By the newly passed Freedom of Information (FoI) Act will be the subject of discussion in Lagos State Thursday as the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) holds its first town hall meeting.

Expected to speak at the event are Governors Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos and Babangida Aliyu of Niger.

Ms Suzanne Legault, Canadian Information Commissioner, is also one of the discussants.

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, is also expected to provide some insight into the opportunities offered by the new law which has been hailed by both the media and society groups as a good development in the nation's history.

The President of NPAN and Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, will moderate the town hall meeting.

The FoI Act, which was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan in May 2011 after almost 12 years of foot-dragging by different administrations and sessions of the National Assembly, is designed to grant the general public access to certain government records which are not considered as threat to national security.

The governors are expected to bring governance perspective to the landmark legislation which is aimed at improving transparency and accountability in government, a dimension considered as lacking in Nigeria's democratic experience.

While the Federal Government was still dilly-dallying over the Act over the years, Lagos State started working on its own version of the bill.

For the Act to be applicable to the states, lawyers and legal experts had said it needed to be replicated in each state because issues pertaining to information are on the concurrent list, meaning the states and federal government could legislate on the issues.

Ekiti State was the first state to attempt to replicate the Act as Fayemi sent a copy of the law to the state House of Assembly for passage.