From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Citizens have been encouraged to take advantage of the provisions of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act to hold government officials and other public officials to account.
At a one-day workshop on the FoI Act in Asaba, Delta State, participants were reminded of the need to monitor public income and expenditure by keeping regular tab on government projects.
Participants at the workshop which was organized by a non-governmental organization, Connected Development (CODE) in conjunction with Oxfam, were drawn from civil society, government, the media, among other stakeholders.
Recall that the FoI Act was passed at the federal level in 2011 while it was domesticated in Delta in 2019.
Keynote speaker at the workshop, Mr. Garuba Godwin, urged Deltans to utilize the FoI Act in the state to promote accountability in governance.
Godwin disclosed that it was punishable by the law to withhold information after official requests had been made at both the federal and state levels.
According to him, the involvement of citizens “will ensure records of activities are kept. It also ensures proper business management.”
Besides, he advocated the training of high-ranking civil servants on avoidable litigations borne out of refusal to give necessary information after it had been officially requested.
“Most Directors in the civil service have little or no knowledge of the FOI law, and as a result, they take actions that can cause litigations which can result in fines or jail terms,” he mentioned.
Director of Community Engagement of CODE, Kingsley Agu called for a robust test of the FOI law in the state.
“The interesting thing is that Delta State is one of the three states in Nigeria that has domesticated the FOI Act of the Federal Government. It was passed in 2011 at the federal level. Delta State has an FOI that was signed in 2019 which has given citizens the power to access information,” Agu said.
According to him, the Act stipulates some criteria that must be met by those seeking official information.
“You need to be a citizen, you need to be 18 or above, and you need to have paid your income tax for three years to be able to access information.
“Delta state gives 90 days instead of the 7 days response for information applied as stipulated by the Federal Government.
“It gives power back to the people to access information from the government on how they expend their funding and other areas of interest for the public,” he stated.
He called for robust sensitization across the private sector, ministries, departments and agencies to ensure the FOI law is tested to determine any part of the law to be strengthened via review or amendment.