Senate President Restates Commitment to Passage of FOI Bill

ABUJA, THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2005:  Senate President Ken Nnamani, said today that he is committed to ensuring that the Freedom of Information Bill is passed in a form that will actualize the right of Nigerian citizens to know and sustain efforts to develop a prosperous and stable nation.

Speaking at a one-day interactive session for committee secretaries, legislative aides and other staff members of the Senate organized by the Freedom of Information Coalition in collaboration with the Office of the Senate President, Senator Nnamani, said he believes that “access to information is a fundamental right and a veritable instrument for qualitative development,” adding that “in fact, right to critical information is a condition for meaningful citizenship.”

The interactive forum, held at Valencia Hotel in Abuja, was attended by about 75 legislative aides, committee secretaries, management staff of the Senate and civil society activists campaigning for the enactment of the Bill.

Represented by Senator Tawar Umbi Wada, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, the Senate President described the meeting as a special one because three important categories of people engaged with legislative business have come together to share perspectives on the Freedom of Information Bill.

He said:  “Today, we have management staff, committee secretaries and civil society legislative advocates gathered together to review the freedom of information bill.  We should remember the importance of these persons to the work of the National Assembly.  We cannot make effective laws if management staff in the National Assembly, the committee secretaries and other legislative aides do not work harmoniously with Senators.  And no matter how harmoniously these groups work, they would require the participation of civil society leaders for popular legitimacy and democratic accountability.  The cooperation of these groups of Nigerians is necessary for the National Assembly to legislate for the good governance of the country.”

The Senate President also described the interactive session as timely saying he was delighted that the Senate now had an opportunity to expose its legislative aides and management staff to critical issues that Senators grapple with in discharging their responsibilities under the Constitution.

According to him, “Because of many years of military rule in this country, the legislative branch of government is underdeveloped.  We did not have the opportunity to develop the culture of engagement with civil society groups in engendering responsible legislative interventions in solving socio-political and economic problems in the country.  Military rule also deprived us of the opportunity to build the capacity of legislative officers and committee secretaries to understand the challenges of legislating for development and good governance.”

Senator Nnamani said he also considered the interactive session very important because “it enables the sort of synergy we want to develop between civil society and professional groups and the leadership of the Senate.  This synergy is necessary for effectiveness in our responsibilities as Senators.”

He observed that the essence of democracy is collaboration and consultation, saying the “new Senate” had carried out a needs assessment of governance and identified the greatest challenge to legislators as understanding the complexities of the social and economic crisis in the country as well as the intricacies of legislative programmes that can solve them.

In his view, members of civil society and professional groups have the expertise and research insights that the Senate can tap into in order to enact laws that will help to resolve the problems of economic and social development.

In his own comments, Senator Wada described the meeting as a milestone in the development of Nigeria, saying “this event will go a long way in shaping the destiny of this country.”

He told the legislative aides and Senate staff that the Senate holds them in high esteem and acknowledges the strategic positions they occupy in the law-making process of the country.

Senator Wada said:  “Without you people, nothing is going to work in the Senate.  You people should consider yourselves as our deputies.”

Earlier in his welcome address, the Coordinator of the Freedom of Information Coalition, Mr. Osaro Odemwingie, commended the Office of the Senate President for collaborating with the Coalition to organize the interactive forum, saying it was a clear indication of the belief of the current leadership of the Senate in civil society and its willingness to partner with civil society in the efforts to take the country forward. 

He observed that legislative aides and other staff of the Senate play an important role in the legislative process and that the decision of the Coalition to organize the forum was in recognition of this fact.

Mr. Odemwingie identified the objectives of the interactive session as:

·         To formally introduce the Bill to legislative aides and other relevant staff of the Senate who may not be familiar with the Bill and thereby ensure that they have a better understanding of its purpose and importance;

·         To solicit their support for the Bill and, through them, influence their principals to support the passage of the Bill; and

·         To create a three-dimensional synergy among the legislative aides, various cadres of administrative staff within the Senate and the civil society advocates for the Bill.

He expressed the hope that the Coalition will have a fruitful working relationship with the legislative aides and other staff members of the Senate.

The Senate President’s Special Adviser on Research and Strategy, Dr. Sam Amadi, explained and analyzed the vision and mission of the Office of the Senate President.  He said for credibility of the process and maximal political capital, the department of research and strategy in the Senate President’s Office will collaborate with civil society organizations with research ability in executing research programmes.

Thereafter, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), reviewed the Freedom of Information Bill, the campaign so far and explained the link between the Bill and good governance.

He told the legislative aides and Senate staff that they constitute the engine room of the Senate and therefore play a critical role in its effective functioning, adding that their active support for the Bill and involvement in the processes leading to its enactment would have a positive influence on it.

Mr. Ojo explained why the Bill is important for democratic governance in Nigeria, arguing that “It is only when people have access to information about government activities and policies that they can participate in the process of governance. “

He also stressed that the prospects of the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade would be greatly enhanced by the enactment of a Freedom of Information Act in Nigeria and that without it, a critical tool in this battle remains missing.

Besides, Mr. Ojo said, the Federal Government itself had already identified an access to information law as being central to the successful prosecution of its economic reform agenda as “Chapter 6 of National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) document prioritizes a Right to Information Act as one of the two major laws required to underpin Nigeria’s economic transformation, the other being the Fiscal Responsibility Bill.”

Observing that the Right to Information Act ought to have been adopted in 2004 under the NEEDS calendar, he argued that a Freedom of Information Act will assist the Federal Government in achieving this strategic milestone.

Mr. Ojo allayed fears that the Bill would give members of the public access to vital national security information and other sensitive information, saying “The truth is that although the Bill seeks to grant a right of access to all public records in conformity with the principle of maximum disclosure, it nonetheless recognizes that some information and records need to be exempted from the general access.”  He cited the types of information that had been exempted from the general right of access under the Bill and noted that “the Bill sufficiently protects sensitive government and other private information.”

He urged the legislative aides and Senate staff to support the efforts to pass the Bill into law in order to ensure that Nigeria’s attempt at promoting participatory democracy, openness and transparency in the conduct of public affairs yield positive fruits.  He suggested that they could support the efforts by:

·         Explaining the purpose and importance of the Bill to their principals, their representatives in the Senate, and other Senators with whom they work or have contact who may not be aware of its importance and thereby influencing them to vote in support of the Bill; and

·         Wherever or whenever possible, facilitating the progress of the Bill through the various legislative processes which it still has to go through in the Senate in order to ensure that the Bill is passed into law at the shortest time possible.

The presentation was followed by a lengthy discussion of issues relating to the Bill during which scores of legislative aides and other Senate staff expressed their support for the Bill.