Freedom of Information Goes to School in South East

Participants at a grassroots workshop in Enugu, Enugu State, have said that they will take the concept of Freedom of Information to schools in South Eastern Nigeria as a way of creating greater awareness about the Bill. According to them, students would be a very good sources of enlisting their parents in the campaign.

Outlining the procedure for effective implementation of the school outreach, the participants said members of the FOI Coalition would make periodic visits to schools after consultations with school authorities, to organize talk sessions on the FOI Bill for both students and staff and indeed all members of the school community. This way, they maintained, a great deal of people would become familiar with the contents of the bill. The corps of civic educators and development information officers working with Civil Resource Development and Documentation Center (CIRDDOC) in fifteen centers across the South Eastern region will carry out the coordination.

A unique achievement of the Enugu workshop that was facilitated by CIRDDOC’s Executive Director, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo was the translation and reduction of “Freedom of Information and the word Document” to the level at which it could be understood by majority of participants who were more literate in the Igbo language. What was considered to be the best explanation of Freedom of Information out of nine different opinions was “Ikeke Inata Ozi” while “Ime ka oha mara (letting the people know) was regarded as second. “Document” was Akwukwo Nnkowa in the best of four translations.

Enthusiasm peaked and interaction level rose when the participants were given the opportunity to express themselves in Igbo as well as make comments, ask questions and contribute to the discourse. The Enugu workshop attended by sixty-eight participants is the third in the series of workshops aimed at bringing the content of the Bill to the average Nigerian and in the process strengthen the Freedom of Information Coalition. It was organized by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), in collaboration with Civil Resource Development and Documentation Center (CIRDDOC), Nigeria with support from the Partners Agency Collaborating Together (PACT Nigeria).

According to Tive Denedo, Coordinator of the workshop one crucial reason for holding the workshop in Enugu is to enable even those who are prospecting for minerals like coal and who work most times in the dark bowel of tunnels to hear about the Bill that will ensure that their days underground are accounted for in a transparent and open manner, when it becomes law.

He said that civil society in Enugu and other Nigerians in the Southeastern zone collaborate to insist that this Bill becomes law to see that a Nigeria of our dream becomes a reality saying that there is a lot that Nigerians can gain if we have a law that will make it possible for the proceeds of our mineral resources to be accounted for at all times.

In her contribution, Mrs. Nwankwo said she was attracted to the cause of campaigning for an FOI law because of the immense benefits of empowering even rural communities to track budgets and expenditure of public officers who hitherto enjoy some degree of immunities because of the prevailing legal environment. She told the participants that the task ahead is enormous but with persistence the situation would change. She also suggested the use of children in protest marches to any state that the President might want to visit in the near future.

Other strategies from the Enugu workshop included the collection of signatures of Friends of FOI for delivery to the President and the Senate, a collaborative effort of religious groups for their the use of Sunday schools and their influence with their congregation and politicians. It was also agreed that women organizations should be co-opted for the campaign especially as they have proven to be very effective in coordinating rallies and demonstrations that were successful.