ANALYSIS OF THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION UNDER NIGERIAN LAW

ANALYSIS OF THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION UNDER NIGERIAN LAW

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The Freedom of Information Act[1] (or the “FoI Act”) is Nigeria‟s major legislative response to redress the balance of official secrecy, elitism and non-accountable government. It guarantees a “Right to Know” or a right of access to records and informationin the custody of public institutions in Nigeria; set standards for what the government could protect from access, and fastened a system of judicial review of denial of access to information.

In line with the requirements of the FoI Act, the Attorney-General of the Federation, who is vested with the

statutory mandate to coordinate compliance with the FoI Act by public institutions,[2]has issued an advisory and a guidance note to help public institutions understand their obligations and promote good practice of the FoI Act regime. The advisory is titled the “Attorney General‟s Memorandum on the Reporting Requirements under S.29 of the FoI Act”[3] (the “FoI Memorandum”) and requires public institutions to organise their records in a manner that makes them accessible to the public and to publish information using multimedia formats (i.e. print, electronic and online). The “Guidelines on the Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011”[4] (the “FoI Guidelines”) seeks to aid clearer understanding, application and implementation of the FoI Act by public institutions.

The FoI Act was achieved at the end of nearly two decades of public advocacy and exactly one hundred

years after the Official Secrets Act[5] was first introduced into Nigeria as a colonial Order-in-Council. The idea of a freedom of information law for Nigeria was conceived in 1993 by three different organisations working independently of each other. The organisations, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), subsequently agreed to work together on a campaign for the enactment of a freedom of information Act.[6] The objective of the campaign was to lay down, as a legal principle, the right of access to documents and information in the custody of the government or its officials and agencies as a necessary corollary to the guarantee of freedom of expression.

A bill[7] for a freedom of information act was first submitted to the 4th National Assembly in 1999.[8][9] The 1st and

2nd reading of the bill at the House of Representatives took place on 22 February and 13 March 2000 respectively. The House of Representatives Committee on Information recommended the passage of the bill and the House directed that a public hearing on the bill be held on the 3 and 4 October 2001. However, the bill could not be passed before the 4th National Assembly was dissolved in 2003.

ANALYSIS OF THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION UNDER NIGERIAN LAW