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In 2011, the Freedom Of Information (FOI) Act was signed into law, in a bid to promote accountability and transparency in the public sector. The FOIA guarantees the right to information within the control of public institutions to all Nigerians, irrespective of age, class, or occupation. However, almost every institution concerned would not provide any response until you drag them to court.

Less than a year after it was passed into law, a civil society group, the Nigerian Contract Monitoring Coalition, had to institute a case against the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, at a Federal High Court in Abuja. The coalition had applied to PHCN and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc, one of the beneficiary companies of a particular World Bank-funded project, for copies of procurement documents and information relating to the contract for the supplies materials. They were denied for no reason.

In a significant ruling for access to information in Nigeria, Justice Ademola granted the coalition’s application after hearing its lawyer’s arguments in support of the motion. A similar case involved Civil Liberties Organization, against the Enugu State health commissioner in 2014. Before they could get their response, the CLOs had to ask the court for an order mandating the commissioner to disclose records and documents in respect of the contract awarded for the building and completion of a Diagnostics Center in the state.

In what seemed to be a defeat of this long fight for the “right to know,” a Federal High Court in Lagos declared that the FOIA is not binding on all states, citing that each state is regulated by its own House of Assembly. This was in November 2014. Since then, it’s always a tough legal battle to get state governments and other institutions to release any information. As would be expected, state governments have capitalized on this to keep their illicit affairs private. Most of the court cases are with states or their MDAs. One would ask of why state governments are that paranoid about transparent governance. Could it be an obvious pointer to the irregularities going on within states administration?

Thanks to the Media Rights Agenda, that judgment recently got reversed. On the 29th of November, A Lagos High Court, sitting in the Ikeja Judicial Division, has ruled that the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011 is applicable to the Government of Lagos State and requires no “domestication” by the State to have an effect. MRA had in November 2016 requested from the state government, details and copies of plans put in place by the institution to provide the Araromi Zion Estate located in Akiode Area of Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) with health care services, and other related information. Following the refusal to provide this, a legal battle ensued over the potency of FOIA in Lagos and other states. Good enough, justice won. Legally, you have the “right to know” anything as much as you require now.

Source: http://igotalk.ng/states-afraid-foi-act/

Human rights organizations are leading the fight against abuses and assaults. The only problem has been difficulty in reporting cases of human rights violations, and this has to be corrected to ensure justice is timely delivered.

Many victims of human right violations have survived on the efforts of activist organizations who keep a track of violations and help people secure justice. They work closely with government agencies like the Offices of the Public Defender in states and other ones to prosecute cases of human right violations. However, some of them need to do more to make it easy to submit complaints. The inability of some people to easily submit their complaints via email or phone calls can slow down the defense of human rights.

The country is enmeshed in cases of human right violations between individuals, and between government and the society, like the case of over 150 deaths during the Nigerian Army’s clampdown on supposed Biafran secessionists in 2015. There are other law enforcement agents trampling on people’s rights, and these victims need to be able to simply send a mail or make a call to get help. While organizations like the Amnesty International maintains an international oversight of human rights, we trust the indigenous ones to go deeper and put government instruments to work in defending people’s rights.

We need good communication platforms to ensure these. In an effort to reach CDHR – Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, a Lagos-based human right organization, the communication gap played out. We had a case of human rights violation to report to them, but ten days after sending them a mail, there is neither an acknowledgment nor a formal response. The organization indicated the goal of “rendering legal aid and assistance to indigent victims of human rights violations” among other things on their website, which means we are taking the right step by reaching out to them. This gap might not have been noticed but could deprive victims of timely justice. The organization and any other NGO with a similar unattended communication system need to correct this, thereby making it easier to submit complaints.

Source: http://igotalk.ng/nigerias-human-right-defenders-need-accessible