Reps organise workshop on FOI Act, Tuesday

The Nigerian House of Representatives is initiating a comprehensive workshop and training program to address the poor implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. Recognizing that most Ministries, Departments, and Agencies have failed to comply with the legislation since its inception over a decade ago, this intervention aims to educate officials on their legal obligations. The primary goal is to ensure these institutions understand the necessity of responding to public inquiries within specified timeframes, thereby closing the significant transparency gap that has persisted despite the law being in place for years. Beyond merely training government bodies, the initiative seeks to empower citizens to actively leverage the Act to hold institutions accountable. Current data suggests that low public awareness prevents many Nigerians from requesting vital information regarding government activities. By enlightening both the public and the state actors, the program intends to foster a culture where transparency is the norm rather than the exception. If compliance does not improve after this training, the Committee has vowed to organize further workshops and enforce punitive measures against non-compliant agencies, ensuring that the law is not just symbolic but operational. This development is highly relevant to the open_data movement because it highlights a critical barrier to data availability: institutional resistance and ignorance. Open data relies on proactive disclosure and responsive governance, yet many government entities remain opaque due to a lack of understanding or willful neglect of legal requirements. By forcing a systemic change in how MDAs handle information requests, this workshop creates a foundational shift toward accountability. It underscores that achieving true open data requires not just technical infrastructure, but also robust legal enforcement and widespread civic engagement to compel governments to share the data citizens have a right to access.

Source: tribuneonlineng.com
Published on 2024-09-24

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