CSOs express worry over FoI accessibility in Ondo

Participants at the two-day training workshop on the Freedom of Information Act, organised by the Freedom of Information (FOI) Network, Ondo State, have expressed worry that more than four years after the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill into Law, there is still widespread ignorance in Ondo State about the Act as most people have not read the Law and are therefore not familiar with its provisions.

The participants also noted that due to the widespread ignorance about the Freedom of Information Act by members of the public in Ondo State, the level of usage of the Law to demand information from government officials in Ondo State was unacceptably low.

The workshop held between Wednesday, September 2 and Thursday, September 3, in Akure, Ondo State, was organized in partnership with Media Rights Agenda (MRA), and drew participants from civil society organizations (CSOs), including community-based organizations, faith-based organizations and other grassroots organizations as well as media practitioners in Ondo State.

“There is a need to undertake more training and sensitization of different stakeholders and members of the general public in Ondo State on the provisions of the Act, its objectives and how to use it”, they observed.

Continuing, the participants expressed displeasure that ‘most government officials, especially at the state and local government levels, remain very ignorant about the Act as well as their duties and obligations under the Law, which is inhibiting its effective implementation as these duties and obligations are not being complied with.’

The workshop was funded with contributions from member organizations of the FoI Network while resource materials, including copies of the FOI Act, training manuals, FOI monitoring reports, among others, were provided by Media Rights Agenda.

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Edetaen Ojo, MRA’s Executive Director; and Mr. Alimi Adamu, Coordinator of the national Network of Freedom of Information Lawyers.

The workshop covered topics such as: “Understanding the Freedom of Information Act”, “Ensuring Effective Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act”, “Case Studies of FOI Usage from Different Parts of the World”, “Making Requests for Information under the FOI Act”, as well as Judicial and Non-Judicial “Mechanisms for Enforcing Compliance with the FOI Act” Participants also did practical exercises on formulating requests for information, aimed at building their capacity to write and make effective FOI requests.

The participants, however, pledged to regularly use the FOI Act to make requests for information from public institutions at the federal, state and local government levels ‘in an effort to bring about transparency and accountability at all levels of government in Nigeria.’

They also resolved to: “deploy various strategies to ensure that the text of the FOI Act is made more widely available to stakeholders and members of the public in Ondo State in hard copies and electronic format.

“Conduct more training and sensitization about the FOI Act. In addition to sensitising the general public in Ondo State, targeted training will also be carried out for specific stakeholder groups, including officials of public institutions, students in institutions of higher learning, trade unions and professional associations in the State.

“Organize step-down training workshops on the FOI Act for communities and organizations that they work with as part of efforts to popularize the Act among ordinary people in Ondo State; carry out advocacy activities aimed at public officials and civil servants at state and local government levels to encourage them to comply with the provisions of the FOI Act.

They also assured of their readiness to ‘periodically monitor the level of compliance by public institutions in Ondo State with the provisions of the FOI Act, including the requirements for the proactive publication of certain categories of information and their responsiveness to requests for information by members of the public.’