Ministries, departments, and agencies under the federal and state governments have consistently defaulted on honouring requests made by organisations and individuals under the Freedom of Information Act, findings by Saturday PUNCH have revealed.
Majority of MDAs that received official requests for information, especially from civil society organisations, usually declined to respond to such demands without any consequences.
While state MDAs turn down requests on the grounds that the FOI Act has not been domesticated in their states, those at the federal level simply choose not to reply at all.
The FOI Act, promulgated in May 2011, aims to make public records and information freely available to the public to ensure transparency and accountability in governance.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that many states in the federation have refused to domesticate the law.
States like Plateau, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Yobe, Kwara in the North, and Imo, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Lagos, Osun, and Ogun in the South, are yet to domesticate the Act.
Ekiti was the first to domesticate the FOI Act. Former governor Kayode Fayemi signed the Act, named the ‘Domestication of the new Nigerian national FOIA law,’ for the state on 4 July 2011.
However, a Lagos State High Court ruled in November 2017 that the FOI Act did not need to be domesticated by the state, a decision that was upheld by the Appeal Court in March 2018.
The appellate court in Akure ruled that states do not have the authority to reject information requests made under the FOI Act, especially concerning public expenditure.
Despite the court rulings, the Lagos State Government and other states have continued to deny the public access to information requested under the FOI Act.
Corroborating Saturday PUNCH’s findings, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project stated that many of its FOI requests to federal and state MDAs were ignored.
“What we received on a few occasions was an acknowledgment of our letter, but not the provision of the information we requested,” said a senior officer of SERAP, who spoke with Saturday PUNCH on condition of anonymity.
Specifically, the SERAP official stated that all its FOI requests from 2020 to 2024 were ignored by the Lagos State Government.
He noted that the state did not honour the organisation’s request for the asset declaration made by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in 2020.
He added that the government also declined another request in 2022 for information on the Lagos State Pension Law, which sought to clarify whether the state was paying its former officials serving in the Federal Government.
“We also wrote to the state government in 2023 to request information on how the Universal Basic Education fund was being spent, but they did not honour that request either.
“A few weeks ago, we wrote to all state governors asking for information on the Chinese loans they obtained and the collateral used. They have yet to respond to that request as well,” he added.
A civic-tech organisation, Budgit, emphasised that both federal and state governments were guilty of refusal of FOI requests.
Budgit reported that out of over 500 FOI requests it submitted, only 10 received responses from MDAs at both federal and state levels, lamenting that such practices hindered transparency.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, the Programme Officer of Budgit, Tola Osiyemi, said, “The refusal of FOI requests is a national practice by MDAs and institutions. It is a bad experience at both federal and state levels. We have only received responses to around 10 of over 500 letters we have written so far.
“The refusal persists because there is little litigation being pursued. The Ministry of Justice has trained MDAs on the FOI Act, and no official can claim ignorance of the rules governing their office.
“They are concealing a lot of things because they know that in many cases, there will be no consequences when they refuse FOI requests. They are aware that people are not likely to push back. That is the issue.”
Findings by Saturday PUNCH also revealed that the Osun State government has also failed to honour FOI requests.
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) and a non-profit organisation, Urban Alert, said the state ignored their FOI requests.
The Team Lead of Urban Alert, Anthony Adejuwon, stated that the organisation’s request for information on the Food Support Scheme during the administration of former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola was not honoured.
Similarly, the Chairman of the CDHR, Emmanuel Olowu, said two FOI requests sent to the Osun State House of Assembly and the Office of the Head of Service were also ignored.
The National President of Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said the inability of civil society organisations and individuals to pursue legal action against the government for the refusal of FOI requests remained a significant challenge to enforcing the Act.
According to Adeniran, various MDAs willfully refuse FOI requests because they believe there will be no repercussions for violating the law.
“CACOL used the FOI Act to request information on the upgrading of the Fashola website, Olowolafe contracts, and the complete budget of Lagos State. None of our requests was honoured. However, there was little we could do; we couldn’t go to court because we didn’t have the funds.
“There is a need for specific sanctions against any MDA that refuses an FOI request, and there should also be safeguards against the abuse of such sanctions,” he stated.
However, the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, denied the report that the state had been rejecting FOI requests.
“I have informed the whole state that whoever makes such a request should copy my office so as to facilitate the response. Whoever is genuine in his request will definitely carry the Ministry of Information along. So, that allegation is not correct,” he stated.
Calls and messages directed to the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso.
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