Daily Independent (Lagos)
Maudlyn Park
9 October 2008
opinion
I envisage this zinger in Section 2 of the Bill to throw up issues of locus standi in order to create not only delays and frustrations but also veiled and varied interpretations of national security which could fetter the judge's discretion. The requirement in this section is further proof that the Yar'Adua Administration would continue the secrecy, hypocrisy, and failed policies Nigeria has suffered over 100 years.
Now, mix this section of the Bill with the contents of the Oath of Secrecy which was recently administered to about 70 Aso Rock officials, and you would know from the taste of it that democrats cannot exhale yet. Why do we pretend to operate an open society when we are not?
Our society needs to understand that access to information is a right and that we have to turn this right into a culture by using it everyday, by developing the habit of finding out about the country if you are part of it, the economy, the infrastructure, where public money goes and generally how public authorities work. This culture will set a new standard for transparency and accountability, a plus, a boost for government, to restoring trust in Nigerians and promoting a healthy democracy.
I monitored a World Service broadcast on BBC Radio4 on FOI laws around the world, which revealed that countries adopt FOI laws to suit their own different political cultures and secondly that what is really pushing the widespread culture of FOI laws around the globe is anti-corruption crusade. Is this not one of the major reasons why our politicians are anxious, and resistant to the idea to introduce FOI laws in Nigeria?
Former US President Jimmy Carter is one of the leading international figures pushing for FOI laws and transparency in governance. He was a participant on the Radio4 programme. Hear him: "Take Nigeria. They have vast natural resources to be sold on the public market of oil. But what happens to those incoming funds which are voluminous is not revealed to the public. If there was an FOI law in Nigeria in force, it will require all sales of oil to be revealed to the public about how the funds were used. That will materially change the inter-structure of government and between the rich and the poor in Nigeria and reduce corruption dramatically. This is one example."
If the Senate President, David Mark and others in his league are paying close attention, we do not need to be stuck with national security as a reason for delaying the passage of the bill, because state secrets have always remained secret anyway. Concern at this point in our development should be focused on the function of the welfare aspect of the State, including education, health, roads, electricity, food security, the provision of good drinking water juxtaposed with the huge resources vetoed each year to match and implement these projects for the governed and the represented -the Nigerian people.
To the Senate President's rhetoric "to create the impression that if we throw everything open, there will be development" here is how:
"When an FOI law is established in any kind of government, a signal is sent to bureaucrats, administrators, politicians saying I expose you to public control. I entitle the citizens to come at your desk and drawers and by allowing the citizens to look into your drawers, I now set up another control force to help me as a Central government to avoid corruption and abuse of office and power" (A Chinese official on BBC Radio4,WorldService).
The passing of the FOI law is a clear signpost for the future particularly in Nigeria where corruption by public office holders is of epic proportions even if we say so ourselves. This law when implemented as it ought to be, will clean up waste, greed and self- service to public funds meant for developmental purposes. Public money which hitherto found its way into private pockets will be arrested and diverted to where it should be headed in the first place: into the realization of the provision of social infrastructures.
Leaders, politicians and political parties in power should be able to answer with a straight face the three basic questions to measure development thus: What is happening to poverty? What is happening to unemployment? What is happening to inequality?
I am no tea-leaf reader but going by the experiences of other developed or developing countries, the introduction of FOI laws would amount to a momentous cultural change, to be used by members of the public and not only the media and pressure groups. It will provide access to important information to which the Nigerian people are entitled to gauge whether expenses made by politicians to neighbouring Ghana for oversight meetings and other far-flung lands were made for the public interest and therefore legitimate or plain junket for a start. Or for use to make the decision over which school to send wards to.
I mean no disrespect. But when will our politicians put country first? No politician, if you ask my opinion, should be allowed to get away by telling the voters that they should lose their right to know. Voters could jolly well wait by the river long enough.
*Concluded
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