing of the Bill is simply a
step in a long journey. The Bill when passed will be a means, a vehicle
and not an end in itself. The real challenge is the implementation. A lot
of work will be required for the citizen to determine that type of
information government collects or what exact information is required.
There will be the need for capacity building and strong advocacy.
CONCLUSION
It is in our collective interest to pass this bill. It is
in the interest of our democratic future and that of our children that
this bill is passed.
But let us caution that the FOI is not a substitute to good
government and open governance. It is not a substitute for mass
participation in governance. It does not resolve the corruption problem
nor the poor – rich divide. Indeed it does not address the fundamental
problems of food and shelter, education and health care. So it is one more
tool to pry open the many cupboards locked away from the public. This will
be furtherance of our collective objectives of accountability,
transparency, mass participation in governance and sustainable
development.
If for centuries, bureaucracy has locked away secrets under
all sorts of disguises and has even punished severely those who expose
fractions of such secrets, we have no doubt that this power will not be
given up with out a fight and resort to delay or frustrating tactics. A
formidable cabal we shall face are the private contractors who are into
endless deals with the sole purpose of making huge profits by any means.
So the FOI will be like lifting the curtain of secrecy; it
will be like knowing the truth, and the truth we are told, shall set us
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