Expert counsels state assemblies on FOI Act

A professor of Journalism, University of Northern Iowa, United States of America (USA), Professor Christian Ogbondah has urged states’ assemblies to pass their own versions of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act  to enable media practitioners access information from agencies of government at the state level.

Giving the advice in Lagos at a public lecture organised by the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) in collaboration with the Ford Foundation, the don noted that in spite of the  FOI Act, agencies of government, especially at the state level, were still reluctant to avail the media with vital information since they see FOI as a federal law promulgated by the National Assembly, and as a result,  not binding on them.

Professor Ogbondah described it as confusing, the recent ruling by a Federal High Court in Lagos that the FOI Act was not binding on the 36 states of the federation, contrary to  an earlier ruling by a court in Enugu, declaring same Act binding.

He, however, believed the way out of such confusion would be for lawmakers in the 36 states to enact their own version of the FOI Act.

“It is sad that despite the signing into law the FOI Bill, it is still difficult to access information from agencies of government, especially at the state level because many of these states see the Act as a federal law.

“I believe if the different state assemblies come up with their own versions of the Act, it would go a long way in solving the problem of agencies of government not ready to respect the FOI,” he argued.

He also identified antiquated laws as a major challenge confronting media business in Nigeria, adding that despite the scrapping of some anti-media laws in the country, successive governments still use such laws to harass and intimidate the media.

“Sedition Suit is  one of such laws. For instance, despite it being thrown out many years ago, successive governments still use this law to harass the media. A case in point was the  Federal Government versus  Daar Communications December 6, 2016 Sedition Suit, that was abandoned halfway because the law was antiquated,” he added.

Giving reasons for the public forum, Professor of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ayo Olukotun, explained that the media forum, tagged: ‘Watchdogs or Captured Media: A Study of The Role of The Media in Nigeria’s Emergent Democracy 1999-2016’, was designed to examine how far the media had played its role in the new political dispensation.

“The topic was deliberately chosen to determine whether the media have become social diarists or  Man-Fridays of those in power. We know that even in the darkest times in our history, the media was never conquered,” he said.