It was more than a forum or workshop. It was a refresher course and step-by-step learning of their mandate as Freedom of Information Desk officers. Very few civil servants pray to be posted to the FOI desk in government establishments, yet it has one of the veins that goes directly to the heart of every organisation.

On Friday, the International Press Centre and the Federal Ministry of Justice held a forum with FOI Desk Officers on Deepening Understanding and Building Collaborative Frameworks Around Proactive Disclosure and Responsiveness to FOI Requests. The forum was funded by the European Union and Implemented under the EU—SDGN11 project.

Mr. Gbemiga Ogunleye; lawyer, journalist, media scholar, former Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and a Board Member of the International Press Centre, Lagos in his presentation entitled “Global best practices and the imperative of proactive disclosure and compliance with the provisions of the FOI Act”, explained to the participants, 13 seasons why the FOI is important.

Resource Persons at the workshop

According to him, it promotes accountability and transparency in government, promotes good governance and reduces corruption, helps the citizens to be informed, thus making informed decisions, facilitates citizens’ participation in governance and reduces the possibility of citizens denying knowledge of government activities and avoiding the performance of civic responsibilities.

Other benefits of FOI are that it boosts citizens’ trust and confidence in government, helps journalists in their work, especially, investigative journalists, helps in Research and Development by providing access to information and data, makes it obligatory for government officials and MDAs to provide information to the public, checks abuse of power; makes public officers accountable, guarantees access to accurate and reliable data, unknown facts become known, journalists can fact-check stories from anonymous sources and public officials get the opportunity to state their side of the story.

While noting that the Official Secrets Act encourages a person who transmits any classified matter to a person to whom he is not authorized on behalf of the government to transmit it, or obtain, reproduce or retain any classified matter which he has not authorized on behalf of the government to obtain, reproduce or retain, as the case may be, shall be guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction, on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years and on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine of an amount not exceeding N200 or to both imprisonment and fine, Mr.Ogunleye noted that the FOI Act was passed into law to make the desk officer perform his/her job diligently without fear of going to jail.

He broke down Section 7 (5) of the Act into pieces for the participants. The section, he said, states that wrongful denial of access to information by a public official attracts a fine of N500,000 “It is a crime for a public official to destroy records in his/her custody, doctor or alter before releasing it. An official who is guilty of that is liable to a one-year jail term”, he warned.

A cross section of participants

Speaking on the request for information by an applicant, Mr Ogunleye explained that Section 1(2): “ An applicant under this Act needs not to demonstrate any specific interest in the information being applied for.” adding that Section 2 (1) and Section 9 (1) makes it mandatory for public institutions to record and keep information about all their activities, personnel, operations, businesses, etc.

He explained further that Section 2 (7) defines public institutions: “Public institutions are all authorities whether executive, legislative or judicial agencies, ministries and extra-ministerial departments of the government, together with all corporations established by law and all private companies utilizing public funds, providing public services or performing public functions.”

Mr. Ogunleye reminded them that all public institutions are required by the Act to proactively publish certain types of information to the public through print, electronic and online. According to him, Sections 2 (3), (4) & (5) of the FOIA reduce the number of requests and saves FOI desk officers headaches.

According to him, this reduces the workload of FOI desk officers, fosters collaboration with citizens, journalists, civil society organisations and the public and improves transparency, in the spirit of open government.

He explained that Section 27 of the Act protects any officer of a public institution or any person acting on behalf of a public institution who discloses any information under the Act in good faith from civil or criminal proceedings.

According to Mr Ogunleye, in the UK and United States, requests by individuals must be responded to within 20 working days. Government agencies, he counselled, are encouraged to proactively disclose information, rather than waiting for requests.

Speaking as a lawyer and insider, head of FOI in the Federal Ministry of Justice Mr. Godwin Garba, in his presentation titled” Understanding the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011 and its mandate on public institutions”, said the Act imposes a proactive disclosure obligation on every Public Institution to disclose information and published:

A description of the organization; its responsibilities; details of programmes; function of each division, branch, and department; a list of: classes of records under the control of the institution in sufficient detail to facilitate the exercise of the right to information under the Act; Manuals used by the employees in carrying out the programmes or activities of the institution; A document containing the final opinion.

According to him, Section 4 FOIA provides for a seven (7) days timeline within which to respond to requests with provisions for a further extension of seven (7) more days and no more! Any request not answered within 7 days is considered an implied denial.

Also, Section 5(1) states that information not under your custody should not be denied but transferred to a public institution with greater interest within 3 days and not more than 7 days.

Written notice of such transfer is made to the applicant, adding that S.5(2)states that the application shall be deemed to have been made to the public institution to which it was transferred on the day it received it.

Mr. Garuba, however, warned the FOI Desk Officer of the consequences of S.7(5). The section explains that where a case of wrongful denial of access is established, the defaulting officer or institution commits an offence and is liable to conviction to a fine of N500,000.

He explained that the Act provides immunity to public officers against any form of civil or criminal proceedings for disclosure of information in good faith.

His words: “Nothing contained in the code of conduct of the Official Secrets Act shall prejudicially affect any public officer who, without authority discloses to any person information on corruption or danger to public health or safety

No civil or criminal proceeding shall lie against any person receiving the information or further disclosing it”.

Mr Garuba said that the fact that information in custody of public institutions is kept under security classification does not preclude it from been disclosed under the Act.
In any case, Public Institutions are expected to be guided by the exemption Sections of the Act.

He spoke on the exceptions in the Act and access to information by the court and excepted materials.

In her presentation entitled: “Desk Officers Mandatory Annual Reporting Template under the FOI Act, Ms Nafisat Wegi Ibrahim of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation explained that the Attorney General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Justice have oversight responsibilities under the FOIA are captured in Section 29 FOIA.

According to her, some of these responsibilities include: ensuring that all Public Institutions comply with the provisions of the Act, providing a mechanism and templates for Public Institutions reports and ensuring that the Act is followed by Public Institutions.

“To achieve this, the Attorney General of the Federation developed guidelines on reporting and performance appraisal for Public Institutions to guide them both in the discharge of their duties under the Act and preparation of the statutory report under section 29 of the Act. The benefit of this is that the reporting templates meet the requirement of FOIA and also provide a uniform standard for FOIA reporting and compliance” she stressed.

According to her, on 1 February each year, all public institutions must submit to the Attorney General of the Federation a report with the number of determinations made and reasons given by the Institutions for denial of information where applicable. The number of Appeals by applicants, decisions of the courts and the number of staff devoted to processing.

She said the AGF shall ensure that a consolidated report of the FOIA compliance and implementation by all public institutions is made readily available to members of the public in hard copies and electronically and would report annually to both chambers of the National Assembly on the implementation of the Act and detailed description of efforts taken by the Ministry of Justice to encourage Public Institutions to comply with the provisions of the Act not later than 1st day of April in each year to the following members of the NASS.

Specifically, she said the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Clerk of the NASS, the Chairman Committee on Government Reform (FOI), the Chairman Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, the Chairman Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters must be given a copy of the report.

“The Attorney General of the Federation serves as an ombudsman between Public Institutions and Requesters. He also gives legal advice to Public Institutions on FOI requests”, Ms Ibrahim added.