NCAA latest inductee into ‘FOI Hall of Shame’

ITRealms:

 

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today conferred the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)
with membership of its Freedom of Information (FOI) “Hall of Shame”, accusing the agency of wasting public funds to advance a culture of secrecy and cover up dubious transactions, reports ITRealms.

In a statement in Lagos announcing the NCAA’s induction into the FOI Hall of Shame, MRA’s Freedom of Information Programme Manager, Mr. Ridwan Sulaimon, said rather than complying with the FOI Act which encapsulates a public policy of open government, the agency has chosen to dissipate public funds in challenging every effort to make it transparent and any attempt by citizens to obtain information from it.  

He called on the Buhari Administration to direct an investigation into the amount of public funds that the NCAA had wasted in unjustifiable litigations aimed at avoiding its duties and obligations under the FOI Act and ensure that the funds are recovered from those officials responsible for every decision not to comply with the Law in all cases resulting in legal expenses.

The NCAA is the regulatory body overseeing the activities of all airlines and their pilots, engineers and cabin staff, airports, airstrips and heliports, navigation aids, all aviation service providers, including the airport authority and air traffic service providers, aviation training institutions, among others and oversees the entire aviation industry.

The agency claims that its operating principles, guidelines and standards applied in the civil aviation sector in Nigeria are based on the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARP) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and stipulated national laws and regulations.

Mr. Sulaimon said: “This claim by the NCAA that its operations and activities are guided by national laws and regulations is a myth going by its clear disregard for the FOI Act.  An agency that performs such important functions and activities as the NCAA should be open and transparent.  But a quick examination of the activities of NCAA since the inception of the FOI Act reveals that it is one of those public institutions undermining the Act through its actions and omissions.”

MRA noted that since 2011 when the FOI Act was passed into Law, the NCAA has failed to comply with its duties and obligations under the Act, saying that the agency prefers to squander public resources in fighting any request for the disclosure of information by engaging the services of lawyers to assist its efforts to advance an illegal and unjustifiable culture of secrecy.

It cited as evidence of this the web of litigations that the NCAA has been entangled in since 2013, following its refusal to grant a series of FOI requests made by several individuals, civil society organizations and networks, including human rights lawyer and former President of the West African Bar Association (WABA), Mr. Femi Falana (SAN); Enough Is Enough (EIE), Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), MRA, and the Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC), to disclose, among other things, its budgets, procurement information and details of its purchase of two controversial BMW 760 LiHSS bullet proof cars for then Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, worth N225 million.

MRA accused the NCAA of also failing to meet most of its other obligations under the FOI Act, saying it had not published the title and address of the appropriate officer to whom applications for information under the FOI Act should be made, as required by Section 2(3)(f) of the Act.

It also noted that despite the express provisions of the Law, over the last six years since the FOI Act came into force, the NCAA had not issued or submitted to the Attorney-General of the Federation, as required by Section 29(1) of the Act, any annual report on its implementation of the Act and has not on its own published such a report for any year, as stipulated by the Law.

Additionally, MRA said, the NCAA has not complied with its proactive disclosure obligations under Section 2(3) and (4) of the Act as it has not published on its website or circulated anywhere else, the categories of information which the Law requires it to publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online sources.

MRA added that it was not aware of any request for information that the NCAA has granted over the last six years, insisting that on the contrary, the NCAA has repeatedly refused to disclose information requested by members of the public, including many civil society organizations, even when no exemptions applied to the information requested, with nearly all of them resulting in litigation against the NCAA for its failure to disclose requested information.

It said despite the clear provisions of Section 13 of the FOI Act, which mandates every public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right to access information and records held by them for effective implementation of the Act, there is no indication that the NCAA has done this in the last six years.

Mr. Sulaimon said: “In the light of this appalling record by the NCAA, one can only wonder why the agency feels that such egregious disregard for a valid and subsisting Law is in its interest, and while it is so blatantly flouting the law with impunity, whether it has any moral authority to insist that other public institutions and private bodies over which it is given regulatory powers by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (Establishment, Etc.) Act should comply with the provisions of that Law.”

Media Rights Agenda launched the “FOI Hall of Shame” on July 3 to draw attention to public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the Freedom of information Act, 2011 through their actions or inactions, decisions or utterances.

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MRA launches FOI Hall of Shame, names Justice Okuwobi pioneer inductee

ITRealms:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has launched the “FOI Hall of Shame” aimed at focusing attention on public officials and institutions undermining the effectiveness of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011 through their actions, decisions or utterances, reports ITRealms.

This came as Justice Doris Okuwobi of the Ikeja High Court has been named the first inductee.

The Executive Director, MRA, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, told ITRealms in Lagos Tuesday decried that “six years after the Act was enacted into Law, it has become clear that there is a concerted effort by some public officials and institutions, cutting across all arms and all levels of government, to ensure that it does not work and that it does not achieve its objectives. We intend to call them out in the court of public opinion.”

In an accompanying press statement made available to ITRealms, he said MRA has concluded plans to name weekly any public institution or public official into the ‘FOI Hall of Shame.’

He said that those to be named would be a public institution or public official who, by its, his or her action or inaction, decision, utterance or in any other way is undermining or has undermined the effective implementation of the FOI Act.

“We will provide ample justification for our decision regarding such an institution or official” he said.

Ojo went on to explain the choice of Justice Okuwobi as the first inductee into the FOI Hall of Shame, saying that her ruling on an FOI suit on June 19, 2017 describing it as “one of the most ridiculous decisions ever given by a court anywhere in the world.”

MRA boss stressed that the implication of the ruling is that if a public institution ignores a freedom of information request by failing to respond to it, it can never be sued, despite the clear provisions of the Freedom of Information Act to the contrary.

Ojo explained that “On November 4, 2016, MRA made a freedom of information request to the Ojodu Local Council Development Area, by a letter with the subject: “Request for Records of Water Works Plans for Araromi Zion Estate”.  MRA asked the Council to provide it with relevant information about the provision of government services to a community in Ikeja, in the heart of Lagos, completely neglected by the government and which enjoys no government service of any description. The Council ignored the FOI request.

“On December 6, 2016, MRA filed an application at the Ikeja Judicial Division of the Lagos State High Court seeking leave to compel the Council to comply with the provisions of the FOI Act and provide MRA with the information requested.

“The first outrage, as far as the Judiciary’s involvement in this is concerned, is that although the FOI Act requires courts to deal with such matters speedily, it took the court more than seven months just to list and hear a simple motion exparte for leave.

“When Justice Okuwobi finally heard the application for leave on June 19, 2017, in the face of the complaint and prayer for a declaration that the failure and/or refusal by the Council to give MRA a written notice that access to all or part of the information requested will not be granted was a violation of the FOI Act, the judge held that MRA’s failure to show evidence of a written notice by the Council denying it access to the information was fatal to its case.

“It is also a matter of serious concern that although the FOI Act gives public institutions seven days within which to respond to a request for information and states clearly that where the institution fails to give access to the information or record applied for within this time limit, the institution is deemed to have refused to give access, Justice Okuwobi ruled: “I will not speculate on the fact that there was a denial by the Respondent’s failure to comply.”

“Finally, although the FOI Act gives public institutions seven days to provide the information requested and requires an applicant who has been denied access to information to approach the Court within 30 days after the public institution denied or is deemed to have denied access to the information, Justice Okuwobi held, more than seven months after MRA made its request for the information, that the application to the court was “premature” because the Council had not given MRA a written notice that it would not grant access.

“In effect, the judge used the Council’s disregard of its duties and obligations under the FOI Act, against MRA, the victim, which had come before the court for redress.”

For Ojo, “It beats the imagination that a judge will condone and actively encourage such an act of impunity by making it impossible for those whose rights are so flagrantly and wantonly violated to approach the courts to vindicate their rights. The Judgement does not only constitute a deadly impediment to the effectiveness of the FOI Act, it also brings the Judiciary to disrepute and diminishes citizens’ confidence in it.”

MRA insisted that it is on the basis of the foregoing, that on Monday, July 3, 2017, MRA inducted Justice Doris Okuwobi of the Ikeja High Court into the FOI Hall of Shame.

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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