Workshop Proposes Translation of FOI Bill into Local Languages

Participants at a workshop on the Freedom of Information Bill for grassroots and community-based organizations in the Niger-Delta region have called for the translation of the proposed law into local languages to make it more accessible to rural dwellers.

The suggestion was a recurring theme throughout the one-day workshop held at Taland Place in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, and attended by about 40 participants from 36 grassroots and community-based organizations. 

The participants noted that that the Bill would be essential for the development of communities when passed into law but requested that more should be done to enable rural dwellers and non-literate Nigerians understand its content.

The strategy they proposed for achieving mass awareness about the content and purpose of the Bill is to translate both the Bill and final law that will be passed into local languages.

The workshop was organized by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), in collaboration with Community Rights Initiative (CORI), Port Harcourt, for leaders and representatives of grassroots, community-based organizations and other non-elite members of the society. 

The Port Harcourt workshop is the first of four such workshops being organized over the next few months with support from the European Commission.  Other workshops will take place in Benin City, Edo State, on December 15 and in Kaduna on December 19.   The final workshop will be held in Jos, Plateau State, early next year.

The objective of the workshops is to expand the frontiers of freedom of information to community and grassroots levels by providing these sectors of the Nigerian society basic knowledge about the Bill, its relevance to them as well as to their social, economic and political development, and to prepare them to network with other sectors of the society engaged in the freedom of information campaign. 

It is expected that the workshops will enhance their capacity to speak about issues of transparency and accountability in their localities as well as to contribute to the campaign for enactment of the Bill into law.

Speaking at the Port Harcourt workshop, Mr. Tive Denedo, MRA’s Director of Campaigns and coordinator of the workshops, explained why the workshops were being organized.  He observed that Freedom of Information will only be meaningful and effective if it ensures that all Nigerians, particularly rural people, are capable of contributing to the governance process.

Also speaking at the workshop, Mr. Wisdom Dike, Executive Director of CORI and a facilitator at the workshop, described the Freedom of Information Bill as a tool for social and economic re-engineering which is capable of totally changing the face of community relations in the Niger-Delta.  He said there could not have been a better time than now to bring the issue of Freedom of Information to the community level.

Response from the participants was enthusiastic as they turned out early for the programme. With a large population of restive youths in the Niger-Delta and an increasing number of average citizens dissatisfied with the activities of the government, multi-national corporations and community leaders who are unable to explain the disparity between the huge revenue derived from the communities and the infrastructures or state of social development on the ground, participation and contributions were expectedly intense.

Some participants, however, expressed concern that the current political climate in the country, which is characterized by the frequent disregard for the rule of law by the present government, the effective implementation of the proposed law might be hampered.   They advised that steps should be taken to address this problem and ensure effective implementation.

Participants also expressed fears that desperate public officials might resort to spiritual attacks to fend off enquiries when the Bill becomes law and is being used to enforce accountability in governance.  However, some other participants urged Nigerians to look up to God if a freedom of information law is to be an effective tool as corruption in Nigeria can only be removed by God.