Demola Adedoyin is Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN’s) Publicity Secretary, a body that controls over 70 percent of advert spend in the country and Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Troops, a campaign activation company. In this interaction with Princewill Ekwujuru, he speaks on the recently enacted Freedom of Information Act, his fears, its impact on the marketing communications industry and lessons to learn. He also advocates the creation of Ministry of Electricity to solve the nation’s perennial power problem.

Excerpts:

The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act has been passed, now that Nigerians have access to information, what does this mean to them?

•Demola Adedoyin

With the FoI Act, it is good news, but, it is not time to celebrate. Because it means that we have  opened a new chapter. Firstly, we need to look at the nitty-gritty of all the pages. When you talk about FoI, you are talking about the availability of information, that is a lot more difficult than even getting the bill itself signed even in some advanced countries.

With disasters happening everyday, such as collapsed buildings and arson, documents are not safe. Such occurrence will render information that is not automated or computerised, unavailable. The availability of the information is still an issue that the government needs to tackle.

It is not about passing the bill into law because there are still many laws in Nigeria that are moribund. It is not about the law itself, it is about implementation. Then, we will get to a level of celebration.

For me, it is not a call for celebration yet. What this development has called for, is calculation, thinking and planning, not celebration. We should be concerned with how the law is going to work, otherwise, we are going to have it there and it is just going to be there.

In some cases, the court will help. For example, if Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) wants to have newspaper circulation, and the paper says no, ADVAN can go to court because the body patronises the newspaper and feels that it is obligated to it for information.

Therefore, in my opinion, a lot of it is going to require investigation basically on the part of government to make the information available and on the other hand, the man looking for information to be able to use it objectively and constructively.

If you say this state government spent this amount of money on this project, what does it mean or what is the implication? What we often hear is “according to reliable sources,” I hope that will now reduce in the media because to me, it is garbage.

You read a whole magazine or newspaper and discover that almost all the stories and revelations were built based on reliable sources. What is reliable to you may not be reliable to me.

So, we now need to understand that according to statistics gotten from the office of the establishment or Ministry of Education, certain things have happened. And this is the implication because it means that the problem of agriculture that ought to have been addressed had been moved to this area and this is how it will affect our target and objectives on agriculture.

The enactment of the law shouldn’t be an issue but the implementation of this law should be our greatest concern. How people are looking for information, manage and interpret it would pose a major challenge in the implementation of this new law.

Let me tell you, if you say somebody has done something this week and it makes headline and later on, nobody hears anything about it, then it does not make sense.

It is not a cause. What you are doing is just trying to sell your paper for that week. However, if you provide a follow up, it then means that you are actually pursuing a cause in the interest of the general public.

So how you are able to use the information is very critical and you should not abuse it. I think a lot of our information practitioners need new training, orientation and mindset on this new opportunity.

If what you are saying is adhered to, what becomes of protection of sources in journalism?

When I say a reliable source, I am not saying it should be thrown into the dustbin of history but there should be a drastic reduction. If you are talking to me and I am going to be making business decisions or decision for government, I should be able to know some of your sources because it is not just ‘beer parlour’ discussion.

So, where I am going when I say it is not time for celebrations is that looking at Vision 2020-20, it is not about creating document. The law that we have on our hands right now is not too different from other laws in existence.It is not significantly different from those things that have happened to us in the past. The important thing for us is how will it happen and how will it become part of our lives?

For instance, you hear that somebody refused to sign the bill because it was titled Freedom of Information and said it ought to be Right to Information or whatever you may want to call it. A military ruler believes everything is right. They know how to manipulate rights.

So even if that kind of person had signed it, there are so many rights in the constitution that have been violated on daily basis. So, if they violate that one, there wouldn’t be any cause for alarm, but this one is freedom and you can’t gag it.

That is why, ADVAN members have right to information from anybody that is key party to their businesses and those people also have right to information if it is for public consumption but they don’t have right of information on my personal life. So, it is about how we implement it.