Corruption and the freedom of information bill (2)
The Role of Civil Society
Given the seriousness of
the devastating effect of
corruption on state and society reviewed above, civil society has had to devote itself to the task of struggling against this phenomenon. Indeed, civil society organisations and actors are uniquely suited to investigating and bringing to light the manifestations and cases of corruption in society. They have devoted themselves to putting transparency and accountability on the national agenda by creating public awareness about corruption and developing regular assessments and reports. In addition, civil society organisations have been formulating action plans directed at fighting corruption. A number of coalitions and campaigns in this regard have been developed. They have devised and engaged in advocacy in favour of new anti-corruption legislation. They have also devoted themselves to developing new institutional devises to prevent or penalise acts of corruption. Finally, many of them have been developing programs for monitoring government action and decisions such as the tracking of public expenditure.
The underlying objective of civil society transparency and accountability programmes has been to promote an open democracy culture in Nigeria. Access to official information in Nigeria is very difficult, if not impossible as the official Secrets Act classifies almost every government document as “secret”. It is generally known however that access to inform-ation is very critical in promoting good governance. It is impossible to make an informed judgement on public policy in a situation where access to public documents is restricted. Basic information like salaries and allowances of public officers, public expenditure records, drafts of the budget and even some parliamentary proceedings are classified as ‘secret’. This restricts citizens’ right to and access to necessary information that will enable them make input or pass judgement on government policy. Access to official information is also a serious handicap in checking corruption because corrupt public officers cannot be successfully prosecuted due to the absence of tender documents that are publicly procured as such documents are classified under the Official Secret Act. As a result, corrupt public officers not only go unpunished; they are shielded by the secretive culture of Nigerian public servants. We shall illustrate the role of civil society by focusing on the work of two coalitions focused on transparency and accountability.
Freedom of information advocacy
The Nigerian public service is largely governed by the official secrets ordinance of 1942, which transforms virtually all infor-mation about governance into state secrets. The philosophy behind the act was that natives had no rights to know how the colonial authorities were gov-erning them. Unfortunately, since independence, Nigerian governments have remained totally committed to this philosophy. The present regime is no exception although the law is clearly in conflict with S. 39(1) of the 1999 constitution, which gives rights to citizens to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. Civil servants when employed take an oath not to disclose information unless specifically authorised to do so. This has promoted a culture of secrecy in government. Concern with this state of affairs led to the campaign for freedom of information in Nigeria. It commenced in 1993 when Media Rights Agenda (MRA), the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) agreed to work together for the introduction of freedom of information legislation in Nigeria. The objective of the campaign was to lay down as a principle the right to be informed about administrative documents as a necessary tool in ensuring that citizens can track, monitor and inform themselves on activities of government. The efforts of these civil society organizations resulted in the production of a draft Freedom of Information legislation. Shortly after the inauguration of the civilian government, President Olusegun Obasanjo announced his plan to present to the National Assembly for consideration and enactment into law an anti-corruption Bill. In June 1999, Media Rights Agenda wrote to the President expressing support for his avowed commitment to fight corruption in Nigeria and his plan to present an anti-corruption Bill to the National Assembly. MRA however obser-ved that accountability and transparency in Government were crucial to any meaningful anti-corruption crusade, argui-ng that accountability and transparency could not be possible if citizens have no right of access to information held by the State or its agencies. In addition, there is a necessity for mechanisms for giving practical effect to the right to freedom of information. MRA therefore requested President Olusegun Obasanjo to present the draft Freedom of Information Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and support efforts to secure its enactment.
The need for the enactment of a legislation focused primarily on providing for the right of access to public records/information in Nigeria, can be justified on several fronts, the major points being that, the first and foremost, it is central to our collective desire as a nation to evolve a proper and active culture of participatory democracy, which we all agree is the preferred system of governance for our dear country. In this context, the right of access to information, would provide everyone in Nigeria, with the unique opportunity of adequately informing thems-elves about the workings of government and by so doing raise the level of enlightened public discussions of how public officials (whether elected or appointed) manage our affairs and resources on our behalf.
Secondly, there can be no better catalyst to reviving our near comatose national economy than the institution of a right of access to public information. This is because, the entren-chment of such a right in the scheme of things would help to open up the way and manner in which all public sector related business transactions are made, to public scrutiny. The effect of this on the health of the entire Nigerian economy cannot be over-emphasised, especially in view of the fact that the Nigerian private sector to a large extent, is still heavily dependent on public sector based transactions. Consequently, enacting such a law, would ensure the creation of a level playing field for all actors in whatever segment of the Nigerian economy who have to engage with this major propelling force of the national economy and this would in turn not only help in instilling confidence in the economic system, but also contribute immensely towards assisting in the realization of the government’s current economic objective of attracting increased inflow of both new direct foreign and local investments into the country.
Another important benefit derivable from the enactment of an access to information law in Nigeria is the significant savings that would be made by the nation from the ability of the legislation to assist with the current crusade to curb corrupt practices in the public service, through subjecting all government trans-actions to public scrutiny. It would also help in the efficient allocation of scarce national resources to achieve maximum returns, through the ability of the people to, using the information available at their disposal, put government officia-ls to task over the process of prioritising resource allocation for national develo-pment. Judging from our recent experience in the first term of the present administration, the enactment of such a law, would be of significant value to the key actors of the three arms of government, in terms of serving as a catalyst for the institution, where appropriate, of a proper and robust system of checks and balances on all the three arms of government in the country.
The efforts by civil society to get the Freedom of Info-rmation legislation during the first term of the Forth Republic did not succeed. Following the inauguration of the new National Assembly in June 2003, the Freedom of Information Coa-lition resumed its advocacy for the passage of the bill in the H-ouse of Representatives. Once again the bill is ready for its third and final reading and all hands need to be on deck to ensure that this time, it will be passed.
The Freedom of Information Coalition is presently involved in an intensive advocacy drive in support of the Bill. The Coalition has been making concerted efforts to contain certain misconceptions regar-ding the objectives of the bill. The government seems to believe that the bill is meant to empower the Press and undermine state secrets. The bill however has effective provisions for the defence of state secrets and it is an effective instrument for opening up the democratic space in Nigeria.
Corruption and the Challenge of Sustaining Democracy
No governing class has a natural disposition towards public probity and the prom-otion of democracy. It is the circumstances in which they find themselves that forces them to take certain directions – authoritarian or democratic. In Nigeria, the end of the Abacha regime was a threshold that signalled the determination of the people to pursue the path of public probity, transparency and democracy. We must note however that one of the main reasons that encouraged pre-vious regimes along the path of authoritarianism, was the desire of the governing class to check-mate any criticism of its corruption by silencing the people. As long as the regime does not make the cost of corruption for state officials prohibitive by curbing the culture of impunity, our democratic regime could be threatened.
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