Patrick Ugeh
4 August 2008
Abuja — Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. John Odey, has stated that the executive arm of government would give the Freedom of Information bill accelerated attention.
He also assured that the administration would support all efforts by the National Assembly to ensure genuine press freedom in Nigeria.
In a keynote address he delivered at 39th meeting of the National Council on Information Council on Information Communication in Yenagoa, he stressed "the continuous efforts and commitment of the National Assembly, particularly Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Information and Media, on passage of the Freedom of Information Bill."
The Minister stated further: "Guided by the Rule of Law and Due Process, the present administration will continue to support all efforts by the National Assembly to ensure genuine press freedom in Nigeria, as is the tradition in older democracies all over the world.
"Just as a free press is often referred to as the oxygen of democracy, I share the belief that the survival and consolidation of Nigeria's democracy must be hinged on an open government and access to information."The theme of the conference was 'Managing Information for National Development', the wisdom behind the choice of which the minister said was the issue of managing information for national development .He said the meeting was taking place at a time when contemporary international environment was increasingly compelling massive investment in the human, technological and professional infrastructures of information and communications.According to him, this was particularly against the background of widening frontiers of technological dependence, expansion of foreign cultural influences, the need to create a climate of unity, as well as the need to consolidate democracy. He said all these developments and the expectations they generate have no doubt heightened anxieties about the state of information and communication in our country.The minister noted that in this current dispensation, the Nigeria Information and Communications sector was responding to the realities of the prevailing order.
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