Revisit Draft FOI Bill, ANEEJ Urges Obaseki

By Lucky Isibor

The Executive Director of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev David Ugolor has called on Governor Godwin Obaseki to revisit the Edo State draft Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill prepared by the Edo State Ministry of Justice, with a view to forwarding it to the Edo State House of Assembly for consideration and passage.

Innocent Edemharhia, ANEEJ Programme Manager who represented Rev. David Ugolor, Executive Director, ANEEJ at the event

Ugolor who was represented by the programme manager of ANEEJ, Innocent Edemharhia made the appeal in an interactive session with journalists at it's headquarters in Benin City Friday, 28 October, noting that the draft Edo State FOI Bill has been subjected to consultations with stakeholders, including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the Open Government Partnership (OGP) framework.

Ugolor who said that the aim of the media parley was to draw the attention of the Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki to the draft Edo State FOI Bill, added that ANEEJ is presently working with Gatefield and other organisations under the "Keep it Open" cluster to advocate for the enactment of Freedom of Information Law in Edo, Kaduna and Adamawa States in the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), being implemented by Palladium. 

According to him "the goal is to democratize the civic space and foster an enabling environment for civic space/digital rights in Nigeria by advocating for enabling laws, policies and regulations within the civic space for digital rights and freedom of information. 

"Interestingly, during the first tenure of Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki as governor of Edo State, a draft Edo State FOI bill was prepared by the legal drafting team of Edo State Ministry of Justice. The draft Edo State FOI Bill has also been subjected to consultation with stakeholders including Civil Society Organisations under the Open Government Partnership (OGP) framework. But since the governor’s second term in office, work on the draft bill has not been taken forward. 

"We have had engagement meetings with some stakeholders both state and none state actors to join us in this advocacy effort, we will sustain such advocacy effort and engage more stakeholder to support our advocacy issues.

"That is why this press conference has been called to draw the attention of His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, Edo State governor, to the draft Edo State FOI Bill and appeal to the governor to revisit the draft bill and present the bill to Edo State House of Assembly as an Executive Bill for consideration."

While stating that the intention of FOI Act is to make public information, records and documents assessible to the public, Ugolor pointed out that CSOs and other stakeholders have been engaging state governments on the need to enact their state FOI Laws and thanked the Governors of Ekiti and Imo States for enacttng their state's FOI Laws.

"The FOI Act is intended to make public information, records and documents more freely available to the public. It also mandates the government to proactively disclose information and set up FOI desk to swiftly respond to FOI requests from the public. 

"Civil society organisations and other interest groups have been working at subnational level, engaging State government on the need to have their States FOI law. If States have their own FOI law, it will also bring to an end the raging controversy about the applicability of FOI Act at State level where several groups both within and outside Edo State are now in court.

Advocacy effort in this regard has so far paid off in Ekiti and Imo States, where the governors have enacted their own state FOI laws. "