Promoters cheer freedom of information bill

By Kabir Alabi Garba

The Guardian, Monday, November 20, 2006

THE passage of the Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB) by the Senate last week has raised the bar of the campaign for the freedom of access to information regime in the country. While the passage has thrown the camp of the FOI Coalition, an advocacy group rooting for the enactment of FOI Act into celebration galore, the focus is now on how to secure the blessing of Mr. President on the bill. Osaro Odemwingie, a member of the coalition had cautioned last week that celebration should be delayed while effort should be geared "at gaining the overall victory - assent by Mr. President."

He therefore suggested another round of lobby with relevant authorities at the National Assembly "to set in motion the process of the harmonisation of the versions passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate." In Odemwingie's view, it would be better if the harmonised version would be ready before the end of December.

Not only that, he said the coalition should also begin the process of facilitating quick assent by President Olusegun Obasanjo when the bill comes before him. "We should therefore immediately seek audience with a number of ministers and presidential advisers who have shown support for the efforts to help set up strategies to reach the president. We can then target the bill being put before President Obasanjo by early January 2007 and to begin the 30 days countdown on the one hand."

According to him, it is also important "to continue to hold on to our allies at the National Assembly in order to continue to re-strategise for a possible veto vote" in case the President refuses assent.

Odemwingie would like the members of the coalition to double their efforts at this last leg of the struggle since "the elections are just around the corner and all attention will now shift in that direction not to talk of the holidays the assembly will go for."

But one fact is certain about the coalition. They always take several steps ahead of unforeseen circumstances. For instance, at a Regional Workshop on Freedom of Information in Africa held in Lagos last September, Executive Director, Media Right Agenda (MRA), Mr Edetaen Ojo had told participants from more than 16 countries in Africa as well as representatives from Europe and United States of America, that "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 sending the bill to the President, Ojo continued, "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."

Facilitated by MRA in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), the two-day regional workshop examined the need to establish a regional Freedom of Information Centre through which networking and collaborative activities could be co-ordinated and through which advocacy and monitoring strategies could be discussed and strengthened.

The initiative was borne from the realisation that out the 69 countries around the world that had adopted access to information laws or constitutional provisions, only three are from Africa. And unfortunately, none is from West African region. South Africa in 2000; Angola in 2002; and Uganda adopted it in 2005.

With this latest development, Nigeria, it is hoped, will, in a matter of weeks, join this eminent comity of nations where citizens' rights to information is guaranteed at all time.