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.