After all their well orchestrated gang-ups, delays and manipulations against the Freedom Of Information Bill, the House of Representatives have succeeded in passing a distorted version of the Bill penultimate week much against the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians. What are the contentious issues in the passed Bill? The take of the lawmakers that Nigerians should neither investigate nor discuss the Defence and Economy of their country is utterly ridiculous. It has rendered the Bill deliberately tepid and ineffectual. Sadly we have been vindicated in our foreboding on the sudden headlong burst of activity to pass the FOI bill.

We correctly predicted this foul play in our previous editorial. It is a truism that there is a consensus among Nigerians on the imperative of a Freedom of Information Act in their country. This is why we are hard put to understand why, in the name of decency, a group of politicians should be determined to halt the progress of the country for parochial reasons.

We believe the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill will provide answers to those questions over which Nigerians are worried: the anarchy in the education sector, the parlous state of our healthcare delivery system, the collapse of public infrastructure and the general deprivation, disillusionment and instability that pervade the polity. Ordinarily, no country would willingly open up information on issues relating to the security of the nation and certain aspects of the national economy. But the aforementioned issues relate to the social and economic well being of the Nigerian people.

For example, we are painfully aware that the oil and gas industry which is shrouded in secrecy has yet to benefit the Nigerian people. Nigerians are yet to be told in concrete terms the quantity of crude oil produced daily and the amount of this product exported abroad daily. We are aware that before the Freedom of Information Act is applied anywhere in the world, there is usually a procedure through which it passes. The normal practice is to apply for information through judicial interpretation.

The rush to pass the Bill by the House of Representatives was more or less mischievous and it runs counter to the ideals of modern democracy. Ideally, there ought to have been a public hearing to give Nigerians a forum to contribute to the content of the Bill before passage. It is clearly self serving to pass a so  called information bill which denies Nigerians  the weapon to seek illumination on vital areas such as the National Annual Appropriation Bill as well as  super agencies such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),the Nigeria Customs Service, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, etcetera, whose annual budgets put together usually exceeds that of the Federal Government. It is in the interest of the legislature that these issues be dealt with. But gagging the Freedom of Information Bill with no-go areas especially in regard to defence and the economy is like making the Bill a toothless bull dog. This is not what Nigerians want. Unfortunately, with the attitude of the National Assembly over the past twelve years, democracy has lost any real meaning. It has  meaning only for that part of the ruling class residing in the executive branch and the legislature.

Individually and collectively, our law makers have not had it so good. However their good fortune has come at the expense of the suffering masses. But the seriousness of democratic construction must be divorced from false prosperity. Its strength is not and cannot be based on the happiness of a select few. This is what our counterfeit democrats fail to understand. Because of their inherent selfishness and abiding contempt for the people, our public officials are comfortable with the philosophy of creating islands of affluence and elitism in a society steeped so much in misery.

Putting no-go areas to the Freedom of Information Bill is like asking researchers not to find out about the true population of Nigeria, the infant and mortality rates in the country and the commitment of the federal government to international peace keeping assignments that involve Nigerian soldiers. If therefore the Senate cannot give Nigerians a thorough Freedom of Information Bill, the people have the right to reject it and implore the next Parliament to do a more sensible job.

- March 8, 2011 by Daily Independent (editorial)

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Source: www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx (accessed on 10.03.11)