Nigeria: FOI Law As Dividend of Democracy

Hajiyayye Liman

1 July 2011

opinion

Just before the 6th Assembly closed shop, they deemed it fit that Nigerians should be able to ask and receive information regarding all aspect of governance thus the Freedom of Information bill that was long overdue came into existence.

It’s to their credit that they were able to pass into Law this very important bill that will serve as a means of quality control in our country and hopefully curb the corruption that has eaten deep into every aspect of our society.

It was a good development, but like the several other good laws that are in our constitution, majority of the people governed by these laws don’t even know they exist. It is here one wonders whose job it is to educate the people, which arm of government is saddled with the responsibility? Democratic setting is the time people need to know about these laws for them to engage their leaders. The country cannot move forward if the masses that are led leave everything in the hands of the leaders. It’s a two way flow where we are both stake holders. By using such laws to our advantage, we not only help the leaders do their work well we also help ourselves achieve what we want.

One cannot help but notice that people were deliberately left uneducated and in darkness, so they do not know what their rights are and so cannot ask for what is rightfully theirs. And where a leader deems it fit to bestow a community with a clinic, they dance gleefully not knowing it is their right and that they should be asking what took him so long? Perhaps the fear of such confrontation is why this “joke” of an educational system is being run, it’s just another policy of governments to suppress their masses further. Despite knowing how effective this Bill/Law could be, one still wonders how long it would take in a nation such as ours where poverty has eroded the will and confidence of our people. The masses really are taken for granted when they cannot hold their leaders and any other office holder accountable for his deeds while in office. Our failure to bring into law this sort of bills and to implement them is what has pushed our country to the deplorable state it is in today. We need a re-awakening and we need to start even if it’s from friend to friend, let’s enlighten one another and use this bill as a way of inculcating quality control in the system.

No one is asking and no one is telling and that is why the power sector which is the most important sector of the economy, is in the state it is today. We need to find out what happened to all the money pumped into that sector of the economy, even if we can let other things go without investigating them, this is one we must not forgive, for due to the failure in that sector, lives and sources of livelihood have been lost, our Nation has even lost credence in the eyes of the world. What about maintenance? Sadly, with anything government there’s hardly any form of maintenance, buildings and other infrastructures are dilapidated and one wonders what happened to the maintenance departments? Have they all been scrapped? Now we can find out where monies for maintenance are going and who is sabotaging our Nation. Perhaps time has come to make a scapegoat out of these thieves as way of injecting quality in all system of our economy. Labour leaders, it’s time to make hay, just as you strongly stood up to fight over the salaries of your union members, its time to educate them about bills such as this. It is only when those closest to the leaders check their excesses and stop conniving with them in perpetuating corrupt practices, then the take-home salaries would be enough to sustain them and their families. It’s time for a crusade. This Bill is God sent to help us sustain this Democracy. Let’s use it to change our country.

It’s time members of a constituency know they can call their politicians so they can tell them what they want, when and where and should be called to explain themselves for any action or inaction. This way you know when your representative is competent or just a bench warmer or one of the absentees who go about chasing their personal business in your time, the time for which he’s paid exorbitantly. A chance has come when we can follow up on monies meant for constituency projects. This bill has come to help us guard what is ours from corrupt officers. Let’s use it to bring some semblance of law and order into our society. It is a bill that actually empowers the governed but only if we know how to use it. It’s a bill that calls for us to be vigilant. It’s like that part of the constitution which allows the governed to recall elected office holders in situations where they are not performing well. However, they don’t get recalled because the ordinary Nigerian does not know he has the right to do so. It is my fervent prayer that we put this to use judiciously so as to reap the benefits of democracy and to at least curb corrupt practices people have been getting away with which only increase the level of poverty in the land so much that the gap between the rich and the poor keeps expanding each day.

Boko Haram, Bakassi Boys, etc., are products of a system without checks or balance; they are products of frustrations of perceived injustices and just came under umbrellas of religion or resource control. Beyond that, if we all care to see, these boys are carrying out a revolution. They are revolting over set rules of the society which do not suit them or feel cheated. The sooner we educate the populace about these laws and how to use them the better for us. We’ve had enough bloodshed and loss of wealth already.

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