Hope rises on passage of FOI, Whistleblowers bills in Ogun

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NIGERIA: FROM the Ogun State House of Assembly has come good news on the proposed Freedom of Information and Whistleblowers Bills.

The Assembly has thrown its weight behind the bills, with a promise that if passed into law it would give access to official information and strengthen communication ties between government and the governed.

The Speaker, Honorable Suraju Ishola Adekunbi, said this last Friday while playing host to the United Action for Change (UAC), a non-governmental organization led by its Chairman, Dr Muiz Banire, who presented to the Assembly two Bills at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

Adekunbi, who commended the organization for the presentation, said that it was a reminder of what was expected of political office holders, especially the legislators in ensuring transparency and accountability in governance of the state and the nation at large.

The Speaker described the initiative of UAC as people-oriented and promised that the Assembly would support the proposed bills and give them due attention.

Banire had earlier said that the organization was conceived to engage and sensitize Nigerians on the philosophical and moral significance of the change mantra of the All Progressive Congress led-government.

He maintained that its values revolve round national rebirth, value re-orientation and mobilization, transparency and accountability in governance and citizens’ engagement and consciousness.

Banire also said that the FOI Act passed into law by the National Assembly existed only at the Federal level, but yet to be domesticated or enacted by the states.

Due to this, according to him, there is the need to propose a new version with 33 sections inclusive of the interpretation and citation sections to address the defects in the former.

According to Banire, the sections newly added in the proposed FOI Bill would aid the proper implementation of the law by creating the Office of the Complaint Commissioner, an Ombudsman and the Office of Complaint Tribunal to resolve disputes relating to rejected request for information.

“The proposed Bill unlike the federal legislation which gives immediate access to court as soon as the requests are turned down will provide for administrative channels through the Complaint Commissioner and Appeal Commissioner to resolve disputes on request for information as much as possible with the litigation option being the last resort”, he explained.