FOI bill : NGO flays lawmakers

By Ise-Oluwa Ige

ABUJA—A non-governmental organisation operating under the aegis of The Right to Know (R2K) Movement has described as worrying the surreptitious attempts by some members of the National Assembly to kill the Freedom of Information Bill.

The organisation wants Nigerians to demand from the lawmakers what they intended to gain by frustrating the bill from becoming a law.

In a statement by the National Co-ordinator of R2K, Ene Enonche, the group  said “R2K congratulates Hon. Ahman Pategi (PDP Kwara), for publicly owning up to the worst-kept secret in the present parliament – the decision of its leadership to kill the FoI Bill.

“Now, the leadership of the House must tell Nigerians why they are afraid to pass the Bill and what they stand to gain from killing it.”

Addressing a World Bank-sponsored training for journalists, Hon. Pategi informed his audience that “the Freedom of Information Bill will not be passed into law by the National Assembly before the tenure of the current administration will expire.”

Notwithstanding the fact that the FoI Bill has been pending before the National Assembly for the past ten years and was sponsored by the senior legislators in both Chambers, including leading officers of the NASS, Pategi was quoted as saying that there was insufficient time and support for the passage of the Bill in the National Assembly.

R2K said, “the decision of the House to kill the FoI Bill, which has spent 10 years in this Parliament demonstrates that the National Assembly is dominated by people who do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart.”

The group noted that,“the persistent excuses made by our legislators that the FOI Bill is a ’Press law’ is a wilful and unacceptable distortion of the Bill designed to deliberately mislead Nigerians as well as divert attention from the true purpose of a bill, which is meant to give every citizen a sense of true ownership of our government.”

The FoI bill was first introduced into the National Assembly in October 1999.  It was passed by both chambers of the NASS in February 2007 and transmitted to the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo for his signature.

However, Obasanjo declined to assent to the bill and refused to transmit it back to the National Assembly as required by the Constitution, thereby ensuring that the NASS could not override his veto during the past parliament.