MRA Launches Grassroots Enlightenment Campaign on FOI

Port Harcourt, Monday, December 5 2005: Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today launched an enlightenment campaign on the Freedom of Information Bill targeted at community-based organizations to broaden the constituency for support for the proposed law.

The campaign is aimed at reaching out to the non-elite members of the society and raising awareness and support for the Bill among such organizations and communities, to create a momentum for the Bill among grassroots organizations.

The first of the events, which are being organized with support from the European Commission, will take place today in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Subsequent meetings with community based organizations will also be held in Benin City, Edo State; Jos, Plateau State; and in Kaduna.

The objective of the campaign is to provide these groups of Nigerians with basic knowledge about the Bill, explain how it is relevant to them and to their social, economic and political development, prepare them to network with other sectors of the society engaged in the freedom of information campaign and enhance their capacity to speak about issues of transparency and accountability in their local areas.

The Port Harcourt meeting is being organized by MRA in collaboration with Community Rights Initiative (CORI). It will bring together about 40 freedom of information campaigners as well as leaders and representatives of grassroots, community-based organizations and other non-elite members of the society.

Participants will be drawn from the Egi Women Welfare Association (EWWA) in Obite Community and the Ogbogu Youth Movement (OYM) in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State; the Elele Women Association (EWA) in Elele Town in the Ikwerre Local Government Area; the Rumuekpe Women Association (RWA), also in Ikwerre Local Government Area; the Ogbogoro Community Development Committee in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area; the Umuakonu Community Development Committee in Etche Local Government Area; the Elelenwo Community, the Iriebe Community, the Rumuepirikom Community, the Rumuokwuta Community Town Council, and the Rumuomio Community, all in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.

Other participants will come from the Ogu Bolo Community, the Okirika Community, the Etche Ikwerrengwo Community, the Ozuzu Community, the Community Democrats in Okokwu Town in Port Harcourt Local Government Area; the Rural Foundation for Gender and Development (RUFDEV) in Omoku Town; the Sustainable Peace Initiative; the Abua Development Association, the Ikwerre Youth Movement in Isiokpo Town; the Omoku Youth Association in One Local Government Area; Community Rights Initiative; and the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) in Bori Town, in the Khana Local Government Area.

No fewer than two hundred participants from various community groups are expected to benefit from this new phase of the campaign to get more Nigerians involved in the campaign for a Freedom of Information Act.