Public Hearing on the FOI Bill further Postponed To April 26, 2005

 
ABUJA, FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2005: The public hearing on the Freedom of Information Bill which was originally scheduled to take place on March 22 will now hold on April 26, 2005.

The date, which was first shifted on March 22 to April 12, has been further shifted to April 26. The further shift in date was informed by the leadership crisis in the Senate. Although Senator Adolphus Wabara resigned as President on April 5, paving the way for the election of Senator Ken Nnamani as the new Senate President, in the course of consultations between the FOI Coalition Secretariat and the Senate Committee on Information, it was agreed that the present atmosphere in the Senate was still not sufficiently conducive for a hitch-free public hearing hence the further shift.

Following the crisis that had engulfed the Senate over allegations that some members of the National Assembly had received a N55 million bribe from the now dismissed Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji, to ensure the passage of the Ministry's budget for 2005, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Senator Tawar Wada, had on March 22 announced to scores of disappointed stakeholders that the public hearing had to be postponed.

Senator Wada had told Nigerians who gathered to testify that the Committee was unable to get the Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, or any other principal officer of the Senate to declare the public hearing open as is the tradition. He added that there was no point in carrying out a shoddy exercise on the Bill as "what is worth doing at all is worth doing well".

Following demands by some persons who were present, the Committee agreed then that the public hearing should take place on April 12 to give time for fresh advertisements to be placed in the media about the new dates and allow for adequate preparations.

Besides Senator Wada, other members of the committee who were present for the aborted public hearing were the deputy Chair of the Committee, Senator Rufus Spiff, and another Committee member, Senator Usman K. Umar.

Some of those present included the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Press Council (NPC), Mr. Godwin Omole, who represented the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu; the President of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mr. Ray Ekpu; and the publisher of the Punch newspapers, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola.

Others included the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Oronto Douglas; Programme Coordinator at the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), Mr. Maxwell Kadiri; the Head of External Cooperation at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ms Juliet Ume-Ezeoke; Professor Pat Utomi, Director of the Lagos Business School; former Kano State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Alhaji A. B. Mahmoud (SAN); Mr. Bankole Bello, an Accountant with the firm of Ighodalo and Associates in Lagos; and Mr. Tunji Olaopa, the Deputy Director of the Bureau for Civil Service Reform.

Others were the Head of Information at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Owei Lakemfa; the Coordinator of the Freedom of Information Coalition, Mr. Osaro Odemwingie; the Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Ms Angela Agoawike; the President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS), Mr. Ken Ukoha; the National Coordinator of the Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC), Ms Lilian Ekeanyanwu; the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo; Mr. Yusuf Kadiri, a Senior Associate in the law firm of Jackson, Etti and Edu in Lagos; and Dr. Mustapha Hussein, a Islamic scholar at the Bayero University, Kano and head of the Centre for Human Rights in Islam (CHRI) in Lagos.