Participants Propose FOI Advocacy Visit to Senators in Cross River

Participants at a One-day workshop on the Freedom of Information Bill for Grassroots Organisations in Calabar, Cross Rivers rose from the workshop with a proposition to embark on three advocacy visits to their representatives in the Senate. It is the participants’ way of showing to the Senators that the bill is very important to communities in the state and that the Senators should ensure that the bill is speedily passed at the Senate.

Fifty-Seven participants drawn from Community Alliance for Youth, The Inside-Out Initiative, Girl’s Power Initiative, Coalition of Eastern NGO”S NIGERIA, Sustainable Movement for Equity, Women Empower Network, Africa Dignity Foundation, Association of Nigerian Market Women/Men, The Green Vision Movement, Positive Development Foundation, Rural Family Health Organisation, National Traders & Market Leaders Council of Nigeria, Akpa Youth and Development Initiative, Young People’s Initiative, Center for Health Works Development and Research attended the workshop. It is the second workshop organized by Media Rights Agenda with support from the Partners Agency Collaborating Together (PACT Nigeria).

The participants said that for the bill to meet the objective of having a status of issues that require urgent government attention in Nigeria, the FOI Coalition should organize rallies across the nation as well as intensify media campaigns especially through Talk Shows in broadcast stations.

The one-day forum is the second in the programme for awareness generation and coalition strengthening initiatives organized by Media Rights Agenda through the support of PACT Nigeria. In his welcome address, Edem Okon Edem, Programme Coordinator of Akpabuyo Bakassi Green Movement described the workshop in Calabar as a unique opportunity for Community Based Organisations in Calabar “to contribute to the work of passing the bill into law and seeing the possibility for enhancing participatory democracy, provision of power to the anti-corruption crusade and above all promote positive development peace and respect for human rights”.

Speaking on the objectives of the workshop, the coordinator of the workshop Mr. Tive Denedo said that the idea is for access to information issues to be heard and known in the cities, around the creeks and the forest communities of Cross River state. He said that civil society in Cross River and other Nigerians stand to reap immense benefits from the booming tourism in the state especially when its execution is guided by an access to information regime. He said that unless such a law is passed to enable citizens monitor the process including Memorandum of Understanding signed by the firms driving the tourism market the Peoples Paradise as Calabar is generally referred to by the state’s citizens, stand a risk of being turned into the People’s Prison.

In his presentation, Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director Of Media Rights Agenda, said the global movement towards an access to information regime is crucial in the task of setting up systems to put pressure on public officers to promote best practices in democracy and governance saying that that when they fail to deliver the system would ensure that they are sanctioned even at the highest level of government.

Explaining that democracy by its nature and character requires that there must be openness, transparency and accountability which can only be guaranteed by unhindered access to public documents, information and records, Ojo said that people should reject every attempt by anyone to say that the concept of access to information is foreign.

Although the participants took up the challenge to ensure that the issue of access to information gets to as many citizens as possible, many of them expressed fears that the Nigeria experience of impunity and contempt for judicial pronouncements by public officers will hamper the process of effective implementation.

Following the agreement by participants to carry out the proposed activities thirty organizations volunteered to collaborate on the implementation process. These organizations were then divided into four thematic groups for Media Activities, Advocacy Visits to Senators in Cross River, Organisation of a Rally in Cross River and the Writing of a Position Paper on FOI by CBO’s in Cross River.

Coordination and Networking details are to be worked out by Agremo Bakassi Green Movement.