THE NEW GOVERNMENT AND FOI

In the coming days, Nigerians will be interested in seeing a government that works and one that has input from its citizenry and is keen on policies that affect everyone, particularly the poor demography. One quick recommendation on the table will be for the incoming government to run an open government where citizens can have access to government information easily and in good time. The Freedom of Information Act which was signed into law in May, 2011 is one of the noble legacies that President Goodluck Jonathan will be leaving behind and sustaining it will be an assurance that the new government means well for the country. The culture of needless secrecy in government business and every type of public institution must be brought to a quick end. The Freedom of Information Act (2011) is a document that can help Nigeria run an open government and end its inglorious run of poor accountability and corruption. Already it tickles our fancy that the new president will be declaring his asset and has also promised that anyone willing to become a minister in his cabinet will also do so. When the 2015 presidential elections campaign reached its peak, not a few analysts noted that if the election was conducted online, the APC was going to emerge the winner. It was in effect a form of commendation on the online mobilisation that the party had done. The party saw social media technology as an essential it needed to embrace to reach the youth population in the country. When the work of daily running of government starts, this also has to remain. When eventually the Ministries, Agencies and Departments are reformed and several mergers have taken place, government needs to think through a digital media plan that will make government responsive and people-oriented. The websites of several government institutions are a sorry sight! From broken links to absence of updated materials on the website, the challenges are numerous. It will also be saying the obvious that these activities will also be a means to create jobs for a teeming number of technology savvy young people when they are made functional The new government should push a value that gives the citizen the ability to support the legislative in providing its oversight function. This is the premise of open government and that way more citizens can get involved in the legislative process. The Freedom of Information is the perfect tool for this and an adoption of this tool across all states, especially where the ruling party leads will be a decent starting point. The Freedom of Information Act allows anyone irrespective of age to request for information from any public institution without even stating the reason why the information is being sought. In countries like the United States of America where requests are already being made by email, it comes with a caveat that ‘before submitting FOIA requests, individuals should ensure that the information they seek is not already in the public domain or located on the Department’s website’. This is where proactive disclosure also needs to be encouraged by the new government. The information that the public may require for investigative works or even academic research purpose should be regularly updated on the institution’s website. It is also a way to increase productivity as visitors who would have visited these agencies for this purpose can do so remotely. Is it also possible that we have a country where government telephone lines work? A good number of them are dead or simply non-existent and even when they are picked, there is always someone rude at the other end who acts as though he or she is being disturbed and yet collects remuneration from our commonwealth. Only Ekiti and Lagos State have adopted the FOI Act; can the new federal government push to have more states do same in the coming days? Ultimately, what is possible is a Nigeria where more citizens come alive and support government by making suggestions or even taking up private corporate responsibilities simply because they have accurate information on the depth of a problem. With emails now available on the go even through mobile phones, it will be interesting to see government institutions brag as to the number of emails they reply daily and the number of FOI requests they have responded to both online and offline. These are little indicators that can tell us in good time that indeed the change that was voted for has come to stay.