FOIB Will Curb Corruption in Nigeria – MRA

Niger Delta Standard, December 3, 2006, Page 43

Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo, has described the recently passed Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB), as a development that will checkmate corruption in Nigeria.

The MRA director said the brazen diversion of public resources into private pockets, which has remained the biggest challenge of many developing countries like Nigeria, would be minimized with a Freedom of Information Law in place.

“Look at the oil sector of the Nigerian economy, which account for 75 per cent of our national revenue. How much do we produce in terms of barrels of crude oil per day? What do we pay to our joint venture partners under this arrangement? What actually goes to the government? What is it spent on? Application of FOI Law to that sector would help people deal with these issues.”

He further noted that it would enable citizens to evaluate what the real expenditure on such project attracts, if the system works well, where there were leakages or corruption and if there are, those loopholes would be plugged and this would in turn help to reduce corruption at the end of the day.

The MRA boss opined that the most fundamental benefit of such a law was that it enables a country to have a truly democratic government because the citizens are able to assess information on government, its policies and programmes.

Mr. Ojo added that it avails the citizens information that enables them to participate in the decision making processes because they are aware of what the proposals are and make their own input, adding that it also helps the knowledge level of society because it is imperative that people have a way getting accurate information and making decisions on the basis of that information.

He further posited that the FOI law was essential to the lives of every citizen in every way, noting that most citizens have not fully grasped the importance f having access to information.

“If you look at countries where it is working, India being perhaps the best example, it has similar political history like Nigeria. It is also coming out of poverty but becoming a world economic power and in that country communities are using their access to FOI Law to transform their lives. We hope that the same will happen in Nigeria”, he said.