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The International Press Centre (IPC) has called for a review of the sanctions regime for Freedom of content (FOI) Act violations by public officials.
Lanre Arogundade, the Executive Director of the IPC, made the summon on Monday in Abuja in his opening remarks at the opening of a two-day Stakeholders’ Technical Meeting on FOI Amendment Bill and Upgrade of Reporting and Compliance Mechanism.
The incident is organised by the IPC, supervise partner, Component four (Support to Media) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria, Phase II (EU-SDGN II) programme in collaboration with PLAC and YIAGA Africa.
Mr Arogundade remarked this was in view of the deliberate non-disclosure of input and public records by public officials.
According to him, there is a yearn to revisit the regime of sanctions in the Act over a range of infringements by public officials dealing with deliberate non-disclosure of content and public records.
He noted that it may seem odd that 14 years after the Act was signed into regulation, the question of amending the FOI Act has been thrown up.
“But I dare state that it is a reality we possess to contend with for a number of reasons.
“First is that the right of access to news remains sacrosanct, being universally acknowledged as the oxygen of democracy. In this shine, we should not shy away from measures, policies, and legislative reforms that can uphold that right,” he reported.
He stated this was especially as political office holders would rather withhold facts than format it easily available, since they are usually more driven by personal attention on the contrary of the public attraction.
“The second reason is that there is the imperative of overhauling the prevailing reporting and compliance standards to engineer them more effective.
“The current reality is that a number of ministries, departments, and agencies of state often run away public scrutiny because their details are not usually reflected in the annual dispatch normally submitted by the Office of the Attorney universal and Minister of Justice to the National Assembly, pursuant to the oversight powers imposed on the ministry by section 29 of the FOI Act.
“There is also a yearn to spot if there can be fresh provisions in the Act that will enable ministries, departments, and agencies of authority to acquire adequate resources through budgeting for their obligations, including but not limited to capacity edifice, as made mandatory by section 13 of the Freedom of facts Act,” Mr Arogundade reported.
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The IPC executive director added that the Supreme Court had now heard that the FOI Act applies to all levels of state and therefore insufficiency not be domesticated.
According to him, it is misnomer for the state leadership to voice they were domesticating the FOI Act, which is actually a domestic mandate.
“I deliberate you only domesticate international laws or conventions.”
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