The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has held a capacity building training programme for NOA State Directors and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Desk Officers from different government agencies in a bid to entrench the Act as a mechanism for ensuring open governance in Nigeria..
DG NOA, Dr. Garba Abari represented by the Director, Planning, Research and Strategy (PRS), Mr. Samuel Soughul said the Agency would continue to use its resources to empower Nigerians on their rights to seek information within the provision of the FOI Act. He recalled that the NOA has printed and produced the FOI Act in multiple Nigerian languages for better understanding.
A retired Director of the agency who was a resource person, Mr.BonatTagwai, took participants through a paper he presented. He lectured participants on circumstances to seek information and the limits to requests for information as contained in FOI Act. He demonstrated his points with analyses and analogies.
It is expected that the State Directors will, in turn, cascade the training to NOA Community Orientation and Mobilization Officers (COMOs) domiciled in the 774 Local Government Areas and Area Councils of the FCT in an effort to deepen understanding of the FOI Act. NOA regularly interacts with the citizenry on various policies, programmes and activities of government which constitute its mandate.
The hybrid (virtual) training was joined by NOA State Directors virtually and some physical participants.
