Lawyers ask Supreme Court to expedite hearing of appeals in FOI cases

Lawyers have called on the Supreme Court to expedite the hearing
of the appeals arising from freedom of information cases that are
presently pending before it in order to clear up the controversy
over the applicability of the Act to public institutions at the
State and Local Government levels and other constitutional
issues.

In a communique issued at the end of their workshop in Kaduna,
the lawyers noted that having regard to the importance of the
Freedom of Information Act to democratic practice and good
governance in Nigeria and the fact that the issues in dispute in
the appeals pending at the Supreme Court raise important
constitutional questions, a full court should be urgently
empanelled to hear and determine the appeals.

The communique was issued at the end of a two-day
Sensitization/Training Workshop for Lawyers on “Supporting the
Media Through Litigation” held in Kaduna on March 5 and 6, 2019,
which was attended by 44 participants, including 42 lawyers from
different states across Nigeria. The workshop was convened by Media
Rights Agenda (MRA) and sponsored by the Open Society Initiative
for West Africa (OSIWA).

The lawyers also resolved to increase enlightenment and advocacy
activities on the applicability of the Act at the State level and
to ensure its implementation in all the States of the Federation,
observing that “the spirit and intent of the Act, which is to
promote transparency and accountability in governance, citizen
participation in government, good governance and a corruption-free
society, are equally applicable to the States.”

They recommended that in order to improve the capacity of judges
to deal with FOI and give effect to the summary procedure
prescribed by Section 21 of the Act, heads of the different courts
given jurisdiction by the Act, should designate specific judges to
hear and determine such cases. Such judges should then be
sensitized or trained on the nitty gritty of the Freedom of
Information Act so that they can have a better understanding of the
relevant issues and be able to dispose of such matters coming
before them speedily.

The lawyers expressed concern at the poor level of compliance
with all aspects of the Freedom of Information Act by public
institutions, observing that there was a low level of
responsiveness by public institutions to requests for information
from members of the public, widespread disregard by public
institutions for their statutory obligation to proactively publish
certain categories of information, and a dismal performance by
public institutions in submitting annual implementation reports to
the Attorney-General of the Federation, which consistently less
than 10 per cent of public institutions at the Federal level have
complied since 2012.

They stressed that “the government’s silence and inaction in the
face of such pervasive disregard for the provisions of an important
piece of legislation like the Freedom of Information Act is
creating a situation of impunity among public institutions in the
implementation of the Act, which is a clear violation of the
principles of the rule of law and should be checked.”

Although the lawyers commended the Attorney-General of the
Federation for unfailingly submitting his annual report on the
implementation of the Act to the National Assembly since the Act
came into force in 2011, in accordance with Section 29(7) of the
Act, they called on him and future Attorneys-General of the
Federation to make efforts to improve the quality of the reports
and, in particular, to ensure that the reports contain all the
information and details required by Section 29(7) and (8) of the
Act.

They also urged the Attorney-General of the Federation to take
immediate steps to live up to his statutory responsibility under
Section 29(6) of the Act, which requires him to ensure that all the
public institutions to which the Act applies, comply with its
provisions.

The lawyers resolved to establish a Freedom of Information Legal
Response Network as a platform for their collaborative efforts to
provide legal and litigation assistance to journalists, media
organizations and other deserving members of the public, as well as
to share ideas and coordinate activities aimed at ensuring the
overall implementation of the Act.