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Civil society groups in the Niger Delta have hailed the recent Court of Appeal ruling on the Freedom of Information (FoI) law, describing it as “a milestone for transparency, accountability and anti-corruption efforts in Nigeria.”
In a statement jointly released today by We the People and Policy Alert, two frontline civil society organizations (CSOs) working to improve the fiscal governance climate in the Niger Delta, the civic groups noted that “lack of access to fiscal information remains one of the biggest barriers to good governance in Nigeria. It disconnects citizens from discussions on how collectively owned resources are being managed.”
Ken Henshaw, Executive Director of We the People, said: “While the FoI regime is increasingly taking root within federal government institutions, information availability has suffered a severe roll back at the sub national levels.”
He added that the Niger Delta case presents a deplorable scenario as access to fiscal information has especially met a setback in recent times.
“In Rivers State for instance, a tradition of making budget documents available on the state official website was replaced with a regime of extreme secrecy” said Henshaw.
“Previously available budgets were taken off the web. The same set back was recorded in Bayelsa state.
“Despite the passage of a local law ostensibly aimed at ensuring public availability of fiscal information, a tradition of publicizing budgets was abruptly stopped.
“Several Freedom of Information requests sent by transparency and accountability campaigners for fiscal information including budgets, are routinely rejected citing the argument that their states were yet to domesticate the law and therefore it is inapplicable.”
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Tijah Bolton-Akpan, Executive Director of Policy Alert, said:
“It goes without saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Conversely, government systems that prefer to keep the public in the dark about their operations, especially in fiscal matters, can only breed decay and corruption.
“States receive more than half of all federally distributable revenues, in addition to generating and utilizing huge revenues on their own. It is important that citizens have a handle on how such resources are utilized and the FoI is just the right tool for making that happen.
“Unfortunately, seven years down the line, not much change has happened at the state level in terms of information disclosure, due to the excuse that the law is not applicable to states.
“We urge citizens and citizens’ organizations to utilize this ruling to inject new energy into transparency and accountability advocacy at the subnational level.”
By Vivien Chime
