Mixed feeling as Senate begins debate on FOIB

By Kabir Alabi Garba , The Guardian, Monday, October 9, 2006
 

WITH the presentation of the report of the Senate Ad hoc Committee on the Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB) last week, expectation is high that the upper chamber of the National Assembly may tomorrow begin debates on the bill. The committee's Chairman, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), presented the report during the plenary session on Tuesday, last week.

Expectedly, the laying of the report before the Senate implies that the ad hoc committee, which was inaugurated last March, to rescue the bill from lackadaisical attitude displayed by the Information Committee led by Tawar Umbi Wada, has completed the assignment of turning around the previous report submitted by Wada's team.

But the procrastination that greeted the submission of the new report reflected in a number of unfulfilled promises really tasked the patience of the promoters of the bill.

At a point, there was a total loss of hope of whether the bill would really see the light of the day.

However, the import of the pessimism expressed by some members of the FOI Coalition, an advocacy platform designed to root for the passage of the bill, appeared not lost on Ndoma-Egba, who seemed to have developed thick skin against any onslaught about his committee's activities.

What appeared like last encounter with journalists before the presentation last Tuesday was in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Thursday, September 7, at the opening ceremony of the third All Nigeria Editors Conference.

"The report is virtually ready. In the next one or two weeks, the report will be presented. It is virtually ready, we just doing little editing here and there," was Ndoma-Egba's response to a group of editors who had laid an ambush on him before he departed the venue.

He was actually responding to a challenge that the Senate was found of giving promise without fulfilling it.

In the five minutes chat in Yenagoa, there was reference to Ndoma-Egba's statement during the anniversary of the World Press Freedom Day on May 3, in Abuja that the report would be ready before the end of July.

As if to pre-empt the thinking of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the organisers of the conference, the lawmakers had, on behalf of the Senate President, delivered a powerful speech where the essence of FOI Act was outlined.

"The freedom of Information Bill is being given accelerated hearing arising from its importance in facilitating the role of the media in enhancing accountability and good governance."

While appreciating this kind of flowery statement, participants had wondered why it was taking an eternity for the bill to be passed.

But at a recent Regional Workshop on Freedom of Information in Africa held in Lagos, Executive Director, Media Right Agenda (MRA), Edetaen Ojo, had predicted what could have happened to the bill in this last quarter of the year.

While addressing representatives of 30 civil society organisations from 16 countries in Africa at the workshop facilitated by the MRA in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative, Ojo gave a detailed account of the struggle of getting FOI Act in the country.

Entitled Nigerian Freedom of Information Bill: History & Current Status, Ojo noted, "the committee says it has now concluded work on the Bill. It promised last week to submit its report to the Plenary within two weeks. When the Committee finally submits its report, it will be debated in plenary during the third reading and if a majority of the 109 Senators agree, the Bill will be passed.

"If the version passed by the Senate differs from that passed by the House, a harmonisation process between the two chambers to agree on one Bill will be required before it can be sent to the President for assent. After it is sent to the President, he will have 30 days to either assent to it or signify that he is withholding assent. If the President assents, then the Bill will become law. If the President withholds assent, then the Bill will come back to the National Assembly. If both chambers of the National Assembly are able to muster two-thirds majority to pass the Bill again, it will become law regardless of the President's failure to assent."

Even within the Senate, there is hope that whatever eventually becomes of the bill will be acceptable to all Nigerians.

Tomorrow's debate is expected to involve a clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill and discussion of the Committee's report. As the bill enters its final stage in the Senate, the general impression is that in a matter of weeks, the bill looks set to be adopted by the body.

The Freedom of Information Bill has been pending before the National Assembly since the beginning of this present political dispensation in 1999. The bill was passed by the House of Representative in August 2004 and transmitted to the Senate in the same year.

In the Senate, the Bill went through a first reading on November 23, 2004 while the second reading was held on February 22, 2005 before the Bill was committed to the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, Chaired by Senator Tawar Wada.

The Bill went through a public hearing on April 26, 2005.

At the Lagos regional workshop, Ojo had explained that following the public hearing; the Committee produced an extensive report, which it submitted to the Plenary in September 2005.

According to him, "the Committee's report introduced a substantial number of far-reaching changes into the Bill. The most significant changes were: The application of the proposed law to private bodies, where:

• The information is required to enforce a right;
• the information is required to ensure the performance of a contract; or
• there is a question whether the body has been involved in corrupt practices.

"The introduction of an administrative mechanism, in the form of the National Human Rights Commission, to:

• supervise and monitor the implementation of the proposed law;

• serve as an administrative appeals body

• the review and streamlining of exemptions under the proposed law; and

• the reduction in the timeframe for processing requests for information."

He continued, "the Senate began debating the Committee's report on Dec. 20, 2005. Debates were suspended following complaints by some Senators about some of the provisions in the Committee's report. The Committee was asked to revise its report and re-present it in January 2006. However, by March 2006, the Committee had not presented its revised report. Therefore, the Senate withdrew the bill from the Committee on Information on the ground that it had exceeded the timeframe given to it work on the Bill, even with extensions. An adhoc committee headed by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, was thereafter set up by the Senate President."

When the Information Committee failed to present its report to the Senate at the scheduled time, the Senate President, Ken Nnamani, set up a six-member ad hoc Committee to work on the Bill.

Apart from its chairman, other members of the Ad hoc Committee are Senator Nuhu Aliyu, Senator Timothy Adudu, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Senator Adeleke Mamora and Senator Jibril Aminu.