A presentation on backing of spotlight for transparency and accountability

1. FOI ACT: THE LEGAL
BACKING OF SPOTLIGHT
FOR TRANSPARENCY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY (ST&A)
By
Zanna Samaila (Global Citizen)
zannahsamaila@gmail.com

2. Outline of Presentation
 Defining the terms
 FOI in the Global Context
 Why is the right to access information important?
 What legal framework regulates the right to access information?
 FOI in Nigerian Context
 Challenges
 Conclusion

3. Defining the terms
What is Open?
Open Knowledge is any content, information
or data that people are free to use, re-use
and redistribute without any legal,
technological or social restriction.

4. Defining the terms
FREEDOM
Black’s Law Dictionary defines freedom as the
state of being liberated.

5. Defining the terms
INFORMATION
In common sense, information simply means
knowledge communicated or received concerning
a particular fact or circumstance or knowledge
gained through study, communication, research,
instruction, etc.; factual data.

6. Defining the terms
ACCOUNTBILITY
Accountability means the state of being
accountable, liable, or answerable.

7. Defining the terms
TRANSPARENCY
Transparency in the sense of this discussion
means the quality of being done in an open
way without secrets.

8. FOI in the Global Context
Freedom of Information (FOI) can be defined as
the right to access information held by public
bodies. It is an integral part of the fundamental
rights of freedom of expression, as recognized by
Resolution 59 of the UN General Assembly adopted
in in 1946, as well as by Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states
that the fundamental right of freedom of
expression encompasses the freedom “to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers.

9. Why is the right to access information
important?
Helps individuals to
make their decisions
based on correct data
A necessary condition
to combat corruption
mismanagement of
public funds
Contributes actively to
the support of
scientific research
Establishes and
supports the
democratic and
participatory practice
of governance
Is necessary to detect
violations and protect
rights.

10. What legal framework regulates the right to
access information?
1946 Resolution No.59 of the General
Assembly of the United Nations
1948 Article 19 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights
1966 Article 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
2017 Recommendation of the OECD Council
on Open Government

11. What legal framework regulates the right to
access information?
By and large, the relevance of FOI has also been highlighted
in the;
 Brisbane Declaration on Freedom of Information: The Right
to know (2010)
 The Maputo Declaration on Fostering Freedom of
Expression, Access to Information ad Empowerment of
People (2008) and
 The Dakar Declaration on Media and Good Governance
(2005)

12. FOI in Nigerian Context
Historically, the Freedom of Information in Nigeria could be traced back to 1993 during
the regime of General Sani Abatcha. Three organizations- Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Civil
Liberties Organization (CLO) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) started the
campaign for the enactment of FOI Act.
Only recently the Act was enacted to promote, enhance, and develop our precarious
democracy. The Act (which is an expansion of S39 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria) was signed into law on 28th May, 2011 by then President Goodluck
Jonathan administration. The purpose of the Act is to make public records and information
more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect
public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the
protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences
for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish
procedures for the achievement of those objectives. The Act further spelt out ways of
getting access to records by Court, materials and documents under the security
classification. The foundation of a sound democracy involves accountability of the
Government and its agencies. It is hoped that with the enactment of the Freedom of
Information Act, this would be guaranteed.

13. FOI: Some key challenges
The need to adopt laws to effectively guarantee freedom of information
represents a critical challenge in many countries around the world. However, it
is not enough to simply pass a FOI law for the principles of freedom of
information to be established. FOI laws vary in content and scope, and their
implementation relies on a multitude of factors: from the surrounding
constitutional laws, to the availability of funds and well-trained human
resources for its implementation, to the dynamism of civil society including the
activism of transparency NGOs and of professional investigative reporters, and
the capacity of the citizens to benefit from the law.
Even where a FOI law has been adopted, FOI can be curtailed by burdensome
mechanisms for information access and weak enforcement, the arbitrary use of
exceptions or reference to other legislation to deny public information access,
the bad state of record-keeping and archive management systems, and poor
monitoring of the law´s implementation. Governments are often not
adequately equipped to provide timely responses to FOI requests or to
proactively to make key categories of information available, and the public is
generally not sufficiently aware of their right to access public information and
of how to use FOI legislation. Often implementation of FOI legislation faces
especially significant obstacles at the local level, and in some countries efforts
to advance FOI have not sufficiently expanded beyond the executive branch.

14. Thank you for your listening and
May God Bless you all
Paper sourced from many academic sites