EDITORIAL: When hospitals become graveyards: The shame of UNTH, Enugu - ITREALMS

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The death of Mrs. Charity Unachukwu at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, after what her family describes as 12 hours of bureaucratic delay and neglect, is more than a personal tragedy. It is a mirror held up to Nigeria, reflecting the decay of our health system and the betrayal of citizens by institutions meant to preserve life.

Hospitals are supposed to be sanctuaries of healing. Instead, stories like Charity’s turn them into graveyards where negligence, incompetence, and indifference claim more lives than the ailments patients bring. It is telling and damning, that testimonies of other families quickly followed, each recounting a similar experience of abandonment at UNTH. This is no coincidence. It is a pattern.

Not just a slip of tongue, PDP really brought shame to Nigeria says APC - ITREALMS

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The unravelling of the depraved Peoples Democratic Party reached extreme absurdity yesterday when its National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu while campaigning in Kano, declared that the party brought shame to Nigeria. Ayu's verdict on his own party should not be seen as a mere slip of tongue.

It was truly an articulation of the inner mind of the former academic and senate president, a self-admission of the egregious failing of the party when it was in charge of our country for 16 years.

Capt. Owen, Nigerian Navy, and the shame of a country - ITREALMS

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To say it wasn’t foreseen would be for one an absurd indulgence in self-denial. Last month’s compulsory retirement of Captain Emmanuel Ekpe Owen of the Nigerian Navy marked yet another act of horrendous injustice that has become more of a permanent feature in both public and private sector governance in the country. The wicked behaviour manifests in various forms but none comes close in its egregiousness than the impunity enjoyed by top government officials in the workplace.

More often when such officials are caught in one form of barefaced wrongdoing or another, they get away unpunished using their privileged status to browbeat those trying to hold them accountable, then finagle their way to total freedom. 

Federal Civil Service Commission enters enhanced ‘FOI Hall of Shame’ - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) into its enhanced Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame and promised to take legal action against the Commission for its blatant disregard of its obligations under the FOI Act in violation of the rights of the public to information, reports ITREALMS.

FOI Programme Manager at MRA, Mr. Ridwan Sulaimon, said despite its responsibility of overseeing a huge federal civil service, the Commission has ignored virtually all its duties as a public institution as defined by the FOI Act, thereby consistently sending a wrong signal to other public institutions under its supervision with the result that, unsurprisingly, many of those public institutions and their officials have themselves repeatedly violated the provisions of the Act.

Noting that the Commission was established by section 153(1) of the 1999 Constitution(as amended) as a federal executive body empowered to appoint persons to offices in the federal civil service and to dismiss or exercise disciplinary control over persons holding such office, Mr. Sulaimon said: “This is a huge responsibility that requires the Commission, which essentially serves as the engine room of the government, to be transparent in order to protect its integrity and enjoy credibility with those it superintends over as well as to comply with all applicable laws and regulations so that it can enforce these and others laws and regulations with respect to the public institutions and officials under its supervision.

According to him, “The Commission can have no credibility in exercising disciplinary control over members of the public service for breaches of relevant laws and regulations and its efforts in this regard cannot be effective when it is itself in breach of its duties and obligations under a Law validly made by the National Assembly. The hypocrisy in such an exercise will be a major encumbrance to the performance of the Commission’s functions and the realization of its objectives.”

Mr. Sulaimon accused the Commission of failing to proactively publish the range of information and documents that it is required to disclose by the Law; refusing to designate an FOI Desk Officer; not providing the appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and for the effective implementation of the Act; and consistently neglecting to submit to the Attorney-General of the Federation its annual FOI implementation reports, all of which are mandatory requirements of the Law.

He stressed that it was evident from the website of the Commission that it is in breach of the requirements of section 2(3)f of the FOI Act which imposes an obligation on all public institutions to proactively publish the title and address of the appropriate officer to whom applications for information under the Act should be made by members of the public.

Mr Sulaimon said: “Such level of impunity should not be tolerated in any decent society and it amazes us that a government that expects ordinary citizens and its officials to obey the law allows an institution of the government with such massive coordinating and supervisory roles to get away with such blatant disregard for a valid and subsisting law, thereby presenting an image of a lawless society and a government that condones lawlessness.”

He added that: “An approach to governance in which government officials and institutions disobey the law, sets a bad example for ordinary citizens and robs the government of legitimacy as well as the moral authority to enforce any law against citizens. It is even more disheartening when the law in question is one aimed at fostering transparency and accountability in government and where the government involved is one that claims to be championing a war against corruption.”

Mr. Sulaimon said MRA was extremely concerned that despite an earlier induction of the Commission into the FOI Hall of Shame about two years ago in which the organization highlighted its various transgressions, the Commission had made no effort to improve on its performance in the implementation of the FOI Act and had continued to operate in total disregard for the Law.

According to him, given these circumstances, MRA had no other option but to take legal steps to compel the Commission to comply with its obligations under the Act in accordance with the provisions of the Law.

Ayo Midele/Editor

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NFF joins ‘FOI Hall of Shame’ - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been inducted into the “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame” by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), accusing the agency of carrying out its activities under an institutional cloak of secrecy that has enabled corruption to flourish in the football sector in Nigeria, frequently causing the country avoidable embarrassment, reports ITREALMS.

Programme Manager, FOI at MRA, Mr Ridwan Sulaimon, told ITREALMS in Lagos that “over the years, the NFF has exhibited an intolerably high level of disregard for basic principles of transparency and accountability in the mistaken belief that it is above the Laws of Land and neither accountable to the Government nor the people of Nigeria.”

According to Mr Sulaimon, an assessment of the NFF’s level of compliance with the FOI Act shows that the institution failed woefully across all the indices as it has been operating as if it has no business with the FOI Act or with being transparent and accountable to Nigerians about its dealings and activities.

He said “it is truly shameful that the NFF has not taken any meaningful steps to comply with or implement the FOI Act in any way. More specifically, it has not published either on its website or anywhere else, the information that Section 2 of the Act requires all public institutions to proactively publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online sources.”

Mr. Sulaimon accused the NFF of failing to publish even routine information such as the name of its president, other officials or its mandate as well as information relating to its contractual agreements and other financial dealings with other institution, thereby carrying on its business in secrecy and in total disregard of its duty to inform the public about its operations.

According to him, “Under Section 29 of the FOI Act, the NFF ought to have submitted seven annual reports on its implementation of the Act to the Attorney-General of the Federation as of February 1, 2018.  In reality, the institution only submitted one report, for 2012, and has failed to submit the mandatory annual reports for all other years till date.”

Mr. Sulaimon said: “As a result of the failure of the NFF to submit its annual reports on its implementation of the FOI Act, as required by Law, information on how many requests for information the institution has received annually since 2011, how many of these it has processed and granted and how many of the requests it denied each year, among others, are not available anywhere, except for 2012.”

He noted, however, that “If our own recent experience at Media Rights Agenda is anything to go by, the NFF apparently attaches no importance to requests for information from the public and does not have a track record of responsiveness to such requests.”

According to him, “Very recently, Media Rights Agenda wrote a letter dated June 8, 2018, to the NFF asking it to provide us with a list of footballers, coaches, other football officials as well as supporters, government officials and their aides who travelled to Russia for the 2018 World Cup and whose travel expenses were covered through public funds. We asked for details of the sources of funds that the NFF had received relating to Nigeria’s participation in the 2018 World Cup, the amount received from each source as well as the total amount received, among others. The NFF did not even dignify the request with a response, even if to simply acknowledge receipt and has till date not provided us with the requested information.”

On Section 13 of the FOI Act which requires every public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and for the effective implementation of the Act, Mr Sulaimon accused the NFF of repeated failure to comply with the Section, saying that there is no indication that it has ever bothered to provide any training in this regard for its officials and personnel.

He also highlighted Section 2(3)(f) of the FOI Act, which mandates every public institution to publish the title and address of an appropriate officer to whom applications for information by the public should be sent, and accused the NFF of also failing to comply with this requirement, citing as evidence the fact that the title and address of the FOI Desk Officer for the NFF is not published on its website or anywhere else as well as the fact that no FOI Desk Officer for the NFF is listed in the Database of FOI Desk Officers for Public Institutions compiled and published by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

Mr. Sulaimon therefore urged the President of the NFF, Mr Amaju Pinnick, to take advantage of the current brief calm in the institution to re-build its image by ensuring that it complies with all its duties and obligations under the FOI Act and, more significantly, that it becomes transparent and accountable to the Nigerian people.

He said: “The fact that Nigerians love football and desire that the country remains a prominent member of the global football community should not be mistaken by the NFF as a licence for it to abandon good governance practices and principles in the management of football in Nigeria. Indeed, we note that indiscipline, lack of transparency and accountability, and corruption in the management of the sport have largely been responsible for Nigeria’s inability to realize its full potential in this area and we would be demanding a total re-evaluation of the terms of our continued engagement if there is no noticeable change in behaviour.”

MRA launched the “FOI Hall of Shame” on July 3, 2017 to focus attention on public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances and decisions.

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Vote-buying: A culture of shame and stereotyping poverty - ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS:

Another moment has dawn on us, the moment to decide the future of Osun State. Either good or bad, that choice lies on our very thumbs. Whichever way we swings it, the effect(s) would bear social and economic impacts on everyone.

Just as it is the norm in our political process, Osun people will go to the poll on September 22 to decide who leads the state for another four years. With their thumbs, they would make a choice and the outcome of the election will depict the projection of the people for the future; either for the restoration of Osun or fancy of their stomachs.

I'm particular about the fancy of stomachs due to the depressing culture of vote-buying that is shamelessly deployed to influence electorates. It is disturbing that the plight of the people have become a tool perpetuate their oppressors in power. That is a narrative the people must rise up to reject.

Disturbingly, those who cornered our resources for their private uses, have shown insatiable quest for their greediness. Rather than be remorseful and sought the people apology for failing them in rendering the expected service when they were entrusted with leading the state, they are either scheming themselves or trying to foist another error on the state, to maintain their lust for raking our collective wealths.

They mocked the people situation by doling out cash every election period to influence their choice. It is an evil they sought to normalise but with our firm resolves, we can resist them. 

Osun is in shamble and struggling to survive the damages of the past. Recurring leadership failures have left the state in a precarious situation and salvaging the sordid outlook of both economic and social imbalance that plagued the state requires firm resolves and patriotic postures.

Casting the ballot is a civic right that should not be influenced by enticement. Whenever electorates surrendered their mandate for token, it implies their complicit in the misgovernance that plagued our society. They should blame themselves for the horrendous plights that the ruling elites melts on them. 

So, it is time we discontinue our mistakes and ignore every deceits that orchestrated the disappointments and regrets of the past. Our votes should preface a promising tomorrow, not compound our woes. It should halt the uninspiring outlook in our dear state, not prolong our harrowings.

That is the essence of democracy. That was why our founding-father fought for democracy because they were convinced that it allows us the choice to determine our future. Within our thumbs lies our faith and that of our society.

As such, we must brace up and take a firm decision to correct the anomalies of the past. We should outsmart our oppressors by choosing our collective comforts and growths to their selfish attempt to further subjugate us. We should reject fancy of stomachs and let our votes reflect our consciences. 

We should rise up to the defence of Osun state and ignore advances to lure our votes with token in order to continue the pillaging of our collective wealth by only few individuals. No matter the situation, we should never succumb to selling our votes. 

It is the power we have to effect a better society and we must 

make our oppressors understand that we want a prosperous Osun where our stomachs will be filled without restraint all day and not the deceits of a cup of rise that can not satisfy us for a single day.

Our democracy is at the edge and we must not let it slide. Vote-buying is anti-democratic but as it is with almost every other illicit acts, it flourishes when their willing accomplice. Either knowingly or unknowingly, the lust for money has aided the shameless culture of monetising votes. It must stop because our future hangs in the balance.

*Contributed by Kabiru Adeniyi Adisa FCA, President General, Charitable Youth for Nation Building Initiative

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NIPOST inducted into ‘FOI Hall of Shame’ - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has been inducted into the “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame” by the Media Rights Agenda (MRA), reports ITREALMS.

This induction, MRA said, is for the institution’s failure to comply with its duties and obligations under the FOI Act, thereby violating the public’s right of access to information.

Also, MRA said in a statement in Lagos made available to ITREALMS that NIPOST was in breach of several provisions of the FOI Act, including failing to designate an appropriate official to receive requests for information from members of the public; and failing to publish the title and contact details of such an official as required by the Act and the Implementation Guidelines issued by the Attorney-General of the Federation.

MRA also accused NIPOST of disregarding its statutory obligation to submit annual reports on its implementation of the Act to the Attorney-General of the Federation; failing to proactively publish the categories of information which it is required to publish by the Act, failing to provide appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information, among others.

NIPOST was established by Act No. 18 of 1987 to provide and operate facilities for the collection, dispatch and distribution of inland and overseas mail at reasonable cost;  provide and operate facilities for remittance of money through the money or postal order systems; provide and operate philatelic services in Nigeria; print and provide postage stamps for payment of postage tariff and payment of stamp duties and to represent Nigeria in its relations with other postal administrations and other bodies concerned with postal services.

Sadly, MRA said, despite these very critical information and communication services which the institution is mandated to provide to Nigerians and other members of the public, NIPOST has chosen to conduct its business in secrecy and has consistently violated the provisions of the FOI Act since its enactment in 2011.

Mr. John Gbadamosi, MRA’s Programme Officer, said in the statement: “NIPOST, which used to be a department in the Ministry of Communications, should ordinarily constitute a critical pillar in the effective implementation of the FOI Act and stands to benefit from the existence of the Act if it is able to overcome its institutional shortsightedness, the historical incompetence that has dogged its activities and operations for decades and if its management has the resourcefulness to tailor its services to take advantage of a huge opportunity at the disposal of an institution hurtling into extinction as a result of its increasing irrelevance to the society it was established to serve.”

He noted that in addition to complying with the provisions of the FOI Act, as it is obliged to do under the Law, it is also in the enlightened self-interest of NIPOST to promote the Act and its implementation by other public institutions which would result in additional resources for it.

According to Mr. Gbadamosi, “the services that NIPOST was established to provide make it ideally suited to convey applications for information from members of the public all over the country to public institutions in different parts of Nigeria and similarly serve as the vehicle through which public institutions can deliver their responses to such requesters for information at affordable rates that would make it a preferred option for those who currently have to deliver such applications and responses either by courier or through hand deliveries and dispatches.”

Besides, he said, “the money and postal order systems, which are now virtually moribund, could also be easily revived and could become the most viable instruments for members of the public seeking to make payments to public institutions for requested information, which would provide NIPOST with desperately need revenue streams.”

Mr. Gbadamosi noted that although NIPOST claims to have eliminated the incidence of mail theft, pilfering, tampering and other forms of fraudulent activities as a way of boosting customers' confidence, there remains a lack of transparency and accountability in the provision of its service to the public, which have largely remained inefficient.”

He accused NIPOST  of non-compliance with its obligation under the Law to proactively publish 16 categories of information that it is required to publish by Section 2(3) and (4) of the Act, saying “additionally, there is no indication whatsoever that the institution has designated an official to whom requests  for information should be sent while it has also not proactively published the title and address of such an official as the information is not even available on its website.”

Mr. Gbadamosi also pointed out the institution’s failure to comply with its obligation under Section 29 of the Act, which mandates NIPOST, like other public institutions covered by the Act, to submit to the Attorney-General of the Federation, on or before February 1 of each year, a report covering the preceding fiscal year of its implementation of the Act.

He said there was no indication that the NIPOST has provided the appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information or records held by the Bureau or trained them to effectively implement the Act, as it is required to do by section 13 of the FOI Act.

Mr. Gbadamosi called on the management of the Service to redeem the institution’s image by ensuring that it complies with its duties and obligations under the FOI Act.

MRA launched the “FOI Hall of Shame” on July 3, 2017 to draw attention to public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances and decisions.

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DPR joins ‘FOI Hall “of Shame’ - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

For disregarding the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory agency, into its “FOI Hall of Shame” reports ITRealms.

MRA’s FOI Programme Manager, Mr Ridwan Sulaimon, noted in a statement in Lagos that “the induction of the DPR into the FOI Hall of Shame evidences a rot in the oil and gas sector that is pervasive, deep-seated and apparently intractable, as it is the fourth public institution in the sector to be awarded this badge of dishonour within a period of one year for lack of transparency and accountability arising from the flagrant violation of the FOI Act.”

He recalled that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the state oil company, was earlier inducted into the Hall of Shame in July 2017, followed by the Petroleum Equalisation Fund in March 2018 and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in June 2018, saying “It is a matter of concern that despite these revelations about the opaque practices of these institutions, no significant steps have been taken to make them open up or comply with their statutory obligations.”

Mr. Sulaimon said: “Clearly, despite the attention drawn to the unlawful actions of its sister public institutions in the oil and gas sector over the last year, the DPR is undaunted in pursuing a path of secrecy and shielding its activities and operations from public scrutiny.”

According to him, “It is repugnant to imagine that a public institution with such a culture of disrespect and disobedience of an existing Law has the responsibility of ensuring compliance with petroleum laws, regulations and guidelines in the Oil and Gas Industry even while it is persisting in its failure to comply with the Law.”

Mr. Sulaimon explained that the DPR was assessed on its level of compliance with various obligations of public institutions under the FOI Act including: the submission of annual implementation reports, the proactive publication of certain categories of information, the training of the institution’s staff on the public’s right of access to information, the designation of an FOI Desk Officer and publication of contact details of such an official as well as responsiveness to requests for information from members of the public.

He said the DPR failed in all the indicators.

He noted that: “since 2011 when the Act was passed into Law until now, the DPR ought to have submitted seven annual reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation on its implementation of the Act, but the institution has not submitted a single report over the period, thereby repeatedly breaching the provisions of Section 29 of the Act.”

Mr. Sulaimon said there was no indication that the DPR has ever granted any request for information, attributing the problem of ascertaining this precisely to the institution’s failure to submit its annual report to the Attorney-General of the Federation, which would have provided the requisite information about a series of facts and figures relevant to the its implementation of the Act.

According to him, “As a direct result of DPR’s failure to submit its annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation, we are unable to determine the number of applications for information that it received and number of such applications that it processed. We also do not know how many requests for information the DPR has granted or denied over the years or if at all, the institution has ever at least received and/or acknowledged any request from members of the public”

In addition, Mr. Sulaimon said, the DPR has not fulfilled its proactive disclosure obligations under Section 2 of the Act as it has not published on its websites or anywhere else, the 16 categories of information that it is required by the FOI Act to publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online sources.

He alleged that the DPR has also failed to comply with Section 13 of the FOI Act, which requires every public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and records held by the government or public institution for the effective implementation of the Act.

Citing the Database of FOI Desk Officers compiled by the Federal Ministry of Justice, the oversight institution for the implementation of the FOI Act, Mr. Sulaimon said the DPR had not designated any official to whom requests for information should be made and has not published the name of any such official as required by Section 2(3)(f) of the Act and despite repeated requests and reminders issued by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to all public institutions to immediately designate such officials and submit their details to the Office for inclusion in the Database.

He therefore called on Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to take urgent measures to ensure that the DPR and other public institutions in the oil and gas sector comply with their duties and obligations under the FOI Act and as part of the efforts of the Federal government to rid the sector of its plaguing corruption.

The FOI Hall of Shame is an initiative of MRA, launched in July 2017, to name and shame public institutions or officials that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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Surveyor-General Office joins FOI Hall of Shame - ITREALMS Online

ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGOF) into its Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame following a scathing assessment in which it was adjudged to have “failed abysmally in many ways to comply with its obligations under the FOI Act over the last seven years,” reports ITRealms.

Mr. Ayode Longe, MRA’s Programme Director, said in a statement in Lagos that “The OSGOF appears to be one of those public institutions which exist only in name, receiving allocations annually from federal budgets, but performs no real functions, provides no discernible service to the Government or people of Nigeria, generates no income for the country, and stimulates no development in any known or visible area.”

According to Mr. Longe, the irrelevance and non-functioning state of the institution is evidenced by its website (http://www.osgof.gov.ng/), which was generally last updated about four years ago, in 2014 with the only more recent update being a posting on September 21, 2016, announcing that “Surv. (Dr.) E. B. Awudu, fnis, mni was appointed the Surveyor General of the Federation in  April, 2015.”

The OSGOF describes itself as an Extra-Ministerial Office under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Works which assumed its current status vide Federal Executive Council conclusion No. EC 17 (05)8, dated April 27, 2005.

It says its primary assignments are: the provision of requisite geo-information in right quantity, quality and format in real time for national development and decision making in all sectors; delineation, demarcation and maintenance of interstate and international boundaries and co-ordination and harmonization of all surveying and mapping activities in the country.

Mr. Longe said: “with the information generated and published on the OSGOF’s website so hopelessly out of date, even if the institution actually produces any geo-information, it might be a mistake for the Federal Government to rely on such information for national development and decision-making, especially also given the image of a very incompetent institution that the OSGOF projects of itself.”

He noted that although the OSGOF has published information concerning its operations, departments and zonal offices on its website, they are information that respond to just one of the 16 classes of records and other information that the FOI Act requires every public institution to publish proactively.

According to him, the information proactively disclosed by the OSGOF do not satisfy the full categories of information listed for proactive publication in the FOI Act, and especially not the most important set of information among the various items.

For instance, Mr. Longe said, the website does not contain information relating to the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds of the institution; the names, salaries, titles, and dates of employment of all employees and officers of the OSGOF; or the list of files containing applications for any contract, permit, grants, licenses or agreement, among several others listed in Section 2 (3) of the FOI Act as information that must be proactively published.

He also noted that there is nothing whatsoever on the website to indicate to a visitor or members of the public that the OSGOF has appointed an officer to receive and process Freedom of Information requests from members of the public, although this is required to be published with the name, title and contact details of such an official, in accordance with Section 2 (3) (f) of the FOI Act.

Mr. Longe said in addition to the fact that the information is not available on its website, the OSGOF has also not supplied the name and address of its FOI Desk Officers to the Attorney-General of the Federation despite repeated requests from the Federal Ministry of Justice with the result that those details are not contained in the Database of FOI Desk Officers of Public Institutions made available to Media Rights Agenda by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

He castigated the OSGOF for having failed to submit any report detailing its implementation of the FOI Act to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation for seven consecutive years since the Law came into force and accused the institution of violating another of its important obligations, as contained in Section 29 of the FOI Act.

Mr. Longe said:  “The failure of the OSGOF to submit its annual FOI implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation and publish them proactively as required by Law makes it impossible to determine the number of requests for information that the institution has received from members of the public and how many of them it has acceded to; the number of such applications it refused to grant and how many of those cases went to court, among other related details that its reports should contain, as required by Section 29(1)(a-h) of the Act.”

He noted that there is no indication that the OSGOF has provided any training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and for the effective implementation of the FOI Act, in accordance with Section 13 of the Act.

Mr. Longe stressed that “the OSGOF has failed abysmally in many respects to comply with its obligations under the FOI Act over the last seven years since the Law was passed, thereby bringing itself into ridicule and seeking to perpetuate a culture of impunity which continues to rob the government of public trust and confidence.”

He therefore called on the relevant committees of the National Assembly to institute measures to ensure that the OSGOF and other public institutions which are failing to comply with their obligations under the FOI Act are compelled to fully implement the Law.

Launched in July 2017, the FOI Hall of Shame shines the spotlight on public officials and institutions undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances and decisions. 

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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FOI Hall of Shame: National Library inducted

ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has named the National Library of Nigeria (NLN) this week’s inductee of the “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame” for its failure to fully implement the FOI Act, 2011, reports ITREALMS.

MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, announced the induction in a statement in Lagos, saying “The National Library, whose vision is to ensure the building of an informed and enlightened citizenry through the provision of information resources that are readily available and easily accessible ought not to be found in violation of a law like the FOI Act, which is so aligned with its institutional objectives. Rather, it should position itself as an institution that promotes the Act and sets an example for other public institutions to follow.”

The National Library was established by the National Library Act of 1970 to provide the nation with a source of intellectual support and stimulus for advancement in all fields of human endeavour, particularly in academic, social, cultural, scientific and technological enterprise and also provide comprehensive and rich collection for reference and research in all fields within and beyond the nation's physical boundaries as well as to ensure for the nation a place in the community of nations which depends on knowledge and original ideas for survival.

According to Mr. Adewale, of the five broad categories used in assessing the National Library’s compliance with the provisions of the FOI Act, it was only on the level of responsiveness to requests for information from members of the public that the institution recorded a positive performance.

Information available to MRA shows that the National Library responded to a request for information dated January 18, 2016, which was made by Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), an Abuja-based non-governmental organisation, for records of payments released to the institution for capital projects in 2015.

Similarly, the National Library also responded to a request dated July 14, 2016, made to it by the same organisation, asking for the list of contracts awarded by the NLN in 2015 and its procurement plan for 2016.

MRA commended the institution for its responsiveness to those requests for information but observed that it performed woefully overall by failing to comply with all its other duties and obligations as a public institution within the meaning of the FOI Act.

Highlighting other categories where the National Library failed to live up to its obligations under the FOI Act, Mr. Adewale noted that since the enactment of the Law in 2011, the institution has not submitted any annual report on its implementation of the Law to the Attorney-General of the Federation, as required by section 29 of the Act.

Mr. Adewale said the institution’s non-compliance with its obligation to submit FOI implementation reports annually makes it impossible to determine the number of applications for access to information that it has received for each year since 2011 and the number of such applications that it processed and granted for any particular year or overall, besides those made by the PPDC, which the non-governmental organization itself had publicised.

He cited the “Contact Details of Freedom of Information (FOI) Desk Officers in Public Institutions in Nigeria” released by the Attorney-General of the Federation as proof that the National Library has not complied with Section 2(3)(f) of the FOI Act, which mandates every public institution to designate an appropriate officer as well as to publish the title and address of such an officer to whom applications for information by members of the public should be sent.

In addition, Mr. Adewale said, the National Library has failed to proactively publish either on its website or anywhere else, the categories of information that Section 2(3) and (4) of the FOI Act requires all public institutions to proactively publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online sources.

He expressed concern that the “National Library, which ought to be playing a significant role in ensuring that the FOI Act is effective, has chosen to disregard Section 13 of the Act which requires every public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and for the effective implementation of the Act.”

Mr. Adewale urged the Board of the National Library to take urgent steps to ensure that all its staff are appropriately trained on the public’s right of access to information and that it complies fully with all its other obligations under the FOI Act as well as under the Guidelines on the Implementation of the FOI Act, 2013, issued by the Attorney-General of the Federation.

By doing this, he contended, the FOI Act will provide the National Library with the opportunities to further assert and strengthen its relevance in providing information to the citizens.

MRA launched the FOI Hall of Shame in July 2017, to shine the spotlight on public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances and decisions.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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MRA inducts Eko Electricity disregards FOI Act, joins ‘Hall of Shame’

ITREALMS:

The MediaRights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Eko Electricity Distribution Company(EKEDC) into the Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame for disregarding the FOI Act, reports ITRealms.

EKEDC, ITRealms gathered had demonstrated failure to comply with FOI Act’s obligations under the Act since it was passed into Law seven years ago.

MRA’s Programme Manager, Digital Rights, Ms. Eseohe Ojo, in a press statement made available to ITRealms, stated that as an institution charged with the provision of a critical public service such as electricity distribution, the EKEDC ought to understand the importance of accountability and public access to information and as such should not be found to be refusing to comply with its obligations under the FOI Act.

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company came into existence following the passage of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Bill, which was signed into Law on March 11, 2005 by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. The company caters to the southern part of Lagos State and Agbara in Ogun State.

Although the company states that it has zero tolerance for any form of anti-customer practice by any staff and has empowered its Anti-corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) to thoroughly investigate all reported cases and apply appropriate sanctions where necessary, its actions demonstrate a lack of transparency, Ms Ojo said.

She pointed out that many of the challenges confronting the institution could have been avoided if the EKEDC complied with the provisions of the FOI Act and had chosen to uphold transparency and accountability principles.

Ms Ojo noted that an institution such as the EKEDC that has been plagued by protests in response to eight months of power outages in some areas; which has suffered up to N1 billion in losses in three years due to energy theft; has been castigated for its refusal to provide pre-paid meters to some of its customers; and has had to face an angry public response over alleged unfair and exorbitant estimated billing system should be more committed to upholding the values of responsibility, accountability and integrity.

She said for the seventh consecutive year, the EKEDC has failed to submit an annual FOI implementation report to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), adding that the institution’s failure to do so has made it difficult to determine the number of applications for access to information that the institution has received each year since 2011 and the number of such applications that it processed and granted for any particular year or overall, if any.

Ms Ojo called on the EKEDC to follow up on its promises of high standards of ethics and safety as well as responsibility towards the community and the environment by complying with provisions of the FOI Act such as proactively publishing the categories of information directed by Section 2(3) of the Act, which requires every public institution to proactively publish certain categories of information.

She commended the institution for taking a step in the right direction by publishing its financial reports for 2014, 2015 and 2016 and dedicating a page on its website to its operations.  She however noted that the EKEDC needed to publish the 16 categories of information required under the Act, contending that the institution had not even made a dent in the list.

Ms Ojo stressed that although the EKEDC says on its website that it runs as a regulated business, the FOI Act makes it clear under Section 2(7) that it is a public institutions, as it describes such institutions “as 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 companies in which government has a controlling interest, and private companies utilising public funds, providing public services or performing public functions.”

Identifying other acts of non-compliance with the FOI Act, she said the EKEDC has failed to publish the title and address of an appropriate officer to whom applications for information from members of the public should be sent as mandated by Section 2(3) (f) of the FOI Act.

Nenye Dom/ED, Ops

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NPF Pensions inducted into ‘FOI Hall of Shame’

ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has named the NPF PensionsLimited as this week’s inductee into its “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame” for the opacity of its operation in violation of the provisions of the FOI Act, reports ITRealms.

MRA also said the institution’s practice of operating in secrecy was also contrary to its own core values, which include transparency and accountability.

MRA’s Project Director, Mr. Segun Fatuase, noted in a statement in Lagos that since the establishment of the NPF Pensions Limited, following the passage of the FOI Act into Law in 2011, the institution has consistently undermined the objectives of the Act by conducting its business in secrecy.

According to Mr. Fatuase, the NPF Pensions Limited was incorporated on October 21 2013, with a fully paid share capital of N1 billion and with two major shareholders, the Nigeria Police Welfare Insurance Cooperative Society Limited and the Nigeria Police Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited.  The NPF Pensions Limited was established with the approval of the Federal Government as a Pension Fund Administrator to cater to the unique needs of the Police following inadequacies in the current Contributory Pension Scheme and earlier pension schemes.

He said since the institution was established, it had consistently flouted Section 2 of the FOI Act which requires all public institutions to proactively disclose certain types of information to the public and to update these categories of information whenever changes occur as well as to make such information readily available to the public through the various means listed in the Act, namely print, electronic, online methods and at the offices of the organization.  He added that the NPF Pensions Limited has failed to publish the information that it is required to proactively disclose under this section.

Mr. Fatuase observed that the NPF Pensions Limited has also failed to proactively disclose information relating to its receipt or expenditure of its public or other funds and a range of other types of information, as required by section 2(3)(d)(v) of the FOI Act.

He accused the organisation of failing to comply with Section 2(3) (f) of the Act which requires all public institutions such as the NPF Pensions Limited to designate an appropriate officer to whom applications for information under the Act should be sent and the institution to proactively publish the title and address of such an officer.

Besides, Mr. Fatuase said: “There is no indication whatsoever that the NPF Pensions Limited   has provided the requisite training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information or records held by it or that it has appropriately trained its officials to effectively implement the Act, as it is required to do by Section 13 of the Act.”

He criticized the NPF Pensions Limited for flagrantly violating Section 29 of the FOI Act, which places an obligation on all public institutions to submit annual reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation on their implementation of the Act, noting that “since the Act was passed into Law nearly seven years ago, the NPF Pensions Limited has not submitted any report to the Attorney-General of the Federation or issued any such report for any year.”

Mr. Fatuase said: “Such blatant disregard for a statutory obligation should not be permitted in any form under the rule of law. It is a conduct capable of bringing the Government to ridicule as it creates the impression that rules, laws and regulations are of no consequence because public institutions and the officials who preside over them are at liberty to ignore such rules, laws and regulations.”

He also observed that the failure of the NPF Pensions Limited to submit its annual reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation has made it virtually impossible to determine the number of applications for access to information that it has received for each year since the Act was passed into Law and the number of such applications that it processed and granted for any particular year or overall.

Mr. Fatuase stressed that there was no justifiable excuse for the NPF Pensions Limited’s refusal to fulfill its duties and obligations under the FOI Act and called on the relevant authorities of the Federal Government to take stern measures to address the situation.

Launched in July 2017, the FOI Hall of Shame shines the spotlight on public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances and decisions. 

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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For cult-like operations, Petroleum Equalization Fund enters FOI Hall of Shame

ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board into its Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame, accusing the Board of refusal to be transparent and preference for cult-like secrecy in its operations, reports ITRealms.

The induction, MRA said, only serves to heighten questions about its continued relevance in light of its failure to achieve the objectives for which it was established.

The Board was established in 1975 by Decree No. 9 of 1975, which was later amended in 1989 by Decree No. 32 of 1989, to offset the inequality in the transportation cost of distributing petroleum products in different parts of Nigeria in order for the Government to be able maintain a uniform pricing system for such products all over the country.

The primary responsibility of the Board is to reimburse petroleum marketing companies for any losses suffered by them, solely and exclusively, as a result of their selling petroleum products at uniform prices throughout the country.

The mandate of the Board is therefore to ensure that the Uniform Pricing Mechanism that the Federal Government introduced during the period worked effectively throughout Nigeria and that each marketing company complied with the laws regarding the management of the transportation equalisation process.

In a statement in Lagos, MRA’s Legal Officer, Ms Chioma Nwaodike, noted that “More than 40 years after the Board was established, it is clear that it has failed to deliver on the objectives that motivated its establishment, given that the pricing of petroleum products has never been uniform across the country all through these years. Perhaps, some transparency about the activities of the Board may have enabled us to understand what exactly it does and whether there is any reason for its continued existence in light of its apparent spectacular failure.”

According to Ms Nwaodike, “having been charged with the responsibility for reimbursing petroleum marketing companies for losses suffered by them as a result of their sale of petroleum products at uniform prices throughout the country, for which it is expending public funds in this regard, the Board owes Nigerians a duty to keep them informed about every aspect of its operations including what it gets annually from the national budget, how much it is expending for various purposes, who the beneficiaries of its reimbursement scheme are, how the reimbursements are calculated, among other things. Unfortunately, it is not doing this.”

She accused the Board of flouting and rendering meaningless its mission statements to its various stakeholders, including its statement to marketers “to be a prime and transparent organization, for the timely reimbursement of marketers’ transportation claims” as well as its statement to Nigerians to be “a responsible, accountable and efficient parastatal facilitating the distribution of petroleum products nationwide at approved prices”.

Ms Nwaodike said by brazenly neglecting to comply with its statutory obligations under the FOI Act, the Board makes nonsense of its mission statement where it says it aims to be a “transparent organization” and an “accountable and efficient parastatal” as well as listing ‘integrity’ as one of its core values.

She observed that by consistently failing over the past seven years to comply with its proactive publication obligations in Section 2 (3), (4) and (5) of the FOI Act to publish and disseminate 16 classes of information as well as review and update them whenever changes occur, the Board is demonstrating its clear disdain for the laws of the land, the ideals of democracy, and the core values it claims guide its operations.

According to her, “although the Board has published information that can best be described as innocuous, it however failed to publish some vital information that the Act requires it to proactively publish and disseminate including, but not limited to, documents containing information relating to the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds of the institution; documents containing the names, salaries, titles and dates of employment of all employees and officers of the institution; and a list of files containing applications for any contract, permit, grants, licenses or agreements, etc.”

Ms Nwaodike noted that the Board has also refused to submit to the Attorney-General of the Federation any report on its implementation of the Act for seven consecutive years, in clear defiance of Section 29 (1) and (2) of the FOI Act and the Guidelines on the Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 issued by the Attorney General of the Federation, the oversight agency for the FOI Act, as the Board has neither submitted any report nor made any such report available to the public in any form whatsoever.

She also accused the Board of not providing appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and for the effective implementation of the Act at any time in all the seven years that the law has been in operation, as it is required to do under Section 13 of the FOI Act.

Noting that there is no single reference to the FOI Act on the Board’s website, Ms Nwaodike observed that the Board has acted over the last seven years as if the Law does not exist and continued to conduct its functions and operations in cult-like secrecy.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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