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MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY RAY EKPU, PRESIDENT
NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (NPAN)
AT THE SENATE PUBLIC HEARING CONDUCTED
BY THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION ON
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL 2005
IN ABUJA, APRIL 26, 2005
The Freedom of Information Bill is, I believe, coming at
the right moment in our country's history. Not only are we running a
democratic government, imperfect as it is, but we are in an age where the
easy availability of information is regarded as the norm rather than an
aberration. The information superhighway has clearly made it easier for
more 'people to have more access to more information than hitherto.
Hoarding of information will no longer be fashionable in a world that has
been described as a global village.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion
and Expression had declared in a report to the UN Commission on Human
Rights in 1995 that: "Freedom will be bereft of all effectiveness if the
people have no access to information. Access to information is basic to
the democratic way of life. The tendency to withhold information from the
people at large is therefore to be strongly checked."
In the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
section 39 provides for freedom of expression and the press. It states
"Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including
freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information
without interference." Right now there are several legal, administrative
and bureaucratic road blocks to the full realisation of this freedom
because of the lack reasonable access to information of public interest
held by government officials or private institutions doing a public duty.
It is our hope that when this Bill is passed it will be an opportunity to
review such obstructionist legislation as the official Secrets Act 1962
that tends to stand in the way of the easy acquisition of information of
public interest. The official Secrets Act was enacted two years after our
independence and it was basically a carryover from the colonial days.
Forty three years later it certainly has no place in our books. This piece
of obnoxious legislation has tended to aid public servants to keep
classifying and reclassifying public information as a secret or top secret
when they have in most cases, nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with
national security or the general well-being of the polity. This
legislation tends to subject government officials to a long term or a
lifetime duty of needless confidentiality to the detriment of the public's
right to know.
A Freedom of Information culture will certainly emerge with
the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill into law. That culture will
help promote transparency, accountability, openness, good governance; it
will also help to reduce the possibility of corruption, political
instability and improve our development strides.
Another advantage of a FOI regime will be that every
citizen, senator or commoner, will have a legally enforceable right to get
access to public record. For instance, the laudable policy of giving
corruption a helluva fight has been stymied by the fact that no one can
have access, as of today, to the asset declaration forms of public
officers in the custody of the Code of Conduct Bureau. This has also made
the Code of Conduct Tribunal less than the tribune of the people.
AREAS FOR REVIEW: For
several years the idea of a Freedom of Information Act has been canvassed
in the media and in various public settings and inputs have been received
from various sources. This forum is perhaps the climax of such inputs. At
this point I do not have much to suggest by way of improving the quality
of the Bill. However, I believe that Sections 14 to 16 that deal with
situations where refusal of access should be allowed ought to be looked at
again and many of the exemptions considerably reduced. I suggest, for
instance, the outright deletion of Section 14 (1) i, ii, and (b) I Section
15 (d) ii, iii, iv and v and section 16 i and ii.
In all cases, however, the onus should be on the official
to prove that the information requested will, if released, cause
incalculable harm to the country and that the information is in any case
not of public interest and should therefore be withheld.
FOI IN OTHER JURISDICTIONS:
Let us look at how Freedom of Information Act has helped
the press to do its work more professionally and the society to benefit
from such disclosure in very positive ways. These benefits include the
revelation of cases of fraud, misgovernment, corruption or the promotion
of transparency and accountability in governance. A few examples from
other jurisdictions may suffice.
(a) The Canadian Press reported on July 21, 2003 that
documents obtained by CBC News World under Canada's Access to Information
Act revealed that there were 10 incidents of theft from Canadian military
bases since 1997. Items missing included mine detectors, smoke grenades,
handguns and explosives. In 1997 three kilogrammes of C4 plastic
explosives enough to level a building - were stolen from a training
exercise in British Columbia. .According to CBC News World, the weapons
were either sold by soldiers or kept as souvenirs.
(b) The Irish Times reported on June 26, 2003 that
documents, it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that
13 cases of alleged corporal punishment in primary schools have been
investigated by the Department of Education in the last school year. This
happened 21 years after Ireland banned corporal punishment in schools and
16 years after it was made a criminal offence.
(c) The Canadian Press reported on June 25, 2003 that
documents it obtained under Canada's .Access to Information Act showed
some questionable spending habits by some legislators who were involved in
creating Canada's gun registry. The document showed that the Canadian
Firearms Centre spent $12 million on travel expenses. Documents also
revealed that a former chief executive officer for the Centre spent
$205,000 over two year commuting to his office in Ottawa from Edmonton.
Taxpayers funded 56 flights. This revelation forced a ranking government
official to resign in the midst of public outcry and accusations of
government corruption.
(d) A report in the Daily Yomiuri of Japan of May 9, 2003
said documents obtained by it under the Japanese Information Disclosure
Law showed that the Japanese Public Highway Corporation spent 77 million
yen to entertain politicians between fiscal years 2001 and 2002. The
report indicates that a total of 1.47 million yen was spent to wine and
dine 11 lawmakers on 17 different occasions between fiscal 2001 and 2002.
In 11 of the 17 meetings the public corporation spent more than 10,000 yen
for each participant.
WHAT ABOUT NIGERIA? In
Nigeria, there are dozens of probe reports that are gathering dust in
several government offices all over the country which the Press – and the
public – do not have access to. These reports, obviously carry
uncomfortable truths which, if revealed, can make Nigeria better and
better governed. What, for instance, do the probe reports of the C-130
crash contain? What of the panels set up by General Sani Abacha to probe
the NNPC, Customs, CBN and Nigeria Airways. We certainly would not have
known what the Oputa Panel report contained if the civil society activists
had not made the information available.
For sometime now, the Press has been asking the Federal
Government to release the Pius Okigbo report on the $12.2 billion oil
windfall, but the government has failed to do so. When Newswatch
published the Okigbo report in its issue dated January 16, 1995 titled
“How IBB spend $12.2 billion oil money” there was some trepidation within
the Newswatch family as to whether the military government would react
like a wasp on seeing the scoop. The concern was not unfounded. It was
based on the experience that the magazine went through in 1987. In April
of that year, Newswatch had published a report of the Political Bureau
which the Babangida government had failed to release. The government took
the release of the report by the magazine as an affront and promptly
proscribed the magazine for six months. But the report itself contained no
earth-shaking secrets but was a mere compilation of the views of Nigerians
all over the country on the way forward for the country. In order to make
this kind of scenario untenable in the future we need to have legislation
that empowers Nigerians to gain access to information of public interest.
Besides, the Press has been saddled with a huge
responsibility in Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution without the
wherewithal to discharge that responsibility. Section 22 states: “The
press, radio and television and other agencies of the mass media shall at
all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this
Chapter (Chapter II) and uphold the responsibility and accountability of
the government to the people.” The press cannot discharge this obligation
effectively without empowerment by way of an act that will grant it – and
other Nigerians – reasonable access to information of public interest.
It is important to inform you that there is a world Freedom
of Information coalition that is gathering momentum worldwide. This
coalition has set aside September 28 of every year as the “Right to Know
Day”, a day when advocates of Freedom of Information will mount a series
of activities to promote the idea of access to information.
As a democracy, that is where we belong. In that sense, I
can say to you that the ball is now in your court. Please play it.
Thank you.
Ray Ekpu
President, NPAN
April 26, 2005
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