Poll okays Freedom of Information Bill

Guardian Opinion Poll (Wednesday, September 13, 2006. Page 10)

Nigerians want the Freedom of Information Bill. The Bill which has been passed by the House of Representatives, has been in the Senate since December 2005.

This fact emerged from the recent Guardian Opinion Poll conducted across the six geo-political zones with the question, “Do you support the Freedom of Information Bill as being proposed by the National Assembly? “Two thousand four hundred and thirty-nine respondents equating 70 percent of the sample population answered “Yes”, 594 respondents (17 percent) expressed their opposition to the bill while 442 respondents or 13 percent reserved their comments.

The zonal breakdown reveals that the preponderance of “Yes” response to the variable cuts across the zones as the North East leads with 73 percent.  North Central also garnered 73 percent, South-West 72, South-South 71, North-West 66, South-East 64 while Abuja and Lagos recorded 79 and 75 percent. Comparatively, the volume of “No” responses was low in all the geo-political zones.

Asked to give reasons for their respective positions, six out of every 10 respondents (59 percent) that expressed support for the bill, did so with the belief that the bill would “enhance public awareness of government policies thereby closing the gap between government and the governed.”

Another group of respondents (26 percent) picked “Yes”, convinced that the passage of the bill would engender transparency in governance in the long run and check corruption.

Five percent of the respondents who opposed the bill cited “Security reasons” as the basis for their position while 10 percent offered other reasons like “self-interest” and that Nigeria is not mature enough for such a bill.

After the passage by the House of Representatives on august 25, 2004, the Freedom of Information Bill reached the Senate in September 2004. The first and second reading took place November 23, 2004 and February 22, 2005.

Thereafter, it was committed to the Senate Committee on Information and on April 26, 2005, public hearing was held. On December 20, 2005, the Senate began debating the committee’s report which some Senators criticized.

This later led to the suspension of the debate with the instruction that the committee should go and rework on it.

Advocates of the bill believe that, apart from guaranteeing access to information, the Freedom of Information Act would deepen democratic governance in the country, strengthen the government’s war against corruption and boost its economic reform programme.

Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) belongs to this group.  According to him, “The world is changing. Hiding information was a colonial mentality and it is archaic. Why can’t people know for instance our revenue profile and expenditure as a nation”?  He however hoped the bill would balance national interest and security while promoting democratic principles and right to information.

SCALE: 1 INCH EQUALS 50 VERTICAL