The FOI Act in Summary

WRITTEN BY:

OBHAKHOBOH JENNIFER

1. FOI Act

2. Nigerian Coat of Arm

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

2011 (FOIA)

LAWS OF THE FEDERATION OF NIGERIA

This Act was enacted by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 28TH day of May 2011.

Passed by the Senate and House of Representative on the 24Th day of May, 2011.

Assented by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR

President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 28TH day of May, 2011.

This is an act to make public records and information more freely available, provide for public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences of disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes and for related matters.

 The law guarantees Nigerian citizens access to public information kept by the government, public institutions and private bodies carrying out public functions or spending public funds. It also offers protection to officials disclosing public records, and provides for penalties including imprisonment for anyone convicted of destroying public documents or denying free access of information.

In Section 3, public institutions are mandated to provide detailed description of their corporate profiles, programs and functions of each division, lists of all classes of records under their control, and related manuals used in administering the institution's programs. They are to provide public access to documents containing final opinions, including concurring and dissenting ones; orders made in the adjudication of cases, and those covering policies, contracts, receipts, or expenditure; and reports and studies conducted by the institutions.

The law directs public institutions to ensure that the public's right of access to information shall not be prejudicially affected by the institutions' failure to publish any information under this subsection. Although Section 12 (1) excludes information that may be injurious to the conduct of Nigeria's international affairs and defense, no application for information shall be denied where "the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs whatever injury that disclosure would cause." In other words, the onus is on the public agency to establish why the information should not be released. There are provisions for seeking redress for denied applications and penalty for wrongful denials.

In endorsing the people's right to know, the FOI Act acknowledges that sovereignty belongs to them, and that the quality of information available in a community leverages the quality of their participation in public affairs. Extreme secrecy in governance and a poor information flow breeds suspicion and misunderstanding among the populace and prevents the necessary cooperation for development.

Note: the media/ journalists have the right under this FOI Act to access information that will be disseminated to the heterogeneous audience for their intellectual advancement via print, electronic or online media. If any institution, private or government owned refuses the masses valuable information, they should be able to state their reasons behind their refusal.

Flood In Ogba: Good Friday

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                             

Flooded Ogba Area

                                      

                                                                                

                          Written By Jennifer Obhakhoboh

The heavy down pour today caused pandemonium among the residents of Ogba as they lament on the poor drainage system which results to flood whenever it rains.
It was recorded that whenever it rains there is always problem, as the people are left with no choice than to swim.
According to a resident, Mr. Onifade Imokemi, it is the duty of the state government to put in place the drainage system so as to ensure safety of human lives within the environment."it is the duty of the state government to ensure good drainage system to ensure that lives and properties are secured"he said.

‘Murder in Pacot’...Ayo's Movie

Nigerian-German singer Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin aka Ayo currently working on her movie debut in Raoul Peck’s Earthquake-themed "Murder in Pacot"which is currently filming in Haiti.

The movie, which is centered around 2010′s earthquake in Haiti, focuses on a well-to-do family whose house is almost completely destroyed. They rent out the remaining room to recoup money and move themselves into the servants’ quarters. The renter is a foreign aid worker who comes to Haiti with good intentions and meets an impressionable teenage girl from the neighborhood.

Filming of the movie just began which makes it difficult to say exactly when this movie will be released. However, more updates shall be provided as they become available. Kudos AY!

Call To Address Violence: Pres. Jonathan

A crowd gathers at the scene of a bomb blast at a bus terminal in Nyayan, Abuja, Nigeria, April 14, 2014.

 President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned the National Security Council to a Thursday meeting in Abuja, after an attack carried out by the suspected terrorists group in in Nyanya motor park in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and the abduction of  more than 100 school girls in Borno state.

In a Wednesday statement, Reuben Abati said the president was particularly concerned about Monday's mass kidnapping of girls of Government Secondary School(GSS) in Borno state.

Abati said Jonathan has ordered security forces to "deploy maximum efforts" toward rescuing the girls.

There were no initial claims of responsibility, but the assault is similar to attacks that have been carried out by the Boko Haram terroristst group.

The incident took place on the same day a bomb ripped through a crowded motor park  in Nyanya ,Abuja, killing at least 75 people.

The government of the Borno state region announced it was offering a reward of about $300,000 for information leading to the rescue of the abducted school girls.

 An unidentified parent in the region has urged the kidnappers suspected to be terrorists group, Boko Haram, to free the girls. "We, the parents, are really shocked. Please, please, please have mercy. Be merciful and release those children."

The abductions  were condemned by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,Canadian Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird and  the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Williams Hague.

Child Bride Poisons Groom And Others...Kano

A (Minor) child bride forced into marriage in Kano killed a groom and three of his friends with a poisoned meal, police said on Thursday.

Fourteen-year-old Wasila Umaru was married last week to 35-year-old Umaru Sani, according to assistant superintendent Musa Magaji Majia.

Over the weekend, the groom invited a dozen friends to celebrate at his Ungwar Yansoro village, about 100 kilometres from the northern city of Kano.

The teenager told police she bought rat poison at a village market and used it to prepare a dish of rice.

“The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love,” Majia told The  Press.

The groom and a friend died the same day, and two other victims died later in the hospital.

Umaru is co-operating with police and likely will be charged with culpable homicide, according to Majia.

Child marriage is common in Nigeria and especially in the mainly Muslim and impoverished north, where the numbers increase in times of drought because a bride price is paid and it means one less mouth to feed. Fifty per cent of Nigerian girls living in rural areas are married before they turn 18, according to the UN children's agency. That's a lot of child brides in a country of some 170 million people of whom half are under 18.

Child brides often suffer difficult pregnancies — the leading cause of death worldwide for girls aged 15 to 19 — and are much more likely to contract AIDS and be subjected to domestic violence, according to the International Center for Research on Women.

Early and forced marriage is classified as modern-day slavery by the UN labour organization, and Nigeria's Child Rights Act prohibits marriage before 18. But that federal law competes with Islamic Shariah law that holds in most northern states.

No one in Nigeria has been prosecuted for marrying a child, including Sen. Sani Ahmed Yerima, infamous for divorcing a 17-year-old that he married when she was 15 so he could marry a 14-year-old Egyptian girl in 2010, when he was 49. He had to divorce one of his child brides because Islamic law allows a maximum of four wives at a time

OMG! See These Babes ...LOL

Prosecutor calls Pistorius's version 'impossible'

In a pummelling cross-examination the prosecution called Oscar Pistorius's account of killing his girlfriend "impossible" on Thursday, zeroing in on apparent inconsistencies in key parts of his testimony.

South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius (R) leaves the North Gauteng High Court during his ongoing murder trial in Pretoria on April 10, 2014

"Your version is so improbable that nobody would ever think it's reasonably, possibly true it's so impossible," Prosecutor Gerrie Nel thundered during his second day interrogating the Olympian.

Nel also rubbished the athlete's claim that police moved important pieces of evidence after arriving at the scene early on Valentine's Day morning last year.

Under intense questioning, Pistorius said police moved fans, put the duvet on the floor and opened the curtains when they came to his villa, implying they had tampered with the crime scene.

"Is this one big conspiracy?" asked Nel with incredulity. "They would do all this to you?"

Pistorius, known as the "Blade Runner" for his j-shaped prosthetic legs, has been charged with murdering his 29-year-old model girlfriend after shooting her four times through a locked toilet door.

He faces a life sentence if convicted.

The double-amputee, once revered for his triumph over disability, has said he fired the shots accidentally and did not mean to kill anyone.

He also testified that he feared someone was coming through the toilet door and that his life was in danger.

This seemingly contradictory account was probed at length by Nel, who drew a concession from Pistorius that the shots should not have been fired at all.

"We know for a fact there were no intruders in your house that night, we know for a fact there was no ladder against the wall," Nel said.

"We know for a fact that you had no reason to shoot, objectively speaking."

Pistorius responded: "That's correct my lady."

Pistorius's cross-examination is a key point in his trial and a stern test of both his version of events and of his resolve.

During the five-week trial the world-famous athlete has appeared fragile, frequently crying in court and becoming physically sick when gruesome details of Steenkamp's injuries were discussed.

Regardless of who Pistorius believed was behind the door, he could face a stiff sentence if Judge Thokozile Masipa believes he purposely used lethal force without reasonable cause.

- 'All about I' -

Nel spent most of the first part of his cross-examination accusing Pistorius of being a selfish, controlling boyfriend and caring more about himself than the death of his girlfriend.

He tore into the 27-year-old's account of his relationship with Steenkamp, and read long cell phone messages in which the former model said she was upset and "scared" of Pistorius's behaviour.

"She's scared of the feelings that she has for me and the way that I brushed her off," the athlete said by way of explanation.

"It's all about 'I'. It's all about Mr Pistorius," Nel said.

When Nel asked what Steenkamp meant when she said Pistorius picked on her "incessantly," the runner got defensive.

"There are people who will testify I didn't pick on her in any way," he said.

Nel also accused Pistorius of making a public apology to Steenkamp's parents just to make himself feel better.

"Did you feel better after the apology?" Nel asked.

Steenkamp's mother June has said she wanted the Paralympian to see what he did to her daughter.

"He must see me there in the court, he must feel my eyes boring into him, I think it makes a lot of difference," she told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper.

"I look at Oscar the whole time, to see how he is coping, how he is behaving. I'm obsessed with looking at him. It's just instinctive, I can't explain it."

After sitting in court with stoicism, June Steenkamp said she breaks down at the end of the day.

"I keep it all in and when I get back to the hotel it all comes out and I break down."

- Responsibility -

Nel also used questions about three separate gun charges to try and show that Pistorius, who has been described as a "gun enthusiast," was irresponsible.

Pistorius, who said in court he carried a firearm at all times, has denied firing a gun in public on two separate occasions, and the possession of unlicensed ammunition.

"I didn't pull the trigger. I didn't have time to think," he said about firing a gun in an upmarket Johannesburg restaurant in 2012.

"'I'm a gun enthusiast, I didn't have time to think,'" Nel mimicked sarcastically.

The athlete also said his counsel told him it was legal to keep his father's ammunition in his home safe.

"It's now the third occasion that you blame your legal team when you don't want to take responsibility," said Nel.

Pistorius earlier blamed his lawyers for discrepancies between his accounts given in written statements and his later verbal testimony.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux is expected to call up to 17 witnesses in the remainder of the case.

Originally scheduled to run for three weeks, the case has been extended until mid-May but could go on longer.

Heartbleed Bug: Tech Firms Urge Password Reset

  

Several tech firms have urged people to change all their passwords after the discovery of a major security flaw called the Heartbleed Bug.

The Yahoo blogging platform Tumblr has advised the public to change their passwords "change your passwords everywhere - especially your high-security services".

But with users told to pick a complicated, different log in for each site, trying to remember them all becomes a challenge.

Rory Cellan-Jones looks at some of the ways people can manage multiple strong passwords online. To watch video on ways you can manage multiple passwords online visit www.bbc.com/news/technology

Lagos Carnival Is Here Again!

    

That time of the year has come again, when the beautiful city of Lagos, Nigeria, blows up in grand display of beautiful people, fabulous costumes and musical jamboree, all celebrating the loveliness and magnificence of the culture and people of Lagos. Every year, the whole parade normally kicks off with over a thousand beautifully dressed adults and young people dancing and parading the streets from Falomo in Ikoyi area of Lagos Island, through Awolowo Road and arrive at Tafawa Balewa Square with a massive display of interesting jamborees and presentations.

This year’s theme is “LASGIDI! Come have fun, the GIDI way!” and it is slated for Easter Monday, 21st April, 2014. The parade will kick off at 10am, at Awolowo road and culminate at Tafawa Balewa Square.

It is advised that everyone is comfortably dressed for the occasion as it may be hot and may rain for a few minutes, and a camera is considered a requirement to capture the fun forever. If you are on Awolowo road, watch out for the fun spots which will blow your mind.  To find out more information about the carnival or participation, visit www.lagoscarnival.com.

Lagos State Government, however, is warming up the whole city with beautiful and eye-catching statues posted at strategic points across the city.